(helicopter reverberating)
(solemn music)
(solemn music continues)
♪ This is the end ♪
♪ Beautiful friend ♪
♪ This is the end ♪
♪ My only friend, the end ♪
♪ Of our elaborate plans, the end ♪
♪ Of everything that stands ♪
♪ The end ♪
♪ No safety or surprise ♪
♪ The end ♪
♪ I'll never look ♪
♪ Into your eyes again ♪
♪ Can you picture what will be ♪
♪ So limitless and free ♪
♪ Desperately in need ♪
♪ Of some stranger's hand ♪
♪ In a desperate land ♪
(dramatic music)
(helicopter whirring)
(dramatic music continues)
(solemn music)
♪ Lost in a Roman ♪
♪ Wilderness of pain ♪
♪ And all the children ♪
♪ Are insane ♪
♪ All the children ♪
♪ Are insane ♪
(helicopter whirring)
♪ Waiting for the summer rain ♪
(fan whirring)
(helicopter whirring)
[Willard] Saigon. Shit.
I'm still only in Saigon.
Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle.
When I was home after my first tour, it was worse.
(mosquito buzzing)
I'd wake up and there'd be nothing.
I hardly said a word to my wife
until I said yes to a divorce.
When I was here, I wanted to be there.
When I was there, all I could think
of was getting back into the jungle.
I'm here a week now.
Waiting for a mission.
Getting softer.
-(somber music) -(insect chirping)
Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker.
And every minute Charlie squats in the bush,
he gets stronger.
Each time I looked around,
the walls moved in a little tighter.
(solemn dramatic music)
♪ Fuck, fuck ♪
♪ Fuck, fuck, fuck, yeah ♪
♪ Come on, baby ♪
♪ Fuck me baby, fuck, yeah ♪
♪ Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, yeah ♪
♪ Fuck, yeah ♪
♪ Come on, baby ♪
♪ Fuck me baby, fuck, fuck ♪
♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah, fuck, yeah ♪
♪ Do it, yeah, come on ♪
♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah ♪
♪ All right ♪
(frantic dramatic music)
(glass shattering)
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
(dramatic music)
(solemn music)
[Willard] Everyone gets everything he wants.
I wanted a mission.
And for my sins, they gave me one.
Brought it up to me like room service.
(knuckles rapping)
[Soldier] Captain Willard, are you in there?
[Willard] Yeah, I'm coming.
It was a real choice mission.
And when it was over, I'd never want another.
(door lock rattling)
What do you want?
[Soldier] Are you all right, Captain?
What does it look like?
[Soldier] Are you Captain Willard, 505th Battalion?
-Affirmative. -173rd Airborne?
-Yeah. -Assigned to SOG?
Hey, buddy, you gonna shut the door?
(door thuds)
[Soldier] We have orders to escort you to the airfield.
What are the charges?
[Soldier] Sir?
What'd I do?
There's no charges, Captain.
You have orders to report
to COMSEC Intelligence at Nha Trang.
I see.
-All right? -Nha Trang for me?
[Soldier] That's right.
Come on, Captain, you still have a few hours
to get cleaned up.
I'm not feeling too good.
Captain?
Dave, come here and give me a hand.
We got a dead one.
Come on, Captain, let's take a shower.
[Willard] (groaning) Don't be an ass.
[Soldier] Get hold of him good.
We're gonna take a shower, Captain.
-(Willard moaning) -In we go.
Now stand underneath this, Captain.
(Willard screaming)
(helicopter whirring)
[Willard] I was going to the worst place in the world
and I didn't even know it yet.
Weeks away and hundreds of miles up a river
that snaked through the war
like a main circuit cable,
plugged straight into Kurtz.
♪ Insult me again, I'll kick your ass ♪
[Willard] It was no accident
that I got to be the caretaker
of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz's memory any more
than being back in Saigon was an accident.
There is no way to tell his story without telling my own.
And if his story is really a confession.
Captain Willard reporting, sir.
-Then so is mine. -Captain.
-Good, come on in. -Thank you, sir.
Stand at ease.
[Willard] General.
Do you want a cigarette?
No, thank you, sir.
Captain, have you ever seen this gentleman before?
[Willard] No, sir.
Met the General or myself?
No, sir. Not personally.
[Lucas] You worked a lot on your own,
haven't you, Captain?
Yes, sir, I have.
[Lucas] Your report specifies intelligence,
counterintelligence with COMSEC I Corps.
I'm not presently disposed
to discuss those operations, sir.
(soft bright music)
Did you not work for the CIA in I Corps?
No, sir.
[Lucas] Did you not assassinate
a government tax collector,
Quang Tri Province, June 18, 1968?
Captain?
Sir, I am unaware
of any such activity or operation,
(clears throat) nor would I be disposed
to discuss such an operation if it did, in fact, exist, sir.
(soft bright music)
I thought we'd have a bite of lunch while we talk.
I hope you brought a good appetite, Captain.
I noticed that you have a bad hand, there.
Are you wounded?
[Willard] I had a little fishing accident
-on R&R, sir. -Fishing on R&R?
Yes, sir.
[Corman] But you're feeling fit?
You're ready for duty?
Yes, General, very much so, sir.
Well, let's see what we have here.
Roast beef, and usually it's not too bad.
Try some, Jerry, pass it around.
To save a little time, we might pass both ways.
Ah, Captain, I don't know
how you feel about this shrimp,
but if you'll eat it,
you'll never have to prove your courage in any other way.
Right, well, why don't I just take a piece here?
[Lucas] Captain, you've heard of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz?
Um, yes, sir, I've heard the name.
(papers rustling)
[Lucas] Jesus.
Operations officer, Fifth Special Forces.
Luke, would you play that tape for the Captain, please?
[Lucas] Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir.
[Corman] Listen to this carefully, Captain.
[Recording] October 9, 0430 hours,
sector Peter Victor King.
These were monitored out of Cambodia.
(recording warbling)
This has been verified as Colonel Kurtz's voice.
[Kurtz] I watched a snail
crawl along the edge of a straight razor.
That's my dream.
It's my nightmare.
Crawling, slithering along the edge
of a straight razor,
and surviving.
[Recording] Transmission 11, received '68,
December 30, 0500 hours.
Sector King Zulu King.
[Kurtz] But we must kill them.
We must incinerate them, pig after pig,
cow after cow,
village after village, army after army.
And they call me an assassin.
What do you call it
when the assassins accuse the assassin?
They lie.
They lie, and we have to be merciful for those who lie.
Those nabobs,
I hate them.
I do hate them.
(recording warbling)
Walt Kurtz was one of the most outstanding officers
this country's ever produced.
He was brilliant. He was outstanding in every way.
And he was a good man, too.
A humanitarian man.
A man of wit and humor.
He joined the Special Forces.
And after that, his, uh, ideas,
methods, became
unsound.
Unsound.
Now he's crossed into Cambodia
with this Montagnard army of his
that worship the man like a god.
And follow every order, however ridiculous.
Well, I have some other shocking news to tell you.
Colonel Kurtz is about to be arrested for murder.
I don't follow, sir. Murdered who?
Kurtz had ordered the execution
of some Vietnamese intelligence agents.
Men he believed were double agents.
So he took matters into his own hands.
Well, you see, Willard, (sucks teeth) in this war
things get confused out there.
Power, ideals, the old morality,
and practical military necessity.
But out there with these natives,
it must be a temptation to be God.
Because there's a conflict in every human heart
between the rational and the irrational,
between good and evil.
And good does not always triumph.
Sometimes the dark side
overcomes what Lincoln called,
"The better angels of our nature."
Every man has got a breaking point.
You and I have them.
Walt Kurtz has reached his,
and very obviously he has gone insane.
(helicopter whirring)
Yes, sir. (clears throat) Very much so, sir.
Obviously insane.
Your mission is to proceed
up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat,
(clears throat) pick up Colonel Kurtz's path
at Nu Mung Ba, follow it,
learn what you can along the way.
When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team
by (clears throat) whatever means available
and terminate the Colonel's command.
Terminate the Colonel?
He's out there operating without any decent restraint,
totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct.
And he is still in the field, commanding troops.
Terminate with extreme prejudice.
[Lucas] You understand, Captain,
that this mission does not exist,
nor will it ever exist.
(slow poignant music)
(dramatic music)
(helicopter whirring)
[Willard] How many people had I already killed?
There were those six that I knew about for sure.
Close enough to blow their last breath in my face.
But this time it was an American and an officer.
(somber dramatic music)
That wasn't supposed to make any difference to me,
but it did.
Shit, charging a man with murder in this place
was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.
I took the mission.
What the hell else was I gonna do?
But I really didn't know what I'd do when I found him.
(somber music)
(slow suspenseful music)
[Soldier] Did you check the tank?
[Soldier] Yeah.
[Willard] I was being ferried
down the coast in a Navy PBR.
A type of plastic patrol boat,
pretty common sight on the rivers.
They said it was a good way to pick up information
and move without drawing a lot of attention.
And that was okay.
I needed the air and the time.
Only problem was, I wouldn't be alone.
Morning, Captain.
[Willard] The crew were mostly just kids.
Rock 'n' rollers with one foot in their graves.
How old are you?
17.
[Willard] The machinist, the one they called Chef,
was from New Orleans.
He was wrapped too tight for Vietnam.
Probably wrapped too tight for New Orleans.
Lance, on the forward .50s, was a famous surfer
from the beaches south of LA.
To look at him, you wouldn't believe
he'd ever fired a weapon in his life.
Clean, Mr. Clean,
was from some South Bronx shithole,
and I think the light and space of Vietnam
really put the zap on his head.
Then there was Phillips, the Chief.
It might have been my mission,
but it sure as shit was the Chief's boat.
There's about two points
where we can draw enough water to get into the Nung River.
They're both hot, belong to Charlie.
Don't worry about it.
Don't smoke.
You know, I've pulled a few special ops in here.
About six months ago,
I took a man who was going up past the bridge at Do Luong.
He was regular Army, too.
I heard he shot himself in the head.
(boat engine rumbling)
(bright music)
♪ Get your highlights, AFVN ♪
♪ Wherever you are ♪
[DJ] Good morning, Vietnam.
I'm Army Specialist Zack Johnson on AFVN.
It's about 82 degrees in downtown Saigon right now,
also very humid.
And we have an important message for all GIs
who are living off base from the mayor of Saigon.
-Yeah. -He'd like you
to hang your laundry up indoors
instead of on the windowsills.
The mayor wants you to keep Saigon beautiful.
And now here's another blast from the past
going out to Big Sam,
who's all alone in the mantle room out there
with the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry,
and dedicated by the fire team
at An Khe to their groovy CO Platt.
The Rolling Stones, "Satisfaction."
Ooh! All right!
-(upbeat rock music) -Watch out, Clean.
Get down, Bubba!
♪ I can't get no ♪
♪ Satisfaction ♪
Hang on, Lance!
♪ I can't get no satisfaction ♪
(crowd chattering)
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
-Let's go, Bubba! -♪ And I try, and I try ♪
-♪ I can't get no ♪ -Baby, boogie.
♪ I can't get no ♪
Yeah. (laughing)
(upbeat rock music continues)
[Chef] Tell 'em you did it, Lance.
Tell 'em you did it.
I see you is right on target today, baby.
♪ Information ♪
Work out, yeah! Yeah, yeah!
-All right! -♪ I can get no ♪
-Look out, Lance! -(all whooping)
-[Lance] Sayonara! -Whoo!
(slow dramatic music)
(somber music)
[Willard] At first I thought
they handed me the wrong dossier.
I couldn't believe they wanted this man dead.
Third-generation West Point, top of his class,
Korea, Airborne, about 1,000 decorations,
et cetera, et cetera.
I'd heard his voice on the tape
and it really put the hook in me,
but I couldn't connect up that voice with this man.
(somber music)
Like they said, he had an impressive career.
Maybe too impressive.
I mean, perfect.
He was being groomed for one of the top slots
in the corporation, General, Chief of Staff, anything.
In 1964, he returned from a tour
with advisory command in Vietnam and things started to slip.
His report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and Lyndon Johnson was restricted.
Seems they didn't dig what he had to tell 'em.
During the next few months, he made three requests
for transfer to Airborne training, Fort Benning, Georgia,
and was finally accepted.
Airborne?
He was 38 years old.
Why the fuck would he do that?
1966, joins Special Forces,
returns Vietnam.
(bomb rumbling)
Hey, what's that?
-Arc light. -What's that?
[Willard] B-52 strike.
-What's that? -Arc light.
[Clean] I hate that.
Every time I hear that, something terrible happens.
[Chef] Charlie don't never see 'em or hear 'em, man.
[Clean] There they are.
[Chef] Concussion will suck the air
out of your damn lungs.
[Clean] Something terrible's gonna happen.
Smoke! Secondary burning.
[Chief] Hueys over there. Lots of Hueys.
[Willard] Let's have a look, Chief.
It was the air cav, 1st of the 9th.
That's them.
Our escorts to the mouth of the Nung River.
But they were supposed to be waiting for us
another 30 kilometers ahead.
Well, Airmobile, those boys just couldn't stay put.
-(crowd chattering) -(baby crying)
(helicopters whirring)
[Soldier] Come on, kid, come on, get down. Come on.
[Willard] 1st of the 9th was an old cavalry division
that had cashed in its horses
for choppers and gone tear-assing around Nam
looking for the shit.
They'd given Charlie a few surprises in their time here.
What they were mopping up now
hadn't even happened yet an hour ago.
(explosion crashing)
Just keep running by.
Run for television. Don't look at the camera.
Just keep, go on, go on, keep going.
This is for television.
Don't look at the camera.
Just go by like you're fighting.
Like you're fighting.
Don't look at the camera.
It's for television. Just go through!
Go through! Just go by, keep on going!
Keep going. Don't look at the camera.
Go on. Keep going.
-(helicopters whirring) -(fires crackling)
-(explosions crashing) -Right here.
Over here. Over here.
[Willard] Where can I find the CO?
That's the Colonel over there.
I'm the fourth tank commander.
I got five tanks broken down.
We're all right with the tanks.
It's all right, Captain.
Captain Willard!
I carry priority papers from COMSEC Intelligence, II Corps.
I understand Nha Trang has briefed you
on the requirements of my mission.
What mission?
I haven't heard from Nha Trang.
Sir, your unit's supposed to escort us into the Nung!
Well, we'll see what we can do-
Colonel.
But, uh, just stay out of my way
until this is done, Captain.
-(helicopters whirring) -(explosions booming)
All right, let's see what we have.
Let's see what we have.
A two of spades, three of spades, four of diamonds,
six of clubs, eight of spades.
There isn't one worth a jack in the whole bunch.
Four of diamonds.
[Lance] Hey, Captain, what's that?
[Willard] Death cards!
[Lance] What?
Death cards!
-Death? -It lets Charlie know
who did this.
-Cheer up, son. -We will not hurt
or harm you.
-Fire in the hole! -Fire in the hole!
(announcer speaking in foreign language)
[Announcer] We are here to help you.
(announcer speaking in foreign language)
[Announcer] We are here to extend a welcome hand-
-Come on. -to those of you
-who would like to return- -Everybody in?
[Announcer] To the arms
of the South Vietnamese government.
-(baby wailing) -(siren blaring)
[Kilgore] Hey there, hurry up.
(whistling) Move it out!
[Announcer] This is an area that is controlled
by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.
[Kilgore] Hey! (whistling) Hey, what's this?
What is this?
Ah, this man's hurt pretty bad, sir.
About the only thing that's holding his guts in, sir,
-is that pot lid. -Yeah?
What he got to say?
This soldier is dirty VC.
He wants water. He can drink paddy water.
Get outta here!
Gimme that, gimme that canteen.
-He's VC! Which is- -Any man
that's brave enough to.
Get outta here!
I'll kick your fucking ass!
[Soldier] He killed a lot of our people!
Any man brave enough to fight
with his guts strapped onto him
can drink from my canteen any day.
Hey, Colonel, I think one of those sailors
is Lance Johnson, the surfer.
Where, here? You sure?
Down there.
Yeah? Here.
[Soldier] Repeat, we have a body count. We have-
(helicopters whirring)
What's your name, sailor?
Gunner's Mate Third Class L. Johnson, sir!
-Gunner's Mate Third Class- -Wait.
Lance Johnson, the surfer?
Yes, sir.
Well, it's an honor to meet you, Lance.
I've admired your nose riding for years.
I like your cutback, too.
I think you have the best cutback there is.
Hey, thank you, sir.
Now, you can cut out the sir crap, Lance.
I'm Bill Kilgore. I'm a goofy foot.
-This guy with you? -Yeah.
I want you to meet some guys.
This is Mike from San Diego.
-Far out. -Johnny from Malibu.
-John, hi. -Pretty solid surfers.
-Far out. -None of us
are anywhere near your class, though.
No way.
We do, we do a lot of surfing around here, Lance.
I like to finish operations early,
fly down to Vung Tau for the evening glass.
Been riding since you got here?
[Lance] No way, I haven't surfed since I been here.
Through Christ our Lord,
from whom all good things come.
Through him in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father.
Amen.
Let us pray with confidence to the Father
in the words our savior gave us.
[All] Our Father who art in heaven.
[Chaplain] Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done
on Earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
-(cow mooing) -(dramatic music)
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(soft somber music)
(soldiers singing incoherently)
[Willard] Kilgore had had a pretty good day for himself.
They choppered in the T-bones and the beer
and turned the LZ into a beach party.
The more they tried to make it just like home,
the more they made everybody miss it.
Make my meat rare, rare but not cold!
(Kilgore singing indistinctly)
[Willard] Well, he wasn't a bad officer, I guess.
(soldier clapping)
He loved his boys and they felt safe with him.
He was one of those guys
that had that weird light around him.
He just knew he wasn't gonna get so much as a scratch here.
What happened to your mission, Captain?
Nha Trang forget all about you? (laughing)
(both laughing)
Shh. (laughing)
(all laughing)
Airborne.
(soldier laughing)
Sir, two places we can get into the river.
-Yeah. -Here and here.
-Mm-hmm. -It's a pretty wide delta,
but these are the only two spots I'm really sure of.
Well, that village you're pointing at
is kinda hairy, Willard.
What do you mean hairy, sir?
It's hairy, got some pretty heavy ordnance.
I lost a few recon ships in there now and again.
What's the name of that goddamn village?
-Vin Drin- -Dop.
Dop or Lop?
Damn gook names all sound the same.
Mike, you know anything about this point at Vin Drin Dop?
That's a fantastic peak.
-Peak? -About six foot.
Yeah, it's an outstanding peak.
It's got both the long right and left slide
with a, with a bowl section, it's unbelievable.
It's just tube city.
Well, why didn't you tell me that before?
A good peak.
There aren't any good peaks
in this whole shitty country.
It's all goddamn beach break.
It's really hairy in there, sir.
That's where we lost McDonald.
They shot the hell out of us there.
That's Charlie's point.
Sir, we can go in there tomorrow at dawn.
There's always a good offshore breeze in the morning.
We may not be able to get the boat in.
The draft at the mouth of that river may be too shallow.
Nah, we'll pick your boat up and put it down like a baby,
right where you want it.
This is the 1st of the 9th air cav, son. Airmobile.
(soldier imitating dramatic music)
I can take that point and hold it just
as long as I like and you can get any place
up that river that suits you, young Captain.
Hell, a six-foot peak. (laughing)
All right, take a gunship back to the division.
Lance, go with Mike, let him pick out a board for you,
and bring me my Yater Spoon, the 8'6".
-I don't know, sir, it's, uh- -What is it, soldier?
Well, I mean, it's pretty hairy in there.
It's Charlie's point.
Charlie don't surf!
(helicopters whirring and whining)
Hey, Jesus, Clean, you ain't gonna believe this, look.
[Clean] Hey, man!
They're picking up the boat!
[Kilgore] How you feeling, Jimmy?
Like a mean motherfucker, sir!
All right, son, let her rip.
Let's go!
-(dramatic trumpet music) -(helicopters whirring)
(eerie suspenseful music)
(eerie suspenseful music continues)
I never have gotten used to a light board,
and I can't get used to one.
I'm used to a heavy board.
I know, it's a real drag.
Do you use, you prefer a heavy or a light board?
Heavier.
-Really? -Yeah!
I thought all the young guys like lighter boards.
You can't, you can't ride the nose on those things.
Big Duke Six, this is Eagle Thrust Seven.
We've got it spotted.
Big Duke Six to Eagle Thrust, put on heading 2-7-0.
Assume attack formation.
[Pilot] That's a roger, Big Duke.
Okay, we're going in.
-Lance. -Here we go.
We'll come in low out of the rising sun,
and about a mile out, we'll put on the music.
Music?
Yeah, I use Wagner.
Scares the hell out of the slopes.
My boys love it.
[Lance] Hey, they're gonna play music!
(helicopters whirring)
How come all you guys sit on your helmet?
So we don't get our balls blown off.
(Chef laughing)
Big Duke Six to Eagle Thrust,
put on psy war op, make it loud.
This is a Romeo Foxtrot. Shall we dance?
(dramatic opera music)
-Jimmy! -Yes, sir!
(Kilgore laughing)
(helicopters whirring)
(dramatic opera music continues)
(dogs barking)
(children singing in foreign language)
(helicopters whirring)
(all shouting in foreign language)
(bell clanging)
(opera singer singing in foreign language)
(dramatic opera music)
(helicopters whirring)
(dramatic opera music continues)
(machine guns rattling)
-Come on, come on! -All right, all right.
(pilot chattering indistinctly)
(explosions booming)
[Soldier] We got a couple here at that tree line.
[Soldier] We're taking fire from the holes.
(dramatic opera music continues)
Run, Charlie!
[Pilot] This should make everything burn.
(explosions booming)
[Pilot] We got a couple of people ahead here.
[Soldier] Even so, what's going down there?
[Pilot] We got an automatic! Shoot to kill!
Shoot to kill in the open!
I spotted a large weapon down below.
We're gonna go down and check it out.
[Kilgore] All right, this is Fox Trot.
We're pulling in.
(dramatic opera music continues)
All right. What a shot.
Outstanding, Red Team. Outstanding.
Get you a case of beer for that.
(explosions booming)
(dramatic opera music continues)
6410, we're over the, uh, village right now.
I think I see a vehicle down in that courtyard.
I'm gonna check it out.
Well done, Hawks, well done.
I want some 20 Mike-Mike Vulcan
right along those tree lines.
Ripple the shit out of 'em.
Got a vehicle on the bridge,
50 caliber onboard, he's moving across
to resupply the weapon.
Big Duke Six, clear the area.
I'm coming down myself.
Don't these people ever give up?
Nice shot, Bill.
(metal crashing)
Shit! All right, all right!
-(all yelling) -It's just a flare!
It's a flare!
-Gotta get it out of here! -Un-ass that shit.
Get it out of here!
Get it out, get it out, it's just a flare.
It's all right, it's just a flare.
Everybody all right? Lance, you all right?
[Lance] I'm fine!
-(dramatic music) -(helicopters whirring)
(explosions crashing)
[Soldier] Get down!
(soldiers yelling)
(opera singer ululating)
I'm not going!
I'm not going! I'm not going!
(soldiers yelling)
(explosions crashing)
(dramatic music)
(opera singer continues ululating)
(soldier yelling)
[Kilgore] We just got a secondary down there in the plaza.
[Pilot] Blue Three, Blue Four, hold out over position-
[Kilgore] Duke Six, Duke Six,
uh, we've got wounded down there.
(soldiers yelling)
(soldier screaming)
-Please, God! -Get a stretcher over here!
-You're all right. -Please, help me!
I can't take it!
(villagers muttering in foreign language)
Please, God! Help me!
-Okay. -(soldier screaming)
Let's give him some morphine.
-My God! Oh my God! -037742.
Where's that stretcher?
I want my wounded out of there
and in the hospital in 15 minutes.
I want my men out.
[Pilot] Somebody stay in there tight with Big Duke.
[Pilot] This is 10-10.
We're gonna be in, throw them on and get out.
-So this clears, uh- -(helicopter whirring)
(villager yelling)
She's got a grenade! She's got a grenade!
(explosion whizzing and crashing)
[Soldier] Jesus! The whole goddamn thing just.
-She blew the shit out of. -Fucking savages.
(soldiers screaming)
[Pilot] Get a medevac?
[Kilgore] What's going on?
Holy Christ, she's a SAP.
I'm gonna get that dink bitch.
Get over there, Johnny, roll in
and put the right skid right up her ass.
(villager screaming)
We gotta get some air in these trees.
It's goddamn eat-up with enemy down there.
I'm taking fire. I'm taking hits all over.
Three o'clock! Three o'clock, my position!
Drawing fire, drawing heavy fire!
I'm hit, Mayday, Mayday, I'm going in.
My tail rotor's out. I got control.
(explosions crashing)
What do you think?
Wow, this is really exciting, man.
No, no, the waves! The waves!
Oh, right.
Look at that, breaks both ways, watch, watch.
(Kilgore imitates whooshing)
Look! Good six-foot swells!
(helicopters whirring)
(Kilgore whistles)
(waves crashing)
(whistling) Come here, Lance.
[Soldier] Incoming!
(explosion crashing)
Shit!
This LZ is still pretty hot, sir.
Maybe you ought to surf somewhere else.
What do you know about surfing, Major?
You're from goddamn New Jersey.
(whistles) Come here! Come here!
-Change! -You mean right now, sir?
I wanna see how rideable that stuff is.
Go change.
It's still pretty hairy out there, sir.
Do you wanna surf, soldier?
Yes, sir.
That's good, son, 'cause you either surf or fight.
That clear? Now get going.
I'll cover for 'em.
And bring a board for Lance!
(Kilgore whistling)
[Willard] We can't do shit till the boat gets here.
Lance, I bet you can't wait to get out there.
-What? -See how they break
both ways?
One guy can break right, one left, simultaneous.
What do you think of that?
You know, I think we ought to wait
for the tide to come up.
Hang on, Lance, come here.
-Look, look! -Incoming!
(explosion crashing)
The tide doesn't come in for six hours!
You wanna wait here for six hours?
Yo! Hey, Chief!
(helicopter whirring)
Okay, fellas, quit hiding. Come on!
Let's go, dickheads, take off!
Oh, come on, goddamn it!
Don't you think it's a little risky for R&R?
If I say it's safe to surf this beach, Captain,
it's safe to surf this beach!
I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place.
I'll surf this fucking place.
(gun fire rattling)
Give me that RT, soldier.
Dove Four, this is Big Duke Six.
Goddamn it! I want that tree line bombed!
[Pilot] Big Duke Six, roger.
Dove One-Three, stand by.
[Kilgore] Blow them into the Stone Age, son!
[Pilot] Hawk One-Two, Dove One-Three.
They need some napalm down in the tree line.
Can you guys switch round side and put it down there?
[Pilot] Right, One-Three.
We're fixing to fuck with 'em.
What's the target?
[Pilot] We're trying to suppress some mortar fire
off the tree line down there.
-Roger. Here we come. -Good. Give it all you got.
Bring in all your ships.
Uh, wing a breath.
Don't worry, we'll have this place cleaned up
and ready for us in a jiffy, son, don't you worry.
[Pilot] Big Duke Six, this is Dove One-Three.
The jets are inbound now.
They got about 30 seconds to bomb station.
Get your people back and heads down.
This is gonna be a big one.
(plane engine rumbling)
(jets whooshing)
(explosions crashing)
You smell that?
Do you smell that?
-What? -(helicopter whirring)
Napalm, son.
Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[Soldier] Come on. move it!
Move it! Move it!
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
You know, one time we had a hill bombed for 12 hours.
When it was all over, I walked up.
We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinking dink body.
But the smell, you know, that gasoline smell.
The whole hill smelled like-
(helicopter whirring)
Victory.
(explosion crashes)
Someday this war's gonna end.
(gun fire rattling)
(dramatic music)
-Lance! -Chef, light up, man.
Come on, come on, let's get high.
-Smoke? -What you doing, man?
Light up.
[Willard] Someday this war's gonna end.
That'd be just fine with the boys on the boat.
They weren't looking for anything more than a way home.
[Soldier] Captain?
[Willard] Trouble is, I'd been back there
and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore.
-Buddha time. -Here.
All right, that's great, you motherfuckers. Yeah.
[Willard] If that's how Kilgore fought the war,
I began to wonder what they really had against Kurtz.
It wasn't just insanity and murder.
There was enough of that to go around for everyone.
(soft dramatic music)
(soldier laughing)
(soldiers chattering)
(soldier laughing)
[Lance] I mean, he never was hurting for pussy.
I'm not here.
I'm walking through the jungle gathering mangoes.
I meet Raquel Welch.
I make a nice mango cream pudding,
and sp-, you know, kinda spread it around on us.
Hey, Captain, I wanna get some mangoes.
Well, just don't go out there by yourself.
You don't wanna go in there alone.
Not unless you really know the territory.
Any poisonous snakes around here?
Fuck it, I'm gonna grab some mango.
-Chef? -Yes, sir?
[Willard] How come they call you that?
-Call me what, sir? -Chef.
Because you like mangoes and stuff?
No, sir, I'm a real chef.
I'm a saucier.
-Saucier? -Yes, sir.
See, I come from New Orleans.
I was raised to be a saucier, a great saucier.
What's a saucier?
[Chef] You specialize in sauces.
Gotta be a mango tree here somewhere.
Then I- I was supposed to go to Paris,
study at the Escoffier School.
Then I got, uh, orders for my physical.
(soft suspenseful music)
(birds chirping)
Well, I joined the Navy.
Heard they had better food.
Cook school, that did it.
[Willard] Oh, yeah? How's that?
Oh, you don't wanna hear about that.
They lined us up in front of 100 yards of prime rib.
All of us, you know, lined up, looking at it.
Magnificent meat, really.
Beautifully marbled.
Magnifique.
Next thing, they're throwing the meat
into these big cauldrons.
All of it, boiling it.
I looked inside, man, it was turning gray.
I couldn't fucking believe that one.
That's when I applied for radioman school,
-but then they gave me- -(branch cracks)
The engine.
(soft tense suspenseful music)
(birds fluttering)
(insects chirping)
(soft tense suspenseful music continues)
(insects continue chirping)
What is it?
Charlie?
(insects continue chirping)
(tiger roaring)
It's a tiger!
God, son of a bitch!
(machine gun rattling)
Tiger, man! It's a tiger! (laughs)
[Chief] Battle stations. Lance, up front!
-Get on your 63! -Got it, man.
-Holy shit. -Chef, come on!
-Fucking tiger! -Captain, come on!
Let's hop in and go!
-Let's go! -Tiger!
Man, Chief, you were right.
Never get out of the fucking boat.
Chief, bring that 60 forward!
Why never get out of the boat?
Never get outta the boat.
I gotta remember, I gotta remember.
Never get outta the boat.
(machine gun rattling)
What happened? How many is it?
A fucking tiger!
-What? -A fucking tiger!
-Tiger? -Yes! I've had it!
I've had the whole goddamn fucking shit, man!
You can kiss my ass on the county square,
because I'm fucking bugging out.
I didn't come here for this.
I don't fucking need it! I don't want it.
I didn't get out of the goddamn
eighth grade for this kind of shit!
All I wanted to do was fucking cook!
I just wanted to learn to fucking cook, man!
It's all right. You're all right, it's all right.
[Clean] Hey, goddamn, what happened, bro?
(Chef sobbing)
[Lance] You're all right. You're gonna be all right.
-All right. -You're all right.
[Chef] It's gonna be all right.
It's gonna be all right.
Never get out of the fucking boat.
Hi, tiger! Bye, tiger, goodbye.
(eerie suspenseful music)
[Willard] Never get out of the boat.
Absolutely goddamn right.
Unless you were going all the way.
Kurtz got off the boat.
He split from the whole fucking program.
How did that happen?
What did he see here that first tour?
(eerie suspenseful music continues)
38 fucking years old.
If you joined the Green Berets,
there was no way you'd ever get above colonel.
Kurtz knew what he was giving up.
And the more I read and began to understand,
the more I admired him.
His family and friends couldn't understand it,
and they couldn't talk him out of it.
He had to apply three times
and he put up with a ton of shit,
but when he threatened to resign,
they gave it to him.
The next youngest guy in his class was half his age.
They must have thought he was some far-out old man,
humping it over that course.
I did it when I was 19 and it damn near wasted me.
A tough motherfucker.
He finished it.
He could have gone for general,
but he went for himself instead.
[Chef] "Dear Eva,
today was really a new one.
I almost got eaten alive by a fucking tiger.
Really un-fucking-believable, you know?
We're taking this guy, Captain Willard, up the river,
but he hasn't told us yet where we're taking him."
♪ Yeah, yeah, come on, baby ♪
[Chef] "Thought you might have heard by now from Elwood.
I'll be coming home."
[Willard] October 1967,
on special assignment, Kon Tum Province, II Corps.
Kurtz staged Operation Archangel with combined local forces,
rated a major success.
He received no official clearance.
He just thought it up and did it.
What balls.
They were gonna nail his ass
to the floorboards for that one.
But after the press got a hold of it,
they promoted him to full colonel instead.
Oh, man, the bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam,
you needed wings to stay above it.
(drums banging)
(gentle upbeat music)
This sure enough is a bizarre sight
in the middle of this shit.
Expecting us this time?
Damned if I know.
[Announcer] Hello. Hello
-Jesus. -(feedback screeching)
(announcer speaking indistinctly)
[Soldier] Everything goes back up in the truck.
[Soldier] What?
[Soldier] We gotta get all that stuff up.
(objects clattering)
[Clean] Hau Phat.
You ever been up here before, Chef?
[Soldier] Let's go!
[Chef] I bet you we can score up here.
Yo, man, check out the bikes, Lance.
Hm, Yamaha, Suzuki. Yeah!
[Lance] That's a good one.
[Clean] Yeah, Sukiyaki.
Yeah, man, this is something.
-Please! -This must be the guy.
Right over there.
[Soldier] Sergeant. Sergeant?
(upbeat music)
Three drums of diesel fuel, PBR 5.
Come on, man, move! We don't have time.
One hour, that's all. What do you want?
Can I get some Panama Red with it?
Panama Red. Yeah, I'll get you Panama Red.
Sergeant?
Destination?
I don't have no destination.
I can't do a goddamn thing without a destination.
-You got a destination? -Sergeant.
[Clean] I need diesel fuel.
[Sergeant] All right, you got a destination?
I need a destination.
I can't do a goddamn thing without a destination.
Hey, Sarge, Sarge, these guys are with me.
Destination's classified.
I carry priority papers from COMSEC Intelligence, II Corps.
Okay, right, sir.
Hey, listen, it's a real big night.
Eight bucks for that, Camo.
-Hey! -Whoa!
All right, damn.
Just give him some fuel.
You got it.
Dog started barking.
Hey, listen, Captain.
I'm, I'm really sorry about tonight.
It's, uh, really bad around here.
And just take this over to the man
at the supply desk and you got it.
Hey, listen, would you guys like, uh, some seats,
some press box seats for the show?
You want those?
The show, man. The show out here.
-Bunnies. -Rules are rules.
-What bunnies? -Playboy bunnies?
-You got it. -You gonna be here?
Hey, listen, Captain, on the house.
No hard feelings, huh?
(soldiers chattering)
(helicopter whirring)
(soldiers whistling)
(soldiers cheering)
[Crowd] Boo! Boo!
How you doing out there?
I said, "How you doing out there?"
(crowd cheering)
Wanna say hello to you
from all of us up here to all of you out there
who worked so goddamn hard
in Operation Brute Force!
Hello, all you paratroopers out there!
And the Marines! And the sailors!
(crowd cheering)
We wanna let you know that we're proud of you,
'cause we know how tough and how hard it's been.
-Yeah! -(upbeat music)
And to prove it, we're gonna give you some entertainment
we know you're gonna like.
Miss August, Miss Sandra Beatty.
Miss May, Miss Terry Teray! Yeah!
And the Playmate of the Year,
Miss Carrie Foster, yeah!
(crowd cheering)
♪ Oh, Susie-Q ♪
(audience applauding)
-♪ Oh, Susie-Q ♪ -Hello out there!
(crowd cheering)
♪ Oh, Susie-Q ♪
♪ I like the way you walk ♪
♪ I like the way you talk ♪
I'm coming, honey!
♪ I like the way you walk ♪
♪ I like the way you talk ♪
♪ Suzie-Q ♪
♪ Oh, Suzie-Q ♪
♪ Oh, Suzie-Q, baby, I love you ♪
♪ Suzie-Q ♪
♪ I love you ♪
(upbeat music continues)
-♪ Oh ♪ -(audience applauding)
-Come on! -What's the matter?
-Come on! -(soldiers chattering)
(soldiers laughing)
Whoo! Grease my gun!
(upbeat music continues)
[Soldier] I'm ready to bow-wow, baby!
(toy gun cracking)
(audience applauding)
You're cute. I like you.
I'm here, baby! I'm here!
[Soldier] Oh, my God.
Yeah!
You fucking bitch!
Take it off!
(dancer shrieking)
[Soldier] Hey, lover!
You want us to come over?
I sure do!
Sign my centerfold!
Ha, ha, ha.
Sign my centerfold!
[Miss May] Come on, baby!
Come up here now.
Get your goddamn hands off of my girl!
(crowd cheering)
Start her up.
(helicopter whirring)
(soldiers clamoring)
[Soldier] Come on, come on.
Come on!
(helicopter whining)
[Soldier] Will you sign these?
Girls! Let's go!
Let's go!
(soldiers clamoring)
(helicopter whirring)
(soldier groaning)
(dancers screaming)
(soldiers cheering)
So long!
(eerie music)
(helicopter whirring)
(dramatic music)
(soldier yelling)
[Willard] Charlie didn't get much USO.
He was dug in too deep or moving too fast.
His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat.
He had only two ways home,
death or victory.
No wonder Kurtz put a weed up Command's ass.
The war was being run by a bunch of four-star clowns
who were gonna end up giving the whole circus away.
-Believe that? -Believe what?
[Chef] Mr. Zebra, I got to come here and find her here?
Fuck! Shit.
-Like shit. -Chicken time.
You ain't shitting, bro, they're motherfucking-
(boat engine rumbles)
Who is that? What's going on?
(all muttering)
Is that you, Lazzaro?
-Come on, man. -I'm freaking out.
(all shouting)
(soldier laughing)
Fire on the canopy!
[Chef] I got it, I got it I got it. Get out of there!
I got it!
Lance, get down!
Put that fucker out, man!
[Clean] What the fuck they think they're doing?
(drumsticks clacking)
[Willard] Late summer, autumn 1968.
Kurtz's patrols in the highlands
coming under frequent ambush.
The camp started falling apart.
(soft solemn music)
November, Kurtz orders assassination
of three Vietnamese men and one woman.
Two of the men were colonels in the South Vietnamese army.
Enemy activity in his old sector dropped off to nothing.
Guess he must have hit the right four people.
[Corman] He joined the Special Forces.
And after that, his, uh.
[Willard] The Army tried one last time
to bring him back into the fold.
[Corman] Methods.
[Willard] And if he'd pulled over,
it all would have been forgotten.
[Corman] Unsound.
[Willard] But he kept going.
[Lucas] Now he's crossed into Cambodia.
[Willard] And he kept winning it his way.
[Lucas] With this Montagnard army of his.
[Willard] And they called me in.
[Lucas] Man like a god.
And follow every order, however ridiculous.
[Willard] They lost him. He was gone.
Nothing but rumors and random intelligence,
mostly from captured VC.
The VC knew his name by now, and they were scared of him.
He and his men were playing hit-and-run,
all the way into Cambodia.
(drumsticks clacking)
[Clean] I know where I'm going.
I'm going to the White House to have dinner
with the president of the United States, baby.
That's where I'm going.
[Chief] Hey, Chef, put the cover on that.
Clean.
How long has that kid been on this boat?
Seven months.
He's really specializing in busting my balls.
Very possible, Captain, he thinks the same of you.
Oh yeah?
What do you think Chief?
I don't think.
My orders say I'm not supposed to know
where I'm taking this boat, so I don't.
But one look at you, and I know it's gonna be hot,
wherever it is.
We're going upriver
about 75 clicks above the Do Luong bridge.
That's Cambodia, Captain.
That's classified.
We're not supposed to be in Cambodia,
but that's where I'm going.
You just get me close to my destination,
and I'll cut you and the crew loose.
All right, Captain.
(tense suspenseful music)
[Willard] "Dear Son, I'm afraid that both you
and your mother will have been worried
at not hearing from me during the past weeks.
But my situation here has become a difficult one.
I have been officially accused of murder by the Army.
(tense suspenseful music continues)
The alleged victims were four Vietnamese double agents.
We spent months uncovering them and accumulating evidence.
When absolute proof was completed, we acted,
we acted like soldiers.
The charges are unjustified.
They are, in fact, and in the circumstances
of this conflict, quite completely insane.
(tense suspenseful music continues)
In a war, there are many moments
for compassion and tender action.
There are many moments for ruthless action,
what is often called ruthless,
what may, in many circumstances, be only clarity.
Seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it,
directly, quickly, awake."
Tango, Tango, Alpha.
-"Looking at it." -Request dust-off.
Three, maybe four KIAs. Over.
[Willard] "I will trust you to tell your mother
what you choose about this letter.
As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned.
I am beyond their timid, lying morality.
And so I am beyond caring.
You have all my faith.
Your loving father."
(dramatic music)
[Chef] Hey, shut the fuck up.
[Clean] I'm sure sorry about that.
If I had known, I'd have taken you to New Orleans.
(Chef and Clean arguing indistinctly)
[Clean] You're a fucking dog!
[Chef] Come on down to New Orleans, Bubba,
I'll get you fixed up, you prick.
Lay off, Chef.
You're the only fucking prick I see around here.
If I wanna play with a prick, I'll play with my own!
Lay off, Chef.
[Chef] What you gonna do with it, cherry boy?
Fucking cherry boy!
[Chief] Chef, I said lay off!
Chef, knock it off! Give him a break!
What do you think I said?
And give your jaws a rest!
And this ain't the Army. You are a sailor!
So get out of that frizzly Army-looking shirt
and stop smoking that dope!
You hear me?
(dramatic music)
Lance, what's with all the green paint?
-Camouflage. -How's that?
So they can't see you.
They're everywhere, Chief.
Ah-huh, I want you to stay awake up there, man.
You got a job to do.
(dramatic music)
Sampan off the port bow.
Sampan off the port bow. Let's take a look.
-Lance, bring 'em in. -(siren wailing)
Clean, on the 60. Chef, get a 16.
Clean, get on that 60!
What's up, Chief?
A junk boat, Captain.
We're gonna take a routine check.
[Willard] Well, let's forget routine now and let 'em go.
These boats are running supplies in this delta, Captain.
I'm gonna take a look.
Chief, my mission's got priority here.
Hell, you wouldn't even be in this part of the river
if it wasn't for me.
Until we reach your destination, Captain,
you're just on for the ride.
-Stand by, Lance. -Come on,
throw the rope, asshole.
[Chief] All right, come on.
Let's bring it over.
(boat engine chugging)
(ducks quacking)
(wood creaking)
(goat bleating)
Look in that forward hooch.
Bring the people out of there.
(villagers speaking in foreign language)
[Chef] Come on, hurry up, motherfucker!
Move it! (speaks in foreign language)
(Clean speaking in foreign language_)
(speaks in foreign language) You two, come on.
[Chief] Keep your eyes open, Clean.
I got you, Chief.
(goat bleating)
(villagers speaking in foreign language)
[Clean] Clear, Chief.
(pig grunting)
(chicken clucking)
Okay, that's them.
That's them. They're okay.
Board and search it.
It's just a fucking boat.
There ain't nothing on it, Chief.
Board it and search it.
Just some baskets and some ducks,
fucking bananas.
-Ain't nothing on it. -Don't be ashamed, Chef.
What's wrong with you? Go on and search it.
There's a goat and some fish.
-Chef! -Bunch of fucking vegetables.
Get on that boat!
There's nothing on it, man!
-Get on it! -All right!
Move it, asshole! Move it, goddamn it!
Just some pigs. Look, mangoes.
[Chief] What's in the rice bag?
-Fucking rice! -Look in there, Chef.
Look in it.
[Chef] Some fucking fish.
More coconuts. Rice. Here's rice.
What's in that vegetable basket?
(speaks in foreign language) Get out of here! Come on!
Get over there, goddamn it.
[Chief] Chef, check that vegetable basket.
-All right! -Shut up, slopes!
-There ain't nothing in here. -What's in the boxes?
-Not a fucking thing. -Look in that tin can.
-Nothing. -That rusty can.
Just fucking rice, that's all!
There ain't nothing on it!
Check the yellow can.
-Check the yellow can! -Nothing!
[Chief] She was sitting on it. What's in it?
(villager shouting in foreign language)
(machine gun rattling)
Chef!
Motherfuckers!
[Chief] Hold it!
Come on, let's kill them all!
-Fucking cocksucking mothers! -Hold it! Hold it!
-Hold it! -Let's kill all the assholes!
Shoot the shit out of all of them.
[Chief] Hold it, Chef, hold it!
Why not? Jesus Christ.
Why the fuck not?
-Clean? -I'm good.
-(chickens clucking) -(ducks quacking)
[Chief] You okay, Lance?
[Chef] Shit! Fuck, shit!
[Chief] Chef!
Look what she was hiding, huh?
[Chief] You all right?
See what she's running for? (giggles)
It's a fucking puppy.
Give me that dog.
-Give me that dog! -No, you're not gonna get it!
Fucking give it to me!
No! Give me the fucking dog, asshole!
(dog whimpering)
Fuck you!
-Chef. -Fucking mango, too!
You want that?
Chef, she's moving behind you.
She's alive. Check her out.
-Chef! -Yes!
She's moving behind you. Check her out!
All right. All right.
Come on, Clean,
-goddamn it. -She's not dead,
-she's wounded. -Give me a hand.
Clean, give him a hand.
Just take it easy. Take it easy.
Slow down and take it easy.
-All right, Chef, -Just wait a minute.
Wait a minute, Chef.
-Bring her up. -Is she breathing, Chef?
She's hurt.
-(laughs) She's bleeding. -Oh, man.
Bring her onboard.
We're taking her to an ARVN.
What are you talking about?
[Chief] We're taking her to some friendlies, Captain.
She's wounded, she's not dead.
Get out of there, Chef.
[Chief] The book says, Captain-
-(gun bangs) -Ah!
(birds cawing)
(sobbing) Fuck you. Fuck him.
I told you not to stop. Now let's go.
(birds cawing)
(Willard sighs)
(birds chirping)
(suspenseful music)
It was the way we had over here of living with ourselves.
We'd cut 'em in half with a machine gun
and give 'em a Band-Aid.
It was a lie, and the more I saw of 'em,
the more I hated lies.
Those boys were never gonna look at me the same way again.
But I felt like I knew one or two things about Kurtz
that weren't in the dossier.
Do Luong bridge was the last Army outpost on the Nung River.
(explosion booming)
Beyond that, there was only Kurtz.
Lance! Hey, Lance, what do you think?
It's beautiful.
Huh? I mean, what's, what's the matter with you?
You're acting kind of weird.
(chuckles) Hey, you know that last tab of acid
I was saving?
Yeah.
-I dropped it. -You dropped acid? Far out.
(soldiers shouting)
[Soldier] Take me home!
[Soldier] Goddamn you!
(soldiers continue shouting)
[Soldier] Motherfuckers!
[Soldier] You'll get what you deserve!
(soldiers continue shouting)
[Soldier] Is there a Captain Willard onboard?
-[Willard] Yeah! -Captain Willard?
Yeah, who's that?
Lieutenant Carlsen, sir.
Get that light off me.
I was sent here from Nha Trang
with these three days ago, sir.
Expected you here a little sooner.
This is mail for the boat.
You don't know how happy this makes me, sir.
-Why? -Now I can get out of here,
if I can find a way.
(artillery shell whistling)
(explosion booming)
You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!
(dramatic music)
Captain, where you going?
I got to find somebody.
I need some information.
Pick me up the other side of the bridge.
Somebody go with him. Chef!
[Lance] I'll go. I wanna go.
(soldiers shouting)
(eerie suspenseful music)
[Announcer] All right, guys, you get your ass in gear.
(announcer chattering indistinctly)
(eerie suspenseful music continues)
(gun fire beeping)
(soldier screaming)
[Soldier] This way, this way.
Come on! Come on, man, come on.
Man, listen to the music, man.
[Willard] Where can I find the CO?
[Soldier] You came right to it, son of a bitch.
[Willard] Lance! Get down here!
You still got a commanding officer here?
(soldier yells)
-Beverly Hills. -What?
Straight up the road,
there's a concrete fucking bunker called Beverly Hills.
Where the fuck else do you think it would be?
-(explosion booming) -(soldier yelling)
-(machine guns rattling) -(explosions booming)
(lively guitar music)
(machine guns rattling)
(rock music)
(explosion booming)
-(soldiers laughing) -(soldiers muttering)
(machine guns rattling)
[Soldier] Goddamn it, you stepped in my face!
[Lance] We thought you were dead.
[Clean] Well, you thought wrong, damn it.
(machine gun rattling)
[Soldier] Thought I told you
to stop fucking with me, didn't I?
You think you're so bad, huh, nigga?
What are you shooting at, soldier?
Gooks. What the fuck you think I'm shooting at?
Sir, I'm sorry, sir.
There are gooks out there by the wire,
but I think I killed them all.
You ain't shot shit, man. Listen!
(man yelling)
[Soldier] Oh, shit, he's trying to call his friends, man.
Send up a flare.
(flare gun bangs)
(machine gun rattling)
You think you're so bad, nigga?
You think you bad, huh?
They're all dead, stupid.
There's one still alive underneath them bodies.
Who's the commanding officer here?
Ain't you?
(gun bangs)
-You think you're so bad, huh? -(machine gun rattling)
I got something for your ass now, nigga!
I got something for you now! (laughs)
He's underneath the bodies, man.
(explosion booming)
[Soldier] Go get the roach, man.
Go get the roach, man.
Go get the roach, nigga!
I'm gonna go get the roach. Okay.
Roach. Roach.
Roach!
Got slopes on the wire, man.
You hear 'em?
-Lance! -Do you hear 'em?
(machine guns rattling)
(man yelling)
Go bust them!
[VC Soldier] Hey, GI, fuck you!
(rock music)
-(VC soldier yelling) -(drum banging)
[Soldier] You hear him out there on the wire, man?
Yeah.
[VC Soldier] I kill you, GI!
You need a flare?
No.
He's close, man.
He's real close.
(VC soldier yelling)
[VC Soldier] GI, fuck you!
GI, fuck you!
(explosion booming)
Motherfucker.
Hey, soldier,
do you know who's in command here?
Yeah.
(explosion crashing)
(soldiers screaming)
Holy shit!
(explosion booming)
Yo, Chief, man,
two guys just got blown off that bridge.
You hang on, man. You're gonna be okay.
-What's that? -Mail, man.
Later on the mail! Watch them trees.
There's no diesel fuel,
but I picked up some ammo.
Let's move out.
Did you find the CO, Captain?
[Willard] There's no fucking CO here.
Let's just get going.
Which way, Captain?
(soft suspenseful music)
You know which way, Chief.
You're on your own, Captain.
Do you wanna go on?
Like this bridge, we build it every night,
Charlie blows it right back up again
just so the generals can say the road's open.
Think about it.
(Willard sighs)
-Who cares? -Just get us upriver!
(metal clanking)
Chef, on the bow.
Stand by, Clean.
[Lance] Let's go.
(dramatic suspenseful music)
-(machine gun rattling) -(explosion booming)
(eerie suspenseful music)
(soft suspenseful music)
(birds chirping)
[Clean] Whose package is that?
Shit, you got another one, Clean.
No shit. Wait a minute, is that it?
That's it for you. Lance!
Mr. L.B. Johnson, there you go.
Far out, man. All right.
I've been waiting for this one.
[Chef] I got another one,
got a box from Eva.
[Lance] "Lance, I'm fine. I'm fine, Lance.
Sue and I went tripping to Disneyland.
Sue skinned her knee."
[Chef] Man, I wanna get back to Antoine's.
[Lance] "I remember the time we went."
[Chef] How could I fucking forget, man?
Beautiful.
"There could never be a place
like Disneyland, or could there?
Let me know."
Jim, it's here. It really is here.
(suspenseful music)
[Willard] "There has been a new development
regarding your mission
which we must now communicate to you.
Months ago, a man was ordered on a mission
which was identical to yours.
We have reason to believe
that he is now operating with Colonel Kurtz.
Saigon was carrying him MIA for his family's sake
for they assumed he was dead.
Then they intercepted a letter
he tried to send to his wife."
Captain Richard Colby, he was with Kurtz.
Hey, look at this sky. Disneyland.
Fuck, man, this is better than Disneyland.
[Chef] "Charles Miller Manson ordered the slaughter
of all in the home anyway as a symbol of protest."
[Clean] That's really weird, ain't it?
Purple haze, look.
[Chief] Lance, put away that smoke.
[Clean] I got a tape from my mom.
[Lance] Chief, rainbow reality, man.
Hey, Chief, get a good whiff.
Eva can't picture me in Vietnam.
She pictures me at home
having a beer and watching TV. (laughs)
Hey, Lance, man.
Ooh, hot potato, hot potato. (shrieks)
[Clean's Mom] Son, I'm so glad you decided to join.
[Chef] Eva's not sure
she can have a relationship with me, you know?
(laughs) Here I am, 13,000 fucking miles away,
trying to keep a relationship over my ass.
[Clean's Mom] That's much more
than I can say for some of your friends.
If this tape is any good,
I will have Dad and the family
-send you a tape- -Hey, Lance.
-Of their own. -(flare whizzing)
(all yelling)
-(flares whizzing) -I see 'em.
-Go! Go forward! -(gun rattling)
(Lance yelling)
There! Over there!
Motherfuckers!
(Lance yelling)
[Chief] There! Over there!
(Lance screaming)
Lance! Chef!
Chef, Chef, check out Clean!
Captain, he's hit, he's hit! Clean's hit!
-Lance! -Where'd the dog go?
[Chief] Lance. Lance, check out Clean!
Where's the dog?
We got to go back to get the dog!
(sobbing) Hey, Clean.
[Clean's Mom] It's always been nice-
-Hey! Hey, Bubba! -To have-
Bubba, you can't die, you fucker!
-And so, I'm hoping- -Hey, Bubba!
[Clean's Mom] I'm hoping that pretty soon,
not, not too soon, but pretty soon,
I'll have a lot of grandchildren
to love and spoil,
and then when your wife get 'em back,
she'll be mad with me.
Ha, ha, ha.
Even Aunt Jessie and Mama will come
to celebrate your coming home.
Granny and Dad are trying to get enough money
to get you a car.
But don't tell her,
because that's our secret.
Anyhow, do the right thing,
stay out of the way of the bullets,
and bring your heinie home all in one piece.
because we love you very much.
-Love, Ma. -(tape clicks)
(dramatic somber music)
Oh, man. You're so young. (sobbing)
Clean.
(eerie somber music)
(eerie suspenseful music)
(bird screeching)
(slow suspenseful music)
(men shouting indistinctly)
[Chief] Can't see nothing. We're stopping.
[Willard] You're not authorized to stop this boat, Chief.
[Chief] I said I can't see a thing, Captain.
I'm stopping this boat.
I ain't risking no more lives.
[Willard] I'm in command here, goddamn it.
You'll do what I say.
(Lance wailing)
[Chief] You see anything, Chef?
Why don't they fucking attack, man?
(Lance screaming)
(suspenseful music)
[Lance] Watch it over here, Chief.
Got a stump.
Lance, on the 50s.
[Willard] He was close.
He was real close.
I couldn't see him yet, but I could feel him,
as if the boat were being sucked upriver
and the water was flowing back into the jungle.
Whatever was going to happen,
it wasn't gonna be the way
they called it back in Nha Trang.
-(arrows whooshing) -Arrows!
Fire!
Chef, open up fire!
Fire, Lance!
Lance, fire!
(gun rattling)
Chef, Chef, it's okay! Quit firing.
They're just little toy arrows.
Cut it out! Quiet!
Chief, tell them to hold their fire!
They're just little sticks.
They're just trying to scare us.
Quiet!
You got us in this mess,
and now you can't get us out
because you don't know where the hell you're going, do you?
Do you?
You son of a bitch! You bastard!
Lance, get the wheel!
Fire! You savage, come and get it, you son of a bitches!
-(Chef yelling) -(gun rattling)
(Chief grunts)
A spear.
(Chief groans)
(both grunting)
(Chief gasps)
(Willard gasps)
(somber music)
(somber music continues)
[Willard] My mission is to make it up into Cambodia.
There's a Green Beret colonel up there who's gone insane
and I'm supposed to kill him.
That's fucking typical! Shit!
Fucking Vietnam mission!
I'm short and we gotta go up there
so you can kill one of our own guys?
That's fucking great!
That's just fucking great, man.
Shit! That's fucking crazy.
I mean, I thought you were going in to blow up a bridge
or some fucking railroad tracks or something.
-Sorry. -No, no, wait, wait.
We'll go together on the boat.
We'll go with you.
We'll go up there, but on the boat. Okay?
(somber music)
(tense suspenseful music)
(tense suspenseful music continues)
(frogs croaking)
Part of me was afraid of what I would find
and what I would do when I got there.
I knew the risks, or imagined I knew.
But the thing I felt the most,
much stronger than fear,
was the desire to confront him.
(tense suspenseful music continues)
(peacock cawing)
(tense suspenseful music continues)
(dramatic suspenseful music)
Just keep moving.
Lance, keep your hands away from the guns.
(dramatic suspenseful music continues)
(metal tapping)
[Man] It's all right! It's all right!
It's all been approved!
I ain't coming in there!
Them bastards attacked us!
Uh, zap 'em with your siren, man.
Zap 'em with your siren.
(siren wailing)
There's mines over there and mines over there, too.
And watch out, those goddamn monkeys bite you,
I'll tell you.
Ah, that's a pretty one.
Move it right in toward me.
I'm an American! Yeah!
An American civilian. Hi, Yanks.
Hi, American.
American civilian. It's all right.
And you got the cigarettes.
And that's what I've been dreaming about.
Chef.
Who are you?
Mm. Who are you?
(laughing) I'm a photojournalist.
I've covered the war since '64.
I've been in Laos, Cambodia and Nam.
Ah, shoo-wee.
Whoo he, baby.
I'll tell you one thing,
this boat is a mess, man, woo.
Who are all these people?
Yeah well, they think you've come to, uh,
to take him away, and I hope that isn't true.
Take who away?
Him. Colonel Kurtz.
These are all his children, man,
as far as you can see.
Hell, man, out here, we're all his children.
Could we, uh, talk to Colonel Kurtz?
Hey, man, you don't, uh,
you don't talk to the colonel, uh, um.
Well, well, you listen to him.
Um, the man's enlarged my mind.
Um, uh, he's a poet warrior in the,
in the classic sense.
I mean, sometimes you'll, uh,
well, you'll say hello to him, right,
and, uh, he'll just walk right by you
and, uh, he won't even notice you.
And then sudd- suddenly he'll grab you,
and he'll, he'll throw you in a corner and he'll say,
"Do you know that if is the middle word in life?
If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you."
I mean, I'm no, I- I can't,
I'm a little man, I'm a little man.
He's, he's a great man.
Uh, uh, I should have been a pair of ragged claws,
uh, scuttling across floors of silent seas, I mean, uh.
Stay with the boat.
Uh, don't go any, don't go without me, okay?
I wanna get a picture.
He can be terrible and he can be mean,
and he can be right.
He's fighting the war. He's a great man.
(camera shutter clicks)
(chuckles) I mean. (sighs)
I wish I had words, you know?
I wish I had words.
I can tell you something,
like, the other day he wanted to kill me.
Something like that.
Why'd he want to kill you?
(chuckles) Because I took his picture.
He said, "If, uh, you take my picture again,
I'm gonna kill you," and he meant it.
So you just lay cool.
Play it cool, laid back. Dig it.
He gets friendly again. He really does.
But, uh, you don't, you don't, uh,
you don't judge the colonel.
You don't judge the colonel like an ordinary man.
(birds screeching)
(whistling) Okay, watch it now.
These are Americans. Americans!
You can feel the vibe of this place.
Let me take your picture.
Hey, could you ho-, hey, hello? Hello?
Could you hold up a minute?
(camera shutter clicking)
(crows cawing)
(soft tense music)
Colby.
(soft tense music continues)
Ah, the heads.
You're looking at the heads.
I, uh, sometimes he goes too far.
You know, um, he's the first one to admit it.
-He's gone crazy. -Wrong, wrong.
If you could have heard the man, uh, just two days ago.
If you could have heard him then, God.
You're gonna call him crazy?
Fucking A.
I just wanna talk to him.
Well, man, he's gone away.
He's gone away.
He disappeared out in the jungle with his people.
I'll wait for him.
He feels comfortable with his people.
He forgets himself with his people.
He forgets himself.
Captain?
Maybe we should wait back at the boat.
-I think- -Okay, Chef.
We'll go back to the boat for a while.
Yeah, stay with Lance.
(soft slow bright music)
(crows cawing)
(ax banging)
This Colonel guy, he's wacko, man.
He's worse than crazy, he's evil!
I mean, that's what the man's got set up here.
Man, it's fucking Pagan idolatry.
Look around you.
Shit, he's loco.
[Willard] Then you'll help me?
[Chef] Help you? Fucking A, I'll help you.
I'll do anything to get out of this joint.
[Willard] Good boy.
We could blow all them assholes away.
They're so fucking spaced out, they wouldn't even know it.
I ain't afraid of all them fucking skulls
and altars and shit.
I used to think if I died in an evil place,
then my soul wouldn't be able to make it to heaven.
But now, fuck,
I mean, I don't care where it goes,
as long as it ain't here.
So what do you wanna do?
-I'll kill the fuck. -No, no.
Get outta here.
I'm gonna need you to wait here, Chef.
I'll go up with Lance and scrounge around,
check the place out,
see if I can find the Colonel, okay?
Wha- what do, what do you want me to do?
-Damn. -All right.
Here, you take the radio,
and if I don't get back by 2200 hours,
you call in the air strike.
[Chef] (clears throat) Air strike?
The code is "Almighty," coordinates 09264712.
It's all in there.
[Chef] 09264712.
-(tense dramatic music) -(rain pattering)
[Willard] Everything I saw
told me that Kurtz had gone insane.
The place was full of bodies.
North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, Cambodians.
If I was still alive,
it was because he wanted me that way.
(crowd chanting)
(dramatic music)
Hey!
(Willard shouting)
(Willard screaming)
(eerie dramatic music)
It smelled like slow death in there.
Malaria, nightmares.
This was the end of the river, all right.
(Kurtz coughs)
[Kurtz] (sniffs) Where are you from, Willard?
[Willard] I'm from Ohio, sir.
(Kurtz coughs)
[Kurtz] Were you born there?
[Willard] Yes, sir.
[Kurtz] Whereabouts?
[Willard] Toledo, sir.
(bed creaking)
[Kurtz] How far are you from the river?
[Willard] The Ohio River, sir?
-Mm-hmm. -About 200 miles.
- [Kurtz] I went down that river once when I was a kid.
There's a place in the river, I can't remember.
It must've been a gardenia plantation
or a flower plantation at one time.
It's all wild and overgrown now,
but for about, about five miles,
you'd think that heaven just fell on the Earth,
in the form of gardenias.
(bed creaking)
Have you ever considered
any real freedoms?
Freedoms from the opinion of others?
Even the opinions of yourself?
(water splashing)
They say why, Willard?
Why they want to terminate my command?
I was sent on a classified mission, sir.
[Kurtz] No longer classified, is it?
Did they tell you?
[Willard] They told me
that you had gone totally insane,
and, uh, that your methods
were unsound.
Are my methods unsound?
I don't see any method
at all, sir.
(sniffs) I expected
someone like you.
What did you expect?
Are you an assassin?
I'm a soldier.
You're neither.
You're an errand boy
sent by grocery clerks
to collect a bill.
-(flames whooshing) -(insects buzzing)
(birds cawing)
(villagers chattering)
Why, huh?
Why would a nice guy like you wanna kill a genius?
Going down pretty good, huh?
Why?
You know?
Do you know the deal, man?
The man really likes you?
He likes you. He really likes you.
But he's got something in mind for you.
(chuckles) Aren't you curious about that?
I'm curious. I'm very curious.
Are you curious?
There's something happening out here, man.
You know something, man?
I know something that you don't know.
That's right, Jack.
The man is clear in his mind,
but his soul is mad.
Oh, yeah.
He's dying, I think.
He hates all this. He hates it.
But the man's a.
He reads poetry out loud, all right?
And a voice, a voice.
He likes you 'cause you're still alive.
He's got plans for you.
No, no, I'm not gonna help you.
You're gonna help him, man.
You're gonna help him.
I mean, what are they gonna say, man,
when he's gone, huh?
'Cause he dies when it dies, man.
When it dies, he dies.
What are they gonna say about him?
What, they gonna say,
"He was a kind man. He was a wise man.
He had plans. He had wisdom."
Bullshit, man!
Am I gonna be the one that's gonna set them straight?
Look at me. Wrong!
You.
-(slow dramatic music) -(rain pattering)
Almost eight hours.
(sighs) God. I'm asleep.
I'm asleep and dreaming I'm on this shitty boat.
Fuck. (groans)
Has it been eight hours?
(radio static hisses)
Hello, Almighty, Almighty, this is PBR Street Gang.
Radio check. Over.
(radio static hisses)
[Radio] PBR Street Gang, this is Almighty standing by.
-Over. -(radio static hisses)
(tense dramatic music)
(thunder crashes)
(eerie dramatic music)
(thunder rumbles)
(Willard screams)
What the hell! Jesus!
What the hell, oh, Christ!
-(thunder crashes) -(frogs croaking)
Oh, Christ!
(panting) Ah!
(somber music)
(eerie somber music)
(eerie somber music continues)
(door creaks)
(eerie somber music continues)
(slow soft bright music)
(fly buzzing)
[Kurtz] "We are the hollow men.
We are the stuffed men.
Leaning together.
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when we whisper together,
are quiet and meaningless
as wind in dry grass
or rats' feet over broken glass."
-Oh, he's out there. -"In our dry cellar."
-He's really out there. -"Shape without form,
shade without color.
Paralyzed force,
gesture without motion."
[Photojournalist] Do you know what the man's saying?
-Do you? -"Those who have crossed
-with direct eyes." -This is dialectics.
It's very simple dialectics.
One through nine,
no maybes, no supposes, no fractions.
You can't travel in space.
You can't go out into space, you know,
without like, you know, with fractions.
What are you gonna land on?
One-quarter? Three-eighths?
What are you gonna do
when you go from here to Venus or something?
That's dialectic physics, okay?
Dialectic logic is,
"There's only love and hate."
You either love somebody or you hate 'em.
-[Kurtz] Mutt! -(book thuds)
You mutt.
This is the way the fucking world ends.
Look at this fucking shit we're in, man!
"Not with a bang, a whimper."
And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack.
(soft solemn music)
(gentle bright music)
[Willard] On the river, I thought
that the minute I looked at him,
I'd know what to do.
But it didn't happen.
I was in there with him for days, not under guard.
I was free.
But he knew I wasn't going anywhere.
He knew more about what I was going to do than I did.
If the generals back in Nha Trang could see what I saw,
would they still want me to kill him?
More than ever, probably.
And what would his people back home want,
if they ever learned just how far
from them he'd really gone?
He broke from them,
and then he broke from himself.
I'd never seen a man so broken up and ripped apart.
I've seen the horrors,
horrors that you've seen.
But you have no right to call me a murderer,
you have a right to kill me.
You have a right to do that.
But you have no right to judge me.
It's impossible for words to describe
what is necessary
to those who do not know
what horror means.
Horror.
Horror has a face.
And you must make a friend of horror.
Horror and moral terror are your friends.
If they are not,
then they are enemies to be feared.
They are truly enemies.
I remember when I was with Special Forces.
It seems a thousand centuries ago.
We went into a camp
to inoculate some children.
We'd left the camp
after we had inoculated the children for polio.
And this old man came running after us,
and he was crying, he couldn't see.
We went back there and they had come
and hacked off every inoculated arm.
There they were, in a pile.
A pile of little arms.
And I remember,
I- I- I cried, I wept
like some grandmother.
I wanted to tear my teeth out.
I didn't know what I wanted to do.
And I want to remember it.
I never want to forget it.
I never want to forget.
And then I realized,
like I was shot,
like I was shot with a diamond,
a diamond bullet right through my forehead.
And I thought, "My God,
the genius of that, the genius.
The will to do that,
perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure."
And then I realized
they were stronger than me,
because they could stand it.
These were not monsters.
These were men, trained cadres.
These men who fought with their hearts,
who have families, who have children,
who are filled with love,
but they have the strength,
the strength
to do that.
If I had 10 divisions of those men,
then our troubles here would be over very quickly.
You have to have men who are moral,
and at the same time,
who are able to utilize
their primordial instincts to kill,
without feeling, without passion,
without judgment, without judgment.
Because it's judgment that defeats us.
(fly buzzing)
I worry that my son might not understand
what I've tried to be.
And if I were to be killed, Willard,
I would want someone to go to my home
and tell my son everything.
Everything I did. Everything you saw.
Because there's nothing that I detest more
than the stench of lies.
And if you understand me, Willard, you,
you will do this for me.
-(villagers chanting) -(bright music)
(thunder crashing)
(children speaking in foreign language)
(villager speaking in foreign language)
-(villagers continue chanting) -(upbeat music)
(villager speaking in foreign language)
(radio static hisses)
[Radio] PBR Street Gang, this is Almighty.
Over.
PBR Street Gang, this is Almighty.
Standing by. Over.
(radio static hisses)
PBR Street Gang, this is Almighty.
Standing by. How do you copy?
(radio static hisses)
[Willard] They were gonna make me a major for this,
and I wasn't even in their fucking Army anymore.
Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all.
I felt like he was up there,
waiting for me to take the pain away.
He just wanted to go out like a soldier.
Standing up.
Not like some poor, wasted, rag-assed renegade.
Even the jungle wanted him dead,
and that's who he really took his orders from anyway.
(water splashing)
(solemn music)
(thunder crashing)
(solemn music continues)
♪ Come on, baby, take a chance with us ♪
♪ And meet me at the back of the blue bus ♪
♪ Doin' a blue rock on a blue bus ♪
♪ Doin' a blue rock, come on, yeah ♪
"We train young men to drop fire on people,
but their commanders won't allow them to write 'Fuck!'
on their airplanes because it's obscene."
(lively dramatic music)
(lively dramatic music continues)
(intense dramatic music)
(thunder crashing)
The horror.
(somber music)
(somber music continues)
(tense somber music)
(tense somber music continues)
(slow dramatic music)
(knife clatters)
(metal clattering)
(slow dramatic music continues)
(metal continues clattering)
(somber music)
(rousing dramatic music)
(radio static hisses)
[Radio] Calling PBR Street Gang.
PBR Street Gang, this is Almighty.
Do you read me? Over.
(radio static hisses)
PBR Street Gang.
PBR Street Gang, this is Almighty.
(radio switch clicks)
(rain pattering)
(solemn music)
[Kurtz] The horror.
The horror.
(rain continues pattering)