December 30, 1941. In Vyazma ('Vyazemsky cauldron') there is a small group of Soviet soldiers, who are trying to reach their own comrades after having escaped a Nazi encirclement. In the movie they are suddenly caught in an unequal battle with a special unit of the Wehrmacht. None of these brave people was born a hero but they became heroes. And were helped in their battle by the Red Ghost. The myth of the red ghost of the movie is about a lone hero who picks off Nazi soldiers one by one. He seems to be able to vanish almost magically into the forests and even to come back from the dead.

In the 13th century, an amnesiac soldier vows to get his revenge on the Mongol army that ransacked his village.