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The old friends greet one another
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The Plot:
Paul's flying buddy from the Korean War, Colonel Mike Green was shot down over North Viet Nam and imprisoned there.
However, after a short time he was able to escape with another American, but had to abandon him along the way before getting to American lines.
Mike has been placed in a hospital on an Air Force base where he is being treated for mental disorders, and Paul has been brought in to see if he can help.
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Dr. Rothman explains Mike's situation to Paul
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His first visit turns out quite positively, as Mike chats with his old flying mate in a very normal way.
After their conversation Paul learns from Mike's psychiatrist that his patient often sees him as North Vietnamese.
He explains that Mike is often very difficult to reach, only lucid the way he was with Paul sporadically, so Paul volunteers to help out in any way he can, the two having met for the first time in 15 years only a couple months before at a scheduled reunion.
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Mike disappears into a wooded area
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That evening Mike manages to escape from his room, and believing that he is in an enemy camp, in the process, he shoots one man leaving the hospital, before racing into the open countryside around the base.
Both military and civilian police go on Mike's trail, with support from the air, and eventually they are able to surround him in a small barn, quite a distance from the hospital, calling out to him to surrender.
But Mike does not see Americans and US military, but only Viet Cong soldiers, and he shoots another officer.
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Paul breaks past the cordon to go to Mike
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A civilian police captain is directing operations when Paul arrives on the scene, invited by Dr. Rothman. Because one of Mike's victims is critically wounded, Captain Archer is prepared to use any force necessary, and brusquely informs Paul of this, but just as they're about to start firing back at Mike, Paul starts forward to the barn.
Captain Archer tells him to stop, but Paul implies the only way they can halt him is to shoot at him.
Paul calls out to Mike as he approaches the barn, but Mike doesn't shoot .
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Paul makes his way into the barn
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As he gets closer to the door, Paul speaks of their flying days and comrades in Korea and other familiar things from their Air Force service together, including the fact that Mike saved Paul's life. But when he starts climbing a ladder toward the loft where he believes Mike to be, his old friend grabs him from the ground.
“What are you doing out there with them?” Mike asks, holding Paul in a headlock. When Paul says that he's unarmed, Mike lets him go, and to the statement that they are in California, not Viet Nam, he calls Paul a collaborator.
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Mike captures Paul
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Paul tries to remind Mike that he was in a hospital, but to Paul's appeal that they go out together, Mike says Paul must be crazy to think he'd fall for a story like that.
Realizing that Mike is unable to deal with reality, Paul admits that he had to cooperate, or both of them would have been killed. In response, Mike asks how Paul was captured, and he replies that his plane was shot down. Mike decides that they need to make a run for it. Someone else enters the barn, and Mike takes a large pole and knocks him out, also breaking Paul's wrist in the struggle.
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Mike and injured Paul escape from the barn
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Promising to get Paul through the jungle to the 17th Parallel, Mike leads him outside. Shots are fired at them, then there's a call to hold arms because of Paul, with much arguing about what to do among the task force.
Having lost their subject, an angry Captain Archer orders sharp shooters and says that they'll do it his way now.
Dr. Rothman overhears him and protests, but Archer is adament, and counters with “how many people do you want to see hurt or killed?”
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Paul tells Mike that he can't go on
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Troops and civilians take to the fields after Mike.
After a while Paul admits that he can't go on. When appealing on behalf of his fracture doesn't work, Paul points out that they are outnumbered, and Mike retorts that the enemy has broken Paul, and he should have fought as Mike did, no matter what they did to him.
Paul says that he won't go on, but Mike says that he won't leave him behind, as images of his fellow escapee, Lieutenant Dan Sayres, flash through his mind.
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Captain Archer gives a milder briefing
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By nightfall the police have realized that pursuit through the dense wilderness will be impossible until daybreak. Captain Archer's tone has grown much more subdued, and he speaks to his men of Mike being imbalanced instead of deranged. Contrary to what he said earlier, he tells them that Mike is a war hero with a hostage, and he wants no shooting, the only exception being that there's no alternative.
In the morning Paul again says that he can't go on, and that Mike should leave the gun with him to hold the enemy off. But Mike makes an attempt to set Paul's bone.
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Mike says he'll set Paul's broken bone
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This drives him into agony. They travel on through the difficult terrain, and when Paul falls, Mike shouts, “get up, Dan!”
When they stop to rest Paul asks him about being called Dan, but Mike disregards the question, and wonders if the war will ever be over.
Paul responds, “wars always come to an end. People don't remember what they were about - or what they do to people.”
Mike talks about atrocities committed by the enemy in Viet Nam.
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Paul asks Mike about Dan
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When they are walking again, Paul asks Mike about his escape from the Viet Cong prison camp, about his comrade Dan, and the fact that Mike escaped with someone, but came out alone.
As night comes again, Paul asks about food. and Mike says that he'll get supplies from a village.
In the police station Captain Archer now knows that he hasn't enough men to cover the area Mike is in. Dr. Rothman tells him that Paul is the only man who can bring Mike in, and Archer's men will only kill him.
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They make it through another day
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Archer says that his men are in business to save lives. Then the psychiatrist tells Archer that Mike is headed south, believing he is in North Viet Nam, giving Archer a better idea where to look.
In the night Paul suspects that Mike is going on without him, and shouts out whether he intends to leave him behind like he did Dan.
Calculating that the pair are going south, Captain Archer has located two sources of water, one of which he believes Mike will head for.
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They spot young people around a campfire
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Paul and Mike make it through another day, and while walking in the dark, they come across some young people enjoying a campfire.
Mike sees them as North Vietnamese, and points his gun at them, but Paul runs to him and shouts that they are innocent villagers, but Mike beats a boy with his gun to take the campers' food.
When Archer hears that the young man is in the hospital, he puts out a shoot-to-kill order on Mike.
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Paul helps Mike when he's wounded
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In the morning Mike finds himself surrounded, and shots are fired. Mike has to drag Paul, and is haunted by leaving Dan behind with many images in his head of the lieutenant calling after him.
Mike is then wounded by gunfire, and Paul tells his fallen comrade that the 17th Parallel is right over the hill, and he'll help him get that far. They continue to be shot at, but make it over a hill, and Paul points out where freedom lies.
Seeing a helicopter above, Mike shouts to it with elation, finally believing it is American.
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Mike and Paul joke about their squadron cocktail
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When Mike is safely back in the base hospital, and his arm has been looked after, Paul and Dr. Rothman discuss his case, each giving the other a little information.
The psychiatrist believes that Mike's prognosis is good and that Paul saved his life.
Paul then goes to visit his friend out in the garden.
They greet one another warmly, and share a hearty laugh about old times in Korea and the bar where they drank in Japan.
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