"He's out there." "Look for the muzzle flash." "Then burn the jungle." "Base perimeter seems to be clear." "We'll try further out." "Over." "Percell, maintain your intervals." "What, you wanna hold my hand too, Ru?" "Three days and a wake-up, sarge." "We're just covering your butt." "We're hit!" "We're hit!" "Gordy's hit!" "He's jamming the safety!" "He's jamming the safety, I can't get him off!" "I can't get him off." "We're losing control!" "Mayday!" "Mayday!" "We're coming in hard." "We're coming in hard." "All right, I've gained control." "I'm coming down, coming down." "Base, request medic." "We got a copilot shot." "Request medic." "Base, coming in." "Roger." "We have emergency teams standing by." "Come on, you SOB!" "Come on." "Half a million GIs in country and we can't spot one lousy sniper?" "It's a big jungle, Taylor." "Yeah, maybe Charlie decided to pull up stakes and move to Tan Son Nhut." "Either way, it ain't your problem no more, sarge." "Yeah, Johnson." "You survived a full tour and a four-month extension." "How's it feel coming in from your last mission?" "Fat lady ain't singing yet, Percell." "I still got 72 hours, 38 minutes and 42 seconds." "Yeah, but we done our three days looking for the sniper." "That means it's Team Zeus's turn and you've saddled up for your last time." "That's right." "All you gotta do is worry about catching the big bird to Tupelo." "You're going home, man." "Hey, hey, what's going on?" "Come on, sarge, don't get steamed." "We're just watching out for you." "Hey, look, I don't need a bodyguard, Percell." "You'd do the same for us." "Okay, I know what you guys are trying to do, and I appreciate it, I do." "But I managed to get through most of my tour without you two on my tail." "Look, if something works, why fix it?" "See, sarge, you gotta think of yourself as a finely tuned automobile, cruising down the main drag of Tupelo." "Some guy plows into you." "You gonna tell me you're better off without insurance?" "See, Johnson, what he's telling you is we are your insurance." "Look, I don't need any." "You just do your job, let me do mine." "And don't do me any favors." "Get down!" "Get down!" " A sniper!" " Cover!" "Clear!" "Bet you'll think twice about that insurance." "Hold your fire!" "This sniper situation is getting damn frustrating, lieutenant." "I share the sentiment, sir." "He shoots at our choppers and just disappears!" "Well, sir, he doesn't leave many signs." "Just a few sandal prints, nothing more." "He tried to shoot Lieutenant McKay's chopper out of the sky this morning." "McKay all right?" "Yeah, but his copilot wasn't so lucky." "Lieutenant, your team's been out for the last three days." "When am I going to see some results?" "That will be all, lieutenant." "Sir..." "I said, that will be all, lieutenant." "You should have told me you had a sniper problem, colonel." "Snipers are one of my specialties." "All right, so, what's everybody drinking?" "It's on me." "No, no, no." "I'm short, I'm buying." "Beers all around." "Okay, I guess you can afford to be a big spender now that you're gonna be a big college man." "Hey, let's have this first sip to sarge's last mission." "Three days and a wake-up." "No, to you guys." "Thanks for everything." "So you thought about what you're gonna be studying when you get to college?" "I don't know." "Maybe..." "Maybe something to do with politics." "No, that might work out." "He's full of bull." "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States," "Marvin Johnson." "Whoo!" "Yeah!" "Hey, look." "I got some big plans for when I go back to the world." "I don't think president is one of them, though." "I just wanna get me an education, you know." "And a job." "A real good job." "Maybe even do some work for the movement between now and then." "Stuff some envelopes, answer the phone." "Whatever I can do to carry on Dr. King's work." "There you go!" "All right." "Wanna play some darts, Dan?" "Well, now, I'm all for that." "First one to hit Ho Chi's nose buys the beer." "You ain't gonna change the system stuffing no envelopes." "Well, we gotta start somewhere, don't we, Taylor?" "What's wrong with you, anyway?" "Ain't nothing wrong with me." "Look, I figure like this:" "The more education I get right now, the better chance I've got of changing things when I get back to the world." "Johnson, it's the white man getting himself elected so he can send the black man to fight the yellow man." "I don't buy that." "That's too easy." "Don't think you got it made because the white man made you sergeant." "Over here he needs you to watch his back." "Back home, he just wants you to wash it." "At least I'm trying to do something with my life, instead of hiding out in the Army." "Who you talking about hiding out in the Army?" "You." "If you had something to go back to, you wouldn't have re-upped in the first place." "Why do you keep putting your hands on me?" "Look, at least my head ain't full of stupid dreams." "You know what..." "What?" "What are you gonna do, huh?" "What are you gonna do, Johnson?" "Yeah, you ought to get that Spec-4." "What are you gonna do, Johnson?" "College boy!" "Hey, let him go." "Let him go." "Hey, hey, hey." "What the hell's wrong with him, anyway?" "It don't mean nothing." "It doesn't matter what Taylor said." "You're not gonna make it anyway, Johnson." "That sniper's got your number." "Here on the base, or out in the bush." "Three days and a wake-up." "You're a dead man." "I'm gonna ask you politely one more time." "Where is Lu Bin?" "Oh, I know you know where he is and what he looks like!" "I'll bet the two of you eat fish heads together at least once a week." "Maybe share the same women." "No speaky?" "No speaky at all?" "Last chance!" "Lu Bin!" "Where is Lu Bin?" "What does he look like?" "Okay." "Okay!" "Don't say old Duke Fontaine didn't warn you!" "Good!" "But if you're lying, boy, you better learn how to fly." "Get him out of my sight!" "By 17:30 hour." "Exactly how dangerous is he?" "Well, he isn't a combat soldier, so to the individual troop in the field, negligible." "But to our war effort as a whole, devastating." "Sir?" "Lu Bin is single-handedly undermining our hearts and minds program in the Bac Lieu province." "He's a little ideologue who's turned at least 40 villes." "And what's his MO?" "Charisma and ruthless brutality." "He's, uh, almost mythical to the peasants." "If a ville has any kind of VC leaning, he wins it over." "What if they're friendly?" "You pike a few heads in the village square, these dinks get religion real fast." "The CIA has asked for our help to kidnap Lu Bin." "How will we identify him?" "Mr. Fontaine has a detailed description of the man." "Do you have any photos?" "That's outstanding." "Not bad." "John McKay." "I know who you are." "I'm Duke Fontaine." "Yeah, well, I know who you are." "Most chopper jocks do." "That sniper set you down hard yesterday, didn't he?" "Yeah, he killed my copilot." "Got a line on his perch?" "No, he keeps moving around." "If he settles down, try and get a fix on what he's shooting." "Get your ordnance people to doctor some rounds and salt the area." "Dink will always take free ammo." "He chambers one of those jesses, no more sniper." "Sounds like a winner." "Well, it's my job to come up with winners, McKay." "And I'm good at my job." "Besides, second place is a body bag." "And that's too close and too dark for me." "Good hunting." "Stack 'em six high over here, all right?" "McKay, what are you doing up here?" "I thought we were going to Saigon." "This scum bucket takes pot shots at us every time we're in or out." "And I'm gonna nail him." "Don't you think you're taking this a little personally?" "Hell, yes, I'm taking it personally." "He killed my copilot." "I want to win the war, Goldman." "And if the highers aren't gonna let us do that, well, then, I want to survive." "You know, I'm getting tired of snipers taking pot shots at me." "Tired of transporting bodies like some flying hearse." "And I'm tired of my heart stopping every time somebody comes up behind me." "Well, that sounds like you're tired." "Get down!" "Did you hear about the mission tomorrow?" "Yeah, we're taking old Freefall Fontaine out for a ride, huh?" "Yeah." "Did he ever throw anybody off your chopper?" "Not yet." "What do you mean, "Not yet"?" "You sound like he's one of your heroes." "Yeah, well, he fights to win." "He goes all out." "No pun intended." "Well, maybe he throws a little humanity out of the chopper with his prisoners." "The important thing is, he gets the job done." "Come on, McKay." "That's extreme, even for you." "Yeah, well, everything over here seems to be a little extreme." "And it is personal." "Cover!" "Anybody hit?" "Hey." "Hey, Johnson." "All right, all right." "Now, according here to the vomit countdown, right..." "Ha, ha." "You got it." "You got eight meals left, which is two banquet breakfasts..." "Hey, sorry about that." "That's all right, doc." "You got three lovely lunches, you got three super suppers, and you're out of here!" "All right." "Company, halt!" "LT's got a briefing." "We got a mission tomorrow." "I'll check with you later." "Johnson, come here a minute." "I got some good news, Johnson." "You're gonna sit this one out." "What?" "Yeah, LT's got it cleared." "You just gotta check in your gear and out-process early." "Johnson, that's supposed to be good news." "Yeah, I know, sarge." "But it ain't right." "What are you talking about, Johnson?" "You ain't got nothing to prove." "Sarge, I know." "But I always go out." "I'm supposed to go out." "I don't want to hear any of that nonsense." "The team's gonna have to get used to you being gone, and now's as good a time to start as any." "Sarge, I can't break my routine now." "I gotta do everything exactly the way I always do it or, sarge, I ain't gonna make it out of here alive." "That's crazy, Johnson." "No, it ain't, sarge." "Not if you believe it." "It's up to you, Johnson." "Up to you." "Johnson!" "Johnson." "Aah!" "Johnson, it's okay." "It's okay." "Calm down." "Calm down so you can pull back." "Start to pull back." "It's okay." "It's okay." "Danny, remember Friedman?" "Always did things the same way, day in and day out." "Five days and a wake-up and they let him off detail." "He was sitting on the can reading a magazine while his platoon was out in the field, Danny." "Sniper blew him all over Firebase Ladybird." "Johnson, that was one guy." "No, no." "Lots of guys, Danny." "Lots of guys." "You mess with the routine, you're messing with fate, man." "Listen to me." "Johnson, now, listen to me." "We have all missed missions." "It's no big deal." "Danny, this is different, man." "I gotta stick to the routine." "Gotta stick to the routine." "You're gonna do what you gotta do." "Would you relax?" "You're gonna be all right." "Just relax." "I gotta stick to the routine, man." "Get some rest." "You get some rest." "It's too close." "I don't want to die in this toilet." "God, don't let me die in this toilet." "Come on, man." "Why don't you just run off and marry her, Ru?" "Taylor, what is your problem?" "Nothing." "Ru's acting like that's his first skirt." "Susanna ain't a skirt, man." "Then you got a serious problem, don't you?" "Yeah, you." "Hey, knock it off." "What's it to you, huh?" "That man's business is his business." "Now you mind yours." "All right, everybody, listen up now." "This mission is a quick snatch in a bad neighborhood." "On top of all that, they're sending along a spook to keep us company." "So I don't have time for this kind of crap." "Understand me?" "So get it squared away." "Now." "Damn." "Okay, goofball." "Eat this." "Hey, man." "This way." "It's this way, Johnson." "I'm in charge." "We're moving this way." "It's this way... sergeant." "I just gave you an order." "What are you gonna do, Johnson, huh?" "You gonna turn me in?" "Ohh!" "Ow." "You satisfied?" "Ow!" "I'm going to write you up for insubordination." "Go ahead." "I don't think it got much of my foot." "Ohh!" "Why do you always got to be so much damn trouble?" "I thought that's what you liked about me, Johnson." "I don't like nothing about you, Taylor." "Ohh!" "Ow!" "God!" "Hey, man." "Hey." "You all right?" "Yeah." "Oh, that little bastard hit me hard." "Ohh." "Johnson, man, I'm sorry I got you into this." "It wasn't your fault, man." "Yeah, it was." "If I hadn't been fighting you..." "I would have been watching what I was doing." "What is you saying, huh?" "Stop that!" "Stop it." "Ugh!" "Argh!" "Aargh!" "Hey!" "Hey, man." "Hey." "I don't think he wants us to talk." "Either that or he..." "He's just cleaning his sandals." "What have you got?" "Small outpost." "Two guards on my side." "What about Johnson and Taylor?" "They left before you did." "They'll be back." "Anything?" "Maybe something." "Maybe nothing." ""Maybe something, maybe nothing"?" "What the hell does that mean?" "Just that." "What is your name?" "Sergeant Marvin Johnson." "RA4904862." "Why are you here?" "Sergeant Marvin Johnson." "RA490..." "Why are you here?" "Sergeant Marvin Johnson." "RA49..." "That is not an ordinary Army uniform, Sergeant Johnson." "That is the uniform of your elite special forces." "Now, why are you here?" "Sergeant Marvin Johnson." "RA49048..." "Your friend is strong." "We will see how strong... and how firm your resolve." "Be still, you little zipperhead." "What the hell are you doing, Fontaine?" "I could pop that gook from here." "Our orders are to take him alive." "That's what I told your colonel to get him to help me." "My orders are to terminate this guy." "You don't give the orders out here, I do." "I could take over, you know." "Could you?" "LT, they got Johnson and Taylor down there." "Not for long, they don't." "Fontaine, I've got two men whose lives are at risk down there." "That's not my problem." "It is now." "We'll do it your way." "But you'd better pray we get that gook." "How many are with you?" "Where are the others?" "Marvin Johnson, sergeant." "You're drowning him!" "Ah!" "Now it is your turn to save your friend." "How many in your unit?" "Where are they?" "Sergeant S-4 Marcus Taylor." "Where are they?" "Where are they?" "Sergeant S-4..." "Where are they?" "Private Johnson..." "Sergeant..." "Where are they?" "LT." "We'd never get close enough." "Unless they start to kill them, we wait until dark, then we go in." "Nobody shoots till I give the signal." "Got it?" "I got it." "Just keep..." "Keep fighting it, man." "We just gotta hold on till the..." "Till the guys get here." "You're dreaming, Marv." "You got a better idea?" "Uh-uh." "Johnson?" "Yeah?" "Man, I'm sorry." "Come on, man." "All that trash I was talking, man," "I didn't mean nothing by it." "Oh, God!" "You ain't gotta apologize for the way you feel, man." "Yeah, but I ain't got no reason." "You got the right." "I ain't got no right to dump on other people's dreams." "Man, I don't know why I got so mad every time you talked about going to college and doing something with yourself, but I just got mad." "I guess..." "'cause you were going home." "Guess I'm gonna miss you too, man." "Hope we live long enough to miss each other." "One of you will tell me what I want to know." "One of you will live." "One of you will die." "The question is... which." "You?" "You?" "Perhaps I should tell you what you have to look forward to." "First, a little game with fire." "Then, I will cut your eyes out... slowly." "If you still will not talk," "I will peel you... like a grape." "Even those who survive these earlier tests are better off dead." "Why don't you save yourselves much pain?" "Speak to me now!" "Why don't you stick it..." "All right, we'll go in with two teams." "You go in first, sergeant." "You flank left and take Percell with you." "Percell, give doc the radio." "Doc, you stay with Ru." "Ru, you set that pig up." "If we get into any trouble, you make it squeal." "Fontaine, you stick with me." "Let's do it." "Doc, you want to feed ammo?" "Feed what?" "Forget it, doc." "Think about what is ahead for you." "We will see how courageous you feel in the morning." "There's our boy." "Fontaine!" "Something's gone wrong." "Let's go." "It's catching on fire, Johnson." "We've gotta get loose." "Keep working on it." "Pull it." " Work at it." " It's gotta be..." "Keep working on it." "Just keep working on it." "Keep working!" "Damn it, come on!" "Go, go, go, go!" "Percell, pop that flare." "Johnson!" "Keep working it!" "Keep working it!" "He's getting up, Johnson!" "He's getting up!" "Keep working it!" "I'll cover you." "You go." "Go, go, go!" "I'm going in." "Cover me." "All right, go!" "Sarge!" "Sarge, cut us loose!" "Cut me off this rope!" "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" "Hey, you guys all right?" "Other than damn near barbecuing, doc, I'm fine." "Sergeant, let's get the hell out of here." "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" "Damn!" "He was the wrong guy." "He wasn't even Lu Bin." "Some lousy VC lieutenant." "You cannot trust these gooks." "Should've airmailed that sucker in the chopper." "Shut up, Fontaine." "That's affirmative, Goldilocks." "We got a visual." "We're popping smoke." "All right, let's clear back or it'll land on our heads." "I still have to find this Lu Bin character." "Since you know the assignment," "I'm gonna request your team." "Not a chance." "You lied to me." "And you risked the lives of my men on some wild-goose chase you had." "Two of my boys almost got roasted, buddy... because of you." "It was a mistake." "It was unnecessary." "The guy I was questioning was lying to me." "What was I supposed to do?" "I'd have lied too if I thought I had to walk home from 2000 feet." "How would you like to earn your nickname, Freefall?" "Huh?" "Go ahead." "But I don't think you got the hair for it." "Sergeant!" "He ain't worth it." "You're right, LT." "I'd be doing him a favor." "And there ain't no way I'm gonna do that." "Whoo-hoo!" "Whoa!" "All right, that's enough, damn it." "Hey, hey." "LT, take it easy." "Hose it down, Smitty." "I want that sucker." "Hey, put us down, LT, then go after him." "Yeah, put us down, LT." "Come on, LT." "We've gotta take this." "Yeah, okay, don't get your underwear in a bundle." "We're going in." " All right." " Move." "Yeah!" "Come on." "Whoo!" "Oh, this feels so good!" "So you got all your stuff?" "Packed and ready." "It's gotta be the happiest day of your life, Johnson." "Yeah, it is." "It is." "It's a sad one too, though." "I mean, if I live to be 100 years old," "I don't think I'll ever experience anything as intense as all this." "I mean, it's just so, you know, intense." "Intense and crazy." "I mean, one night we're out looking for Victor Charles." "He tries to kill us, we try to kill him." "And the next night we sit around, drink beer and talk about it." "I bet you they're doing the same thing." "You know?" "Sitting around, talking about it." "I mean, nobody except the guys that are here could know how it was." "And nobody gonna know what I'm talking about." "You ain't gonna find many people willing to listen either." "If you do, they won't care about you." "Cut it out, Percell." "You're becoming a cynic." "And this is supposed to be a celebration!" "Hey, yeah, that's right." "All right!" "To no more humping the boonies!" "All right, no more humping the boonies, and no more laying awake in the hooch all night listening to Percell snore like a chain saw." "And no more reaching into your pocket for your wallet and shaking hands with Taylor!" "Wait, wait, wait, wait." "And no more having to listen to Ru bitch about the chow and then brag about his women, and then bitch about the bunk and then brag about his women." "All right, all right." "You've made your point." "When you get back there, you tell your mom and everybody that all of us here think her boy Marvin is one hell of a fine human being." "Oh, yeah." "Can't help but drink to that." "Oh, yeah." "Drink to that." "Let's drink." "Amen." "You're the best damn friend I ever had." "I'm really sorry, man." "Hey, forget it." "I can't forget it." "I almost got us killed." "I just hope you can forget it." "Forget what?" "Now, that ups it for us." "That was just like I showed you guys." "That was good." "That was good." "I thought you'd forgotten." "To Marvin, man." "To Marvin." "You keep your eyes open, Smitty." "If that guy don't shoot us, we get him." "Sarge, I'm scared." "Johnson, scared of what?" "You just survived a full tour and four months in country here, you're about to get on a chopper and go home." "What are you scared of?" "Sarge, when I came here," "I was just a kid, you know?" "I mean, I'd been in the Army for a while but I was still a kid." "And they gave me a weapon and live ammunition and told me I had to come over here and start killing people." "Sergeant, what I'm trying to say is I'm grown up now and I don't know what it's going to be like back in the world." "Well, you're right about one thing, Johnson." "You're not a kid anymore, you're a man." "And you're a good man." "You're decent and you're strong, and if you don't mind my saying so, I'm proud of you." "You know, of all the things that happened to you over here, you didn't let any of it turn you away from what you came over here believing about good, and right and wrong." "Whatever you decide to do, I know you'll do a good job." "Thanks, sarge." "Now get out of here." "Hey, sarge, I just thought about something." "This is the last time in my life" "I'm ever gonna have to take an order from you." "Johnson, get on that chopper." "Now!" "Get out of Vietnam." "That's a direct order." "Now go." "Go, go." "Move, move, move." "Johnson." "Yes, sarge?" "Keep your head down." "Clear!" "All right." "All right." "Get out of here."