Green Zone (film) - Plot

Plot

On March 19, 2003, while trying to determine the political future of his country, General Mohammed Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor) hides in Baghdad and meets with his aides discussing the invasion of Iraq. Al-Rawi suggests waiting for the Americans to arrive and have them perhaps make his army an offer to join their forces in forming a government coalition against foreign insurgents.

Four weeks later, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his squad investigate a warehouse, believed to be holding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. To Miller's surprise, the warehouse is not secure, with looters making their way in and out as soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division sporadically fight the Iraqis. But they find that the warehouse is empty. At a debriefing, Miller brings up the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate and anonymous, stating that on his last three attempts to find WMDs, his team had come up with nothing. High-ranking officials quickly dismiss Miller's theory about the intelligence being false. After the debriefing, Miller meets Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), a CIA officer based in the Middle East who tells Miller that the next place he is going to investigate for WMDs is also empty, as a UN team had already searched there two months ago.

Meanwhile, Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) is welcoming an Iraqi politician named Ahmed Zubaidi (Raad Rawi) at the Baghdad International Airport, where he is questioned by a journalist named Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan). Because of global pressure about the WMD intel not materializing, she says she needs to speak directly to "Magellan," to which Poundstone brushes her off.

While investigating another site, Miller is approached by the Iraqi who calls himself "Freddy" (Khalid Abdalla), who tells him that he saw some Ba'ath Party VIPs meeting in a nearby home. Miller and his men swiftly arrive and burst into the house. Al-Rawi narrowly escapes, but one of his henchmen is taken into custody. Before Miller can extract any more information, the man is grabbed by special operations personnel. Dayne finds Poundstone again and complains, but he maintains his dismissive posture, justifying that the stakes are much larger than her role in selling newspapers.

Miller goes to Brown's hotel in the Green Zone and tells him what happened. Brown arranges for Miller to visit the man removed from his custody by the special operations personnel. Before leaving, he is approached by Dayne. Miller soon finds the Iraqi informant in prison. Near death after being tortured, the man responds to Miller's question with one word: "Jordan." Miller goes to Dayne's hotel room to confront her about the bogus intel she published, but she refuses to disclose her source. He continues to press her about what she knows. She reluctantly confirms that her source had met with Magellan in Jordan. With Brown's help, Miller's suspicions are confirmed that Al-Rawi met with Poundstone in February in Jordan as Poundstone's informant.

Miller realizes that Poundstone probably wants to prevent Al-Rawi from disclosing the fact that he had never confirmed the presence of WMDs. When Miller tries to meet with Al-Rawi to encourage him to turn himself in before he is killed by Poundstone's men, he is kidnapped by Al-Rawi's men because Poundstone had just announced the decision to disband the entire Iraqi army. Al-Rawi tells Miller that he told Poundstone there had been no WMD program since the First Persian Gulf War; Poundstone was being used as a tool by his superiors in Washington so that Iraq would be invaded. American forces commence an attack on Al-Rawi's positions and the general flees. Meanwhile, Miller kills his captor and races to capture Al-Rawi. When he finally manages to catch up with him, Freddy suddenly appears and kills Al-Rawi. Miller tells Freddy to escape before the area is secured by troops as many of the Iraqi insurgency desperately tries to hold off the American forces before being overwhelmed by their air support. Later, in his hotel suite, Miller writes a report of everything that happened.

Miller confronts Poundstone in a meeting and gives him the report. Poundstone tells Miller that WMDs do not matter. Poundstone then rejoins the Iraqi meeting, only to see the Iraqi factional leaders yelling at each other and leaving the meeting. Afterwards, Dayne receives an emailed copy of Miller's report. Miller had relayed the information to all major news agencies around the world.

In the final scene the camera pans out from millers convoy showing a oil facility to the right suggesting the real reason of the war.