Eric Mendoza

Basic Eric Mendoza

In Panama, a team of Army Rangers led by Master Sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson) engage in a jungle training exercise that involves live ammunition. Sergeant Ray Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) emerges from the jungle carrying wounded Second Lieutenant Levi Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi). The two men are pursued by Sergeant Mueller (Dash Mihok), who is shooting at them, and Dunbar kills Mueller in self-defense. Although no other bodies are found, West's team are presumed dead.

Dunbar refuses to talk to Military Police investigator Captain Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) and insists on speaking to a fellow Ranger from outside the base, drawing an "8" on a piece of paper. The base commander Colonel Bill Styles (Timothy Daly) calls in his friend, and an experienced interrogator, DEA agent Tom Hardy (John Travolta) who is also an ex-Ranger, and assigns him to aid Osborne.

West was infamous for being a ruthless, tough-as-nails sergeant. One of the trainees, Jay Pike (Taye Diggs), has earned West's wrath for not following the orders, and may have staged the murder.

Kendall, son of a Joint Chiefs of Staff general, is a homosexual and claims West hated him and may have ordered a "training accident" on him. He claims West died when hit in the back with a white phosphorus grenade. When Pike confessed to the crime, Dunbar wanted to turn him in; a firefight ensued, in which most of the trainees were killed.