‘Fury’ Drama Revisited: Is It Disrespectful to Spit on a Tank?

World War II drama "Fury" was released in 2014 and starred Brad Pitt as a U.S. Army sergeant commanding a tank crew sent on a risky mission behind enemy lines. Directed by Navy veteran David Ayer, the movie also featured Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña and Scott Eastwood.

There was a bit of drama on set during the filming on an abandoned air base in England in 2013. During one scene, Eastwood's character, Sgt. Miles, spits tobacco juice on the outside of the tank. LaBeouf, the actor and not the character Boyd "Bible" Swan, freaked out at Eastwood's disrespect of a sacred American weapon of war.

That's an interesting question. Should we respect the tools issued to us by the United States military the same way we are taught to respect the flag? That seems like a weird question, but let's just roll with the idea that LaBeouf embraced the credo "Respect the Tank."

Why has this resurfaced almost eight years after the release of the movie? The Insider website revisited the question in a new interview with Eastwood, whose star has certainly risen since "Fury."

Eastwood, son of Clint, at least tried to minimize the situation at first. Shia "got mad at me and it turned into a volatile moment that Brad Pitt ultimately got in the middle of," he said.

Eventually, he cracked and came clean about LaBeouf's notoriously committed acting style. "I never think your process as an actor should ever hinder how people are treated on set," he added. "It should always enhance the production, not take away and put people in a situation where it's a sh***y work environment or you're rude or people have to be in an uncomfortable situation."

Pitt told a more detailed version of the story in an interview with the British edition of GQ magazine. "We were driving down the road, I'm in the turret, Shia is at the other turret, and Scott is on the back, spitting [chewing tobacco]," Pitt said. "And I'm starting to get pissed off, I'm starting to get hot, because this is our home, he's disrespecting our home, you know? So I said, in the scene with the cameras rolling, 'You're going to clean that shit up.' Shia clocks it, and you have to understand, we've been through severe boot camp already, we've been through a lot in this tank. Shia saw it and felt the same -- he's disrespecting our home. So Shia had the same reaction I did, and started having some words."

Pitt told the magazine that things were getting physical, and he had to step in to break up a fight.

And yet, both LaBeouf and Pitt were wrong. "The funny thing is," Pitt admitted, "when we got home at the end of the day and read the script, it said Scotty's character is 'chewing tobacco and spitting it on the back of the tank.' He was just doing as instructed in the script! So we were the knobs in the end."

Ayer wrote the script, so blame him if you think spitting on the outside of a tank is disrespectful to said tank. Or you could remember that it's just a movie, and maybe Ayer wanted the character of Sgt. Miles to have a different attitude about tank combat than the rest of the men in the crew. And, if you've seen the movie, you know that Miles paid the price for his spitting behavior.

Keep Up With the Best in Military Entertainment

Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox.