Rules Of Engagement

Synopsis: Hayes Hodges finds his career aspirations dashed when he's wounded in Vietnam combat. He then returns to America and becomes a disillusioned lawyer who goes up against the service to defend Colonel Terry Childers, who is accused of inciting an incident that leaves many demonstrators dead. Hodges in no position to decline: Childers heroically saved his life back in Vietnam.
Genre: Drama, Thriller, War
Director(s): William Friedkin
Production: Paramount Pictures
  1 win & 2 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.4
Metacritic:
45
Rotten Tomatoes:
36%
R
Year:
2000
128 min
Website
959 Views


Ca Lu, half a click that way,

two-nine-zero.

- I say we go right up the middle.

- Negative.

One round flank up the hill, the

other one right through the swamp.

Heads, you get the hill.

Tails, you get the swamp.

Flip the motherf***er.

- See you in Ca Lu.

- All right.

Delta Two, what's your SITREP?

Over.

What do you got,

Gibson?

Nothing, sir.

Delta One, Delta Two, SITREP. Over.

Two-one, contact!

Contact way out!

Cease fire! Cease fire!

Go, go, go.

Let's get 'em!

Come outta there!

Put your hands on your head!

Get on your knees now!

Come on!

Down, down.

Come on out of there!

Now!

How many you slopes are out here?

Huh? What's your unit? What's in it?

Tuan, get over here!

Talk to these motherfuckers!

Find out how many of them are here!

Where are they? What's in it?

Talk to me, goddamn it!

Aah!

Two, this is One Actual.

Where are you?

Uuh!

Other side of the tree line.

I'm in the water unable to withdraw.

Unable to withdraw! I'm calling

in a fire mission on this position!

- Hurry up and drop that arty!

- They're all over!

Go left! Get out there!

Tell this man to get on that radio

and pull his men off Hodges.

Tell him to break contact

and move his men north of Ca Lu!

Tell him I ain't playin'!

Pull his men off Hodges now!

I ain't bullshittin'

with you.

Either you call your men off

Hodges,

or this motherf***er's

dead and you're next.

Last warnin '!

Uuh!

Call your men

off Hodges now!

If he does, he can go.

He's got my word on that.

If you don't,

I'll kill you where you stand.

Two, this is

One Actual. You still with me?

Crank off a pop-up

if you're still alive.

You got a reprieve, you hear me?

You don't get to die today.

"You got your "Hail Mary".

Hey! It's the colonel

with his cover on!

All right!

Make way, make way!

- I guess the drinks are on me.

- All right!

At ease!

Listen up.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the reason we're all here,

Colonel Hayes Hodges.

He's calling it a career after

All right, all right.

Colonel, we got you a gift

and a surprise,

so don't act like

you're not coming up here.

Speech! Speech! Speech!

Speech! Speech!

Speech!

Hey, my man!

Good to see you.

You damn well better be. I came

halfway 'round the world for this.

Hey, get up here.

Speech!

The sword, Colonel.

You know the story, Hayes.

Marine Lieutenant Presley O'Banion

defeated the Barbary pirates...

on the shores ofTripoli

in 1805.

Out of gratitude, the pasha

gave him the Mameluke sword.

Marine officers have

carried one ever since.

It's the symbol

ofa warrior,

and you are a warrior.

The best I ever served with.

This man's been riding a desk

for the past 28 years,

but not because he wanted to.

He knows how to fight.

It's in his blood. Ah-ooh!

What are you

gonna do now, Colonel?

Well, uh... Well.

Heh! No more wars to fight,

no more trials to lose.

So I expect I'll do

some teaching at V.M.I.

I will recon the local restaurants

in a concerted effort...

to find out what civilians eat.

Of course, I intend to continue

serving my country...

by honorably depleting

the trout streams...

of the Southern United States

with my fly rod!

That's about it.

Let's get outta here.

- I missed you.

- Yeah, I missed you too.

How's the kid,

the smart Hodges?

You know, he studies more than

any two people. I never see him.

- You gotta fix that.

- Yeah.

- Got my orders.

- Oh, yeah? What?

Got command of the 24th

Marine Expeditionary Unit.

- Special Operations capable.

- Congrats. Huh! Congrats.

- Yeah.

- Outstanding.

All I gotta do is lash

'em together, take 'em to sea.

That's, uh... outstanding.

You ain't missin' nothin', Hodge.

It's a whole new ball game.

No friends, no enemies,

no front, no rear.

No victories, no defeats,

no Mama, no Papa.

- Yeah.

- We're orphans out there.

It's funny, you know?

One guy walks out through a swamp,

he gets to come home to a desk.

Another guy drives up a hill

and he gets to still be doin' it,

all over the flip

ofa goddamn coin.

You know, that's...

It's funny.

You gave good service

to the corps, Hodge.

To think otherwise

would be just plain crazy.

- You'd have gotten your command.

- Oh, yeah, sure.

What's up, John?

Terry, we've been ordered

to the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden.

This comes straight down Second

Division through General Perry.

The American Embassy in Yemen

is surrounded...

by a crowd of demonstrators.

The crowd isn't hostile,

but it's large enough...

to spook their government

into pulling their security forces.

Twenty-fourth Marine Expeditionary

Unit's gonna provide extra security.

We're gonna baby-sit, Colonel.

Just show our presence.

Remember, though, if it turns

hot, we're looking at an evac.

We got an ambassador and his family

there. Let me run you through this.

Here's your

potential L.Z.S.

Marines at the embassy advise we can

gain entrance through the back way.

Here's some stairs where you

can deploy your men to the roof.

These are your

over-watch positions.

I'll take them in

myself quietly.

One platoon, TRAP team,

put everyone else on Ready Five.

My thoughts exactly,

Colonel.

What's wrong, Mommy?

The people are upset

about some things, darling.

- Are they mad at Daddy?

- No, they're not mad at your daddy.

Why are they yelling?

They're trying to get attention

so that people will listen to them.

Sir, state security analysts

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Stephen Gaghan

Stephen Gaghan (born May 6, 1965) is an American screenwriter and director. He is noted for writing the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic, based on a Channel 4 series, for which he won the Academy Award, as well as Syriana which he wrote and directed. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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