Brendan has a checkered past: He’s a drug user. One key character-and the only firefighter to survive because he was posted some distance away on watch duty-is Brendan McDonough. Before that deadly day in June 2013, we see bravery on a smaller, more intimate level as well. What’s unexpected here is how that heroic element is only a part of the story this film tells. In that fire and others, Marsh’s men work with the discipline of soldiers and demonstrate the same kind of willingness to put their lives on the line to save homes and lives.

Only the Brave is exactly what you’d expect: the tragic story of the day 19 heroic firefighters perished when suddenly trapped by a fire they couldn’t escape. Which is exactly what happens when Marsh and 18 other members of his crew find themselves unexpectedly in harm’s way when the Yarnell Hill Fire comes for them on June 30, 2013. A wind shift, an incoming storm, a drop in humidity-any of these can fan a fire’s flames in unexpected ways. Indeed, the crews working there-including the Granite Mountain Hotshots-initially think they’ll be able to contain the fire quickly.īut wildland fires, as Eric Marsh knows as well as any veteran firefighter, are unpredictable. And when lightning sparks a conflagration near Yarnell, Ariz., it seems like just another day at the office. The team proves its mettle in several blazes. And after they’re certified, they name themselves the Granite Mountain Hotshots, the first municipal Type 1 crew in the nation. Marsh’s guys-a brotherhood of hard-working, mostly twentysomething guys who would sacrifice anything for each other and for those they protect-get their shot. So Marsh bides his time, training his team, honing their skills, waiting for a shot to prove they have what it takes. It’s an expensive, unprecedented proposition, one that the mayor isn’t even convinced is necessary. For years, he’s harangued Duane Steinbrink, wildland division chief for the city of Prescott, to help his team get Type 1 certified. And they’re not usually on the front lines, either. But they don’t get to make crucial calls on how best to battle blazes. Marsh and his men? Yes, they’re wildland firefighters. It’s the Hotshots who get the call for the most daring, most dangerous work. That’s because they’re a Type 2 crew- deucers, they’re mockingly called-not a Type 1 Hotshot crew. But even though Marsh knows his municipal wildlands firefighting team is as good as any crew in the country, his brave men aren’t the ones who would get the call if flames threatened their town, their homes, their families. When that day comes, Marsh wants his crew to fight it.

Someday, he warns the mayor of Prescott, Ariz., a fire is going to threaten their town. Eric Marsh knows it’s only a matter of time.

Only the brave cast members