He threatens and nearly shoots fellow Marine Fergus.Īfter the long stand in the desert, Operation Desert Storm, the coalition force's ground campaign, begins, and the Marines are dispatched to the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. The punishments, the heat and the boredom, combined with suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity and feelings of isolation, temporarily drive Swofford to the point of mental breakdown. As a consequence, Swofford is demoted from Lance Corporal (E-3) to Private (E-1) and is forced to undertake the degrading task of burning excrement. Swofford gets the blame because he was supposed to be on watch, but had Fergus sit in for him. The most public and humiliating of these befalls Dettman (Marty Papazian), who discovers an innocent looking copy of The Deer Hunter on VHS sent from his wife, which the men are all seated to watch, is actually a homemade pornographic movie tape of her having sex with their neighbor, apparently made as revenge for Dettman's own promiscuity.ĭuring an impromptu Christmas party, Fergus (Brian Geraghty), a member of Swofford's unit, accidentally sets fire to a tent and a crate of flares. Swofford himself begins to suspect that his girlfriend is, or will soon be, unfaithful. A public board displays the photos of women who have ended their relationships with members of the unit. Sykes, embarrassed by his platoon's rude manners and poor discipline, removes the cameras and crew from the area the Marines are later punished by being forced to build and take down a massive pyramid of sandbags in a rainy night.ĭuring the long wait, some of the Marines fear their wives and girlfriends at home will be unfaithful. While the cameras roll, the game develops into a rowdy dogpile, with some Marines playfully miming sex acts.
When some field reporters appear, Sykes forces his unit to demonstrate their NBC suits in a game of American football, even under the 112 degree heat. Although the Marines are very eager to see some combat action, they are forced to hydrate, wait, patrol the nearby area and orient themselves to the arid environment. Shortly after, Kuwait is invaded by Iraq and Swofford's unit is dispatched to the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert Shield. After arduous training sessions that claim the life of one recruit, he becomes a sniper and is paired with Troy as his spotter. Swofford comes across the charismatic Staff Sergeant Sykes ( Jamie Foxx), a Marine "lifer" who invites Swofford to his Scout Sniper (formally the Surveillance and Target Acquisition) course. He is greeted coolly by Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), who says to him, "Welcome to the Suck."
After regaining consciousness, he realizes to his relief that the senior Marines had switched the hot iron with another room temperature iron. This is a popular tattoo amongst Marines. This involves branding onto him the initials of the United States Marine Corps, USMC, with a hot iron. After finishing boot, "Swoff" is dispatched to Camp Pendleton in 1989, where he is subjected to a cruel joke played on him by the senior Marines.
Marine Corps boot camp, being brutalized by a drill instructor in a scene reminiscent of Full Metal Jacket. The film begins with voice-over narration on a black screen, as Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal), waxes philosophically about a soldier whose hands forever remember the grip of a rifle, whatever else they do in life. Spoiler warning: The following contains plot details about