A French
unit on patrol in Vietnam in 1954, during the final year of the First Indochina War is ambushed by North Vietnamese Armyforces. NVA commander Nguyen
Huu An orders his soldiers to "kill all they send, and they will
stop coming."
Eleven years
later, the United States is fighting the Vietnam War.
U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson)
is chosen to train and lead a battalion. After arriving in Vietnam, he learns
that an American base has been attacked and is ordered to take his 400 men
after the enemy and eliminate the Vietnamese attackers, despite the fact that
intelligence has no idea of the number of enemy troops. He leads a newly
created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley. After landing in the
"Valley of Death", the soldiers learn that the location they were
sent to is actually the base camp for a veteran North Vietnamese Army division
of 4,000 men.
Upon arrival
in the area with a platoon of soldiers, 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick spots an enemy
scout, runs after him, and orders reluctant soldiers to follow. The Vietnamese
scout lures them into an ambush, resulting in several men being killed,
including Lt. Herrick and his subordinates. The surviving platoon members are
surrounded with no chance of retreat. Sgt. Savage assumes command, calls in
artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning
their small defensive position. Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping
off units, Lt. Col. Moore manages to secure weak points before the Vietnamese
can take advantage of them.
On the
second day, despite being trapped and desperately outnumbered, the main U.S.
force manages to hold off the Vietnamese with artillery, mortars,
and helicopter airlifts of supplies and reinforcements. Eventually, Vietnamese
commander Nguyen Huu An orders a large-scale attack on the American position.
At the point
of being overrun by the enemy and with no options left, Moore orders 1st Lt.
Charlie Hastings, his Forward Air Controller,
to call in "Broken Arrow" (Moore's position is being overrun and can
no longer be defended, and all available combat aircraft to assist and attack
enemy positions, even those close to the U.S. troops' position). The aircraft
attack with bombs, napalm and machine guns, killing many PAVN and Viet Cong troops;
but a friendly fire incident results in American
deaths. The second Vietnamese attack is repelled and the surviving US soldiers
led by Sgt. Savage are rescued.
Moore's
troops regroup, secure the area, and stop at the base of a hill. The Vietnamese
commander plans a final assault on the Americans and sends most of his troops
to carry out the attack. The Vietnamese have set up strong emplacements near
the hidden entrance of the underground passage to the command post spoken of by
the scout. Hal and his men charge at them, but before the Vietnamese can fire,
Major Bruce "Snakeshit" Crandall and others
in helicopter gunships attack the Vietnamese, destroying the bulk of the enemy
force.
Nguyen Huu
An, the Vietnamese Commander, is alerted that the Americans have broken through
their lines and there are no soldiers between the Americans and their command
post. Since the Commander had deployed his reserve forces to a final offensive
and the base camp has no troops to call upon for defense, the Vietnamese
commander quickly orders the headquarters evacuated.
Moore,
having achieved his objective, returns to the helicopter landing zone to be
picked up. Only after everyone (including the dead and wounded) are removed
from the battlefield does he fly out of the valley.
At the end
of the film, it is revealed that the landing zone immediately reverted to North
Vietnamese hands after the American troops were airlifted out. Hal Moore
continued the battle in a different landing zone, and after nearly a year he
returns home safely. His superiors congratulate him for killing over 1,800 North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong soldiers.
An older Moore visits the Vietnam war memorial and sees the names
of soldiers who fell at Ia Drang.
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