The film follows a small group of Resistance fighters as they move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers, and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate.

[3][4] At the time of its initial release in France, Army of Shadows was not well-received, as, in the wake of the events of May 1968, French critics denounced it for its perceived glorification of Charles de Gaulle.

While on a mission to Paris, Jean-François visits his older brother Luc, a renowned philosopher who appears to live a detached, scholarly life.

He then travels to the Mediterranean coast to help evacuate some Allied soldiers, along with Gerbier and the "Big Boss", to London via a submarine to Gibraltar.

In London, Gerbier tries to arrange additional support for the Resistance from the Free French leadership, and Luc is decorated by Charles de Gaulle.

After Félix's arrest, Mathilde, a Parisian housewife who is part of the Resistance, moves down to Lyon to run Gerbier's cell.

Having seen Gerbier's picture on a wanted poster during the rescue attempt, Mathilde urges him to lie low, but he says there is no one who can take his place at the moment.

Taken to be executed, Gerbier and his cellmates are told that, if they can reach the far wall of a room before they are killed by machine gunners, they will be allowed to live a little longer.

Nathalie Delon, who had made her big-screen debut in Melville's previous film, Le Samouraï (1967), has a cameo appearance in Army of Shadows as the woman with Jean-François at the bar in Marseille.

When it was originally released in France in 1969, the film had a poor critical reception due to the political context of the time, as the events of May 68 had hurt de Gaulle's reputation, and the glorification of the Resistance had become taboo during the Algerian War.