PLATOON

Plot Summary

In the movie, Chris Taylor is a young man from a wealthy family, but while in college, chooses to help his country and do his duty in the Vietnam War. He is sent to Vietnam gets put in the 25^th Infantry Division. Chris first has some rough times while over there. He gets bitten by ants while traveling through the jungle, and gets blamed for falling asleep while he was on watch. The North Vietnamese tried and were unsuccessful at ambushing them. However, it was not Chris’s fault (it was a soldier named Junior who fell asleep). Chris starts to miss home after some of these events happen. After being put on light duty, he gets mixed up in what some of the other soldiers were doing to deal with their depression - drugs and alcohol. He also meets some nice people such as King and Big Harold in the process.

The Platoon soon sets out again, patrolling the jungle. They discover a Vietnamese bunker complex and soon after discover something else: Manny, one of their soldiers is missing. The soldiers go through all of the fortified area, and two of them set off a mine. Lieutenant Wolfe then gets word to move his men to a nearby village, which was thought to have Vietnamese soldiers in hiding. On their way, they discover Manny dead, tied to a tree. The soldiers then made their way to the village where they take out their frustrations on the people and their belongings. Chris goes off on a Vietnamese couple that hid from him. Bunny urges Chris to kill him and later, Bunny himself kills the poor Vietnamese man. Meanwhile, Barnes has a talk with the headman of the village about the weapons the platoon has found. Barnes kills the man’s wife and threatens to kill his daughter in order to get him to talk. Elias then breaks up the episode and punches Barnes. In the end, the soldiers burn the village and take the villagers with them. Chris doesn’t think that it is fair and intervenes with some of the soldiers trying to rape a poor village girl. He says, "She isn’t an animal."

Back at the base camp, the men discuss Barnes' behavior. Elias goes to a lieutenant and tells him of the affair. The lieutenant then tells them that if people were killed for no reason, he would take it up in court. Again, the men are patrolling through the jungle and the Vietnamese attack them. This time the casualties are a little more than in the previous battles. Chris gets his first true kill and gets excited about it. Elias devises a plan and scopes out the enemy position. Barnes goes to get him after Wolfe tells them to get out of the area because they were going to bomb it. Elias runs through the woods and finally finds Barnes. Barnes gives him an evil look and then shoots him. He goes to tell Chris and the men with him to evacuate and tells them that he found Elias dead, "about a hundred yards back." Chris reluctantly believes him and the men are loaded on to helicopters to get out of the area. As they lift off, Chris sees Elias running away from the Vietnamese below. He is finally tracked down by the enemy and killed.

Back at the camp, everyone is very tense about the Elias ordeal. Chris is very upset about it and shares his anger with the other soldiers. He did not know that Barnes was listening in. Barnes walks in and gives the men a speech that puts down Elias. He then challenges the men to kill him and Chris takes up the challenge. Chris gets in a few good hits, but is taken down by Barnes who also cuts his cheek. Chris hears about the other battalions that have been hit hard and informs the others that they were probably going to be also.

The next day, the platoon heads out in the jungle to prepare for the battle. Chris and King talk some and King gets a message that his tour was up and he could take the next helicopter out of there. Meanwhile, gunfire is heard in the distance, so the rest of the platoon prepare in their foxholes. Chris is teamed with Francis. Later in the evening, the advancing Vietnamese trip some flares and the battle begins. Tex comes in to Chris’s hole and tells about all of the Vietnamese that are coming. Francis wants to withdraw, but Chris wants to hold his ground. Chris fights heroically and saves himself and Manny from dying. The heavy fighting continues and the Vietnamese seem to be overrunning the Americans. In the midst of this, Chris meets with Barnes who gives him a real dirty face and seems like he is going to kill Chris. Before this happens, bombs are dropped close by to wipe out nearly everyone.

The next morning, Chris wakes up to a great surprise - he is alive! He slowly gets up to survey the mass destruction of the night before. In this he finds Barnes. Barnes tells Chris to get him a medic, but Chris gives him a few bullets instead. A few minutes later relief forces arrive and give the injured Chris some help. Francis, who also survived, stabs himself in the leg to end his Vietnam days. Chris, Francis, and all of the other injured and dead are taken to a helicopter landing zone. The injured, including Chris, are loaded on to the helicopters and flown out.

On the ride in the helicopter, Chris thinks about the war in general. "The war will always be there the rest of my days."

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© Copyright  John Woggon

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