This striking film poster and its chilling tagline are from 1988 Columbia Pictures ‘The Beast of War’. 

The film was also released in some cinemas under the title ‘The Beast’, and was directed by Kevin Reynolds. The poster, which features a lone guerrilla facing down an imposing T- 55, was acquired by the Archive from the Peter Payne Collection. Payne was a prolific collector of all things tank, Royal Tank Regiment and its predecessors. His very large and unique collection was acquired in 2018 for the Archive, following his passing.

The film stars George Dzundza, Jason Patric and Steven Bauer as a Russian tank crew separated from its patrol during the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1989. Hopelessly lost in a valley, the crew are relentlessly pursued by a band of Mujahadeen Guerrillas seeking revenge for an attack on their village.

The film used genuine Soviet armour, with the role of the crew’s T-55 tank filled by a modified Israeli Ti-67 which had been captured during the Arab-Israeli War.