Star Leaf

Tim and James, two Marine snipers, are stationed in the rugged Hindu Kush with a high-stakes assignment to take out a Taliban leader. The mission grows perilous when a young child wanders into view and James takes a shot that unintentionally ends the child’s life. The event leaves both men haunted and marks the beginning of enduring guilt and strain on their partnership.

Back home, the tragedy lingers as guilt and shock ripple through Tim and James. James grapples with survivor's guilt and mounting PTSD, while Tim supports him but also wrestles with his own pain. The bond between the snipers strains under the weight of what happened in Afghanistan.

One year later, Tim and James are joined by Tim’s girlfriend Martha as they embark on a road trip toward La Push, Washington, hoping the coast will help James confront his PTSD. The journey tests their friendship as memory, trauma, and the search for healing intersect with the open road. The landscape offers respite, but the memories threaten to pull them apart.

The trio stops at a remote biker’s house run by Seth Guardrail Slaughter, who provides a map to a legendary extraterrestrial strain of cannabis. The encounter shifts the mission from healing to chasing a surreal myth. The map marks the start of a strange detour from their original purpose.

Following the map, they press onward toward the fabled Garden of Weeden, a grove rumored to harbor the Star Leaf. They uncover the extraterrestrial marijuana and feel the promise and danger of the discovery. The mood shifts from curiosity to reverence as the grove’s mystique deepens.

Martha violates the grove’s first rule by using a cell phone, and the group gathers around the campfire to spark the Star Leaf. James’s Afghan memories resurface as eerie voices echo in his head, and a UFO briefly crosses the night sky. The line between reality and the plant’s effects becomes blurred as visions intensify.

Ranger Dave appears at the campfire, offering a curiously mythic oral history of the Star Leaf and its spiritual effects. His presence adds to the unsettled mood, suggesting danger and salvation may be tangled together. The group’s trust in what they’re experiencing grows more precarious.

That night, James is awakened by glowing orbs inside his tent and the group endures a cascade of alien encounters that force them to flee. Tim reveals he stole Star Leaf clippings, sharpening the tension and raising the stakes. The foursome scatters through the woods, each man haunted in his own way.

The foursome splits as they race through the trees, with James wrestling violent PTSD flashbacks while trying to stay together. Ranger Dave and Seth step in, offering James a path to redemption: return the stolen Star Leaf to the grove in hopes of healing old wounds. The pursuit and memory threaten to overwhelm them.

In a decisive act of courage, James returns the Star Leaf to the grove, triggering a hard-won healing from Afghanistan’s memories and helping Tim start to move beyond his own pain. The bond among the group strengthens as they confront their shared trauma together. A cautious hope rises from the night’s ordeal.

The foursome finally reaches the beach, where they ride the ocean’s waves and signal a quiet renewal. The coastal landscape offers a new horizon for healing and rebuilding trust after their ordeal. The journey shifts from survival to a tentative celebration of what they can still build together.

The film closes on a note of possibility as Tim, James, and Martha look toward a future beyond war and memory. Their experiences—embedded in trauma, myth, and redemption—hint at deeper bonds and a hopeful path forward. The ending leaves them hopeful, tempered by memory but ready to move forward.