Lewis Ford

Ford in CielBlanc

> I didn't get the timer set at the tower. You got to go take it down...I was never getting back. And this shit, our side shouldn't have it either. It'll have to stay buried down here with me. You got to finish the job, Boyce, and blow this whole fucking place up. Go!
>
> *Ford sacrificing himself to buy Boyce some time to destroy the radio tower.*

**Lewis Ford** is the second protagonist in the 2018 live action horror film Overlord. Ford was an army explosive expert who previously served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Baker company in taking parts of the invasion of Italy before he and most of squad was ambushed and captured by the SS paranormal Division and experimented by General Wilhelm Stresse. He managed to escape the Nazis by Allied reinforcements. After Italy, Ford was reassigned to the 101st Airborne Division and deployed with a company of paratroopers to assist with their vital mission to blow up the radio jamming tower in CielBlanc, France. After Sergeant Ben Rensin is killed by the Nazi forces Ford takes over commanding the mission to destroy the tower inside of the CielBlanc church. While in CielBlanc he arranged for the capture and torture of Captain Franz Wafner. Ford is not initially on board with destroying the lab because he feels it would lead to the unit's death but it’s eventually convinced that it is a cause worth dying for.

## Biography

Lewis Ford was born in Brooklyn, New York to hard-working second-class parents in the United States. His father was a World War I veteran and became a house-painter, sadly his father died in a fire when he was trying to save people, and all that was left was his father's zippo lighter. Ford was taken to a foster home afterward, but this took a toll on Ford, and the only way of dealing with the loss of his father, he joined the United States Army in the summer of 1942 where join the airborne because he wanted to be the best of the best and wanted to make 50 dollars per month and assigned to the 82nd airborne division as a sergeant where he participated the Operation Husky before he and his squad got captured by a platoon of *Waffen-SS* soldiers by the command of SS Hauptsturmführer/Captain Franz Wafner. As the group of 82nd paratroopers was being taken prisoners, they take to a Nazi prison camp where they experiment on pows and make them into super soldiers, Ford and others were confronted by the man in charge of the camp, General Wilhelm Strasse and Ford haplessly watched as his squad and men were dissected and brain was taken with Deathshead (So he can use them for his Prototype Robot). When it was Ford's turn to be dissected, the Allied Forces successfully raided the camp and rescued the prisoners. Ford although managed to escape but scared for life having a big fear of what the Nazis are capable of and went completely opposed to killing every last one of them.

In the spring of 1944 (Around the same time the United States Armed Forces was desegregated at this point), Ford was demoted to Corporal for fighting a captain and disregarding orders, he was later transferred to the 101st Airborne Division, some paratroopers believed that he was put in the unit because of punching an officer.

## The knife

During the weeks before being transferred to the 101st, Ford went back to his old house to get his late father's old 1918 trench knife and rebuild it so he can use it to strike a brutal force against the Nazis and make them suffer the same way they did to him.

## The Events of Overlord

*"Point that somewhere else. Or you'll be getting' nothing but pictures of the inside of your ass...Lotta places before this. Now I'm here. Trying to sleep and you know what I wouldn't mind, Morton Chase, is you taking your ass back to your seat."*―Ford meeting Chase after taking photos of him.

On June 5th, 1944, the Allied forces launched their forces to prepare for Operation Overlord also known as D-Day, however, Ford along with this squad of 18 paratroopers are given a secret mission to take out a radio jamming tower located at the town center of the French village of CielBlanc. As the men prepare to jump behind enemy lines, Ford scans to see the men some of them that were black smokejumpers of the 555th with and has been through so much to this point about proving the white man wrong. Ford became both an explosive expert and second in command for their mission and he witness some paratroopers including their leader being mistrusted and bullied by the others because of the color of their skin, Ford showed so sympathy (Because he used to have a friend back in New York that was black). As the men talking to each other about what they are going to do when they get to Berlin before Rensin shows up to remind them what is the mission and says there are gonna be a hundred and twenty Allied troops fighting on their way to the beaches but they can't without air support if the radio tower isn't by 06:00 am and says that Ford is their main explosive expert and are lucky to have him and will obey his orders just like him.

## Back to the suck

*"Square up that line!"―*Ford tells paratroopers in the back of the ship to square the line and don't step on the dead.

By midnight the C-47 started to rumble, Ford checks his equipment and looks at smokejumper Edward Boyce before putting on his M1 steel helmet on. As the paratroopers hear deep thuds and the crackle of tracer fire and the plane is heaving back and forth tossing the soldiers around. Rensin comes out of the cockpit of the C-47 and tells the men that is just a "Kraut Hello" and tells them to sit tight until the light tells them to jump. The Navigator of the plane tells Rensin that they are taking too much flak but with quick thinking, Rensin tells them that they to break formation so they won't get hit by flak knowing that the paratroopers while a couple clicks south of their target. The C-47 suddenly descends 100 feet flak erupting all around as it yokes hard to left into the clouds. This formation saved the men as the flak destroyed a plane beside them. He took the time to remark to his white paratroopers who had doubted him since day one that he was going to show them a good time. Dawson unable to hold his dinner throw up on the floor of the fuselage before bullets from the AA guns piece the floor of the C-47 and tear some men up like butter.

This horrifies the men including Rensin and Ford because before the operation, this small group of paratroopers was giving more information about General Wilhelm Strasse and Ford even opened up about his experience of encountering with man and his division of SS troopers although some men heard that the man was so intelligent that he upgraded the German Army weapons vehicles to be ferior to the Allies. This myth became a reality and everybody except Rensin and Ford started to panic, paratrooper Murphy was so scared that got out of his seat before he was pulverized and was dead before he hit the floor. Rensin continues to tell everyone to sit down and tells them this is why they were given this mission. Medic Grunauer rushes to Murphy's lifeless body with his med-kit but finds no vitals, Ford tells him that the young man is dead and orders Grunauer to sit down before the right of the C-47's propellers exploded causing some of the debris to destroy the right of the plane killing three paratroopers.

The red jump light above the cargo door pop on and that is when Rensin orders the men to stand up and hook up. As Boyce and the men scramble to their feet and hook their chute lines to the anchor cable running along the ceiling of the fuselage.  Ford tells paratroopers in the back of the ship to square the line and don't step on the dead and Rensin says to the remaining paratroopers to wait for green. As the light flashes green, the plane catches fire and then a huge eruption blows the cockpit door away sending it to a paratrooper's head decapitating him. The front of the C-47 is gone is nothing but a gutted, flaming mass of shredded steel, and half of the roof about the men is now a gaping hole. The anchor line renders it useless. Some men fatally fall toward the back, burning themselves to death. In a desperate attempt to save what's left of his men, Rensin tells everybody to manually deploy,  Ford quickly unhooks from the jump line and helps Rensin push paratroopers, Grunauer, then Tibbet, some of the surviving paratroopers manage to jump out of the aircraft after the signal goes green, Rosenfeld stumbles. Boyce crouches to help, but Ford is already rolling Rosenfeld out the door. He managed to grab Boyce; he struggles to compose himself but he managed to shove Boyce out in the open air into the airborne war zone, falling fast.

## Landing

*"Shut up. It's over... He was dead before he hit the ground. He fucking knew that... Done shit. There were ten of them, and I've seen how you hold that rifle. The Sergeant wasn't the mission. We got to get that tower down by 0600. Let's go.*"―Ford tells Boyce that Rensin was already dead the moment he got caught by a Waffen-SS patrol.

On his way find other paratroopers, possibly finding Rosenfeld, instead finds Rensin surrounded and taunted by German SS troops. Before attempting to attack and save him, Ford comes from behind Boyce to stop him. Both of the men witness the SS troops fire on Resin point blank, drilling his body with lead until he finally slumps over dead. Ford explains that the mission must be carried out. The two soldiers have an argument, Ford says to Boyce if he keeps worrying about dead bodies, he gonna be one. Boyce stated that he had friends who were smokejumpers like him on the C-47 they were on, and Ford simply said that friends die.

## Reunited with the others

*"I've never hit an officer. Plenty I've wanted to. But not a fan of prison cells... I don't know Tibbet, why do you talk so much? Some questions don't have good answers."* ―Ford explains to Tibbet how he transferred to the 101st.

They continue to walk deeper into the woods, where they hear people approaching, it's Tibbet, Chase, and Dawson and all of them share a moment of joy in their reunion. The men continue to advance across the field, hoping to find more paratroopers. Dawson shared with his comrades that he wanted to author a book about fighting on the front lines of the war and was thinking that when the war was over, he was going to be an author and Boyce said he would buy one. Unfortunately, Dawson stepped on an advanced land mine created by Deathshead and was set off, killing him instantly and leaving a cloud of dirt and blood over the paratroopers. Everyone was in shock but Ford kept it together and yelled at somebody if they could hear. As Boyce gains his hearing, Ford tells everybody to fix the bayonets and use their lay taps on the ground not so hard enough to set off a mine. So he used a bayoneted M1 Garand rifle and walked carefully to a safe spot. Survival is their utmost priority at the moment, but their mission is yet to be done. He tells Chase to get right on Dawson's tracks and tells Tibbet to his Springfield to use light taps. Not hard enough to set off a mine. He starts tapping the ground ahead of him, easing across the field with Boyce, Tibbet, Chase right behind. Boyce throws a glance back to see what remains of Dawson.

## Meeting the Scavenger

*"Cielblanc? Is that your village? Cielblanc? Germans? Many Germans?"*―Ford meeting Chloe

As the squad takes a break from walking, Tibbet and Chase stumble upon a dead animal carcass, which they find hard to identify. A distant noise catches Boyce's attention, so he signals to the men that something or someone might be nearby. They await the footsteps and meet a young French teenager named Chloe Laurent. She runs in fear of the paratroopers, but they catch up and hold her at gunpoint, where she is forced to lead to CielBlanc. Boyce comforts her by saying that she will not get hurt, but she has no choice but to help the American paratroopers. All of them head to the village where the church is located, and at the entrance, Ford commands Boyce to keep an eye on Chloe while they check the premises.

The commotion wakes up Chloe’s neighbor, Mrs. Lesner, who reports her to the German SS guards for being out past curfew. The guards start to emerge, making Boyce hide and find a way to be out of their sight while they inspect Chloe, who manages to talk her way out. He waits in the shadows until it's clear, then hustles to join Ford along the slide wall. Tibbet asks Boyce if Chloe tipped him off, and answers him by saying that she definitely doesn't like the Germans any more than they do. Then Chloe responded in English that they are pigs and made sure the paratroopers weren't as well. Tibbet can't help but break into a huge smile at Boyce's expense and rip on him for being French.

She lets the group take refuge in her house while they carry out their mission. A quick tour of the home is given to the soldiers just in case they need to hide, but Tibbet hears a noise from a room upstairs, so he asks Chloe about it. According to her, her sick aunt lives with her and cuts the topic short. She also has a little brother named Paul, who she takes care of after the SS killed her parents in cold blood.  The paratroopers settle in the tiny attic, where they gather their weapons and explosives and optimize their plan. A woman’s scream interrupts their meeting; the commotion outside is caused by SS troopers that are revealed to be part of the SS paranormal Division that was executing one of the village residents for an unknown reason. Chloe then explains that the killings have become a norm in their village since the Germans have taken over. She warns the group that they cannot stay at her place because of frequent inspections, but Ford says that they only need four hours, so she agrees.

The group gets into an argument about delaying the mission, but to their surprise, Boyce initiates the advance. In Rensin's words, he reminds them that the planes cannot provide air support to the bases unless they take the tower down, and Ford for once agrees with him. However, Tibbet continues to racially discriminate and bully him, discouraging the poor guy that he is not built for battle. Then is when racial tension begins to go off and the two men are about to have a fistfight and Boyce pulls a knife at him, so he backs off. Ford quickly descalates the tension, and orders him to take Chase to go see if any other paratroopers have made it to the rally point. The angry Tibbet gets interrupted by Paul, who playfully asks him to have a game of baseball. He gets more hot-headed, so Chloe explains that Paul thinks all Americans play baseball, but he walks away. Boyce makes his way downstairs after Ford orders him to. On his way, he hears Chloe’s aunt coughing in the room across the hallway, so he checks and sees a disfigured woman. Her skin looks wholly burnt, and she looks terribly ill. Chloe explains since her aunt returned from the church, which is the base of the Germans, she has not spoken since. She suspects that multiple experiments were done on her, causing physical and mental trauma. Ford saw the whole thing and decides to head back stares.

## Meeting an old enemy

*"This is very nice. Did your boss give this to you for hitting your execution quota?"―*Ford after reuniting with Wafner.

After Tibbet and Chase depart to check the scheduled rendezvous site, a Nazi patrol led by Wafner (who is now a an SS-Hauptsturmführer and the commander of the Nazi SS Paranormal Division forces who had seized control of the French village of Cielblanc and became one of General Deathsheads) finest visits Chloe. Wafner sends his men away, and proceeds to coerce Chloe for sex, threatening to send her brother to the church to be "fixed." Ford tries to stop Boyce, but he cannot ignore this and interrupts the Nazi officer. Ford is forced to follow suit and sees the man who caused him so much pain and punches him. After that, Ford searches for Wafner to see if he has any weapons on him, but only finds a custom-made lighter created by Strasse and keeps before Ford head-butts and restrains Wafner. Ford blames Boyce for putting the mission out at risk and orders him to get Tibbet and Chase.

## Boyce returning

*"What is this shit?...What is that, German? I don't understand German. Do you understand German? I don't speak German...Well, I don't think that the, uh, private here, I don't think he believes you... I'm on the clock here, Franz, so if you don't tell me what I need to know, the private here is gonna paint this room with you... What do you do with those people that you take into that church?"*―Ford asks Wafner some questions before brutally torturing him.

When Boyce gets back to Chloe's house with Rosenfeld from the CielBlanc church, where Boyce finally breaks down after holding his emotions inside the church. He, along with Rosenfeld, explained there was more going on than just a radio tower. Ford struggles to understand the words he is saying and realizes that Boyce has shifted his attention from the mission to the experiments. He shows Ford the serum, and they ask Wafner about it, but he does not disclose any helpful information, even as Ford and Tibbet torture him. Boyce asks him what are they doing and that they are cruel and twisted like Wafner. Ford replies that if they want to beat the Nazis, they got to play as dirty as they do and tell him to get back. As Wafner is in a helpless situation, but he remains loyal to his roots, making Ford more aggressive (Due to the fact what Wafner did to him a year earlier left him both physically and mentally scared that he became more violent). Boyce tries to stop him, but Ford accidently punches him in the process, making him walk out of the room. Ford and Tibbet walk out of the attic floor. Paul is sitting on the floor looking at him and the two enter the kitchen. As the squad prepares to attack the church, Chase checks on Wafner, Ford orders Chase to get Wafner ready to travel so they use him for a diversion to help take the radio tower. Ford asked Chloe if her family has a car and she said her father kept one in a garage down the street. Ford and Tibbet start to follow Chloe. Boyce follows to but Ford stops him saying that he has done enough running for one night and orders him to stay with Chase and Rosenfeld; while he and Tibbet go find the car along with Chloe.

## The Truth

Chase checks on Wafner, who attempts to escape and fatally shoots him after acting unconscious. Still, with a sack over his head, he blindly shoots around, but he is stopped after the group comes up. Boyce isn't holding his own gun, and can only charge Wafner, tackling to the floor punching that hood off his head, then wrestling away before Tibbet managed to help him to subdued Wafner. Ford, Boyce, Chloe, and Rosenfeld tried their best save him. Knowing that he was going to die and before losing his final breath, Chase asks for his camera, and all of them dramatically witness his death. Enraged at seeing another soldier who he considered a friend, Tibbet kicks Wafner hard and shoved his M1911 pistol in his mouth, tells Ford that he is gonna put a bullet in Wafner's fat Kraut face. Ford reminded him that they still need Wafner son Tibbet jerks him to his feet.

Boyce gets into the idea of injecting the serum into Chase, thinking that it would save him. In a matter of minutes, Chase gets up and is in prime condition. He even pokes his bullet wounds and is numb from the pain. Additionally, he gets stronger after the injection, which confuses everyone in the room. After some time, Chase mutates; his body slowly disfigures, and he turns violent. His eyes turn red as if he is about to transfer into something before Ford shoots him several times. Wafner then reveals that he and his men's mission was in order to advance their Nazi empire, Wafner along with a division SS paranormal Division of his own was sent to Cielblanc by Strasse to develop a virus that can bring people back from the dead and turn them into some sort of undead shambler fighters calling them the "Thousand Year Reich not only win the war but to take over the world. As they discuss this, Chase gets up; before he could attack anyone, Boyce knocks him to the ground and pounds his head to death. This left Tibbet surprised because he never realized how brutal Boyce can never want to piss him off again. The commotion makes the perfect time for Wafner to escape unnoticed. He comes down from the attic and grabs Paul upon his exit. A group of SS soldiers comes to his rescue and takes Paul hostage.

Chloe helplessly chases the army vehicle but is unable to, so she runs to Boyce for some help. Willing to help Chloe get her brother back, he angrily refuses to follow orders from Ford and reminds him that saying that their mission is more than just burning the church tower but also putting an end to the human experiments. The two have an argument, Boyce proposes infiltrating the base and destroying the tower from the inside, which would also destroy the laboratory. The other privates support him, and Tibbet convinces Ford that they can grab Paul as a bonus and Ford grudgingly agrees.

## Final Battle

*"Right. And over here is the church. Make sure you can cover that entrance. Here should give you a good angle on our bait and those two buzzsaws. You got to keep those from getting wound up...Okay. You got to make sure it feels like the entire 101st is laying down on them. We need to pull as many outside as we can. Just buy us enough time down below to get the ordnance set. Then we'll rescue the kid...Good luck.*―Ford planning the final attack.

As the remaining paratroopers including Chloe plan their entrance to the church in a secluded part of the woods. They assign tasks to everyone who will split up during their mission. To initiate it, Chloe shows herself to the German soldiers, who chase her across town. They attempt to shoot her, but she successfully runs through the forest, pursued by one soldier to a nearby bridge. Scherzer (Wafner's second in command), thinking that he has cornered Chloe, gets off his bike to physically attack and force himself on her. However, upon being beaten down to the ground, Chloe lets out a laugh, then Ford knocks the soldier down. Next, they use the soldier that they strapped with explosives to make their way into the church. After the explosion injures several other soldiers, Rosenfeld and Tibbet launch a frontal assault as a distraction, while Ford, Boyce, and Chloe enter the base using the sewers. This causes a massive commotion inside the base, as the soldiers are alerted that they are under attack by a small group of Americans. Inside, Boyce and Ford carry out their mission to rig the place, while Chloe refuses to wait and runs to look for Paul. In a hallway, she holds two soldiers at gunpoint and shoots one of them after failing to disclose her brother's whereabouts.

## Setting charges

*"Boyce, go get started on those labs that you saw. Boats on the beach in 20 minutes. I'm setting these timers for 18. Anybody still down here after that is not making it out. Go."*―Ford telling Boyce that he setting up the timers early.

In the communication room, Ford stabs a Nazi in the neck from behind with his trench knife and to set timers as part of the plan to blow up the place. Ford tells Boyce to plane explosives on the experiments while he planting explosives in communication room. After some time has pass and managed to set the explosives, Ford turns around in horror to encountered Wafner, now mutated and possessing superhuman strength and resilience, overpowers Ford and destroyed the timers.

## Self Sacrifice

As Wafner finishes dragging Ford to the bottom of the Church, he impales Ford on a meat hook leaving him screaming in agony and being punched by his own father's trench knife. Wafner explains to Ford that the serum was made by using the villagers' bodies to distill the ancient power of the black tar, which had been running under the village for centuries. The aim was to create immortal and invincible soldiers to serve the Reich, as "A thousand-year Reich needs thousand-year soldiers". Boyce, who had previously finished planting explosives in the laboratory, ambushes Wafner by shooting him multiple times before getting thrown away across the room. The shambler-like Wafner opens compartments that contain bodies of fallen soldiers injected with the serum.

In the middle of this, Ford pulls himself off the meat hook and injects himself with a dose of the serum to heal his wounds instantly. Aware of the consequences, he sacrifices himself to stop Wafner and stab him from behind with a broken pool. Both of them recklessly fight each other as their bodies continue to disfigure in the process. Boyce then managed to shoot an oxygen can; the explosion sends Wafner falling into the tar pit right at that moment.

Boyce approaches their Ford to help him get up, but Ford locks himself inside upon passing by the exit. He orders Boyce to leave him behind and detonate the explosives in the tower and knows that even though the Allies are losing the war, he believes neither side should possess the serum. After some convincing, Boyce follows his instructions just before Ford sets off the explosives in the lab, killing himself, the other shamblers, and Wafner, who had mutated further and climbed out of the tar pit. Boyce sets a timer on the explosives and escapes in the communications room as the church and jamming tower collapse behind him, burying the laboratory and the rest of the building.

## Legacy

Although the small paratroopers successfully destroy the CielBlanc church and allied soldiers managed to get victory in most beach sectors, the D-Day invasion ultimately failed with 156,000 Allied soldiers died during the attempted invasion of Normandy, as compared to only 89 Germans. In his report, Boyce credits Ford for the decision to plant the bombs inside the church. The commanding officer questions Boyce regarding rumors of an underground lab under the church. Boyce, sharing Ford's view, denies seeing anything worth digging up. He now believes that the zombies and the human experiments should be kept unknown, or else more people will suffer the same fate as failed test subjects.

## Personality

*"Corporal Ford here has joined as our explosives expert. You are lucky to have him. You will obey his commands as if you heard my own beautiful voice coming from his lips."*―Rensin welcoming Ford to his group of paratroopers.

Ford was once by the book soldier by cares deeply about the life of his men and to make sure that they home in one piece. But all that changed when he and squad during Operation Husky got captured by a platoon of *Waffen-SS* soldiers of the SS Paranormal Division and haplessly watched as his squad and men were dissected and brains was taken with General Wilhelm Strasse (So he can use them for his Prototype Robot). Ford although managed to escape but scared for life both physically and mentally, having a big fear of what the Nazis are capable of and went completely opposed to killing every last one of them.

By the events of Overlord, Ford's characterization in the film is as more harden soldier who reminds his men that they have a job to do, and whatever the Nazis are doing under the church has nothing to do with their mission. He's also explicit in saying that, to beat the Nazis, they have to fight as dirty as they do. Despite being barely a Corporal (Who demoted possibly punching an officer), Ford still outranks everyone else who makes it through the paradrop. He always maintains his composure even when the others panic, and racks up a huge body count of German soldiers with his trusty Thompson. Probably his best feat is pulling himself off of a meat hook he's trapped on gritting his teeth through the agonizing pain, injecting himself with some Super Serum, and taking on the super-powered Big Bad in hand-to-hand combat, before killing himself along with all the other test subjects with bunch of C4 in a Heroic Sacrifice. At the same, he tries to apply Unusually Uninteresting Sight to everything around him, from the horrors of the battlefield to his own guys suddenly dying in front of him. But even he's just as horrified as everybody else in the room when Chase comes back to life after Boyce administers the serum. And that's even *before* the side effects begin to kick in. When it comes for him to die, Ford has recognized the horrors of what's going on and orders Boyce to not let anyone, not even their own side, have the serum.

## Gallery

Ford taking point.Ford about to blow another punch.Ford shooting his thompson.