Valkyrie is a 2008 historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the July 20, 1944 plot by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country. Valkyrie was directed by Bryan Singer under the American studio United Artists, and the film stars Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key plotters. Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson are also featured as fellow plotters.