The Beast (also: The Beast of War) is a 1988 Columbia Pictures film directed by Kevin Reynolds and based on a William Mastrosimone play entitled Nanawatai. The plot concerns a Soviet T-55 tank lost during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains. A unique look at the Soviet 'Vietnam' experience sympathetically told for both sides. Written by Keith Loh

Afghanistan, 1981, and the Soviet Union is locked in a futile and bloody battle with the Mujahedeen. Separated from their patrol after a vicious attack on an Afghani village, a T-62 tank engages in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the local mujahed, led by the Afghan Taj. The tyrannical and increasingly unstable tank commander Daskal pushes the moral boundaries of the tank driver Constantine Koverchenko to the limits, with almost dire consequences. Sensing a mutiny, Daskal abandons Koverchenko to die in the desert at the hand of the Afghans, only to find that he's sealed his own fate. Written by