Bones Conway and Jack Kaufman are the kind of slackers who work at the Crazy Boys discount electronics store in Glendale, California, where they spend as much time joking around as they do fixing things, always dreaming about someday opening their own shop. Their shared ambition isn’t enough to keep them from a firing, as they’re dismissed after destroying a rack of television sets, a mistake that sets them both on a new path.
Seeking a quick start-up fund, they sign up for the United States Army Reserves, lured by the famous slogan, “One weekend a month, two weeks a year.” Bones chooses water purification for their field, hoping a safer, less combat-heavy role aligns with his brother’s pool-man background, while the two friends head back toward Glendale with a sense of reckless optimism. During training, they cross paths with Christine Jones, a determined recruit who longs for infantry, and Fred Ostroff, a dental student who is visibly nervous about the whole enterprise. The quartet nicknames themselves the “waterboys,” a tongue-in-cheek badge of their unconventional unit.
Unbeknownst to them, Libya has plans to invade Chad, and the Reservists are suddenly called to serve overseas. They first attempt a discharge by pretending to be homosexuals, a plan that backfires and leaves them still in uniform. In Chad, they struggle to fit in with the full-time soldiers, especially Sgt. Stern, whose expertise and demeanor highlight the difference between the two groups. On a routine resupply mission, their convoy is ambushed by a Libyan commando squad, and the Reservists are presumed killed in action.
The men find themselves captured and spending a night in a Libyan POW camp, where they cross paths with Stern, who has been shot and captured as well. He briefs them on his mission to rendezvous with two HALOed Fast Attack vehicles and to destroy mobile Scud launchers armed with chemical warheads aimed at American bases. After an airstrike, the foursome and Stern escape, locate the missiles, and coordinate with American forces to finish the mission. They face a brutal battle, painting the missiles with a laser for an incoming airstrike, and when the strike goes off-target, the Reservists are forced to take matters into their own hands.
Bones wields an AT4 anti-tank launcher and destroys the Scud launcher base in a single, decisive strike, though a misfire sends one rocket spinning backward, leaving them to rely on their last remaining rocket. The group returns home as heroes, and they end up opening an electronics shop next to an Army recruiting station—where two men who resemble their earlier selves stand with wary looks about joining the reserves.
A fleeting moment of recognition caps their journey, including a cameo by the uncredited Link during the film’s action, a reminder of how far they’ve come from their days at Crazy Boys.
