Plot
The film opens with Operation Kingfisher, a disastrous American advance in the Vietnam War, and shows Lt. Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) execute an unarmed prisoner to intimidate a Vietnam People's Army officer into calling off an ambush of U.S. Marines, thereby saving the life of Lt. Hays Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones).
The movie jumps to 1996; Childers and his Marine Expeditionary Unit are called to evacuate the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen from the embassy grounds, after a routine demonstration against American influence in the Persian Gulf turns into rock-throwing and sporadic fire from nearby rooftops. After escorting the ambassador to a waiting helicopter, Childers returns to the embassy to retrieve the American flag; meanwhile three Marines are killed by snipers on nearby rooftops. Childers, after appearing to see firing from crowd below, orders his men to open fire on the crowd and "waste the motherfuckers", resulting in the deaths of 83 civilian protesters and injuries to over 100 more.
Back in the States, the U.S. National Security Advisor, Bill Sokal (Bruce Greenwood), decides to proceed with a court-martial to try to deflect negative public opinion about the United States, shouldering all the blame for the incident onto Childers, and salvage American relations in the Persian Gulf. Childers finds Hodges, whose life he saved, is now serving in the U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate Division and asks him to be his defense attorney at the upcoming tribunal. Hodges is reluctant to accept, knowing that his record is less than impressive, and Childers needs a better lawyer. But Childers is adamant, because he would rather have an attorney who has served in combat before.
Most of the evidence is stacked against Childers, especially because Sokal is determined for him to be convicted, and at one point burns a videotape of security camera footage showing that the crowd had indeed been in possession of weapons, supporting Childers' claims. He also blackmails the ambassador Childers rescued, Ambassador Mourain (Ben Kingsley), into lying on the stand and saying both that the crowd had been peaceful and that Childers had been violent towards him and his family during the evacuation. However, at the trial, Hodges presents a shipping manifest proving that a tape from an undamaged camera which had been looking directly into the crowd—the tape Sokal had burned—has been delivered to Sokal's office, but has failed to show up at the trial, arguing that this tape would have been damning evidence against Childers if it had shown the crowd was unarmed. Also, when the prosecution presents the Vietnamese Colonel, Colonel Cao, who witnessed Childers execute a POW in Vietnam (In violation of Rule 404 of the Rules of Evidence concerning character evidence which prohibits evidence of a person’s character or character trait to prove that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character or trait. Rule is applicable to military courts.), as a rebuttal witness, Hodges gets him to testify that, had the circumstances been reversed, he would have done the same thing.
The film ends with Childers being found guilty of the minor charge of breach of the peace (for having disobeyed his order to just show his Marines' presence), but not guilty of the more serious charges of conduct unbecoming of an officer and murder. A final titlecard reveals that no further charges were brought against him, and that he retired honorably from the Marines. Sokal is found guilty of spoliation of evidence and forced to resign, while Mourain is charged with perjury.
Read more about this topic: Rules Of Engagement (film)
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