Original subtitles

- Yeah, where are the boxes now?

The event in question took place in Vietnam

over a decade ago, but for me,

the story started in New York.

I was casting around for an idea for a new book

when I ran into this guy called Jack.

Jack had been a radio operator in 'nam

and he had a yarn that was a real attention grabber.

The whole imbroglio apparently got underway when

a south Vietnamese chopper landed near the Laos

Cambodian border to pick up four boxes.

They were officially supposed to contain

us military classified files.

Later, an official spokesman claimed the vc had

shot down the chopper, but Jack knew better.

There was a third party involved, he said.

And the whole episode stank worse than rotten eggs.

Jack was such a mine of information because his radio

base was assigned to monitor the chopper operation that day.

And the local command officer, a captain called Newport,

code name Walker, threw a class-a fit

when he heard what happened.

- Jesus Christ.

Fuckers crashed.

The trouble was Jack had no proof

beyond his soggy memories.

Then he od'd on heroin.

I made a couple of unsuccessful follow-up calls to a contact

in the Pentagon and reluctantly pigeonholed Jack's story.

Months went by, until out of the blue,

I got a call from a friend

running refugee camps in the Philippines.

Something he said gave me a new angle on the same story.

Suddenly, I felt as if Jack's ghost

was tapping me on the shoulder.

I closed up my pad in the village

and took the first flight out to Manila.

- Sir, may I help you?

- Well, I certainly hope so.

My name is Chris Hilton.

I'm a writer by profession.

And that's the name of a man I'm looking for.

I was told I could find him in this camp.

Maybe you could tell me where he is.

- No, not here.

He move in the province.

I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy.

I entrusted myself to local express transportation,

and secretly prayed that I hadn't come halfway around the world

to win first prize in a wild goose chase.

- If this man was an eyewitness

to something that happened in the early '70s,

he must have been only a boy at the time.

What can he tell me about a story

that, according to Jack, involved a ranger unit,

a bunch of American pows,

and a German freelance photographer?

You mind if I tape our conversation?

- No, not at all.

- I only see three Charlie.

- That's the 10 o'clock news.

- Fuck yourself.

- Hey eddy, you better leave him alone.

- I can't.

They're here and I am here, and we all are here.

- Listen, you motherfucker, we didn't take you prisoner.

And we didn't load you on that fucking helicopter.

You loaded yourself.

And this ain't even your fuckin' war.

- What?

That's not my war?

Who gave you the fucking exclusivity for that war?

How much did you you pay for bombing around?

-Shit!

I said stop it!

- Hey, Pete. You know, here we are in the fuckin' soup, man.

And this parasite...

- I am not a parasite.

- Oh, yeah?

Tell Jack how many soldiers

you snap with your fucking nikon.

- It's my job to cover it.

- Cover it, just get the fuck outta my face.

- I wish I could, man.

- Call your commie friends and get outta here.

- Somebody grab him! - Grab him! Pull him down!

- Where's Roy?

- Cecil?

Open this fucking gate.

- Okay, where's Roy?

- He's out there in the corners.

- Wait.

- Take care of him.

- Come on, help yourself, come on.

Get up, get up.

Help, help, get the fuck out.

Get the gate.

- He's dead.

- Put your hands up, grab it!

Open it!

- Hey! - What's going on?

Hal? Is that you?

-Come on! Pull me up!

Oh, come on!

- Come on!

Okay, let's get you outta here.

- Get him, get him.

- Say, we have a team down there, don't we?

Yes, sir.

Cecil is just completing a mission.

He's due to make contact in the next 24 hours.

- Good, standby.

Captain, captain, you're not thinking of

using Cecil and those guys down there

to retrieve the documents, are you?

- Hey, Joe, calm down.

This is a war, no vacation.

If Cecil and his zombies wanna ride out,

they've got to get to checkpoint 2.

- We're getting out.

Come on, get him out!

Get him out.

- Move it!

-Come on!

- Here you go, Willy.

This damn fog.

-I can't... I can't walk. Jesus!

-How long were you strung up there?

- I... I can't... - Try.

You're not gonna die yet.

- How do you know?

- It's over.

- Where's the chopper?

- Shit, it's here, somebody take care!

I'll call the chopper.

- Lane seven zero, Lane seven zero.

Cecil, do you read me? Over.

Lane seven zero, Lane seven zero.

Cecil, do you read me? Over.

Lane seven zero, Lane seven zero.

Cecil, do you read me? Over.

- Roger, go on.

Package ready, over.

- Cecil, no delivery.

Repeat, no delivery.

Over.

What the hell are you talking about?

- Repeat, no delivery. Over.

- Listen, you bastards.

I have the package right here, you hear me?

We've got Indians all around, over.

- Wait a minute.

Clear up with hot, over.

- Put 'em on the walkie, you motherfuckers.

Pull the fucking alarm, I want you here right now. Over.

- Cecil? Walker. You read me? Over.

- Cecil, the trip home is delayed.

Move the bags to the next shopping house, over.

- How fuckin' long?

- We need you to reach second floor,

range 1 - 18 -47

range 29 - hud - class: Fid

vital drops.

I repeat, vital. Over.

What if we wait...

- Classified matter.

Classified, over and out.

- What happened?

- The chopper's out there stuck in weather.

They want to delay.

- That's crazy.

- Willie!

- It's okay, Roy, it's gonna be okay.

- It's gonna be okay.

- Listen, just move everybody here.

- You listen to me, god damn it.

You better tell those motherfuckers

to bail us out right now, or we're all dead.

- Relax, okay?

Just mellow out.

Go.

Listen, all of you.

A south flag chopper's crashed 10 miles

from here carrying ieds from our hot.

We have to reach it and rescue it.

-Fuck.

The next train out of this mess will land there.

Not here anymore, over.

We're a team now.

- I can't believe it.

You guys came all the way down

into this fuckin' hell hole to get us out

and now you're telling us there's no chopper,

there's no going - over.

- Hey, guys, we got to move.

- My lord?

- Who's gonna take care of him?

- I will.

- Me too.

- Okay, Eddie, you're lucky.

- Let's move.

- There's a trail.

- How bad is the German?

- Still on dope.

- Hey, how far are we?

- Fuckin' little candy ass asks

the same damn question every five fuckin' minutes.

- Stop it.

- Hey, Adolf, how you feel?

-Just fine.

- Don't get too used to that dope, okay?

- Why not?

- He gets tired, just leave him alone.

- What do you mean?

- He means he thinks Willie's trying to kill him,

digging in his guts little by little.

- Is that what you think?

It's one less shopping bag for you guys to carry.

- Everybody wants him dead, but he's coming home with us.

- You can carry his ashes home in a bottle it you want.

- You motherfucker.

- Hey, relax.

Relax, do you really think I'm trying to kill him?

- Hey, why don't you answer me?

How far are we from checkpoint 2?

Hey, hey, you motherfucker,

I asked you a simple question. Now, answer me.

- Freeze!

- Stay there, don't move.

- Trap!

- Willie!

Willie!

I wanna come with you.

- No.

- I wanna do something.

- Shut up.

- Hey, I know where I saw you before.

- Where?

- Descendants 2.

It's one of those world war ii movies.

That's where you learned how to play cowboys.

- You know what I want you to do?

- Say it.

- Go out there and bring me back just one gook.

- Why that?

- You saw the movie.

You learned the same tricks, right?

- I never killed anybody before.

- It's easy.

- Don't you hate them for what they did to you?

- I'm not sure.

- Then stay here.

- You don't have to kill anyone to prove yourself.

- What's happening to me?

- Do it!

Come on, do it!

- Come on, man!

- All right, glass.

Relax, relax man, cool it.

Cool it, it's over.

- What the hell was that about?

- Over.

- Over?

He didn't...

Glass...

I hear you, fuckin' little bastard.

- I'm free.

I'm going home.

- Hey, I'll be back.

-Pme"

- What happened?

- Okay, Pete, it's all over. It's all over.

- Shit.

- That's enough, I don't wanna hear any shit from you.

- What do you mean?

- Hey, just stop it, okay? - Glass tried to kill Roy.

- I don't believe you.

- Ask him.

- Jesus Christ, I can't believe this is happening.

Hey, I tell you what, that fuckin' German is right.

What are we fighting for?

This ain't even war.

This ain't even Vietnam.

We're in fuckin' Cambodia.

What kind of fuckin' mission is this?

Answer me!

- I don't have all the answers!

Let's go.

- The bag's empty.

- What do you mean?

- He's dead, can't you see it?

- Eddie? Eddie?!

Eddie! Eddie!

Eddie!

Eddie.

- Come on, p.

- What?

- Hey.

Relax.

- Yes, sir.

- P, listen.

- Yes, sir.

- Slow down.

- Yes, sir.

- P... relax.

What's wrong?

- Yes, sir.

- Poor fucker's gone nuts.

- Yes, sir.

- P, we're stuck in a big trap.

- Yes, sir.

-P?

-P!

- Yes, sir.

- Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

P the dog, sir!

P the nigger, sir!

Yes, sir!

Yes, sir!

Yes, sir!

- I'm scared.

- Why?

I was seven.

Seven and a half, maybe.

When a bunch of kids decided to test me.

I was fuckin' seven years old.

But I wanted them badly.

Just to be part of them.

There was this old house.

Ghosts and all that shit.

The test was to be left alone.

To go inside and move from room to room,

and come out of the backyard.

Where the kids will be waiting.

So, I went inside.

And I stopped.

Man, I cried.

I remember tasting the fucking tears.

I thought, I gotta do this.

So I took two more steps.

Fuck.

My feet pushed something.

Know what it was?

A dead old lady, smelling like shit.

My legs wouldn't move.

I was so fucking scared I couldn't even scream.

But I made myself look at her.

I looked and I looked,

and stepped over her.

Not one kid ever attempted what I did.

They were all there smiling, pretending to be so brave.

Not one single fucking kid ever did what they wanted me to do.

Since then, I've been alone.

Just me.

Myself.

Everything else is just a fucking nightmare.

Oh, come on. Come on.

Come on, you fuck.

Let's go, let's go.

- Come on, goddamn...!

- Roy!

- It's a booby trap!

Get our stuff ready!

- Oh, god, damn you.

God, my leg hurts.

Christ almighty. Goddamn.

- It's okay.

Here it comes, all right.

Oh my god.

These fuckin' Charlies. Jesus.

Jesus fucking Christ.

- We got him, we got him.

- Holy shit.

Jesus Christ, it's a fuckin' mess.

- Okay, hold it, hold it. All right.

Here we go.

- Try to be careful.

- Oh my god.

- Jesus fucking Christ.

- Clean it there.

- Goddamn it!

- Come on.

What do we do now?

- Shit.

- What do we do now?

- What do you mean?

- This is it.

This is where it went down.

- I don't know what you're talkin' about, man.

There's no sign of a crash.

There's not even a burnt tree anywhere.

- I think the fucker's around here some place.

Go find it.

Gotta have a rest.

- Where the fuck is it?

- It's gotta be here, I know how to read a fucking map.

There it is.

Down there.

- We found it.

It's at the bottom of a ravine.

We're going down, you cover us.

You're in charge.

- In charge?

- Yeah, grab your fuckin' m16 and give us cover.

- We're outta here.

- What do you think?

- We can do it, give me some rope.

- Yeah.

- Here we go.

- I think we're the first here.

- The boxes are still here.

Try again.

Did you get it?

- Almost.

- Look, it's broken. Get a good grip.

- Okay.

- Here we go.

- I got something.

- Yeah?

- Here.

Got it?

- Christ, this fucker's heavy.

- Get it open.

Fuckin' Christ, look at this shit!

It's gold.

Loose fuckin' gold.

- Christ, what's goin' on?

- I'm not sure, I'm still trying to figure it out.

- You know how to be kidding me.

Is there more?

- Three more.

- We must have a hundred thousand dollars

right in my hands.

- Ouiet. Now, let me think.

- What kind of fuckin' mission is this?

- It's still a mission, Willie, you hear me?

- Yeah.

Pull!

Grab this thing! Pull!

Okay, that was good!

- All right!

- Okay!

- Oh, come on you fuck. Come here!

- Is captain... whatchamacallit...

- Newport.

- Yeah.

Does he know about this?

- Look, everything's as it was before.

Gold or classified info,

it's not our job to investigate.

- Yeah.

- Is this what ox, Jackie, glass, and carpenter died for?

Listen, how many times have we seen

people doing business with our skins?

Look at my fuckin' leg, for Christ's sake,

I wanna know what's going on.

I've got a right to know.

I don't give a damn about this mission.

I wanna know how much my share is.

You're not giving this away to anybody.

- That chopper was south Vietnamese.

Think about that.

Somebody tried to smuggle this treasure out of the country.

Fuck the war.

Fuck the wounded, fuck the poor.

Fuck the dead.

And now, somebody from our command decided to send us

out to pick up this gift and bring it back

to whoever it may or may not belong to.

- It belongs to us.

- It's not that simple.

- Then call Newport.

Have him fly up here.

I'm telling you all, if that motherfucker

lands in this hell...

- Let me tell you something.

He never supervised a goddamn mission in his life.

- If he lands here, it's for the gold, not for us.

- Okay, what's your problem?

- To take what's mine.

- And then?

- Get the fuck out.

'Nam's over for me, I've had enough.

- How you gonna do it?

You're gonna carry your bags

and walk across this checkerboard alone?

- You got it.

- Listen to this fuckin' moron.

Can't you see yourself?

Look at your fuckin' leg.

It's getting worse by the minute.

- Yeah, but the gold can buy me everything.

Even the guts to go off.

- And then?

- Anything, Christ. I'll not be alone. Us. Together.

- I'm not carrying you and

your fuckin' gold on my shoulders.

- We've got to stick together.

- That's what he wants. He wants his share and he wants

me to carry him and his gold.

- I'm sick of this war.

I'm sick of playing cowboys

and Indians through this fuckin' jungle.

I hate this jungle.

- I took you outta that cage

and I'll take you outta here, but my way.

- Christ, man, we're sitting on millions

and all you can think of is how to give it back.

- Look, my first problem is how to survive

without a rescue team, without enough food,

ammunitions, and without any goddamn luck.

And priority number one is your fuckin' leg.

- I'm okay! - We'll see.

- I'm okay, I said.

- This gold's fuckin' your head, man.

- Not the gold, being shitcanned here

so we could carry out this vital mission.

- Vital, remember, huh? Vital information.

- Captain.

- You're gonna have to pull.

Ok, come on.

Come on, come on. It's not gonna fucking go...

- Okay, lean back, lean back.

That's it, that's it, that's it.

It's gonna be okay.

It's gonna be... hold on, take it easy.

- It's all right.

Roy, look at me.

It's the last one.

There's no more.

- Boss, look.

- What?

- Bang, bang.

- Hey, give me the bag.

- What?

- I feel funny.

- What do you mean?

- I don't know, just funny.

My whole body.

- Take off the bandage.

We gotta take a look, Roy.

- Christ.

- Roy, your leg's gone bad.

- What's that supposed to mean?

- How bad do you feel?

- Maybe it's just the dope.

- It's not the dope.

The infection's spreading.

- Roy, your leg's been smelling like shit

for the last couple of days.

- It's gotta come off.

- What? - The leg.

- My leg?

Will you listen to this? They wanna cut my leg off.

They wanna take my leg off, nobody's gonna touch me.

You hear? Nobody's gonna cut my leg off!

- Relax.

- For Christ's sake, have you gone nuts?

- You're nuts if you think you can

go on with that piece of dead meat attached to your body.

- I feel okay.

- You feel okay because the gangrene's taking over.

What's dying don't feel pain.

- Don't do this to me.

Don't cut my leg off, please.

- Don't cut it off.

- I got to do it.

- I get it now.

You motherfuckers want my gold.

You think if you cut my leg off

you can cut me off from the g!

- You don't let us do it, you will...

You're giving us the gold anyway.

- Oh, how far is it?

- From where?

- Anywhere out of this hell.

- The Thai border is too far, you won't make it.

- How do you plan on doing it if I say yes?

- There's a medical unit here, they left some things behind.

- Christ, props.

Just props.

You saw the fuckin' props lying around

out there and you thought, gee,

there's something I can use to cutoff Roy's leg, right?

- Look at your fuckin' leg, man.

It's a mess.

- Will you put me to sleep?

- Opium.

The old man's a head, I saw his stash the other day.

- Go get it.

You gotta do it, Roy.

You gotta do it now.

There's no other way for you.

- I'm scared shitless.

- I know.

Just smoke the dope and go to sleep.

When you wake up, it'll be over.

You ever been in a ghost house, kid?

Hm?

Since that time,

I've never tried to make friends with anyone.

- Bang, bang.

Hey!

Don't move!

Trap!

- Captain, we have a problem.

- What the hell are you talkin' about?

- I was tracking it for about 30 clicks.

Then it just stopped in the middle of nowhere.

- Boy, come here.

Tell me.

You knew about those traps, didn't you?

- No understand.

- Come on.

I saw you looking in the stream.

What the hell were you looking for?

You saw the traps and you said nothing.

We could have died in there.

You too.

Your papa and your sister.

- Me no understand.

- Listen, you little Charlie, no more bullshit.

- Me not Charlie.

- Come on, boys like you aren't innocent anymore.

- Me not Charlie.

- Bang bang for you, understand?

Bang, bang.

- Hey, boy.

-Pops...

Give me the opium.

Give me the opium.

Come on.

- I'm here.

- I don't want to go to sleep.

- It's better you dream, all right?

You can't take a pain pill.

- Yeah.

- Here.

- Ai?

- What?

- I wanna say something.

- Say it.

- Fuck it, it's probably too late anyway.

- You hear that?

- B-52.

- Fuck, why now?

- Napalm.

- Tanoy?

Tanoy!

- Take care of the gold. - I got the boy-

- let's get out of here together.

- Let me go for christs sake.

You take your share.

Boy!

Hey!

- Tanoy?

- Papa?

- Papa!

- Boy!

Answer me!

Boy.

- Boss?

Ghost house.

- Yeah, I see boy.

You gonna show me the back door?

Huh?

Come down here.

Boy.

Let's get out of here, huh?

- Mother fuck.

- Roy!

-Ai!

- Hurry!

- To the right.

- Okay.

- Yeah?

Captain,

we've re-established contact with Cecil.

- Good.

- You know what you're looking for?

- Yep.

- Be careful.

- He thinks like I do.

- Yeah?

By my count, that makes it two against one.

- I make it one and a half.

- Fuck yourself.

- You owe me one, al. Remember?

I brought you back once, now it's your turn.

- I did it already.

From now on, you're on your own.

- You haven't got the guts to be leave me behind.

- Willie has, maybe. - He's like me.

- You're both just monkeys. - But what does that make you?

- Amen, brother.

But I'm not shopping at your supermarket anymore.

I'm not a monkey, either.

Not now.

You know why?

Because I grew up in this war.

When I first came, I thought I was invincible. Superman.

No bullet would touch me.

Found out different.

- In order to enjoy what you are,

you need something.

Something you don't have.

You need to be alive.

We're still here in a grave and you're dreaming of life?

- Is that damn chopper looking for us?

- Could be, I forgot to dump the fucking beeper.

- Everything ready, captain.

We're going into cambo.

After we cross the border, I want radio silence.

Keep tracking us.

- Yes, sir.

- Remember, bring backjust the gold. No excess baggage.

- It won't take long.

- Let's get the hell outta here!

- No, be quiet. We're not moving.

- Get outta here!

- Be quiet!

- There goes our ride.

- Nobody's out there.

Chopper must have activated time trap.

- It's something I'll never be able to understand.

How a man can keep all his memories in such a small box.