Bullet in the Head

In 1967 Hong Kong, Ben, Paul, and Frank are entrenched as a street gang. Ben becomes engaged to Jane, and Frank pays for the wedding reception. After a brutal clash with rival gang leader Ringo, the trio exacts revenge and decides to flee Hong Kong for Vietnam.

The friends load contraband for a Hong Kong smuggler and head toward Vietnam. They reach Saigon by boat, but a Vietcong suicide bomber destroys their cargo while targeting ARVN officers. They are arrested and beaten, until the bomber is revealed and executed in front of them.

They meet Luke, a hitman working for Leong, who dreams of escaping Vietnam with Sally. Luke joins the group as an uneasy ally and proposes a way out, though danger hangs over their plans. The alliance is fragile, built on a shared but risky hope.

The rescue plan to save Sally spirals into danger and ends in a nightclub shootout. During the chaos, Paul discovers a hidden box of gold in Leong's office and steals it. Sally is wounded as the confrontation unfolds, and loyalties shift under pressure.

The next morning by the river, Sally dies as they board a boat to flee. Ben and Frank guard the others while Paul clings to the gold, and the group is attacked by gangsters and ARVN forces. Luke allows Sally’s body to drift as they fight to reach safety.

Ben, Paul, and Frank are captured by the Vietcong and brought to a brutal concentration camp. The Vietcong confiscate the gold and interrogate them mercilessly; Paul pretends to work for the CIA to save the others. Frank is forced to kill other prisoners, pushing him toward a breaking point.

With the arrival of Americans led by Luke, the trio escapes the camp. Paul breaks into the field with the gold, while Frank, wounded, follows behind seeking help and safety. The escape cements new loyalties and a renewed pursuit of the money.

In the field, Paul urges quiet as Frank screams in pain, but Frank’s fear tips him off and Paul shoots him in the back to quiet him. Luke arrives, finds Frank alive but changed, and loads him into a helicopter for extraction. The group continues to fracture as the dream of escape slips away.

Paul pursues revenge by massacring villagers in a river village, an atrocity Ben witnesses in horror. Ben is saved by monks and makes his way back toward Saigon, haunted by what he saw. Luke later informs him that Frank is alive, but transformed into a heroin-addicted contract killer.

Luke escorts Ben to see Frank, who is now a broken, heroin-addicted killer. After a tense encounter, Ben shoots Frank to end his misery.

Ben travels back to Hong Kong and reunites with Jane, who has given birth to their child. The reunion brings a rare quiet moment after years of violence.

Meanwhile, Paul has become a successful businessman, prosperous on the surface but emotionally distant from his old friends. He seems indifferent to the ruin caused by their past.

Ben confronts Paul on a crowded city street, accusing him of destroying their friendship and their lives. The confrontation grows increasingly hostile, spilling out into the urban maze around them.

The confrontation escalates into a high-speed car chase that ends on a crowded pier. In the ensuing fight, Paul is killed and Ben staggers away, scarred and changed by the price of their past.

In the aftermath, Ben bears the weight of what happened as he moves forward. The story closes on a bleak note about friendship, greed, and the cost of violence, with Hong Kong as the backdrop for a hard-won quiet.