Original subtitles

Keep your eyes open.

Tighten it up, guys.

Stay alert.

Hey, uh... Hey, leave it, man.

Hold it! Hold it, Rudy!

Leave it! No!

Hold it! Hold it!

We got a man down.

Cease fire!

Hold it. Cease fire!

Damn it!

Calm down!

Chest wound here.

Punji stakes.

Lieutenant Beller, Rudy's dead, sir!

This way! This way!

Still the same.

Welcome back.

With all the security around here,

you'd think this place was Fort Knox.

Our mission requires tight security.

Yeah, look out. I might be a VC agent.

Beller!

Goldman! I don't believe it.

Gentlemen, we've got a briefing to get to.

I'm sorry, major. We went to OCS together.

I'm thrilled for you.

How you doing, Skip?

That a joke?

Well, you look good.

I look like hell, and you know it.

Lieutenant Goldman,

Lieutenant Beller's platoon will be OPCON to us

from the First Brigade for this mission.

I've arranged to have you temporarily housed here.

Duncan'll get you squared away.

Okay.

We've got elements

of the Fifth Division of the NVA

built up around the city of Tay Ninh.

MACV wants more information.

They believe that the NVA

is setting up for an attack on the city at any moment.

Team Viking is going into the field with a guide.

Thang comes out of our Chieu Hoi program.

Until a few weeks ago, he was an officer with the NVA.

Oh, that's smart.

You got a problem with that, lieutenant?

I got a problem with the whole mission, sir.

My platoon is wasted.

They just came off a 20-day operation.

I can appreciate that, lieutenant.

I'll talk with General Elliott.

But for now, you're the only platoon available.

Colonel, we've been nickel-and-dimed to death.

These guys need a break.

They need to blow off some steam,

get drunk, find some women...

I get the point, lieutenant.

Goldman,

your team's mission is to follow Thang

and recover several known weapons caches.

Lieutenant Beller's platoon will be blocking for the mission,

securing the perimeter

and assisting in airlifting of the weapons found.

Any questions?

Thang.

Many of People Army of North Vietnam in this area.

I know weapons store in three locations,

in the villages

Phu An, Dau Ha and Chau Ang.

Brewster set you up with a guide

I wouldn't trust to shine my shoes.

Nah, he knows what he's doing.

It's the best command I've been in since I got here.

Yeah, right.

So while we're covering your butts,

the NVA uses us as target practice.

I guess I'd better go brief the men.

Skip.

What do you say we grab some chow, catch up?

Remember that pizza run we made at Benning?

Yeah, I hear the candidates still tell that story.

It was a dozen pizzas, two cases of beer

and two go-go girls.

We got it past three Tac officers.

So, what do you say? I'll meet you at 1800 hours at Leong.

All right.

I'll be there.

Mm-mm-mm-mm. Look at that.

Hello.

I was looking at the picture of Joey Heatherton,

if you don't mind.

Lieutenant Arthur Ashe,

the first black man

to win a professional men's tennis championship?

Whoo! Let me see that.

That is great, man.

That's a real milestone.

Who asked you?

I didn't hear any...

Did you ask him, Johnson? No.

What about you, Ru? Not me.

Give me a break, y'all.

You guys are still picking on the doc?

Sarge!

Are we glad to see you, man!

Sarge!

I'm gone for 30 days. I come back,

discipline's gone right down the toilet.

Hey, look here. Johnson's even still got his stripes.

Yeah, so far. You back, sarge? You staying?

Gentlemen, I'm here for the duration.

Join us for a drink, sarge? Hell, no.

Been on a plane for two days.

Gotta get me some sleep.

Sarge, Dr. Seymour wear you out? Look here,

Dr. Seymour, as you all know, is an officer,

and I don't break the rules.

And besides, gentlemen don't talk about that kind of thing.

Oh, yeah, right.

How are you, doc? I'm all right.

Purcell!

How you doing, buddy?

Fine, sarge.

Never better.

Are you just hiding your joy

at seeing me here or what?

I get no joy out of seeing anyone come back to this place.

Doc, what's with him?

I don't know, sarge.

Just might have something to do with the war.

You know, Debbie met me in Tokyo

for R and R.

Man, I needed to see her so bad.

But I get there, and she says she's leaving me.

I guess she couldn't take it, my being here.

Fell in love with some, uh, doctor.

Oh, hell. I can't say I blame her, you know.

Couple of beers.

That's rough, man.

She said she didn't...

know who I was anymore.

She didn't recognize me.

Man, I got nothing to go back there for now.

You'll get back to the world, pick up the pieces,

put your lives back together.

Not without her.

And I may leave too many of the pieces right here.

I lost a 17-year-old kid the other day.

Rudy.

He had to... He had to...

He had to ask his mom and dad permission to let us...

Man.

Sometimes I just... I feel like I am unraveling here, you know?

Hey, we all go through it.

Not the brass, man.

The brass, all they do is scream for results.

They don't care about the men. They care about the body count.

Well, we'll worry about the men.

That's right. You're right.

That's why I gotta get them outta the field.

Ever since Tet, they've been pushed...

so hard.

It's like MACV has gotta prove to the world

we're winning this thing.

Do you wanna know somethin'?

I don't care anymore.

I don't.

Hey! Hi, darling.

Saigon!

Hey! Excuse you, man.

I'm... I'm sorry. Blind or something.

I heard you SOG guys were stone killers.

Why don't you show me some of that special forces junk, huh?

I'm standing here.

You guys aren't too good at math, are you, compadre?

Yo, man, we'd be glad to lay some on you.

Just let it go.

That's right.

Why don't you just go

find some rock to hide under, Priss-cell.

You know somethin'?

It wouldn't take nothin'

to plant my fist through your skull,

except I don't want your blood on my uniform.

Only blood you're gonna see is your own.

You guys make me sick, man.

Mmm!

Pentagon East didn't baby you so much,

maybe we'd be winning this war.

If I were you, I'd keep on moving while I still could.

Come on, man.

They ain't worth it. Come on.

That dude wouldn't have cared

if we wiped up the sidewalk with him.

Boonie rat's been in the bush too long.

We all have.

Oh, just in time, Danny.

You know, time was

you'd be the first one to take a crack at them fools.

Times, they are a-changing.

No, brother, I think you're the one that's changing.

Look, why don't you just tell us what the hell's eating you?

Just ain't sleeping much lately, is all.

Too hot to sleep.

There it is.

Be careful, man.

There's one who's feeling no pain.

I gotta see a man about a water buffalo.

Danny's going over the edge, man.

Well, maybe sarge coming back will fix him right up, huh?

And maybe not.

Van Tue got hit hard again last night.

Third time since Tet.

First Brigade's got it under control, though.

You know, that don't make any sense to me.

I mean, take ground

and then turn around and give it back again.

Is that right, sir?

Why don't you just worry about

keeping the prostitutes clean, Hockenbury.

Actually, it's not much difference, is it?

I mean, they get reinfected,

and we keep reinoculating again and again,

and you all keep taking the same piece of dirt

and keep giving it back again and again.

Private Hockenbury, why don't you just leave the tactics

to the colonel here?

Tell me something.

Would it be just way too radical

if we just stopped fighting?

Just stopped.

Declared victory, went on home.

Aren't you a little curious

about what you're doing out here, sergeant?

No, sir. I figured you had your reasons.

Your fourth tour, isn't it? Yes, sir.

Got some kind of death wish or something?

No, sir, not that I know of.

Oh. What are you doing out here?

I figure it's unfinished business.

I stick it out to the end.

Yeah.

Guess you wanna be some kind of hero.

Maybe you don't fit in back at home.

I'm here because of my men. It's my duty, sir.

What about winning this war, sergeant?

Doesn't that mean anything to you?

I'm willing to do anything for my country.

Except... Except what, sergeant?

Right over here.

Except compromise the lives of my men, sir.

Good.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Park right here.

I expect to get a lot out of you, sergeant.

Maybe we can start right now.

You can help me with these PX supplies, huh?

Hi, Li An.

What's wrong?

He was playing.

They called him names.

Someone threw a rock.

How you doin'?

Who did this?

You can't tell Dada who threw the rocks?

No?

Do you know, uh...?

You know that your mother and I, uh...

don't look alike...

but that we can see a lot of beauty in each other?

Do you know that that means that we love each other?

We can see that beauty?

Do you understand?

Yeah.

Some people can't see the beauty in others.

They just can't feel good about themselves

unless they can hurt somebody else.

But we... We can see your beauty.

Oh, we love you very much.

Come on.

We love you very much.

I always win. You always cheat.

Doc, doc, doc.

I didn't know you had relatives in Nam.

Doc, where did you get that from?

Some of the girls at the bar.

They wanted to show me their gratitude.

So they gave him a monkey.

I could think of a lot of things I'd rather have got.

Yeah, and, uh, I got a monkey.

Hey, sarge, check this out. Joe College, right.

He get a gift from the girls down at the boom-boom bar.

He don't get a freebie, don't get a kiss,

don't even get a hug.

He gets a monkey!

Anybody know where Purcell is?

Last time I saw him, he was driving the porcelain bus.

He really tied one on last night, sarge.

I think he'll be all right, though.

Glad you're all in such good spirits.

We have a briefing at 1500 hours. We leave at first light.

Great. Oh!

By the way,

that soldier's out of uniform.

I guess he didn't see your hat, did he? Did he?

Man, I don't believe this.

It's the boonie rats.

What are you clowns doing here?

Covering your butts, that's what.

Ha!

Came to warn you about that dink.

Can't trust him.

Yeah, well, we trust him a lot more than we trust you.

Yeah, I ain't the one who's been killing Americans.

He is.

You know what they say about old habits.

Okay. You warned us.

Now get outta here.

Okay.

See you later, girls.

Those guys are right.

We can't trust him.

All right, you guys.

Time to do our imperialist duty.

What is it, Danny? What is it?

I don't know.

I thought that was a snake.

Danny, you thought this was a snake?

Come on, brother, get it together, man.

Hey, what's the problem here?

Uh, nothing, sarge.

We thought we caught some movement, that's all.

It's cool.

All right, then let's get going.

Purcell, you still got the point now.

All right, let's move up.

You open it.

All right, let's get the others and pack 'em up.

Sergeant, let's hustle.

Hey, guys, we got two more crates over here.

Come on, let's load them up.

What are they doing?

They're digging up graves.

I think that's where they got the weapons stashed.

Good work, Thang.

Next time, much more.

- Ugh! - We've been hit!

Thang, get down!

Cobra 2-6, this is Viking 6. Over.

Cobra 2-6, go.

Two-six, we're taking small-arms fire

from our November Echo.

Do you copy? Over.

Hang tight. We're one klick your November.

15 mikes.

Ah!

Cease fire! Cease fire!

Hold your fire!

Cobra 2-6, they're pulling back and heading in your direction.

Over.

All right, stay alert.

Let's keep moving.

Come on.

Lorin!

Cobra 2-6, this is Viking 6. Over.

Cobra 2-6, this is Viking 6. Acknowledge.

Cobra 2-6. Over.

Two-six, we've lost visual contact.

Do you need assistance? Go.

Negative.

They hit and ran. They're gone.

We'll assess and get back to you. Out.

Cease fire!

Hold your fire!

Viking 6, this is Cobra 2-6.

We're moving in your direction. Over.

Roger. Out.

Let's go.

Yeah.

They must have tunneled out.

Yeah.

We lost Lorin. Two more men are down.

Hey. Hey!

Hey! Hey, hey!

All right, all right, everybody just stay calm now.

I oughta blow his damn head off.

Beller, control your men.

This dink is a traitor.

Back off. Back off!

Gook led us to 'em!

That's crazy.

He was in as much danger as we were.

Lorin's dead 'cause of him.

Yeah, the NVA killed your man,

but they almost killed him too.

Yeah, well, almost ain't good enough.

Think about it.

Maybe he's still on their side.

Move out.

Move out, Worthen!

Let's go!

Pack it up. Let's get back to the LZ.

Sergeant Purcell!

I wish to thank you.

Yeah, well, maybe I shouldn't have done it.

Maybe they were right about you.

They were wrong.

You ever kill any Americans?

Was it a mistake? Was it?

Saving your life, was it a mistake?

Yes, I've killed Americans.

And you've killed Vietnamese.

The imperialists were my enemy, and I was just a solider.

And today you're my friend.

Yesterday you were probably putting my buddies in body bags,

but today you're my friend.

We are people of honor.

Yeah, well, I don't see it.

I'm a man of honor and I owe you my life.

You don't owe me squat.

I'm just asking you to keep Beller

the hell away from my men.

Carl, the mission was a resounding success.

We reclaimed 200 AK47s, a dozen RPGs

and a .51-caliber machine gun.

Beller's platoon is on the edge, general.

And they're stretched to the limit.

You know, the only disappointment

was the lack of enemy body count.

He had a man killed.

I had one seriously wounded.

That didn't disappoint you?

You know what I mean.

Yeah. I know what you mean.

I'm sorry, Carl, but the mission's going to continue.

The men move out at first light.

Command wants it that way.

Is Command gonna take responsibility

for what happens out there?

No, colonel.

You are.

You having a nice trip?

I don't know what you're talking about.

You really think that I don't see what's going on here?

There's nothing going on.

Popping like that is very dangerous.

Give me a break, doc.

You pass out these things like they were candy.

No, actually, I give medication when it is called for.

You, on the other hand,

are turning your brain into a Brussels sprout.

Oh, you're a hypocrite.

Don't tell me you never smoked dope.

Purcell, wake up.

You're going into the field. The field.

Your head's on backwards.

Man, just go on sick call.

Oh, forget that.

I'm not deserting the guys.

Fine. Just want you to know I'm trying to help.

Okay? I'm trying to help.

Yeah, well, you can start by getting off my back.

Yeah. Your back's crowded enough, isn't it?

Those are M-16s, LT.

Yep. Beller's the only one in RAO.

Scotty.

Cobra 2-6, this is Viking 6. Over.

Cobra 2-6, this is Viking 6. Do you read me? Over.

Let's go.

LT.

Across the river! Get down!

Hold your fire.

Take it easy. Beller?

What in the hell's he doing out here?

They're way out of position.

Hold your fire.

I've been trying to contact you guys.

What the hell are you doing here?

Yeah. Our radio's on the fritz.

Yeah. Well, we heard shots.

Well, yeah, we thought we saw some unfriendlies in the area,

but it's clear.

It's clear now, man.

Okay. We're moving back into position.

Wait. What the hell are you talking about?

Those weren't sniper shots.

It was nothing, okay?

My guys just lit up the area. That's it.

That's all.

Right?

Hey, what happens in the bush stays in the bush.

Right?

Let's go.

Now, what was that all about?

I don't know.

Let's get the guys moving, sarge.

Are you okay there, little brother?

Yeah.

It's spooky, sarge.

Yeah. I don't like it much either.

Purcell, look out!

Aargh!

Doc! Doc, get over here!

Get security out. Johnson, check that dead body.

Doc, come on.

He's gone, Purcell.

Purcell.

Get up out of the mud now.

There ain't nothing you can do here.

Come on. Give me your hand.

Give me your hand.

Come on.

This doesn't make sense.

This guy don't look like VC to me.

Do they ever?

He's been through something. He's got dried blood on him.

Anderson, let's sweep the area.

He's dead. Let's go.

Oh, my God!

Taylor, what are you...?

Goldman! What happened out there?

Not now, McKay.

Look, it may not be any of my business...

It isn't any of your business.

LT. Now, I didn't sign up for this.

None of us did.

Where are you going?

I gotta talk to him.

To Beller?

LT, the hell with Beller.

You gotta go to Colonel Brewster.

I gotta hear it from Beller.

LT!

With all respect, sir,

I strongly advise you to go through procedures on this one.

You tell me why.

I don't know what you're talking about.

You know what I'm talking about.

Now, you tell me why.

I don't know what you're talking about.

You're a liar.

You murdered innocent people.

Innocent people? Where, Goldman?

Where in this godforsaken country

are there innocent people, man?

There were babies in that village, you bastard!

I had two men killed by a 7-year-old girl.

I lost three more

as we came into a supposedly friendly ville.

There are no innocent people, man.

That does not give you the right...

Don't give me your high-and-mighty bull!

You can't tell me you haven't been there.

Yeah. I've been there, Beller.

I've been right up to the edge.

I looked on the other side, but I never crossed the line.

I never went over the edge.

Man, you know what it's like.

You're walking through a ville. Everything's fine.

You're so bottled up, man, you're about to explode.

And one of them's running, and you just do it.

You just shoot.

You do it for your friends who have been blown to pieces.

And you do it for yourself.

And you wanna know something?

It feels good, man.

You know it feels good, Myron.

So what? So we greased a ville.

Tomorrow one of those villagers

might have ambushed an American platoon.

That's you, Jack.

Bull.

You cannot win the war

by just greasing every man, woman and child

in the entire country.

You can't win it any other way.

They'll probably pin a medal on me, man.

I did what I did to save American lives. Okay?

I did it because I was called upon to do it.

That's not good enough.

Yeah, well, what are you gonna do?

Well, when you're stabbing me in the back,

remember, it could have been you.

Because you're wrong.

There ain't no lines.

No black and white.

Not here.

Missed you at chow.

Yeah.

I wasn't hungry.

Yeah.

Guess none of us have much of an appetite after...

Look, Danny,

this probably isn't the best time to bring this up,

but, um...

you gotta do something about those pills, man.

You know, doc, a lecture is the last thing I need right now.

You don't have to talk to me.

But you gotta talk to somebody.

Look, Danny, I'll go to the dispensary with you.

I'll stick around if you want. Whatever.

Oh, come on.

You really think that's what this is about?

I don't have any idea what this is about.

But I do know that you're strung out, man,

and that you're so strung out

that you're endangering the lives of your buddies.

Your friends.

They're covering for you, Danny.

And you're gonna get them killed.

And I'll tell you something else, man.

If you think you're the only person here hurting,

you're wrong.

What we saw today,

you have no idea how sick that made me.

I just know one thing:

downing a handful of those pills is not gonna take it away.

You're talking to me as if I got some kind of a problem.

Well, I don't.

You see, doc, I got this whole damn thing figured all out.

A while back...

I just stopped caring.

Then I was fighting like hell just to feel...

something.

Hey, but I was wrong.

Doc, I don't wanna feel nothin'.

Man, I never seen nothing like that before. Never.

Yeah. Well, somebody's head's gonna roll.

Right, Purcell?

They won't do nothin'.

What are you talking about, Purcell?

This ain't a couple of VC.

Beller wiped out a whole damn ville, man!

Look. We don't know what went down.

Oh, yeah. Maybe it was just an accident, huh?

Look, I'm not saying that.

I'm just saying that...

Maybe they did something.

Did what? What the hell did they do?

That's the point, Ru.

We don't know.

My God. Listen to you.

Beller's platoon slaughtered an entire ville,

and you're defending him?

I'm not defending them, doc.

It's innocent until proven guilty.

Is that not the way it goes?

Unless you don't believe in

that political stuff you been telling us.

I think what we saw today

was what we used to call "irrefutable evidence."

Not that anybody's gonna do anything about it.

So you think they might cover this up too?

Under a ton of bodies.

That's bull, doc.

Our government isn't gonna lie

about something this big.

Oh, shut up!

All of you, shut up!

You don't understand anything.

We killed those people.

We killed Thang.

And this is all one big lie.

The whole thing's a lie.

The war. Our country. It's a lie!

We're all upset, Danny.

No, I keep thinking:

what if this was happening to us?

You know. Back in the world.

What if it was your sister, Ru?

Or your brother or your parents?

I think about that,

and I wanna puke my insides out.

But I can't.

I've been here too long.

Forty-three civilians?

Yes, sir.

Including the one we killed.

Just a few seconds,

and those people were wiped off the face of the earth.

And there wasn't a damn thing they could do.

It's done, lieutenant.

What about Beller?

What about him?

I tell myself I wouldn't have done what he did.

But I don't know.

I see how close I've come in the past.

How just that much further...

I might have.

Might have?

You wanna stand here

and you wanna debate what we might have done?

I'm up to here with debating, lieutenant!

It's done.

Forty-three people were slaughtered out there.

And that's going too damn far!

And it stops here, and it stops now!

He was my friend.

And he was a good officer once.

But I'm gonna see those bodies

every time I close my eyes for a long time.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes, sir.

Even if it means giving up your career?

Never been afraid to rock the boat.

You're a little late for that, lieutenant.

The boat's already going down.

You, uh... Do you mind?

So how come you're not at the team house?

You slummin'?

I'm here because I didn't feel like talking.

Yeah. I can dig that.

Looks like you, uh, had a bad day, huh?

It don't mean nothing.

Do you, uh...

You wanna go take the edge off?

What do you want, Stoney?

Nothing, man.

I'm just trying to help.

You come with me, man.

Doc!

Doc, you all right?

What are you doing out here?

What'd you do to your mustache?

Just... trying to get clean.

Just wanted to get clean.

Didn't work.

All right, doc, look.

Let's go on inside, man.

Come on.

Is that grass?

Better.

This, brother... This is for you.

That's heroin.

I told you, man.

It's the answer to your prayers.

A little help to ease the pain.

Oh, man.

Stopped trying to make sense of this place...

a long time ago.

Now I just rise above it.

It don't mean nothin'.

Yeah. That's it, bro.

Just let the world float away, man.