In 1989, Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) attends or assists to U.S. Marine Corps training before being stationed at Camp Pendleton. Claiming that he joined the military because he "got lost on the way to college", Swofford finds his time at Camp Pendleton difficult, and struggles to make friends. While Swofford feigns illness to avoid his responsibilities, a "lifer", Marine Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), takes note of his potential and orders Swofford to attend his Scout Sniper course.
Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown (Abbott and Costello) are sidewalk peddlers who hawk neckties out of a suitcase. They are chased by a cop and duck into a movie theater, not realizing that it is now being used as an Army Recruitment Center. Believing that they are signing up for theater prizes, they end up enlisting instead.
Tough-as-nails career Marine Sergeant John Stryker (John Wayne) is greatly disliked by the men of his squad, particularly the combat replacements, for the rigorous training he puts them through. He is especially despised by Private Peter Conway (John Agar), the arrogant, college-educated son of an officer, Colonel Sam Conway under whom Stryker served and admired, and Private Al Thomas (Forrest Tucker), who blames him for his demotion.
On December 6, 1941, at Hamilton Field, near San Francisco, a United States Army Air Corps B-17D bomber Mary-Ann and its crew are being readied for a flight across the Pacific.
Un récit documentaire de l'invasion alliée de l'Europe pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale compilé à partir des images tournées par près de 1400 caméramans.
Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is the top rescue swimmer at the United States Coast Guard's Aviation Survival Technician (AST) program. Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) is a hot-shot candidate for AST, who was ranked as a top competitive swimmer in high school with scholarships to every Ivy league college, but he opted to enlist in the Coast Guard. The film's title is introduced by a mythic tale: people lost at sea often claim they feel a presence lifting them to the surface, breathing life into their bodies while they are waiting for help to arrive. They call this presence "The Guardian".
United States Naval Aviator LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw fly the F-14A Tomcat aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65). They, with Maverick's wingman "Cougar" and his RIO "Merlin", intercept Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-28s over the Indian Ocean. Cougar engages one of the hostile aircraft and afterwards is too shaken to land, despite being low on fuel. Maverick defies orders and assists Cougar despite also being low on fuel. Cougar gives up his Wings of Gold, citing his newborn child that he has never seen. Despite his dislike for Maverick's recklessness, CAG "Stinger" sends him and Goose—now his top crew—to attend the Top Gun school at NAS Miramar.
In May 1943, the crew of the Memphis Belle, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress of the US Army Air Force, are grounded in England while their aircraft is repaired.
Army private first class Amy Cole (Kristen Stewart) is placed as a guard at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, specifically Camp Delta. As a new guard at the prison she is first cold towards the detainees despite the fact of her showing dislike to certain actions towards the detainees. Eight months pass and she even writes a report to explain an irregularity on a shower shift that lead to a detainee (Peyman Moaadi) feeling uncomfortable. By the end of the film she stops him from committing suicide. At this point it is clear that her convictions towards the detainee are much different as she seems in distress and really affected by the possibility of him ending dead. The film ends by her leaving Guantanamao and leaving him a Harry Potter book he had been asking for years.
Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy) is the reckless pilot of a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber flying out of England during World War II. He is in love with Women Airforce Service Pilot Dorinda Durston (Irene Dunne), a civilian pilot ferrying aircraft across the Atlantic. "Nails" Kilpatrick (James Gleason), Pete's commanding officer, first transfers Pete and his crew to a base in Scotland and then offers him a transfer back to America to be a flying instructor. Dorinda has a feeling that Pete's "number is up" and begs him to accept. Pete agrees, but goes out on one last mission with his best friend Al Yackey (Ward Bond) to check out a German aircraft carrier. Wounded after an attack by an enemy fighter, Pete has his crew bail out before bombing the ship and crashing into the sea.
The film is inspired by the Haditha killings incident that occurred three months after the Battle of Haditha in the Iraq War. On 19 November 2005, 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were killed following an incident where an I.E.D killed one marine and seriously wounded two others and were killed by a group of United States Marines in Haditha, a city in the western Iraq province of Al Anbar. Since the release of the film, however, the US military justice controversially dropped all charges to all Marines involved. The names of the involved parties have been changed in the film.
This war drama, which prefigures the similarly bifurcated Full Metal Jacket, follows the lives of five young Marine inductees from their boot camp training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in 1967 through a tour of duty in the Vietnam War in 1968.
Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor) is assigned to a dangerous mission in testing a new bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The perilous assignment has caused his wife Lucy (Eleanor Parker) to worry for his life and whether their marriage can survive the constant separations.
The USS Charleston (SSN-704), a 688i variant Los Angeles-class submarine, is equipped with a caterpillar drive and is on station following a nuclear exchange, and is under the command of Captain Dwight Towers.
Flagg and Quirt are veteran United States Marines sergeants whose rivalry dates back a number of years. Flagg is commissioned a Captain, he is in command of a company on the front lines of France during World War I. Sergeant Quirt is assigned to Flagg's unit as the senior non-commissioned officer. Flagg and Quirt quickly resume their rivalry, which this time takes its form over the affections of Charmaine, the daughter of the local innkeeper. However, Charmaine's desire for a husband and the reality of war give the two men a common cause.