Oh, man! Is that what I think it is?
All right, you cheese-dicks, welcome to the Nam. Follow me.
Dipped in shit! New meat!
- You dudes gonna love the Nam! - For fucking ever!
365 and a wake-up! Oh, Lord!
SEPTEMBER 1967- BRAVO COMPANY, 25TH INFANTRY
SOMEWHERE NEAR THE CAMBODIAN BORDER
Get him up here.
Sky Six, Ripper Six, radio check. Over.
Watch it below!
Morehouse, drop back to slack!
Who's on tail end? Charlie?
Eagle, Eagle, Ripper Six. Pos rep follows...
Warren, you get out on flank.
Say, Hoffmeister! Got a smoke?
- No, man, I don't! - Sin loi, man.
Bravo Two-Six...
What's the delay up on point? You having compass trouble again?
Come on, you...
Get a move on, boy!
Hey, boy, what ya waiting for?
He ain't gonna bite you.
That's a good gook. Good and dead.
252 actual. Move it out. Six says we're jamming 'em up back there.
Tell that dipshit to get fucked!
Bravo, it's Two-Five. We're moving out shortly. Out.
What the hell's the matter with you, Taylor?
- You are one simple sonofabitch! - I'm sorry, Sergeant.
Get that other cherry up here - Gardner. And the doc.
Gardner! Doc! Up!
Gardner, Doc, to the front!
Gardner, get your ass up the hill, you fat fuck!
Hurry up, bubble-butt!
You all right?
Ants. I got ants all over my neck.
You got some red ants. Reds are killers.
Black ants are the worst.
Hurry up, lard-ass!
I'm so tired.
Just a little. Don't drink too much.
I don't want you drinking any more. I don't want you cramping up.
You're humping too much stuff, troop. You don't need half this shit.
I'll haul it for you, but next time you check with me first, all right?
OK. Thanks, Sarge.
Are you OK?
Two-Two, this is Six.
I understand you have a bird inbound at your pos at this time.
Bravo Six, Bravo Six, be advised,
re-supply helo is inbound at this time. Over.
Let's go, you people! Get that ammo off now!
Let's move it!
It ain't D-E-R-E, it's D-E-A-R,
and "Sarah" ain't got no two Rs, King. Damn, you dumb!
It don't make no difference. She know what I mean.
She don't read too good nohow!
Look at this shit! Pork again!
Let me have that turkey loaf for this pork shit. I can't eat this shit!
What you been smoking, Junior?
I hope you don't get that laundry gig. I hope Manny get it,
cos your ass need to hump, hump and hump!
Hey, white boy... what you waiting for? That hole ain't gonna dig itself.
Come on, get your dick-skin on that thing! Dig! You ain't got all day! Dig! Dig!
Somebody once wrote. "Hell is the impossibility of reason. "
That"s what this place feels like-hell.
I hate it already and it"s only been a week. Some goddamn week, Grandma.
The hardest thing l"ve ever done is go on point. Three times this week.
I don"t know what l"m doing.
A gook could be three feet in front of me and I wouldn"t know it. L"m so tired.
We get up at 5am, hump all day, camp around four or five,
dig a foxhole, eat,
then put out an all-night ambush or a three-man listening post.
It"s scary cos nobody tells me how to do anything, cos l"m new.
Nobody cares about new guys. They don"t even wanna know your name.
A new guy"s life isn"t worth as much cos he hasn"t put his time in yet.
They say if you"re gonna get killed, it"s better to get it in the first few weeks.
The logic being you don"t suffer that much.
If you"re lucky, you stay in the perimeter, then you pull a three-hour guard shift.
Maybe you sleep three, four hours a night... But you don"t really sleep.
I don"t think I can keep this up for a year, Grandma.
I think l"ve made a big mistake coming here.
We got boo-coo movement.
Third Battalion just got hit 15 kliks north of here.
Charlie had claymores in the trees, blew a whole fucking platoon to pieces.
Bad shit.
Yeah. They got two lieutenants and a captain.
All right, Sergeant, who do you want on ambush?
Elias... you take your squad out.
Warren, you stay in, but I'll need Tex and Junior from your squad.
- Roger that. - OK, move out in two-zero mikes.
- I thought it was O'Neill's turn. - No! Tubbs and Morehouse are short.
Fu Sheng's on an R and R tomorrow, and you wanna send them out on an ambush?
You got the fresh meat, buddy.
They don't know shit, and chances are we're gonna run into something.
What do you want me to do?
Send one of my guys to get zapped, so some lame-ass can get his beauty sleep?
O'Neill...
Take a break! You don't have to be a prick every day of your life!
Elias, get your men ready.
He's in three years and thinks he's Jesus fucking Christ!
O'Neill, your short-timers stay in, but you go out. I need veterans out there.
Sergeant Barnes.
I think, in front of the men, it's necessary for me to give the orders.
Yes, sir.
Shit, looks like it's gonna rain.
It's gonna piss on us all night.
I'm gonna put a serious case of crotch-rot on that ugly face of yours, Junior.
Goddamn, man! You break your ass for the white man! No justice around here!
What's O'Neill got? A nose up the lieutenant's ass already?
How come we always get fucking ambush?
Cos it's politics, man, politics.
- Chris, show you a picture of Lucy Jean? - No, you didn't.
She's the one for me all right, that Lucy Jean.
- She's waiting for me. - Real pretty. You're a lucky guy, Gardner.
Hey, you got a picture of your girl?
I guess that leaves some unlucky girl back at home, don't it?
Tuck this in.
Shitcan this.
Don't need this. Turn around.
Come on.
Tex, you got Junior and Taylor here on your position.
Goddamn it, Elias, don't mess with my pig!
I ain't getting greased, so you keep this sorry cheese-dick off my ass!
You got Taylor. Gardner, you're with me.
Look, case anything happens, you get lost or separated, don't yell out, OK?
Just sit tight and we'll get to you.
Saddle up! Lock and load!
Mom and Dad didn"t want me to come here.
They wanted me to be like them. Respectable, hard-working, a family.
They drove me crazy with their goddamn world, Grandma. You know Mom.
L"ve always been sheltered. I just wanna be anonymous like everybody else,
do my share for my country.
Live up to what Grandpa did in the first war, and Dad did in the second.
Well, here I am, anonymous,
with guys nobody really cares about.
Most come from the end of the line, small towns you never heard of.
Pulaski, Tennessee. Brandon, Mississippi.
Pork Bend, Utah. Wampum, Pennsylvania.
Two years" high school"s about it.
If they"re lucky, a job waiting for them back in a factory. Most have got nothing.
They"re poor. They"re the unwanted.
Yet they"re fighting for our society and our freedom.
It"s weird, isn"t it? At the bottom of the barrel, and they know it.
Maybe that"s why they"re called "grunts", cos a grunt can take it, can take anything.
They"re the best l"ve ever seen, Grandma. The heart and soul.
Taylor...
Cheese-dick, you're up.
- What? - You're up.
Sure you know how to work the claymores, dude?
Flick the safety off and bang on that sucker three times.
I got it.
Don't catch any Zs on me, buddy, or I'll sling your sorry ass. You hear me?
Maybe l"ve finally found it way down here in the mud.
Maybe from here I can start up again.
Be something I can be proud of without having to be a fake human being.
Maybe I can see something I don"t yet see, or learn something I don"t yet know.
I miss you. I miss you very much.
Tell Mom I miss her, too. Chris.
Junior.
- All right, motherfucker! - It's your shift, man.
Here, take this.
Blow the fucking claymore! Take the safety off, goddamn it!
Take the safety off!
Feed me, Junior! Get over here and feed me!
My fucking arm!
- Jesus fucking Christ! - Easy, Tex! Easy, boy!
I can't even see!
- Doc, Gardner's hit! - Right there!
I'm hit!
Taylor's hit!
- How bad is it? - Dumb fuck didn't blow his claymore!
Relax, man, it's a scratch. Hold this on here.
Don't lie to me, Doc. How bad is it?
He let 'em walk right up on us! He was sleeping on his shift!
No, I did not.
Big Harold, keep an eye on him. Don't let him go into shock.
Shut up! Shut up and take the pain!
Take the pain!
Hey, little guy... you're gonna be OK. Don't worry.
Big Harold,
do you know if...
if you're gonna die?
Do you feel like everything's just gonna be fine?
Don't gimme that morbid bullshit! You're about to get outta here.
They're gonna give you three hot meals a day... White sheets...
Them pretty white nurses'll give you blow jobs if you pay 'em enough!
- I heard about them white bitches! - Don't babytalk him!
The cocksucker fell asleep! He let 'em walk up on us!
Just shut up, Junior.
You relax, OK, man?
It's not so bad...
Dying...
How long...
Come on, bird's on the way, man. Hang in there. You're gonna make it!
Come on, Gardner, hang in there.
Come on...! Don't quit!
Come on, help me! Don't give up!
Y'all take a good look at this lump of shit.
Remember what it looks like.
You fuck up in a firefight and I goddamn guarantee you a trip out of the bush,
in a body bag!
Out here, assholes, you keep your shit wired tight at all times!
And that goes for you, shit-for-brains!
You don't sleep on no fucking ambush!
And the next sonofabitch I catch copping Zs in the bush,
I'm personally gonna take an interest in seeing him suffer.
I shit you not.
Doc... tag him and bag him!
I didn't fall asleep, Sergeant.
- It was Junior... - Shut your face, chicken-shit!
You in big trouble, boy!
Excuses are like assholes, Taylor - everybody got one.
Knock it off!
We got two men need attention here.
Police up your extra ammo and frags. Don't leave nothing for the dinks.
Junior,
Tony,
carry Gardner.
The man would be alive if he had a few more days to learn something.
- Hey, Taylor, what's in the breeze? - Got light duty. Three days' worth.
No shit! Too bad we're in base camp, anyway.
What you got? Beers?
Stole me some from the Top's supply. Shit, he been stealing it from us.
- Are you back? - Yeah, it looks like it.
King, where did you get those beers, boy?
- I found it. - You're going on report, son.
Both of you, come with me. I got a little job for you.
Motherfucker!
I'm too short for this shit, man!
They're always fucking with us... no let-up!
Politics, man. Fucking politics.
That O'Neill, he's got his nose so far up Top's ass, he's gotta be Pinocchio!
39 and a wake-up, a pause for the cause, and I'm a gone motherfucker!
- Back to the world! - Broke 100 the other day.
- No shit! - 92 left to go. April 17.
DEROS, man. Home to California.
I'm gonna be sitting outside, checking out the babes on the beach.
The surfing's gonna be good!
March, man, in Tennessee.
Sniff the pines... sniff that cross-mounted pussy down by the river!
Hot damn!
Hey, Taylor, how long have you got left? 300 and what?
32.
332 days.
Sin loi, my boy!
I can't even remember when I was 332, man!
You gotta, like, count backwards. You got 40 days in. Think positive, dude.
Taylor, how the fuck you get here, anyway?
- You look educated. - I volunteered.
- You did what? - I volunteered.
I dropped out of college, told 'em I wanted the infantry, combat, Vietnam.
- You volunteered for this shit, man? - Can you believe that?
You's a crazy fucker... giving up college.
Didn't make much sense. I wasn't learning anything.
Why should just the poor kids go off to war and the rich kids get away with it?
- What we got here is a crusader. - Sounds like it.
You gotta be rich in the first place to think like that.
Everybody know...
the poor always being fucked over by the rich. Always have, always will.
You be cool, I introduce you round to some of the heads.
- What are the heads? - Later, man!
What's up, brother?
Your Highness has arrived! Hey, what's happening?
I thought you was hanging ten in Cambodia!
- What you doing here, Taylor? - This ain't Taylor. Taylor been shot.
This man here is Chris. He been resurrected.
Go ahead, Taylor.
- What? - Are you lame or something?
Go ahead, old man. Smoke it.
Your shit's in the wind, troop!
If you do that baa, you'd better do it right.
You're weird, man.
You're a child, Lerner. I don't waste time on you.
- First time? - Yeah.
Then the worm has definitely turned for you, man.
Feel good?
Yeah, it feels good. I got no pain in my neck now.
Feeling good's good enough.
Put your mouth on this.
Where the hell is everybody, man? They getting high, that's what.
Bunch of hopheads. They think they're special!
Listen to that. That's a bad jam.
Redneck noise, dude, that's all it is. Make about as much sense as you do.
All them chucks be rappin' about how they losing their ho,
saying how they ain't got no bread for beer.
Fuck that honky shit! Gimme some Motown jams-dig it?
What are you talking shit for, man?
- Junior, you ever smoke any shit? - That's right, dude!
Y'all be trying to keep the black man down and string him out on that shit.
The time be's coming, my man, when the black man throw that yoke off.
Simple-free your mind, your ass will follow.
I can dig it, man. You smoke that shit, everything kinda gets weird.
You hear that story about the gooks putting chemicals in the grass?
So we don't fight, so we become pacifists.
Don't you worry, Bunny. You's a killer anyway, man.
I still like a piece of pussy once in a while.
Ain't nothing like a piece of pussy, 'cept maybe the Indy 500.
Only way you'd get some pussy is if a bitch dies and wills it to you and then...
maybe!
How's it going, Bunny?
LT,
check it out.
- Like that? - Terrific. I'll send it home.
Hey, Junior.
- Lieutenant. - Hello, sir.
Hey, Rodriguez, that's quite a shrine you got there.
Thank you, sir.
You... need anything?
No, sir.
This guy's three, four times my size.
I got him in the O'Neill death grip. He don't know whether to shit or go blind!
- Whaddaya say, LT? - How ya doing, Red?
Not good. This cocksucker's got every card in the deck.
- Full house. - Look like you're doing all right!
Yeah, and I ain't even cheating yet.
Hey, Lieutenant, some Kentucky windage?
Thanks, Sandy.
Play, Lieutenant?
Nah. Wouldn't wanna get raped by you guys.
Why's that, Lieutenant? What are you saving up to be? Jewish?
Jewish!
I gotta run. I'II, uh, catch you men later. Enjoy yourselves tonight.
Well, that is one sorry-ass motherfucker.
What do you say there, Bob? Guy like that make it? Yes or no?
That's precisely what I saw.
Sometimes I just look at a guy and I know this fella's not gonna make it.
Just no fucking way.
Get it going now!
New Year"s Day, 1968.
Just another day. Staying alive.
There"s been a lot of movement near the Cambodian border.
A lot of little firefights, ambushes.
We drop bombs, then we walk through the jungle like ghosts in a landscape.
Bunker.
Where?
Roger. Bunkers at point. Two actuals on the way.
Bravo Six, Bravo Two. Be advised there is a bunker complex up front.
We"re on the way down. Over.
See you next week!
Taylor, get your ass up on that flank - about 50 metres.
Washington, you cover this side.
- Yes, sir. - Get off your ass, Harold.
Bummer!
Christ, look at that, will ya? The teapot's still boiling! They were just here!
Man, this is spooky, Sander. Let's get outta here.
Watch it... watch it!
Look what we got, Sal. We got maps,
we got...
This is gook stuff! Let's get outta here!
No, Sal, this is important.
Come on, let's go!
Booby trap! Get down!
Medic!
Holy jeez!
Goddamn it!
We got two men down, sir.
There was an explosion. Listen, we need help, sir, ASAP.
Move your ass outta here! One round could get all you guys!
Rodriguez, Junior, let's go!
Lieutenant... tell Six we need engineers. This pos is crawling with traps.
On their way. The NVA have been spotted in the village half a klik down the river.
Six says we gotta get there ASAP.
Also, leave four of your men here, and a medic, OK? Move it out.
Pull the flanks in! Let's move!
Hey, where's Manny?
Yo, Washington!
Manny, where you at?
We had to get to the village before dark,
so we left Elias with some men to keep looking.
But it was King who found him,
about a thousand yards downriver, not far from the village.
It was the end of the mystery.
The motherfuckers!
The village which had stood for maybe 1,000 years
didn"t know we were coming that day. If they had, they would"ve run.
Barnes was at the eye of our rage and, through him, our Captain Ahab.
He would set things right again. That day we loved him.
There he goes, Sarge!
- Check him out. - Yeah, you got it, Sarge.
Tubbs, Ebenhock, let's go!
Get that stupid look off your face!
Hey, piggy, piggy! Hey, pig!
Bunny, clear the hooches now!
Spread out on the right! Watch your back!
Let's go! Let's move 'em out!
- Move it! - Come on, let's go!
Let's go, Junior! Bring 'em in! Get those people down here!
Get outta there, you fuckheads! Move!
Come on!
Put 'em in the pig pen!
Give me your willie pete!
Fire in the hole!
Get 'em outta here!
Oh, fuck! We got one!
Get the fuck outta the hole!
Get the fuck outta there! Come on, motherfucker!
Be cool. They're scared, man.
They're scared? What about me, man?
I'm sick of this fucking shit! Come on, motherfucker! Move!
Watch this fucker!
Who the fuck do you think they're fighting for? Got one more!
What have we here?
We got one, two, three, four mag 58 Czechoslovakian machine guns.
Barnes, they got enough rice here to feed a whole fucking regiment.
Sergeant Warren, you bring that honcho over here.
Tubbs, get outta there. Junior, burn it.
What the fuck's the matter? I wasn't gonna hurt you.
Look like I was gonna fucking hurt you?
Why didn't you listen to me? Why? Why didn't you fucking listen to me?
Fucking stupid? You stupid asshole!
Get the fuck up here! Come here, motherfucker! What are you smiling at?
Why the fuck didn't you listen to me?
Do 'em, man!
What are you smiling at? You want something to smile at?
Dance, motherfucker!
Dance, one-legger!
Dance! One-legged motherfucker!
Come on. Let's go, man.
Fucking pussy, man! He's laughing at you!
That's the way the gook laughs.
Yeah, sure you are! You're real sorry, ain't ya?
You're just crying your little hearts out about Sandy and Sal, and Manny!
Forget about it, Bunny, huh? Let's go.
Whaddaya say?
Holy shit! Did you see that fucking head come apart, man?
I never seen brains like that before, man!
I bet you the old bitch runs the whole fucking show.
She probably cut Manny's throat. Probably cut my balls off if she could.
We leave now, and nobody saw a fucking thing! You understand me, Taylor?
Let's fucking do her! Let's do this whole fucking village!
Look at the scars on this gook honcho, Sarge.
Get out of here, Tubbs.
Where'd he get these wounds?
- Says he was hit in a bombing raid. - He's a dink for sure!
Ask him why these weapons were here.
They had no choice. The NVA killed the old honcho when he said no.
- All the rice is theirs. - Bullshit, Lerner!
Who the hell was the gook we nailed on the riverbank?
He doesn't know. He says NVA ain't been around in a couple of months.
- Maybe it was a scout or something. - Yeah, sure, a scout!
What about the fucking rice and the weapons? Who are they for?
That cocksucker knows what I'm saying.
Goddamn right he does!
- He's lying through his teeth! - Waste the fucker!
Where the hell's the VC?
He swears he doesn't know anything. He hates the NVA, but...
What's the bitch saying?
She's going on about why we killed the pigs.
They gotta make a living. All that shit.
Shut up!
Shut the fuck up!
You tell him, he starts talking or I'm gonna waste more of 'em!
Tell him, Lerner!
Hey, Sarge! Let us in on this, all right?
Let's go for it! Let's do the whole fucking village!
Come on! What the fuck are we waiting for?
- Let's do 'em! - Outta my way!
This is his daughter, right? Right?
You lie! No, you lie! You VC!
Barnes!
What the fuck do you think you're doing?
Stay outta this, Elias. This ain't your show.
You ain't a firing squad, you piece of shit!
Tear his fucking head off!
Break it up!
You're dead, Elias! I swear to fucking God, you're dead!
You! You're gonna do time in LBJ!
This shit won't wash, you fucking puke!
Break it up! Shut up!
Break it up! Listen up!
Captain says to torch this place!
Torch this place! Blow the weapons in place!
Round up all suspected VC and shake it up!
- We ain't got much light left! - Lieutenant...
- Why didn't you do something? - What are you talking about?
You know what I'm talking about!
No, I don't. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Elias!
All right, move it out! Let's go!
Taylor, let's go, for Christ's sake!
Move it out! Police up the weapons, and let's go!
Fire in the hole!
Hey, come on! Morehouse!
You fucker! Get outta here! Get the fuck off!
Don't do it! Don't do it! You fucker!
What is this?
- What, you a homosexual, Taylor? - Taylor, she's a fucking dink!
She's a fucking human being, man!
- Fuck you! - You're a fucking cherry, Taylor!
Fucking animal! All of you, you're fucking animals!
Fucking lame fuck!
You don't belong in Nam, man! Ain't your place at all!
You don't fucking get it, do you, man?
You just don't fucking get it.
It's OK.
Get outta there!
Police up your dicks and let's get outta here.
- I didn't see anything, sir. - I did.
That dink was reported to me as NVA.
My report will include Lieutenant Wolfe as being witness to the shooting.
All right, Elias.
Staff Sergeant Barnes.
I want a full report on this when we get back to the CP.
You got it, and I can throw in plenty of eyewitnesses if you want, sir.
Not now, goddamn it, not now!
We'll get into this when we get to camp. If I find out there was an illegal killing,
there will be a court martial.
Right now I need every man in the field. And you two will cease fire.
Staff Sergeant Barnes, Sergeant Elias...
You hear me?
We're back in that NVA bunker complex tomorrow. This time from the east.
You people get some rest and be back here at the CP at 1900 for a briefing.
Come on, man.
You think these chucks give a fuck about us?
It could just as well have been you, Harold, if you got in Barnes' way.
And that Bunny? That motherfucker's crazy! I mean, he scares me, man.
He just scares me.
You bloods are getting too hung up on all this shit.
These gooks are smarter than you think. Barnes knows his shit, man.
They was NVA, every last one of 'em.
He's taken us this far, right? He'll take us the rest of the way.
A Christian don't go around a village cutting off heads and shit.
This shit is really getting outta hand, man.
You don't seem to know the difference,
the way you shoot up that shit all the time.
I don't know, brothers,
but I'm hurting real bad inside.