Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx star in this biographical war drama directed by Sam Mendes. Anthony Swofford (Gyllenhaal) attends United States Marine Corps recruit training in 1989. After a brutal spell in boot camp during which Swofford and his fellow recruits are systematically prepared for conflict, those who survived are dispatched to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield in the Gulf War.

However, although they are eager for combat, they are forced to wait and train to take part in a war they do not understand. Bored and frustrated and stuck in the middle of nowhere, the young soldiers rely on their shared macabre sense of humour for entertainment as they wait for war.