If you see enough movies, attend enough plays and make it through enough literature, you earn the license to say you’ve “seen’em all.” There are only so many basic plots, with a vast but still finite number of variations on the many themes, after all.

But that can be a curse. I could see where the German thriller “The Tank” was heading within minutes of its opening titles. Chances are, many of you will as well. I won’t spoil it for you but I will throw a few names out there that the savvy will recognize and nod their heads at the drift of it all — Serling, Hitchcock, Bierce, Tim Robbins and Danny Aiello.

Classic plots get to be classics because they’re clever, poignant and even surprising the first few times you see versions of them. So its no sin to try your own variation of one. But for the viewer who picks up on where it’s going too soon, well…

“Der Tiger” as it was titled in German is a sometimes suspenseful, only occasionally far-fetched fascist “Fury” tank crew at war tale that’s pretty much wholly undone by not just driving down a plot path many have traveled before, most notably the short story author who was the subject of “Old Gringo.” The filmmakers feel the need to explain the hell out the finale, so whatever anti-war war film novelty they were going for is spoiled if not exactly undone.

We meet our Tiger tank crew on a bridge over the Dneiper River in the fall of ’43, a few months after Stalingrad, when the German army has tumbled into a terminal retreat.

The last of their infantry has crossed, but as Russian tanks and troops close in, tank commander Lt. Gerkens (David Schütter of Netflix’s German “Barbarians” series) keeps ignoring pleas (in German or dubbed) to fall back before the bridge is blown up.

His driver (Leonard Kunz) and gunner/second-in-command (Laurence Rupp) shout and plead and fire as the dutiful radio-man/machine-gunner (Sebastian Urzendowsky) and boyish cannon-loader (Yoran Leicher) fight back the panic and follow orders.

But they survive for Gerkens to get new orders, a “secret mission” to rescue a Colonel trapped behind Russian lines. The crew will “obey” and drive “the greatest tank ever built” in their own “Saving Col. von Hardenburg” quest through the hell of the Eastern front no man’s land.

They will witness war crimes that remind them that “The Reich has developed such an appetite for killing.” They will overhear Catholic mass in Latin on their two-way radio. They will face dire odds, fire and flood and superstitions as they do the bidding of “Our friend Adolf, the Austrian.”

Above all else, they will “follow orders.”

Director and co-writer Dennis Gansel wrings a bit of pathos about the moral quandary and cost of such misguided loyalty. But the picture’s heavy-handed way with allegory make it about as realistic as a “Sisu” thriller.

The trek is hardly hidden from view, but we only see Russian (CGI) fighter bombers at night, not in the daylight when anybody with one good eye could spy the cloud of smoke and road dust these V-12 behemoths churned out. The crew stops for a campfire, muses on family and girlfriends and their lives “before the war.” The front lines are largely depopulated, with set-piece confrontations and genre tropes nakedly borrowed from “Fury” (and other tank tales).

Watches stop ticking and surreality pokes its nose around the edges before elbowing its way to center stage.

But the tracks and the wheels underneath them truly come off in a “What was it all for?” finale, a real teeth-grinder of unreality, illogic, cliches and German soul-searching about what they once went through which the rest of the world seems to have forgotten.

“The Tank” isn’t inherently terrible. The actors are game, the allegory timely and the action sequences — including one straight out of a hundren U-Boat movies — play. And helpfully, the cinema usually goes a few decades between versions of the story that was its framework and inspiration — early ’60s, early ’90s — allowing new generations to experience it.

But the execution of this well-worn plot device begs for mystery, not over-explanation. The finale isn’t just obvious, it’s obtuse. If you’re going to explain your movie’s ending, it’s usually a good idea not to botch the explanation so badly that anyone who’s ever seen a variation on this plot is given license to shout at the screen.

Ratng: R, graphic violence, profanity

Cast: David Schütter, Laurence Rupp, Leonard Kunz, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Yoran Leicher and Tilman Strauss.

Credits: Directed by Dennis Gansel, scripted by Dennis Gansel and Colin Teevan. An MGM release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:56

clumsy arrival