Welcome Home, Soldier Boys

They purchase a Cadillac for $5,500 and load it with weapons for their road trip. The four veterans, Danny, Shooter, Kid and Fatback, prepare for a reckless journey that will expose their lingering violence and camaraderie.

They pick up a girl who joins their party, but Danny attempts to assault her. She struggles and is thrown from the car at 65 mph, dying on the roadside.

The gang visits a string of old settlements and later gathers in a local high school gym to watch a basketball game with the locals. They reminisce about their past while the violence behind them simmers beneath their banter.

They check into a motel where they are joined by various women who drink and talk, and they begin to discuss their pasts. The night reveals their camaraderie and simmering tensions.

The group makes a deal with the sheriff to use his jail cells as a place to stay for the night, but the encounter plays out like routine law enforcement rather than hospitality. The tension hints at a fragile social order.

The car breaks down and requires repairs totaling $1,400. After a heated argument, they manage to pay and resume their journey.

The gang reaches a diner where they seem to have won $50, but the establishment cannot settle the bill. They steal from the cash register, and the owner is forced to prepare meals to recoup the cost.

Danny vandalizes a gas pump to steal fuel, drawing a shot from a passerby with a shotgun. The gang returns fire in retaliation, escalating the confrontation into violence.

The group arms themselves and goes on a killing spree, slaughtering villagers and destroying vehicles and houses. The carnage triggers intense memories of Vietnam as they dress in uniforms and claim the village as their own.

They treat the village as their own fortress, using their uniforms to establish a compound-like hold over the area. The line between past battlefield and present chaos blurs as they terrorize the inhabitants.

National Guard forces arrive with armored vehicles and a helicopter to quell the siege, escalating the confrontation. The troops set up a heavy, militarized presence over the village.

The group shoots down the helicopter with a rocket launcher, prompting the Guards to respond with gas bombs that choke the area. The confrontation grows more deadly as gas masks and gunfire fill the streets.

Guardsmen in gas masks advance as the gang throws grenades and fights back, but one by one the four members are shot dead by the guardsmen. The village sinks into silence as the massacre reaches its brutal end.

The final image shows an unknown woman walking through the carnage while Danny's voice-over reads the Oath of Enlistment at a recruitment centre. It provides a haunting coda to the veterans' last voyage.