Apocalypse Now

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend

The end

Of our elaborate plans

The end

Of everything that stands

The end

No safety nor surprise

The end

I'll never look into your eyes

Again

Can you picture

What will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need

Of some

Stranger's hand

In a

Desperate land

Lost in a Roman

Wilderness of pain

And all the children

Are insane

All the children

Are insane

Waiting for the summer rain

Yeah

Saigon.

Shit.

I'm still only in Saigon.

Every time, I think I'm gonna wake up back in thejungle.

When I was home after my first tour, it was worse.

I'd wake up, and there'd be nothing.

I hardly said a word to my wife until I said yes to a divorce.

When I was here, I wanted to be there.

When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into thejungle.

I'm here a week now.

Waiting for a mission...

getting softer.

Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker.

And every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger.

Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck Yeah

Come on, babe, come on now Livin'life, yeah

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck Yeah

Fuck, yeah, come on, baby

Fuck, baby, fuck, fuck

Oh, yeah, oh, fuck

Yeah, do it, yeah, come on

Yeah, all right

Yeah

Yeah, yeah

Yeah

Yeah, yeah

Yeah

Everyone gets everything he wants.

I wanted a mission...

and for my sins, they gave me one.

Brought it up to me like room service.

Captain Willard? Are you in there?

Yeah, I'm comin'.

It was a real choice mission.

And when it was over, I'd never want another.

- What do you want? - Are you all right, Captain?

What does it look like?

- Are you Willard, 505th Battalion? - Affiirmative.

- 173rd Airborne? - Yeah.

- Assigned to SOG? - Hey, buddy, gonna shut the door?

We have orders to escort you to the airfiield.

- What are the charges? - Sir?

- What'd I do? - There's no charges, Captain.

You have orders to report to Com-Sec Intelligence at Nha Trang.

- I see. - All right?

- Nha Trang, for me? - That's right.

Come on, Captain. You still have a few hours to get cleaned up.

- I'm not feeling too good. - Captain?

Dave, come here and give me a hand. We got a dead one.

Come on, Captain. Let's take a shower.

- Don't be an ass. - Get a hold of him good.

We're gonna take a shower, Captain. In we go.

Stand underneath this, Captain.

I was going to the worst place in the world...

and I didn't even know it yet.

Weeks away and hundreds of miles up a river...

that snaked through the war like a main circuit cable...

plugged straight into Kurtz.

It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker...

of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz's memory...

any more than being back in Saigon was an accident.

There is no way to tell his story without telling my own.

If his story is really a confession...

- Captain Willard reporting, sir. - Then so is mine.

- Captain. Good. Come on in. - Thank you, sir.

- Stand at ease. - General.

You want a cigarette?

No, thank you, sir.

- Have you ever seen this man before? - No, sir.

- Met the general or myself? - No, sir.

Not personally.

- You've worked a lot on your own? - Yes, sir, I have.

Your report specifiies intelligence...

counterintelligence with Com-Sec, "l" Corps.

I'm not presently disposed to discuss those operations, sir.

Did you not work for the CIA in "l" Corps?

No, sir.

Did you not assassinate a government tax collector...

Quang Tri Province, June 18, 1968?

Captain?

Sir, I am unaware of any such activity or operation...

nor would I be disposed to discuss such an operation...

if it did, in fact, exist, sir.

I thought we'd have a bite of lunch while we talk.

I hope you brought a good appetite, Captain.

I notice that you have a bad hand there. You wounded?

I had a little fiishing accident on R and R, sir.

- Fishing on R and R? - Yes, sir.

But you're feeling fiit? You're ready for duty?

Yes, General. Very much so, sir.

Well, let's see what we have here, roast beef, and usually it's not bad.

Try some, Jerry, and pass it around.

To save a little time, we might pass both ways.

Captain, I don't know how you feel about this shrimp...

but if you'll eat it...

you'll never have to prove your courage in any other way.

I swear, why don't I just take a piece here?

Captain, you've heard of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz?

Yes, sir, I've heard the name.

Oh, Jesus! Operations offiicer, Fifth Special Forces.

Luke, would you play that tape for the captain, please?

- Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. - Listen to this carefully, Captain.

October 9, 0430 hours, sector Peter, Victor, King.

These were monitored out of Cambodia.

This has been verifiied as Col. Kurtz's voice.

I watched a snail...

crawl along the edge of a straight razor.

That's my dream.

That's my nightmare.

Crawling, slithering...

along the edge...

of a straight razor...

and surviving.

Transmission 11, received '68, December 30, 0500 hours.

Sector King, Zulu, King.

But we must kill them.

We must incinerate them.

Pig after pig.

Cow after cow.

Village after village. Army after army.

And they call me an assassin.

What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin?

They lie. They lie, and we have to be merciful...

for those who lie.

Those nabobs.

I hate them.

I do hate them.

Walt Kurtz was one of the most outstanding offiicers...

this country's ever produced.

He was brilliant. He was outstanding in every way.

And he was a good man, too, a humanitarian man.

A man of wit and humour.

He joined the Special Forces.

And after that his...

ideas, methods...

became...

unsound.

Unsound.

Now he's crossed into Cambodia with this...

Montagnard army of his that worship...

the man like a god...

and follow every order, however ridiculous.

Well, I have some other shocking news to tell you.

Col. Kurtz was about to be arrested for murder.

I don't follow, sir. Murdered who?

Kurtz had ordered the execution of some Vietnamese intelligence agents...

men he believed were double agents.

So he took matters into his own hands.

Well, you see, Willard...

in this war, things get confused out there.

Power, ideals, the old morality...

and practical military necessity.

But out there with these natives...

it must be a temptation to...

be God.

Because there's a conflict in every human heart...

between the rational and the irrational...

between good and evil...

and good does not always triumph.

Sometimes...

the dark side...

overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.

Every man has got a breaking point.

You and I have them.

Walt Kurtz has reached his.

And very obviously, he has gone insane.

Yes, sir. Very much so, sir. Obviously insane.

Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a navy patrol boat...

pick up Col. Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba...

follow it, learn what you can along the way.