Now Showing: Kill Zone

 

Kill Zone

Genre: War/Biography/Action

Director: Zack Snyder

Writers: Jimmy Ellis & John Malone

Cast: Chris Pratt, Freddie Stroma, Tim Allen, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Cosmo Jarvis, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Martin Donovan

Plot: Based on a true story of valor

March 25, 2003, Iraq.

One week into the U.S.-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq, Chief Warrant Officer John Ericson (Tim Allen) gives members of the Weapons Company - Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, a rundown of their mission there in Iraq. He explains the concerns of chemical weapons, the capabilities of Saddam’s armed forces and the chance that they themselves could be driving toward their own demise as they move into Baghdad. He looks over at the untested soldiers in front of him - not a single one with a kill to their record. He tells them to remember their training - it will keep them alive. Ericson then goes into specifics of their mission - they are to set up defense positions and take supplies into Al Diwaniyah. It should be a quick mission - a simple in and out.

1st Lt. Brian Chontosh (Chris Pratt) gets his team ready at their humvee. Cpl. Thomas Franklin (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) takes his position as the group’s gunner, standing at the humvee’s .50 caliber machine gun. Lance Cpl. Robert Kerman (Freddie Stroma) gets in the back seat. Cpl. Armand McCormick (Cosmo Jarvis) gets behind the wheel and awaits Chontosh’s orders. Chontosh gets in the front passenger seat and signals McCormick to steer the humvee into the convoy leaving for Al Diwaniyah. On the drive, the motormouth Kerman asks Chontosh, the oldest and most experienced soldier in the group, about his previous service in Bosnia and Libya. Chontosh says there isn’t much to talk about. Kerman asks if Chontosh killed anybody in those wars. While the convoy is stopped to wait for civilians to clear the street, Chontosh says he never had to kill anyone but that a good soldier must always be prepared to pull the trigger if necessary.

Just when Chontosh begins to think it will be an uneventful day for the platoon, he notices the hard-packed desert around them has started to give way to muddy farmland, funneling the vehicles towards a single narrow main road. Chontosh gets a bad feeling as it begins to seem like the convoy is being purposely led into a less than ideal environment. He notices a sizable berm about 50 meters to the east. Suddenly, the entire convoy is under heavy fire coming from the other side of the berm. The convoy has gone straight into an ambush. The humvee next to them is hit by RPG fire, exploding in a ball of flames. Chontosh orders McCormick to find a way out of there. In front of them, a coalition tank is hit, blocking the path out of the "kill zone". With machine gun and RPG fire all around their humvee. McCormick begins to break down, panicking behind the wheel. Chontosh stays calm so that his unit doesn’t freak out. Chontosh orders McCormick to drive towards a small opening in the berm. As McCormick follows the order, Chontosh, seeing that the other two men under his command are frozen, tells them that the best way to get people to stop shooting at you is to shoot them. Franklin blasts away with the humvee’s mounted .50 caliber machine and Kerman fires out the window from the back seat.

The humvee slams through the berm and into a narrow walkway next to an irrigation trench where several Iraqi soldiers stand, confused, with their weapons aimed at the vehicle. Chontosh tells the others to follow his lead. He gets out of the humvee with his rifle and pistol. He empties his rifle, firing at the center mass of the enemy soldiers, dropping several of them. Suddenly, Chontosh’s rifle jams. He takes cover to get it working again. Kerman trades rifles with him so that Chontosh can continue leading their charge. McCormick and Kerman follow Chontosh while Franklin offers cover fire from the truck. Chontosh tosses his rifle after it runs out of ammo and begins using his pistol. Kerman squares his targets carefully as he was trained. Iraqi soldiers begin dropping into the area from the berm above. McCormick picks them off as the drop down. Chontosh picks up an AK47 that belonged to a dead Iraqi soldier and continues running down the trench. He empties the rifle’s clip in the direction of the enemy and then proceeds to pick up another rifle that once belonged to one of the enemy combatants he killed.

Chontosh, Kerman and McCormick continue moving through a mess of bodies - some dead, some near dead and writhing in pain as they bleed out. Franklin continues to provide suppressive fire from the humvee, tearing apart enemy bunkers. They move down another few hundred yards, pushing through exhaustion and breathing heavily. McCormick points out an enemy RPG on the ground. Chontosh, never having used one, asks McCormick what he should do with that. McCormick says that if they don't shoot it, the enemy will just shoot one instead. Chontosh picks up the RPG, aims and fires.

Chontosh and his men have cleared a large section of the trench. The three run back towards their humvee as the grenade explodes in the distance. Kerman trips over an Iraqi soldier pretending to be dead. The Iraqi soldier pulls out a grenade. Chontosh is out of ammo though. He finds a single bullet on the ground. As Chontosh loads the single bullet, his eyes meet the enemy's. Chontosh then shoots the Iraqi soldier in the head before he can pull the pin on the grenade. Kerman injured his leg when he tripped. McCormick and Chontosh help Kerman limp back to the humvee.

When they make it back to the humvee, Chontosh orders McCormick to reverse the vehicle out of the bern. Chontosh calls in their location for reinforcements. He then takes a look out the window of the humvee and notices all the destruction and all the Marines wounded by the ambush. He proceeds to call in for a medivac as well to get the wounded soldiers out of the area. The group anxiously waits with their eyes on the bern, keeping a watch for more enemy soldiers. The tanks in the convoy once again come under fire. Chontosh orders Franklin to fire in the direction the shots are coming from.

Chontosh and his group continue to try to defend the remains of the convoy when McCormick announces that he sees a vehicle coming toward them in the distance. Kerman is excited, thinking it must be reinforcements arriving, but they are all dismayed to find that it is just Oliver North (Martin Donovan), former USMC colonel turned war reporter. Chontosh confronts North, demanding to know how he got there before backup. North admits that he heard the call as well and decided to come and cover the ambush situation for Fox News. Chontosh tells North that things have not calmed down yet and demands that he stay in his vehicle and out of the way when reinforcements arrive. While they continue to wait, a sandstorm begins to overtake the area. The soldiers take cover in the humvee, putting on their protective goggles. Chontosh tells his men that the sandstorm is sure to delay the arrival of more Marines, but that it at least will provide them cover from enemies as well. He tells them to rest up and hopefully reinforcements will be there by morning. Chontosh keeps watch all night, allowing his men to get a little shut-eye.

By morning, the sandstorm has subsided. Chontosh wakes his men up as USMC humvees arrive in the area. Chontosh gets out of the humvee and stands on top to waive down the reinforcements. He looks around the vicinity with a smile on his face knowing that they managed to run out the enemy Iraqi soldiers all by themselves, even if it took a little help from a sandstorm. North and his camera crew begin documenting the events of the night before. He tries to get Chontosh to give a statement to the camera, but he walks right past them.

Back at the base, Ericson gives Chontosh a pat on the back and congratulates him on a job well done. Chontosh says that they didn’t complete the mission, so there is nothing to celebrate or be congratulated for. Ericson notices that Chontosh is a bit shaky. Ericson gives him a razor and a glass of water and tells him to just shave - it will steady his hands. Chontosh does as he’s told and shaves. His hands slowly steady by the time he is done.

After his tour of duty, Chontosh is on leave in San Diego, California. He goes to a local gym by the beach to get in a workout. While lifting some weights, a personal trainer Nicole Carroll (Trieste Kelly Dunn) offers to give him some pointers to improve his form. Chontosh laughs, saying his current form kept him alive in Iraq. Realizing she just critiqued a war veteran, Nicole is embarrassed and leaves him alone. When Chontosh leaves the gym, he finds Nicole outside waiting for him. She apologizes for how she talked to him inside. Chontosh assures her he took no offense to her suggestions, in fact he found it funny. As Nicole is about to walk away, Chontosh tells her that he has some awards ceremony that he has to go to and asks if she’d like to accompany him as his date. Nicole agrees to go.

At the ceremony, Nicole is stunned to learn that Chontosh is actually a guest of honor to receive the Navy Cross, one of the highest military decorations awarded for soldiers who show extraordinary heroism and valor in combat with enemy forces. After he receives the award, Nicole asks Chontosh why he didn’t tell her that he was a war hero and the one to be receiving the award at the ceremony. Chontosh tells her that he doesn’t view it as a big deal, but that maybe he will display it on his wall or something once the war is over, but until then it is just a piece of metal attached to a ribbon to him.