Apocalypse Now

Saigon.

Shit.

I'm still only in Saigon.

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

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 the jungle.

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.

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 coming.

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 Captain Willard, 505th Battalion? - Affirmative.

- 173rd Airborne? - Yeah.

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

We have orders to escort you to the airfield.

- What are the charges? - Sir?

What'd I do?

There's no charges, Captain.

You have orders to report to COMSEC 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 hold of him good.

- We're gonna take a shower, Captain. -

- In we go. - Now 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.

Insult me again and I'll kick your ass.

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.

And 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.

Do you want a cigarette?

No, thank you, sir.

Captain, have you ever seen this gentleman before?

No, sir.

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

Not personally.

You've worked a lot on your own, haven't you, Captain?

Yes, sir, I have.

Your report specifies Intelligence,

Counterintelligence with COMSEC, I Corps.

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

Did you not work for the CIA in I 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 noticed that you have...

a bad hand, there. Are you wounded?

I had a little fishing accident on R&R, sir.

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

But you're feeling fit? 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.

Right, well, 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.

Jesus.

Operations officer, 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 verified as Colonel Kurtz's voice.

I watched a snail...

crawl along the edge...

of a straight razor.

That's my dream.

It'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 officers

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 humor.

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.

Colonel Kurtz is 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 Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba,

follow it, learn what you can along the way.

When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by

whatever means available

and terminate the Colonel's command.

Terminate the Colonel?

He's out there operating without any decent restraint,

totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct.

And he is still in the field, commanding troops.

Terminate with extreme prejudice.

You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist...

nor will it ever exist.

How many people had I already killed?

There were those six that I knew about for sure.

Close enough to blow their last breath in my face.

But this time it was an American and an officer.

That wasn't supposed to make any difference to me, but it did.

Shit, charging a man with murder in this place

was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.

I took the mission. What the hell else was I gonna do?

But I really didn't know what I'd do when I found him.

Did you check the tank?

Yeah.

I was being ferried down the coast in a Navy PBR.

A type of plastic patrol boat, a pretty common sight on the rivers.

They said it was a good way to pick up information and move

without drawing a lot of attention.

And that was okay.

I needed the air and the time.