Brandon King, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, leads a U.S. Army squad stationed in Tikrit during the Iraq War. The men are acutely aware they have only 28 days left before returning home, a countdown that shapes their tense days on duty at a checkpoint. When a car full of insurgents speeds past and gunfire erupts, the squad pursues them into an alley, sparking a brutal firefight. As the dust settles, two Humvees are ripped apart by rocket-propelled grenades, and the ambush rips through the group in devastating fashion. In the chaos, a heroic move by Pvt. Rico Rodriguez saves PFC Tommy Burgess from a second RPG blast, but Rico is severely wounded in the process. The firefight claims another casualty as Paul "Preacher" Colston—Tommy’s close friend—is fatally shot in the neck and jaw, a heartbreaking moment that is witnessed by Tommy and the rest of the squad.
Back home in Brazos, the men carry the weight of what happened. Brandon and Steve Shriver, a fellow sergeant, are honored in a quiet ceremony with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, a ceremony that masks the quiet tremors of what they’ve seen. A U.S. Senator approaches Brandon, offering help should he need it. The true toll of combat becomes apparent as Steve’s PTSD surfaces—he drinks heavily, digs a foxhole in his front yard, and strikes his fiancée, while Tommy drives home intoxicated after a fight with his wife. The strainRipples through the group, casting doubt on what “home” means after what they’ve endured.
Seeking some relief, the trio heads to a remote cabin, or “the ranch,” to decompress. They pass the time with drinks and jokes, though Tommy’s desire to celebrate his upcoming wedding collides with the grim reality waiting just beyond their laughter. Steve reasserts his sniping prowess by silencing the birthday cards with a practiced shot, a stark reminder of how war has sharpened their reflexes and sharpened their nerves. Yet the drums of duty beat again when Brandon is unexpectedly ordered back to active duty under the military’s controversial stop-loss policy, which would force soldiers to return to war even after their tours were supposedly complete. Refusing to go back, he deserts, going AWOL.
Michelle, Abbie Cornish the devoted partner who has stood by him, offers to accompany him to Washington, D.C. to see the Senator. Their road trip becomes a test of trust as Brandon makes calls to the Senator’s office and learns that his fugitive status has doomed any potential help. In their search for a legal way out, they visit the families of the fallen and cross paths with another AWOL soldier who points them toward a lawyer who can forge discharge papers so Brandon can disappear into Canada. They also meet Rico Rodriguez, the injured soldier who bears the scars of the ambush—loss of an arm and leg, facial burns, and blindness in one eye—an ever-present reminder of the cost of their choices.
Steve, now back in uniform, arrives to pull Brandon back into the fight and reunites with Michelle, who is furious at his decision to re-enlist. Despite this, Steve volunteers to return to Iraq, and Michelle refuses to stand by as their relationship fractures under the strain. The journey to obtain forged documents continues in earnest, and the three of them find themselves in New York City where a lawyer offers forged papers in exchange for money. Tommy’s despair deepens into tragedy when he takes his own life after his discharge; Brandon pays respects at his grave, and a bitter confrontation with Steve at the cemetery underscores how deeply the war has changed them.
Brandon and his family push toward the Mexican border, hoping to leave the war behind. Yet in the end, he realizes he cannot abandon the life he has known—the ties to his unit, the memory of his friends, and the sense that some battles will always follow you. The film closes with a bus carrying soldiers, including Brandon and Steve, heading back toward the front lines, a stark acknowledgement that the war’s reach extends far beyond the battlefield and that the path to peace is often haunted by choices made under pressure.
