The Messenger
A U.S. Army sergeant tasked with delivering news of fallen soldiers' deaths to their families must confront his own trauma and a growing emotional entanglement with a grieving widow.
“The Scars of War Will Last Forever.”
Synopsis
Will Montgomery, a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who has returned home from Iraq, is assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. Montgomery is partnered with Captain Tony Stone to deliver notice to the families of fallen soldiers. The Sergeant is drawn to Olivia Pitterson, to whom he has delivered news of her husband’s death.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 25
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Alex HallShot by Bobby BukowskiScored by Nathan LarsonDesigned by Stephen Beatrice
Box Office
2009 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.2× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$1.6M
Opening week (7-day): $57K
Peak 4 theaters
Also known as
- The Messenger - Die letzte Nachrichtde
- Cartas cruzadases
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Cast & Crew
25 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Ben Foster
as Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery
Samantha Morton
as Olivia Pitterson
Woody Harrelson
as Captain Tony Stone
Jena Malone
as Kelly
Eamonn Walker
as Colonel Stuart Dorsett
Yaya Dacosta
as Monica Washington
Portia
as Mrs. Burrell
Lisa Joyce
as Emily
Steve Buscemi
as Dale Martin
Peter Francis James
as Dr. Grosso
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
4Other crew
9Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
Official ratings
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Live · bot-verified- FuboStream
- PhiloStream
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for The Messenger yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for The Messenger yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on The Messenger?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on The Messenger.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for The Messenger yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on The MessengerNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…