The film is set in Nazi Germany during World War II and depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country.

Cruise's casting caused controversy among German politicians and members of the von Stauffenberg family due to the actor's practice of Scientology, which is viewed with suspicion in Germany.

The ringleaders are executed by firing squad; Beck is given a pistol and commits suicide; Tresckow kills himself in a forest by holding a grenade to his throat; Witzleben and Goerdeler are sentenced in show trials and hanged.

Researching the 20 July plot, he was moved and fascinated by the fact that the conspirators were fully aware of what would happen if they failed their assassination attempt, and he wanted to make their story more well-known.

[34] A United Artists spokesman said that they were "very grateful" for the decision, saying that the site "[had] always been important to us symbolically, creatively and for the sake of historical authenticity" and that the company had been in continuous talks with the German government in order to clear up any misconceptions about the nature of the film.

McQuarrie and Alexander found the most difficult task was in conveying the motives of the conspirators; von Stauffenberg especially remained an enigma, though the writers believed he and the other resistance members to be propelled by their moral outrage.

[12] Nazi symbols, the display of which is heavily restricted in Germany, were used at several locations; while the filmmakers gave forewarning to local residents,[37] a passerby witnessing the use of swastikas during filming in Berlin filed an official complaint with the city.

"[55] For the battle sequence in North Africa, two real Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks in Desert Air Force paint schemes were used, accompanied by cloned images of them or by computer-generated planes.

In Berlin itself, city officials helped reduce the need for visual effects by removing power poles and modern lighting over the weekend when filming took place and restoring the equipment by the start of the new week.

[60] Since Valkyrie drew its inspirations from previous World War II films like The Great Escape (1963), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Patton (1970), and Midway (1976), filmmakers initially had a cut where title cards introduced characters and their roles.

The film's end credits piece, "They'll Remember You", is an original composition, though the lyrics were based on the poem "Wanderer's Nightsong" by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Ottman described the original version of the track as a "three minute drone that I slowed down with these two Tuvan throat singers, the whole thing was this horribly dark, morbid piece [which] left you cold".

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck saw that Cruise's involvement would promote awareness of a neglected story,[33] and veteran German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl also gave his support to the production.

Ursula Caberta, who is in charge of a German government office which monitors Scientology, was disappointed in the ministry's decision, saying, "Tom Cruise [is] a figurehead of an anti-constitutional organization, and he should be treated that way.

[42] In November 2007, the head of the German Resistance Memorial Centre warned against any potential "myth formation" around von Stauffenberg as a result of the film, urging that any understanding of the Colonel must also be informed by the fact that he had been loyal to the Nazi cause for most of his military career.

[3] Pressure was placed on Valkyrie to do well since an earlier United Artists film featuring Cruise, Lions for Lambs, performed poorly in the box office, and the studio's planned production of Oliver Stone's Pinkville was canceled.

[83] As the December release date approached, United Artists launched a campaign to reform public perception of the film, downplaying the role of Tom Cruise as a German war hero and instead pitching Valkyrie as "a character-driven suspense thriller".

Advertising Age wrote during the economic crisis of 2008, "The depressing state of the economy and an alarmingly low level of understanding of the Holocaust among American youth point to a tough road for such serious fare.

[91] Pamela McClintock of Variety cited the weekend performance as "a victory for United Artists and MGM";[92] Gitesh Pandya of Rotten Tomatoes said the haul represented a "big hit" for the studio.

[91] Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, said that the weekend gross "totally robs the nay-sayers of their ability to deem it a flop", believing that Cruise's comic performance in the previous summer's Tropic Thunder helped audiences embrace the star again.

"[119] Der Spiegel said that the film and its supporting actors were praised, but that Cruise was panned by German critics for "a surprisingly low-key performance that fails to convey the charisma with which Stauffenberg inspired fellow plotters".

[121] Joe Morganstern wrote in The Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Cruise's performance turns out to be brisk and reasonably plausible, though unexceptional, while the production as a whole succeeds as an elaborate procedural, impressively staged in historical locations.

Dargis also wrote of the director's excess, "Though Mr. Singer's old-fashioned movie habits, his attention to the gloss, gleam and glamour of the image, can be agreeably pleasurable, he tends to gild every lily," citing as an example the "spooky music" and "low camera angles" in the meeting between Hitler and von Stauffenberg.

"[125] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe described the film: "It's a smooth, compelling, almost suspenseful ... and slightly hollow Hollywood period piece - a World War II action-drama in which an intriguing (but not electrifying) star performance is buttressed by stellar support."

Lane thought that there was "too much" character acting of the British veteran actors and felt of the casting of Nighy, Stamp, and Wilkinson, "These men are meant to be battle-toughened Nazi officers, but what we get is an array of discreetly amusing studies in mild neurosis.

The critic believed that McQuarrie's script was well-carpentered but felt that compressing and streamlining the events to make a known failed plot more thrilling lacked a "sufficient sizzle into the dialogue or individuality into the characters".

He thought that the production design by Lilly Kilvert and Patrick Lumb stood out, that Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography had a "restrained elegance", and that John Ottman performed well in his dual role as editor and composer.

[129] A similar sentiment was stated by Mike LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle, who wrote "There's nothing inherently laughable about the spectacle of Tom Cruise with an eye patch and a missing hand, strutting around in a German colonel's uniform.

"[134] The Scotsman reported of the film's accuracy, "Valkyrie ... sticks pretty closely to the story of the failed conspiracy to topple the Nazi regime ... it implies that the plot came closer to success than it really did.

[18] One significant historical alteration, made to avoid confusion with the audience and also to "set the stage" at the Wolf's Lair, was changing the location of the first aborted assassination attempt to kill Hitler on July 11.