The film begins with Isaac “Eyeball” Miller (Rob Brown) videotaping Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) playing the guitar in a tent full of soldiers in Iraq. Tommy and Eyeball sing as we are introduced to Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) and Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), who have been friends since childhood. Footage is shown of the soldiers joking around, Tommy being baptized by Al “Preacher” Colson (Terry Quay) and then we see the soldiers checking vehicles for bombs. Steve shows Rico Rodriguez (Victor Rasuk) pictures of his fiancée Michelle (Abbie Cornish). Rico says that she’s hot, especially when Steve accidentally shows Rico too many pictures and he sees Michelle taking off her clothes. Brandon tells them to quit horsing around and get back on guard. A car comes to the checkpoint in the road and Steve shoots at the ground to make it stop. Inside is a scared family, who Brandon tells to keep their hands in plain sight. As he looks them over, he sees a car speeding towards them. Brandon lets the family go through the checkpoint and men from the speeding car fire at the soldiers. They return fire, and the car speeds off...