The Red Baron (also known by its original German title, Der Rote Baron) is a 2008 German-British biographical action war film written and directed by Nikolai Müllerschön about the World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as the “Red Baron”. The film stars Matthias Schweighöfer, Joseph Fiennes, Til Schweiger and Lena Headey. The Red Baron was filmed entirely in English to improve its international commercial viability.

In 1916, Manfred von Richthofen is serving as a fighter pilot with the Imperial German Air Service along the Western Front. After dropping a wreath over the funeral of an Allied pilot, Richthofen and his fellow pilots Werner Voss and Friedrich Sternberg encounter a squadron of the Royal Flying Corps led by Captain Lanoe Hawker. Richthofen shoots down Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown. After pulling Brown out of the wreckage of his aircraft, Richthofen assists Nurse Käte Otersdorf with a tourniquet on Brown’s leg.

After killing Hawker, Richthofen is awarded the Pour le Mérite medal and promoted to command a squadron. He is joined by his brother Lothar von Richthofen (Volker Bruch). He orders his men to avoid killing enemy pilots unless absolutely necessary and is dismayed when Lothar deliberately strafes and kills a British pilot who has already been forced into a landing.

Later, during an aerial dogfight, Richthofen again encounters Captain Brown, who has escaped from a German prisoner of war camp after being nursed by Käte. Both are forced to ditch their aircraft in no man’s land, where they share a friendly drink. Brown expresses hope that they will not meet again until after the war is over, and he tells Richthofen that Käte has feelings for him.

On the way back to base, Richthofen is devastated to learn that his close friend, the Jewish pilot Friedrich Sternberg, has been shot down and killed. Over the days that follow, Richthofen makes no secret of his grief and refuses to leave his room. An enraged Lothar reminds him that, “A leader cannot afford to mourn.”

Shortly thereafter, Richthofen suffers a skull wound during an aerial battle, and is sent to be nursed by Käte. As he recovers, the two share a romantic dinner and a dance. After Richthofen expresses gratitude for his wound keeping him out of the fighting, an angry Käte takes him on a tour of a local field hospital, berating him for regarding the war as a game.

Later, Richthofen and Käte are beginning to make love when they are interrupted by an Allied bombing raid. Determined to protect the squadron’s aircraft, he orders Käte to hide in the cellar and takes to the air with his men. During the raid, Richthofen’s wound begins to reopen, making him disoriented, and upon witnessing the combat death of his protege Kurt Wolff, he goes into a state of rage in the air.