Escape to Athena

In 1944, Allied prisoners at a Greek island POW camp are forced to excavate ancient artefacts under threat of punishment. Major Otto Hecht, a former Austrian antiques dealer, ships some of the most valuable pieces to his sister in Switzerland. The prisoners soon realize that the authorities will move them to other camps once the finds dry up, so they begin to fake fresh discoveries to keep the loot coming.

A resistance movement led by Zeno, a former monk, coalesces in the town. They operate from a local brothel run by Elena as their undercover HQ and coordinate with Allied intelligence. Zeno maintains contact with Allied Headquarters, setting up plans to free prisoners and strike at German assets.

Two captured USO artists, Charlie and Dottie, perform a concert as cover while the Resistance moves against the camp. The show distracts the guards as the prisoners and resistance fighters begin a coordinated operation. The performance also serves to recruit Charlie into broader plans.

Hecht confronts the grim options of the war and chooses to join the Allies. With his knowledge of artefacts and networks, he helps in eradicating Volkmann's troops and in planning the capture of the nearby fuel depot. His decision marks a shift from looting to active resistance.

Zeno orders the break-out of the prisoners from the camp and directs them to participate in liberating the town and seizing the fuel depot. The plan requires cooperation between the prisoners and the local Resistance, leveraging the cover of the concert and the underground network. The operation expands the scope of the resistance against the German garrison.

Charlie asks Zeno to lead him and two other prisoners to the monastery on Mount Athena to steal Byzantine treasures. Zeno, however, reminds him that the treasures belong to the Greek people, forewarning that not all valuables may be theirs to claim. The proposal foreshadows moral tensions over the looting.

Zeno receives word from Allied intelligence that the invasion has been brought forward. He tells Charlie, Rotelli, and Judson that they will be expected to help liberate the monks in return for whatever they find. The urgency squeezes the mission into a shorter window.

The group climbs to the monastery and confronts a heavily armed German garrison. Zeno uses gas to knock out many soldiers, buying time for their escape. In the command center, a German orders a V-2 rocket launch to destroy the invasion fleet.

Judson disables the control room with grenades, but a German survives long enough to trigger the base's self-destruct mechanism. The trio and monks scramble to avoid the explosion as alarms ring through the monastery. The timing races toward the dramatic climax.

Charlie and Rotelli rush to locate the monastery's fabled treasure, while Judson frees the monks. Zeno finds the self-destruct clock but cannot deactivate it, and the group escapes just as the monastery explodes. The only prize Charlie retrieves is a trove of tin plates bearing Hitler's face.

In the village celebration, Hecht, Charlie, and Dottie discuss profiting from looted treasures after the war by making copies for Americans. Professor Blake later learns from a freed monk that the gold Byzantine plates have been hidden in the brothel all along, safe from both sides. The twist reveals a different path for the treasure.

The final scene jumps to present day, showing Zeno's former headquarters repurposed as a state museum housing Mount Athena's treasures. The Greek public memory preserves the artefacts as part of national heritage. The monastery's treasures are finally publicly exhibited.