Allied takes place in 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.

The inspiration for Allied came to Knight by happenstance.

Knight found that it’s believed the Germans never breached British security on its home turf. Allied also evolved out of Knight’s life growing up in Britain; his family experienced World War II firsthand. Allied is the story of Canadian RAF intelligence officer Max Vatan (played by Brad Pitt), who encounters French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) on a deadly mission in Nazi territory in 1942 North Africa.

Allied also brings viewers a slice of oft-overlooked wartime existence

Marianne and Max live in the Hampstead neighborhood of London, which was a WWII bohemian haven for Jewish intellectuals, creative refugees from mainland Europe, artists, avant-garde types and other assorted freethinkers and free-lovers. What better way to wait out the Blitz than through a healthy dose of smoking, drinking, and sex?

Max is called into work, under the guise he’s getting a promotion.

Instead, Max (Brad Pitt) is told Marianne (Marion Cotillard) is a Nazi spy. His job is to help set a trap to ferret her out. And if it turns out she is a spy, he’s instructed to kill her. Otherwise, he’ll be considered a co-conspirator and traitor, and both he and Marianne will be executed. Which is somewhat less appealing than his and hers bath towels.