Platoon

Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young American who has abandoned a privileged life at a university to enlist in the infantry, volunteering for combat duty in Vietnam. The year is 1967 and upon arrival, he sees dead soldiers in body bags being loaded into his plane, but more distressing to him is the shellshocked state of a departing soldier with the thousand-yard stare. Taylor and several other replacements have been assigned to Bravo Company, 25th Infantry division, "somewhere near the Cambodian border." Worn down by the exhausting work and living conditions, his enthusiasm for the war wanes quickly and he develops an admiration for the more experienced soldiers, despite their reluctance to extend their friendship.

One day, another new arrival, platoon commander Lieutenant Wolfe (Mark Moses) discusses the plans for a patrol later that night with the platoon sergeants: the compassionate Sergeant Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe), harsh but hard core Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), cowardly lifer Sergeant Red O'Neil (John C. McGinley), and drug addict Sergeant Warren (Tony Todd). Barnes and Elias argue over whether to send the new men out on a patrol that is likely to be ambushed. O'Neil insists that the new troops go out instead of several men under him who are nearly finished with their tours of duty. Barnes agrees, only on the condition that O'Neil goes out as well.

That night, Taylor's sleeping unit is set upon by a squad of North Vietnamese Army soldiers. Gardner (Bob Orwig), a fellow new recruit, is killed, and another soldier, Tex (David Neidorf), is maimed. Despite having passed the watch duty to Junior Martin (Reggie Johnson), a more experienced soldier who fell asleep, Taylor is blamed for the casualties (O'Neil is also to blame; he threw the grenade that maimed Tex). Immediately after the fighting Taylor discovers a light wound to his neck, and he is sent to the field hospital for treatment.

Taylor returns from the hospital and through a soldier named King (Keith David), gains acceptance from the "heads", a tight-knit group in his unit that socializes, dances, and takes drugs in an underground clubhouse. Elias is the leader of the "heads". Next door, the more traditional members of the unit drink beer and play cards. Taylor becomes a more seasoned soldier as the patrols continue and soon no longer stands out amongst the others.

During one patrol on January 1, 1968, two members of the platoon, Sandy (J. Adam Glover) and Sal (Richard Edson) find an abandoned bunker and are killed when they stumble upon a booby trap attached to a box of documents. Shortly after, a soldier named Manny Washington (Corkey Ford) goes missing. His mutilated body is found tied to a post close by. The platoon reaches a nearby village, where a food and weapons cache is discovered. Despite the villagers' denials, Barnes believes they are aiding Viet Cong soldiers and shoots the wife of the village chief in the head. The other soldiers explore the village. In one house, Taylor discovers a mentally disabled boy and his mother hiding in a ditch beneath the floor. He harasses and taunts the boy, who is a mute, but goes no further. However, Bunny (Kevin Dillon) then takes over and beats the boy to death with his shotgun, even though Sgt. O'Neil demanded the men to leave the house. Outside, Sergeant Elias arrives at the scene and starts a fistfight with Barnes over the incidents. Lieutenant Wolfe, passive during the shooting of the wife, eventually ends the fight, and relays orders from the company commander to burn the village. As the men leave, a group of four soldiers, including Bunny and Junior, drag a young Vietnamese girl into the bushes with the intentions of raping her. Taylor comes upon them and stops the group from raping the child.

Upon returning to base, Elias reports Barnes' actions to Captain Harris (Dale Dye), who cannot afford to remove Barnes due to a lack of personnel. However, Harris threatens to court martial Barnes if there is evidence that he committed a murder. O'Neil and Bunny, nervous about the possibility of an investigation, speak to Barnes and Bunny suggests fragging Elias. A narrating Taylor speaks of this as "a civil war in the platoon. Half with Elias, half with Barnes." On their next patrol the platoon is ambushed and pinned down in a firefight. Flash (Basile Achara) is killed and Sergeant Warren (Tony Todd) and Lerner (Johnny Depp) are badly injured in the resulting skirmish. Lieutenant Wolfe calls in wrong coordinates for artillery support, resulting in the deaths of Fu Sheng (Steve Barredo), Morehouse (Kevin Eshelman), and Tubbs (Andrew B. Clark) and the severe wounding of Ace (Terry McIlvain). Big Harold (Forest Whitaker) has his leg blown off by a trip-wire booby trap while trying to escape the artillery barrage. Elias, with Taylor, Rhah (Francesco Quinn), and Crawford (Chris Pedersen), go to intercept flanking enemy troops. Barnes orders the rest of the platoon to retreat to be airlifted from the area, and goes back into the jungle to find Elias's group. After sending Taylor, Rhah, and Crawford (who has been shot in the lung) back, Barnes finds Elias. Barnes fires three rounds into Elias' chest and leaves him for dead. Barnes reaches the helicopter, telling the others that Elias is dead. After they take off, the men see a severely wounded Elias emerge from the jungle, running from a large group of NVA soldiers. Elias is shot several more times by the NVA and dies with his arms outstretched towards the American helicopters passing overhead, attempting to provide him cover. After witnessing Elias's death from aboard one of the helicopters, Taylor stares angrily at Barnes, who returns the stare briefly before looking away.

At the base, Taylor tries to talk his dwindling group of six heads into killing Barnes in retaliation, and King agrees with this, while Doc Gomez (Paul Sanchez) believes they should wait for "military justice" to decide Barnes's fate. Rhah reminds Taylor how much he admired Barnes when he first arrived, and that Barnes isn't meant to die, noting that on several previous occasions Barnes has sustained wounds that ought to have proven mortal: "the only thing that can kill Barnes, is Barnes." Barnes then appears, with a bottle of bourbon, and he has overheard Taylor calling for his murder. He enters the room, daring them to kill him. No one takes up the offer but as Barnes leaves, Taylor attacks him. Barnes quickly gets the upper hand, pins Taylor down and holds a knife to his face. Rhah urges him not to do it, and he leaves, but not before cutting Taylor under the eye.

The platoon is later sent back to the ambush area in order to build and maintain heavy defensive positions against potential attack. Rhah is promoted to Sergeant, commanding the remains of Elias's squad. The platoon is so severely weakened, though, that there are numerous gaps in their defense. When this is pointed out to him, Lt. Wolfe only replies that he does not "give a fuck" any more. The troops try to prepare for the incoming battle, during which they know the majority of them will die. Just hours before nightfall, King is allowed to go home as his tour of duty has come to an end. O'Neil tries to use Elias's R&R days for himself in order to escape the impending battle (in which he believes he will die). When he asks Barnes for permission, Barnes refuses, saying, "Everybody gotta die some time, Red." Junior tries to escape the battle by spraying mosquito repellent onto his feet and passing it off as trench foot. Bunny states that he feels no remorse for the murders he has committed, saying that he enjoys Vietnam, and goes on to proclaim himself to be Audie Murphy.

Francis (Corey Glover), one of the last few remaining "heads", is assigned to the same foxhole as Taylor. That night, a large attack occurs and the American defensive perimeter is broken and the camp overrun by North Vietnamese troops. In their foxhole, Francis and Taylor shoot at several attacking NVA troops, until Taylor hears signal whistles from the NVA sergeants ordering the enemy troops to cease fire. Hearing a Vietnamese voice over a bullhorn and understanding that the NVA are bringing up rocket-propelled grenades to blow up the foxhole bunker, Taylor grabs Francis and they both barely escape from the foxhole as an NVA soldier fires a rocket at the bunker, destroying it. Taylor and Francis then open fire on the North Vietnamese solders that overrun the hole, killing several of them. Meanwhile, the command bunker is destroyed by a suicide bomber (Oliver Stone makes a cameo as the doomed battalion commander inside the bunker). During the massed NVA attack, many members of the platoon are killed, including Lt. Wolfe, Parker (Peter Hicks), Doc, Bunny, and Junior as their foxholes are overrun. O'Neil survives only by hiding himself under a dead body. The company commander Captain Harris orders the Air Force pilots to "expend all remaining" inside his perimeter. During the chaos, Barnes and Taylor come face-to-face. As Barnes is about to kill Taylor with a shovel, the two are knocked unconscious by the last-ditch American napalm attack.

A wounded Taylor regains consciousness the next morning and finds Barnes, who is also wounded. Taylor takes an AK-47 rifle off a dead enemy soldier and points at Barnes, who lays wounded and helpless on the ground. Nonetheless, Barnes feels at first not threatened, and he dismissively orders Taylor to call a medic. When Taylor does not comply, but instead continues to aim his weapon, Barnes dares him to pull the trigger ("Do it!"). Taylor shoots Barnes three times in the chest, killing him for Elias' death. Taylor then collapses and awaits medical attention. Interestingly, although not in the script, Taylor is seen on the verge of pulling the pin of a grenade, only to drop it as reinforcements come to Taylor. (Charlie Sheen thought that Taylor would be committing suicide after killing Barnes. Oliver Stone thought that the mistake was good so he decided to keep it in the film.)

Francis emerges from his foxhole and stabs himself in the leg with a bayonet in order to be medevaced. O'Neil is found by other Americans, and Harris (much to O'Neil's distress) gives him command of the platoon. As he is loaded onto the helicopter, Taylor is reminded by Francis that because they have been wounded twice, they can go home. After bidding farewell to Rhah, Francis, Tony Hoyt (Ivan Kane) and Ebenhoch (Mark Ebenhoch) (his last surviving friends in the platoon; the other survivors are Rodriguez (Chris Castillejo), Huffmeister (Robert Galotti), and O'Neil), Taylor boards his helicopter. The helicopter flies away and Taylor weeps as he stares down at the destruction, while he (from a future perspective) narrates that he will forever be in Vietnam, with Barnes and Elias battling for what Rhah called "possession of his soul".