The film opens on a black screen, with white letters describing the date and place, as we hear radio chatter about a "suspicious vehicle" followed by the sound of an explosion and gunfire. We then cut to see two Marines driving, wearing dress blue uniforms, to an unmarked house in the middle of the night and knocking on the door. Finally we cut to Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl (played by Kevin Bacon) searching on his computer the casualty report for the Middle East. After a couple clips of Michael running through the woods, service members' coffins getting put into an airplane, and some driving. We find the Lt. Col. at work giving a presentation to several other Marines. Then the Lt. Col. makes his way home with his family for a short while, then the camera cuts to five Marines in woodland MarPat camouflage taking US Flag draped coffins off of an airplane in the rain. After a short clip of the Lt. Col. eating dinner with his family, we find him looking at the casualty report yet again but this time he writes down some information. The movie then cuts to him in an interview with a higher ranking Marine and he asks to escort a Marine named PFC (Private First Class) Chance Phelps. He says it is because the PFC is from his hometown, then we see him discuss his choice with his wife. After he explains that he is doing this only because the PFC is from his hometown and has no other meaning, the film cuts to several people doing medical procedures on a dead body which one can assume to be PFC Phelps. After the morticians are shown, the film then cuts to the Lt. Col. leaving and telling his wife goodbye.
In 2003, Maya, a young U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officer, has spent her entire brief career, since graduating from college and being recruited for the agency, focused solely on gathering intelligence related to Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, following the terrorist organization's attack on the United States in 2001. She is reassigned to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan to work with a fellow officer, Dan. During the first months of her assignment, Maya often accompanies Dan to a black site for his continuing interrogation of Ammar al-Baluchi, a detainee with suspected links to several of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks. Dan subjects the detainee to approved interrogation techniques, i.e., stress positions, hooding, subjection to deafening noise, sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and humiliation. After failing to get al-Baluchi to give up information on an attack in Saudi Arabia, he and Maya eventually trick Ammar into divulging that an old acquaintance, who is using the alias Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, is working as a personal courier for bin Laden. Other detainees corroborate this, with some claiming Abu Ahmed delivers messages between bin Laden and a man known as Abu Faraj al-Libbi. In 2005, Abu Faraj is apprehended by the CIA and local police in Pakistan. Maya is allowed to interrogate him, but he continues to deny knowing a courier with such a name. Maya interprets this as an attempt by Faraj to conceal the importance of Abu Ahmed.
The American Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Haynes detects and attacks a German U-boat that is on its way to rendezvous with a German merchant raider in the South Atlantic Ocean. Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum), a former officer in the merchant marine now an active duty lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve, has recently taken command of the Haynes, even though he is still recovering from injuries incurred in the sinking of his previous ship. Before the U-boat is first spotted, one sailor questions the new captain's fitness and ability. However, as the battle begins, Murrell shows himself to be a match for wily U-boat Kapitän von Stolberg (Curt Jürgens) (portrayed as not being enamoured with the Nazi regime) in a prolonged and deadly battle of wits that tests both men and their crews. Each man grows to respect his opponent.
Growing up in Texas, Chris Kyle is taught by his father how to shoot a rifle and hunt deer. Years later, Chris has become a rodeo cowboy and returns home to find his girlfriend in bed with a stranger. After telling her to leave, he is mulling it over with his brother when he sees news coverage of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and decides to enlist in the navy. There he is eventually accepted for special training, becoming a U.S. Navy SEALs sniper.
On the evening of September 11, 2012, the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a group of Islamic militants attack on the American diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. They kill four Americans, including a US Ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. A security team of six members fight to defend Americans but only partially succeed.
In post-Soviet Russia, civil war erupts as a result of armed conflict in Chechnya. Military units, loyal to Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Radchenko, have taken control of a nuclear missile installation and are threatening nuclear war if either the American or Russian governments attempt to confront him.
Dieter Dengler, a German-born U.S. Navy pilot in squadron VA-145, is shot down in his A-1 Skyraider over Laos in February 1966, while on a combat mission. He survives the crash only to be pursued, and ultimately captured, by the Pathet Lao. Dengler is given the chance for leniency by the Province Governor if he signs a document condemning America, but he refuses. He is tortured and taken to a prison camp. There he meets fellow American military soldiers and pilots, such as Gene DeBruin and Duane W. Martin, along with Y.C., Procet, and Phisit, some of whom have been captive for years. Dengler begins planning an escape, much to the disbelief of his fellow combatants, who have been downtrodden through physical and psychological torture by the camp guards.
As three sailors – Gabey, Chip, and Ozzie – begin their shore leave, Gabey falls in love with the picture of "Miss Turnstiles", who is actually Ivy Smith. The sailors race around New York attempting to find her in the brief period they have ("New York, New York").
Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in a safehouse in Nairobi, Kenya. When Powell learns that the group plans to carry out a suicide attack, her objective is changed to kill the terrorists. Drone pilot Steve Watts (Paul) targets the safehouse for destruction but reports a nine-year-old girl entering the kill zone. Powell contacts politicians and lawyers to determine whether or not to take action.
The film focuses on Antwone "Fish" Fisher (Derek Luke), a temperamental young man with a violent history who is serving in the U.S. Navy. His father was killed before he was born and his teenage mother, Eva Mae Fisher, ended up arrested soon after and put in jail, where she gave birth to him. He was then placed in an orphanage until such time as she was released and could claim him. Since she had not yet claimed him, at the age of two Antwone was placed in a foster home run by a supposedly religious couple, Mr. and Mrs. Tate (Ellis Williams and Novella Nelson). There, Antwone faced mental and physical abuse by Mrs. Tate for many years until he finally left the home at age fourteen. After living out on the streets for the next few years, he decided to join the U.S. Navy to make something out of his life. However the rough life he had as child caused him to have a violent temper at this point.
The World War II U.S. Navy submarine commander P.J. Richardson (Clark Gable) has an obsession with a Japanese destroyer that has sunk three boats in the Bungo Straits, including his previous command. He persuades the Navy Board to give him a new submarine command with the provision that his executive officer, also known as the XO or the "exec", be someone who has just returned from active sea patrol. He single-mindedly trains the crew of his new boat, the USS Nerka, to return to the Bungo Straits and sink the destroyer, captained by a crafty ex-submariner nicknamed Bungo Pete. Richardson's executive officer, Lieutenant Jim Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster), is worried about the safety of his boat and his crew. Bledsoe is also seething with resentment at Richardson and the Navy leadership for denying him command of the Nerka, which he believes should have been his.
The film follows big band leader Glenn Miller (1904–1944) (James Stewart) from his early days in the music business in 1929 through to his 1944 death when the airplane he was flying in was lost over the English Channel during World War II. Prominent placement in the film is given to Miller's courtship and marriage to Helen Burger (June Allyson), and various cameos by actual musicians who were colleagues of Miller.
The American destroyer USS Bedford (DLG-113) detects a Soviet submarine in the GIUK gap near the Greenland coast. (Specifically, they are in Greenland territorial waters at the entrance to the J.C. Jacobsen Fjord, which is due northwest from Iceland.) Although the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are not at war, Captain Eric Finlander (Richard Widmark) harries his prey mercilessly, while civilian photojournalist Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier) and NATO naval advisor, Commodore (and ex-World War II U-boat captain) Wolfgang Schrepke (Eric Portman), look on with mounting alarm.
À l'époque de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Nous voyons Bugs en train de lire un livre ayant trait à la légende des lutins, nommés gremlins, qui sabotent les avions. Il en voit un en train de commencer sa sale besogne. Bugs se fait écraser le pied puis, assommé, tirer la langue et, enfin, à nouveau écraser le pied avant d'être aux commandes d'un avion démarré par le gremlin. Bugs manque trois fois de tomber de l'avion avant de descendre.
In 1943, at the Ministry of Information in London, war correspondents Elmer "Brockie" Brockhurst (Charles Bickford) and James Carwood (John Ridgely) of United News attend the daily briefing on bombing missions. While the RAF representative announces light losses, the PRO of the Eighth Air Force causes grumbling when his report reveals a record 48 bombers shot down bombing an undisclosed industrial target. Carwood questions whether any target could be worth such losses, but Brockhurst retorts that the U.S. 5th Bomb Division commander, Brig. Gen. "Casey" Dennis (Clark Gable), loves the war. Brockhurst travels to the base of the 32nd Bomb Group, where Dennis has his headquarters, and observes B-17s taking off on another major strike. He tries to milk information about the arrest of a decorated (and highly publicized) pilot, Captain Jenks, from T/Sgt. Evans (Van Johnson), an assistant in Dennis's office, but Evans cordially rebuffs him.