In 1965, few people believe that the conflict in Vietnam would turn into a full-scale war.
One of the first signs of what lies ahead is America’s bombing of secret targets inside
Laos.
Military fighter jets fly over a rural farming area in the middle of the day, dropping bombs
all over the fields, destroying every crop and house in its path.
Aboard the USS Ranger in the Gulf of Tonkin, pilot Dengler and his Navy Squadron attend
a pre-mission briefing.
The squadron must fly over the northern part of Vietnam to cut off the enemy's supply line.
Since the mission is classified, the squad is reminded that they must not speak about
it to anyone, not even their family and loved ones.
In order to prepare for their mission, the squad watches a short film about how to survive
in the wilderness, which explains how to hide with leaves and get a plane’s attention,
but they mostly find it ridiculous.
They are also allowed to request adjustments to the equipment and rations they are taking
with them, so Dengler asks for a secret flap on his navy boots to conceal his American
passport during the mission.
At the final briefing, the squad leader gives his last reminders about the safety of their
operations.
He warns the squad against the use of their military radio out on the field when they
find themselves in danger because the military has been receiving reports that the enemies
have been able to intercept their radio signals, using them to lure rescuers into an ambush.
During the meeting, Dengler is chosen as the mission leader.
On the day of the mission, Dengler and his best friends do an old ritual and together
they rest their foreheads on the wall as they wish each other good luck.
Then four fighter jets set out on air, heading towards Laos in North Vietnam.
When the squad starts bombing the designated area, the locals immediately fire back, and
Dengler's jet gets hit and it begins falling.
As the left wing slowly tears off, Dengler uses his great pilot skills to crash-land
his jet and jump off to safety on the ground.
Lao enemies are already coming for him, so Dengler runs through the field to hide in
the jungle.
Remembering the video, he hides under a pile of plants and doesn’t come out until the
soldiers leave in a different direction.
Then he leaves his military radio underneath a pile of leaves before going deeper into
the jungle.
Eventually he finds an empty structure and steals the little food he can find in a pot,
he also begins sleeping in his plastic bag, always covering it with leaves.
When he hears a US military helicopter flying by, he is careful to leave his hiding place,
but he has to let a local family pass by before actually coming out.
By the time he climbs on top of a rock to try to get the helicopter’s attention with
a little mirror, it’s too late and the helicopter is gone.
Afterward, Dengler stops to drink water from a river to help with the tropical heat, but
this distraction allows the Lao forces to surround him and capture him.
At first, Dengler is brought to a nearby residential village where nobody speaks English.
Dengler is tied up in the middle of the village, and they ignore his plea for a bathroom, so
he ends up going in his pants.
He spends a whole day there on the ground while the locals stare at him like an animal
in the zoo and a kid even messes with him by dangling an insect in front of his face.
The next morning, Dengler is taken away again, and this time the group crosses a bridge to
reach a different section of the jungle.
When they stop to rest, Dengler watches the men make a fire to learn their technique.
Sometimes helicopters would fly by, but the men would always drag Dengler into the bushes
to avoid being seen.
During these breaks, the captors also use the chance to torment Dengler.
They tie him up against a tree and shoot at him, but they never land their shots on purpose
since this is only to mess with his head and leave him temporarily deaf.
After lots of walking through fields and hiding from helicopters, they reach another village
and throw Dengler into a truck to drive him into the capital of Laos.
There, Dengler is dragged into a fancy house and meets the provincial governor.
Unlike the soldiers, the governor treats Dengler kindly and speaks English, he even offers
Dengler some water, not bothered by the explosions that can be heard outside.
At first Dengler tries to hide that he's an American Navy officer, but the governor can
tell he is lying and Dengler has to admit the truth by showing the US passport that
he had hidden in the secret flap of his boots.
Then the governor offers Dengler safety and freedom if he accepts to sign a document condemning
America and its war against the Lao people.
When Dengler refuses to go against his own country, he is sent away.
Afterward Dengler is badly hurt by getting tied to a farm animal and dragged through
the ground all over the village.
Next he's tied upside down to a tree, where they keep shaking him and making him whirl.
Lastly, he is put inside a well and pushed under water over and over.
Sometime later, Dengler is taken to a prison camp where they take off his shoes and push
him inside a shack to spend the night there with his feet captured inside a heavy restraint.
Dengler can hear voices coming from behind the wall telling him not to mess with the
guards because they’re dangerous.
The following morning, Dengler is freed to wander around the camp, and he gets to meet
his fellow war prisoners.
Y.C., Phisit, and Procet are foreigners, while DeBruin and Martin are fellow American pilots.
To Dengler’s shock, some of them have been here for years.
DeBruin takes Dengler aside for a walk around the prison camp to get him familiarized with
the local guards, explaining the best way to survive is to keep his head down.
The prisoners may be free to roam around the camp in the mornings, but at night, they are
held inside the shack with their hands cuffed to each other and their feets caught in those
heavy restraints.
At least inside the shack they can talk without being overheard by the guards.
Dengler tries to convince the other prisoners to join him to create a plan to escape but
they tell him it’s a bad idea.
They explain that the intense tropical heat in the jungle makes it impossible for them
to survive without any water and the rainy season is still a few months away.
Not to mention that to avoid the guards they should leave at night when they're restrained.
Dengler doesn’t give up and convinces the group to help him get a nail.
Although they are skeptical, they follow his lead and scatter around the camp, causing
the guards to go after them.
Only a dumb guard stays behind, and Dengler talks friendly to him to distract him while
stealing the nail from a beam.
Later at the shack, Dengler uses some rocks to modify the pointy end of the nail, then
proceeds to use it as a lockpick on their restraints.
This allows the prisoners to have a little freedom at night and now they finally believe
in Dengler's ability to make a good escape plan.
The next morning, fighter jets fly over the prison camp and anger the guards.
In a rage of fury, one of the guards shoots at Martin, luckily the bullet barely misses
his head and only leaves a scar.
Then the guards mess with the others by threatening to shoot them, only to laugh at their fear.
As days pass, Dengler learns more about his new friends, like the fact they keep a label
from a can of beans just to remember the smell.
They also share stories of why they became pilots.
One evening, DeBruin says he doesn’t think Dengler can make a good plan and that he’ll
get them all killed.
If Dengler or anyone else dares to try to escape, DeBruin will scream and alert the
guards.
The next day, a squad of Vietnamese soldiers stops by the camp and checks the prisoners
for any intel they can use.
A female soldier finds Dengler’s shaving glass and he gifts it to her with some flirting.
Afterward, he tells the others he wishes he wasn't engaged and there was no war so he
could have that girl.
Suddenly one of the guards loses control of his weapon, which begins shooting all over
the place.
While everyone runs for cover, Dengler stays at the table and stares at the few rice grains
that fell from a plate, getting an idea.
Some weeks later, the prisoners surprise Dengler by singing the happy birthday song to him
and giving him a drink they made out of insects.
Touched by the gesture, Dengler decides to gift them something back.
First, he reveals he made two rough knives out of old bullet casings, and the friends
that guess in which hands he has them in get to keep them.
Next he confesses he’s been hiding away a bit of rice every day because he’s finally
made a new plan.
Dengler has noticed that the guards leave their weapons behind when they have their
lunch break, so he thinks they should steal those weapons and use them to take control
of the prison camp until they can signal for rescue to the US helicopters.
The prisoners agree to execute the plan on July 4th to give it extra meaning, so they
have a little over a month left.
From then on, they begin to observe the guards to study their routines by using Dengler’s
little mirror through the roof.
They mark the positions of the guards and their weapons with wood and rocks to memorize
them, and when one night a guard almost catches them red-handed, they pretend it’s just
a game they made up.
With the knives Dengler made, the prisoners create an escape hatch at the floor of their
shack.
Every night, Dengler carefully sneaks out through that hatch to plan the path that they
will follow and works on loosening a section of the outside fence.
As the days pass, the prisoners notice food is becoming even more scarce, although the
small guard Dengler befriended still saves him a little ball of rice.
Eventually they stop bringing them actual food and they’re served a bowl of worms
instead.
DeBruin says he’ll eat his rice, but Dengler reminds him that he has the nail, so if DeBruin
eats the rice before they escape, Dengler won’t free him from the handcuffs to escape
with them.
He’s so convinced his plan will work that he doesn’t mind eating the worms.
One morning they hear helicopters flying by, but the guards shoot at the ground as a warning
to keep them quiet.
After the guards leave, Martin has a breakdown, and Dengler promises they’ll be gone soon.
One day, Y.C.
overhears a conversation between some of the guards.
Since Y.C.
can speak the local language, he is able to translate and they discover that the guards
plan to kill the prisoners and make it look like they attempted to escape.
Apparently they’re tired of the lack of food too and they want to finally go back
to their own villages.
This makes them decide to execute the plan the next day instead of waiting for their
original date.
The next morning the prisoners start the plan.
They’ll be separated into two groups, Dengler and Martin in one, and DeBruin with the rest.
The two groups will head out in separate directions and then meet up at the same time in the kitchen
in order to subdue the guards.
Dengler heads out of the shack first and quickly collects the guns the guards left behind,
then he brings them back to the group.
Once everybody is armed, they divide into the two groups, but when Dengler and Martin
arrive at the kitchen, they are the only ones there, which isn’t enough to subdue a whole
group of soldiers.
Fortunately they think fast and immediately shoot at the guards, killing all of them except
their little friend, who Dengler allows to go away as thanks for the rice.
Realizing they can’t stay there as they originally planned, Dengler and Martin steal
as much food as possible and run away from the camp.
Eventually they bump into DeBruin and Y.C., and Dengler gets suspicious when he sees the
other two are missing while DeBruin has extra weapons plus shoes.
DeBruin swears it’s just a coincidence, so a disappointed Dengler exchanges some ammo
for DeBruin’s machete before the two groups leave in opposite directions.
Dengler and Martin escape into the jungle to try to find freedom by way of Thailand.
Before long, the rainy season begins, so Dengler and Martin are able to survive with water
and their rice.
Unfortunately when they stop for a lunch break, a mudslide surprises them from behind and
drags them down the hill, making them lose their rice.
After lots of walking, they finally make it to the river, and remembering the video, they
make a raft using what nature can provide.
At first they float away perfectly safely while hiding under leaves, but unfortunately,
the current takes them in the direction of some rapids that descend into a waterfall.
Dengler and Martin notice just in time and swim toward the shore, leaving the raft to
fall and be destroyed when it crashes on the rocks.
Many days pass as the duo continues to travel through the jungle, spending most of their
time wet under the constant rain.
One afternoon they discover that under their clothes there are a bunch of liches, and they
have to painfully remove them one by one from their weak skin.
Sometime later, they discover a man fishing nearby, but shooting could get the attention
of soldiers so they quietly wait for the fisherman to leave instead.
This makes them realize they’re carrying weapons for nothing, so they throw them into
the river to get rid of the extra weight.
During this time they find an old shoe on the ground and Dengler lets Martin have it
because he’s often feeling weak and tired, so Dengler wants to keep his spirit up in
some way.
After lots of walking, the duo finds an abandoned village and stops there to rest.
At that moment a few US helicopters fly by, but no matter how much Dengler waves and yells,
they don’t see him and go away.
Martin is starting to lose his mind, so Dengler tells him to rest while he starts a fire with
the technique he learned from the locals and proceeds to burn the huts in order to create
a huge smoke signal for the helicopters.
Unfortunately, the Americans mistake them for enemies and fire at them instead, so Dengler
has to run to avoid death.
Since the locals probably saw the smoke too, Dengler and Martin decide to leave before
they’re found.
Martin is too weak and Dengler has to help him move around, so in the end they decide
to surrender at the nearest village.
They show they mean no harm and beg for food, however the villagers aren’t happy to see
the enemy and immediately kill Martin.
Furious, Dengler takes out his machete and waves it around in a crazy state, so when
the villagers back away in fear, he takes Martin’s shoe and runs away.
The villagers are soon coming after him, but Dengler manages to hide in the bushes.
As day pass, exhaustion and starvation begin driving Dengler crazy, and he begins hallucinating
that Martin’s ghost is with him.
Dengler stays close to the riverbank and whenever he sees locals, he waits for them to be gone
and then steals any drops of food they may’ve left behind.
On other days he hunts animals, coming to the point where he even captures a snake to
eat it raw.
One morning, a U.S. scout plane flies by, and Dengler waves a huge leaf like in the
video.
The plane at first seems to ignore him, but soon two helicopters arrive and finally rescue
Dengler.
Some locals see the helicopters and come to attack, but the American soldiers quickly
shoot at them before flying away.
One of the soldiers confirms Dengler’s identity and gifts him a candy bar.
When they make it to the US base, Dengler is sent to the hospital to recover.
Because his mission had been classified, he’s watched by two CIA agents all day long, who
don’t let him share his story with anyone and try to get intel from him with repetitive
questions.
Dengler is eager to return to his original squad, but the CIA doesn’t let him leave
either.
One afternoon, Dengler’s squad shows up with a birthday cake on a push cart and a
letter from Dengler’s fiance, pretending it’s Dengler’s birthday.
The CIA agents accept to give them a few moments alone to celebrate, and the squad puts their
plan into action.
Moments later, the CIA agents watch the squad leave the base with the push cart without
suspecting anything.
As soon as they make it outside though, they reveal they hid Dengler in the cart, and they
make him board a helicopter to finally leave the base behind.
Sometime later, Dengler finally makes his way back aboard his beloved naval ship and
is met by the entire ship's crew, who erupts in loud cheers to welcome him back.