U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) has returned to Saigon; a seasoned veteran, he is deeply troubled and apparently no longer fit for civilian life. A group of intelligence officers (G. D. Spradlin, Harrison Ford, and Jerry Ziesmer) approach him with a special mission: journey up the fictional Nung River into the remote Cambodian jungle to find Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a former member of the United States Army Special Forces. It is 1969 and the war is at its height.
They state that Kurtz, once considered a model officer and future general, has allegedly gone insane and is commanding a legion of his own Montagnard troops deep inside the forest in neutral Cambodia. Their claims are supported by very disturbing radio broadcasts and/or recordings made by Kurtz himself. Willard is ordered to undertake a mission to find Kurtz and terminate the Colonel's command "with extreme prejudice."
Willard studies the intelligence files during the boat ride to the river entrance and learns that Kurtz, isolated in his compound, has assumed the role of a warlord and is worshipped by the natives and his own loyal men. Willard learns much later that another officer, Colby (Scott Glenn), sent earlier to kill Kurtz, may have become one of his lieutenants.
Willard begins his trip up the Nung River on a PBR (Patrol Boat, Riverine), with an eclectic crew composed of the obstinate and formal Chief Phillips (Albert Hall), a Navy swiftboat commander; GM3 Lance B. Johnson (Sam Bottoms), a tanned all-American California surfer; GM3 Tyrone (Laurence Fishburne), a.k.a. "Mr. Clean", a black 17-year-old from "some South Bronx shit-hole"; and the Engineer from New Orleans, Jay "Chef" Hicks (Frederic Forrest), who Willard describes as "wrapped too tight for Vietnam, probably wrapped too tight for New Orleans".
The PBR arrives at a landing zone where Willard and the crew meet up with Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), the eccentric commander of 1/9cav AirCav, following a massive and hectic mopping-up operation of a conquered enemy village. Kilgore, a keen surfer, recognizes and befriends Johnson. Later, he learns from one of his men, Mike, that the beach down the coast which marks the opening to the river is perfect for surfing, a factor which persuades him to capture it. The problem is, his troops explain, it's "Charlie's point" and heavily fortified. Dismissing this complaint with the explanation that "Charlie don't surf," Kilgore orders his men to saddle up in the morning to capture the town and the beach. Riding high above the coast in a fleet of Hueys accompanied by H-6s, Kilgore launches an attack on the beach. The scene, famous for its use of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries," ends with the soldiers surfing the barely claimed beach amidst skirmishes between infantry and VC. After helicopters swoop over the village and demolish all visible signs of resistance, a giant napalm strike in the nearby jungle dramatically marks the climax of the battle. Kilgore exults to Willard, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", which he says smells "like... victory" as he recalls a battle in which a hill was bombarded with napalm for over twelve hours. However, in the Redux version, this ruins the waves and Willard uses this as an excuse to steal Kilgore's surf board. The PBS crew then run away from Kilgore and hide. Kilgore then uses a recorded conversation to get his surf board back but the crew doesn't respond to this.
The lighting and mood darken as the boat navigates upstream and Willard's silent obsession with Kurtz deepens. Incidents on the journey include a run-in with a tiger while Willard and Chef search for mangoes. The boat then moves up river and watches a USO show featuring Playboy Bunnies and a centerfold that degenerates into chaos.
In the Redux version, Chef shows that he has a crush on Miss December, one of the Bunnies, but Clean then tells a story about a soldier who got obsessed with a Bunny and how it resulted to him killing a "gook", just because the Vietnamese damaged the picture. Willard also reads one of Kurtz's letters which states that if the U.S. Army and their South Vietnamese allies has the same commitment as do the Vietcong, the war could be won. Another letter also is addressed to Kurtz's son that shows Kurtz's reasoning for killing the double agents. The Redux version also shows the crew harboring at a destroyed Medevac station, where all the soldiers seem to be at odds with each other. The Playboy helicopter has also landed there. The adversarial mood in the Medevac seems to rub off on the crew, who start to fight with each other, with even Chief getting involved while trying to break up the fight, while Willard negotiates two barrels of fuel for a couple of hours with the Bunnies. Chef decides to spend time with his idol, Miss December, Lance spends time with the Playmate of the Year, whilst Clean is kept locked out of the helicopter where these trysts take place, always seeming to interrupt them at key moments. During one time, the Playmate of the Year knocks down a cooler, which reveals a dead body. She gets frightened but then kisses Lance.
Moving up the river, Phillips spots a sampan and against Willard's advice they make the boat stop and inspect it. As Chef hostilely searches the sampan, one of the civilians makes a sudden movement, causing Clean to open fire on the wooden boat, killing all the civilians save f
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The trailer for Apocalypse Now.
