Canopy

Flight Lieutenant Jim wakes to find himself hanging from a tree by his parachute after being shot down over the jungles of Singapore. He disentangles himself, discovers his pistol is missing, and salvages his survival gear before venturing deeper into the jungle as he narrowly avoids a Japanese patrol.

Jim encounters Seng, a Chinese Dalforce guerrilla fighter separated from his unit. Despite the language barrier, they decide to travel together and help each other reach friendly territory.

They are nearly spotted by a Japanese patrol. Seng is distressed by the corpse of a comrade, and when Seng is shot in the abdomen, Jim rushes to his aid. He improvises emergency surgery with bare hands to retrieve the bullet and stabilize Seng, all while keeping him quiet to avoid drawing attention.

With only bare hands and a sparse survival kit, Jim retrieves the bullet from Seng's abdomen and performs emergency surgery. He rips part of his pants to wrap Seng's waist and improvised bandage, all while keeping Seng from making sounds that could alert patrols.

Later, Seng wakes Jim to warn him that a Japanese patrol is walking by. The two are forced to defend themselves as they battle venomous insects from the tree where they sleep before continuing their trek.

As they settle for the night, Seng retrieves a photo from Jim's pant leg pocket, a sign of Jim's life back home. The sight triggers a reverie in Jim about his wife, grounding his resolve to survive and reach safety.

The next morning, Jim and Seng share a moment as they learn each other's names. This small exchange marks a fragile bond forming between two unlikely allies amid the peril of war.

Japanese soldiers locate the pair and separate them, breaking their fragile alliance and forcing each toward a perilous path in occupied territory.

Seng is killed in cold blood by a patrol officer, and Jim is dragged away to a Japanese base, watching the jungle recede behind him as his escape seems to fail.

Jim is transported in a truck toward the Japanese base, his bid for freedom seemingly doomed as the landscape of war passes by out of reach.

A time skip shows Jim back home in Australia, standing motionless in a field of wheat. The distant sounds of the Singapore front creep back in again, hinting at memories that won't fade.

The final image suggests Jim remains haunted by the events in Singapore, his memories returning like whispers among the wheat and leaving the viewer with a sense of unresolved trauma.