Line #125 Film/Platoon


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5	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/platoon_1986_6592.jpg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:300:''[[{{Epigraph}} Rejoice O young man in thy youth.]]'']]
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8	->''"Somebody once wrote: 'Hell is the impossibility of reason'. That's what this place feels like. Hell. I hate it already and it's only been a week."''
9	-->-- '''Private Chris Taylor'''
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11	''Platoon'' is an acclaimed war film written and directed by Creator/OliverStone based on his experiences as an American soldier in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. It was released in 1986 and won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture. This is also his first film about the war, followed by ''Literature/BornOnTheFourthOfJuly'' and ''Film/HeavenAndEarth''. These three films are often said to form a "trilogy", although they merely share subject matter and do not take place in a shared continuity.
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13	The film follows a new recruit named Chris Taylor (Creator/CharlieSheen) as he gets thrown into the humid, alien and deadly jungles of war and gives a frank look at the toll the war took on the men that fought, lived and died in the jungle. The main conflict is the murder of innocent civilians causing a rift in the platoon while Chris tries to find the correct thing to do in a war with ambiguous morals. Creator/WillemDafoe plays Sergeant Elias Grodin, the platoon's moral compass and Taylor's first mentor, while Creator/TomBerenger plays Elias' counterpart, Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes, the platoon's merciless, combat-loving driving force.
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15	It is generally considered a milestone in war films in that the battles are far from glamorized and it is not afraid of showing just how hellish it can be; this makes it come closer to defeating DoNotDoThisCoolThing than many other films.
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17	The film is especially notable for debuting a ''mountain'' of actors who would later become HouseholdNames. Creator/KeithDavid plays King, a heavy gunner and Taylor's other mentor. Creator/JohnCMcGinley plays O'Neill, another sergeant and Barnes' smarmy, unlikable second-in-command. Creator/MarkMoses plays Lt. Wolfe, the cowardly nominal leader of the platoon who mostly just scuttles meekly after Barnes. Creator/ForestWhitaker, Creator/KevinDillon, and a 23-year-old Creator/JohnnyDepp all play supporting soldiers in the platoon.
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19	[[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/89da9fa9-feeb-40ba-b404-7bf2a31817ab/d7mhsmp-d4c04bec-b9c0-4068-a44a-9d1d725683a4.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTpmaWxlLmRvd25sb2FkIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi84OWRhOWZhOS1mZWViLTQwYmEtYjQwNC03YmYyYTMxODE3YWIvZDdtaHNtcC1kNGMwNGJlYy1iOWMwLTQwNjgtYTQ0YS05ZDFkNzI1NjgzYTQuanBnIn1dXX0.xZhw3mdjWtVx7_qjgqTUDZ0hOgcMQXHAAFpe2L_jfqc Not to be confused]] with ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}''.
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21	----
22	!!This film provides examples of:
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25	* AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats: Many of the Vietnamese civilians.
26	* AmbiguousSituation: The village the platoon burns down is almost certainly being used as a supply cache for the Vietcong, but how ''willing'' the villagers were to do it (or if they had a say at all, even) is left up in the air.
27	* AnyoneCanDie: And at any moment, just [[WarIsHell like in war]].
28	* ArmiesAreEvil: Both the US and Vietnamese soldiers perpetuate atrocities against civilians and each other.
29	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Junior and/or Bunny dying is surely the happiest moment in the movie for some. Taylor fragging Barnes also counts.]]
30	* AuthorAvatar: Basically, Chris ''is'' Oliver Stone. Like Chris, Oliver Stone came from the upper class (his father was a stockbroker) and like Chris, Stone dropped out of college (Yale) to volunteer to fight in Vietnam. His commentary on the film reveals that just about everything is taken from his time in Vietnam, and he occasionally talks like he really is the character.
31	* AxCrazy: Whenever Taylor snaps, he becomes this.
32	-->'''''IT'S FUCKING BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!'''''
33	* BadassBoast:
34	-->'''Barnes''': Oh, you wanna kick ass. Yeah. Well, here I am, all by my lonesome. And there ain't nobody gonna know. Six of you boys against me. Kill me. ... [beat]... I shit on all of you.
35	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: In a sense, since even though Barnes pays for murdering Elias in the end, he successfully goads Chris into killing him, in keeping with his ethos that conflict is the true nature of man. Chris rejects this philosophy at the end, but also states that Barnes will always be a part of him the same as Elias will be.]]
36	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: While patrolling the village, Bunny shoots an innocent pig for no good reason.
37	* BigNo: Chris shouts this just as Barnes is about to kill him during the final battle by the end of the movie.
38	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Chris survives the war and goes home, but he doesn't really escape the consequences of the war.]]
39	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Subverted; most of the platoon's black members were either wounded or came back home. and only a few of them killed. [[spoiler:Warren]] was the first to go.
40	** [[spoiler:King manages to survive multiple death flag tropes such as MentorOccupationalHazard and {{Retirony}}, and makes it home safe and in one piece right before the final battle wipes out most of what remains of the platoon.]]
41	** [[spoiler:Francis]] is also one of the few to survive the NVA assault on the base.
42	* BloodKnight: Barnes is a frightening example. ''Very'' frightening example.
43	** Bunny as well, although he's in it more for the killing than the glory.
44	* BloodSplatteredInnocents: This happens to Taylor when Bunny sadistically murders the handicapped boy.
45	* BoobyTrap: Be careful picking up that [[spoiler:box of documents]], guys.
46	** The odd thing is, [[spoiler:just before lifting the box, he was telling his comrade to be careful about where he stepped and what he touched because of... well, y'know. Why didn't he just grab the papers from within the box?]] The IdiotBall, that's why.
47	* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Bunny and Wolfe are killed this way in the FinalBattle.]]
48	* BulletDancing: Taylor does this to a one-legged Vietnamese villager.
49	* TheCaptain: Subverted with Harris; he's not part of the platoon.
50	* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: Taken to an extreme with mild-mannered, meek Lt. Wolfe, and the hardass battle-scarred BloodKnight Barnes. In fact, Barnes is the real leader of the unit and easily pushes Lt. Wolfe around.
51	* CassandraTruth: When Junior falls asleep on his watch, blowing an ambush and causing one platoon member to be killed, he immediately tells a bald-faced lie and says it was Chris. The others believe Junior unquestioningly since Chris is the rookie. Chris meekly tries to defend himself ("I didn't fall asleep. It was Junior.") but it falls on deaf ears. "Excuses are like assholes! Everybody has one!"
52	** However, if you pay close attention you will see that the two most experienced men (Barnes and Elias) are at least skeptical of Junior's claims. While Barnes growls at Taylor for supposedly sleeping on duty, it's Junior he gives a blistering death glare to when declaring that he'll make the next person asleep on ambush suffer. In addition, Elias pointedly orders Junior to help carry Gardner's corpse
53	* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Of the 31 men of the platoon, 15 die, 11 are wounded, and only 5 are left unscathed by the end of the film.
54	* ChromosomeCasting: All of the characters are men (appropriate given the setting and period).
55	* ColonelKilgore: Barnes. He exists to live out his survivalist ideas, and he enjoys war to its fullest.
56	* ClassicVillain: Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes is [[UnstoppableRage Wrath]], being a ruthless, remorseless BloodKnight to contrast the (relatively) more compassionate Chris and Elias.
57	* ClusterFBomb: Elias when he finds out what Barnes did at the village. So bad that even career soldiers thought it was over-the-top.
58	* CouldntFindALighter: One of the characters lights his cigarette from a villager's burning hut that the American soldiers have just torched.
59	* CreatorCameo: Creator/OliverStone as the company commander who [[spoiler:gets bombed to oblivion by an NVA sapper]].
60	* CrucifiedHeroShot: One of the most popular examples. Since this became the main poster/video box/DVD cover image, this rather builds up expectations of the film. The closing narration doesn't help. The image is a homage to the famous 1968 photograph by Art Greenspon.
61	* CurseCutShort: One of the movie posters has an image of an upside-down soldier's helmet with the words "When I die, bury me upside down so the world can kiss my..." written on it.
62	* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The platoon finds Manny's corpse upright, pinned to a tree by the NVA. This is what triggers the murders in the village that follow (although a sociopath like Barnes was probably just looking for an excuse to kill someone).
63	* DeathByCameo: [[spoiler:Oliver Stone gets vaporized by a suicide bomber.]]
64	* DeathFromAbove: And below. And left, right, front, and back. Though to be fair, this trope occurs literally in the form of Huey helicopters [[spoiler:and an F-5 Freedom Fighter airstrike.]]
65	* DirtyCoward:
66	** Sgt. O'Neill, who goes as far as to [[spoiler:hide under the corpse of one of his comrades to survive the end of the FinalBattle - understandable in the moment as he was about to be surely killed and had no other way to live]].
67	** Junior also, such as when he sprays bugspray on his feet to make it look like he has jungle rot. He also bolts during the final battle, [[spoiler:leaving Bunny to be killed (Though given that Bunny had beaten an elderly Vietnamese villager and her disabled son to death, it's [[AssholeVictim hard to feel bad about that.]]) Junior is bayonetted to death not long after.]] His cowardice is so over-the-top that even fellow DirtyCoward O'Neill is disgusted by him.
68	* DrillSergeantNasty: Sergeant Barnes, before revealing himself as a [[BloodKnight killing]] [[PsychoForHire machine]].
69	* DwindlingParty: The titular platoon.
70	* EntitledBastard: Barnes murders Elias, and tries to the same to Chris in a blood-crazed frenzy during the climatic battle, but a nearby bomb blast stops him and wounds them both. When Chris wakes up and has a gun trained on him, Barnes has the nerve to command Taylor to go and get him a medic.
71	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the first scene with the platoon on patrol, Chris cringes at a snake and faints at the sight of an NVA corpse, marking him as a newbie. Barnes mocks Chris's weakness and barks out insults at him and the other soldiers. Elias offers to carry some of the stuff in Chris's overloaded pack, marking him as a nice guy.
72	* EvenEvilHasStandards:
73	** When Junior sprays a can of bugspray onto his feet and claims he has jungle rot and can't walk, Barnes doesn't think too highly of his pathetic lies or his blatant cowardice, threatening to stick a centipede in his crotch and 'see if he can walk.' Bunny and Red are equally disgusted, especially when Junior promptly wusses out and declares he ''can'' walk.
74	** Wolfe is a completely useless officer who allows Barnes to walk all over him and get away with whatever he wants, but when Chris calls out to the others that Elias has been left behind, Wolfe does make an effort to try to go back and save him.
75	** Sgt O'Neill may be a sarcastic jerk, but is noticeably disturbed by Bunny's murder of the disabled villager. He also never commits any major war crimes (that we know of) apart from his role in the village scene. Even that was under Staff Sgt. Barnes' orders and his later response (unlike Bunny's suggestion to frag Elias) was simply to enquire whether there would be a court martial in relation to Barnes' actions.
76	** Barnes gives Wolfe a devastating ReasonYouSuckSpeech when his incompetence ends up calling down friendly artillery fire on his ''own men's'' positions, assailing him while laying into him over how many men he just got blown to hell. It gets so bad ''[[EnemyMine Barnes and Elias team up]]'' to try and salvage the clusterfuck their lieutenant has made of the situation.
77	** Barnes and Bunny both take the loss of Manny hard and personal. It doesn't suggest that they or the other members of the platoon aren't necessarily racist (indeed black Junior is incredibly racist towards white soldiers and Barnes utters the NWordPrivileges) but it does indicate comradeship.
78	%%* EveryHelicopterIsAHuey
79	* EvilAllAlong: You could argue Barnes is ObviouslyEvil because of [[GoodScarsEvilScars the scar on his face]] and his mannerisms, but that's all superficial and you could easily take him for a battle-hardened platoon sergeant with an incompetent lieutenant on his hands who's just being as brutal as he feels he has to be in order to get himself and the load of draftees that make up his platoon out of the war alive. [[DisproportionateRetribution Then he shoots a civilian woman in the head with a rifle for yelling at him,]] [[WouldHurtAChild and puts his sidearm to a little girl's head]] [[InsaneTrollLogic to get her father to 'admit' he's really VC.]]
80	* EvilCounterpart: Elias and Barnes function as this; Chris even compares his conflict between the good and evil inside of him to their conflict.
81	** Francis and Junior: Both are young, black soldiers that are understandable afraid of battle but while Junior hypocritically complains about racism constantly and runs from from his post like a coward, Francis cops his duty on the chin like a man, doesn't complain and remains with his comrade in battle. [[spoiler: Guess which one lives.]]
82	%%* EvilIsHammy: Barnes.
83	* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Wolfe gets hit by shrapnel in the eyes during the FinalBattle (you can see him staggering around covering his face) before [[BoomHeadshot being fragged in the head]]]].
84	* FatalFamilyPhoto: Gardner shows Chris some pictures of his girlfriend before their first night in the bush. He's the first member of the platoon to die, that very night when the platoon is ambushed by the enemy.
85	* FinalBattle: The NVA assault on the base. And how!
86	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the immediate aftermath of the ambush battle at the beginning of the film, Barnes finds a wounded VC soldier, and mercilessly put him down by firing a couple rifle rounds into his chest. At the end of the film, [[spoiler: Chris puts Barnes down in an ''identical'' situation, in a scene that is practically a mirror image of the prior one.]]
87	* ForTheEvulz: Basically the reason why Barnes and Bunny likes to go around killing people in war.
88	* GeneralRipper: Zig-zagged with Captain Harris. He was willing to court-martial Barnes and Elias if he finds out an illegal killing took place. [[spoiler:But during the FinalBattle, he orders the air strike on the base which killed many of his own men and the NVA attackers.]]
89	** [[spoiler:In fairness to him, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_protective_fire final protective fire]] is an accepted desperation tactic when a position is overrun or about to be overrun, and he is in just as much danger from the air strike as everyone else, as he is literally calling it in on his own command post.]]
90	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Barnes in Chris' hallucinogenic experience of the final battle.
91	* AGodAmI: It's implied that Barnes' power over life and death has gone to his head.
92	-->'''Barnes''': I am reality.
93	* GoodScarsEvilScars: Barnes has a nasty scar that zig-zags all up and down the right side of his face.
94	** Chris earns a classic "good" scar on his cheek from his fight with Barnes. [[spoiler:As Chris leaves on the chopper after killing Barnes, he has a deep cut on his face almost [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim identical]] to [[YouAreWhatYouHate Barnes]]'.]]
95	* GoodGunsBadGuns: Played with. The Americans and the briefly-seen ARVN troops use NATO firearms, while the NVA use Chinese Type [=56s=] and B-40 [=RPGs=], the former of which is also used by both Barnes and Taylor late in the film. Pretty much TruthInTelevision as discussed in the trope page.
96	* GoodIsNotNice: The platoon fractures into an idealist group loyal to Elias and a survivalist group loyal to Barnes. However, the stoners in Elias' group are far from saints. Elias and Taylor are the most moral of the entire platoon, and they do a lot of drugs, cursing, and starting fights.
97	* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Despite the enmity in between them, and despite the ruthlessness and remorselessness Barnes had demonstrated... [[spoiler:when Elias runs into Barnes in the jungle, it takes him a long while to realize one of them isn't walking away.]]
98	* HateSink: Bunny and Junior, with the former being a racist low-functioning psychopath and the latter being a pathetic, [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil would-be-rapist.]]
99	* HeartbeatSoundtrack: A thumping heartbeat can be heard as Chris, on watch during his first mission in the bush, sees enemy approaching. Chris freezes up and is still staring at the enemy soldiers when the firefight breaks out.
100	* HeroicBSOD: Thrice with Taylor, to the point of becoming AxCrazy.
101	* {{Hypocrite}}: Barnes gives Elias' posse a rambling speech where he casually insults them all, calling them a bunch of potheads trying to escape from reality, whereas he 'is reality.' The entire time he's absolutely ''slugging'' Jack Daniels and is obviously hammered on the stuff.
102	* IconicScene: Elias giving a CrucifiedHeroShot (really a call for aid to his friends in the choppers above him) as the NVA riddle him with bullets.
103	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: After abandoning a foxhole during the FinalBattle, [[spoiler:Junior]] manages to run straight into a Vietcong soldier's bayonet.
104	* InstantDeathBullet: Averted with [[spoiler: Elias]], who gets shot twice in the chest but still has enough energy left to run a fair distance, only dying after getting riddled with bullets by his pursuers. Played straight with some of the various NVA mooks, who seem to go down immediately after one or two shots and don't get back up.
105	* IronicNickname: You'd ''think'' a soldier named "Bunny" would be docile and harmless. [[AxCrazy He's anything but.]]
106	* {{Irony}}: Red goes to Barnes to try to cash in on some leave before the FinalBattle, because he has a strong premonition that he isn't going to make it out of this one alive, but Barnes rather pragmatically denies him as the platoon is already ''majorly'' shorthanded with all the casualties they've suffered by that point. [[spoiler: Red is one of the only platoon members to come out completely unscathed, [[DirtyCoward (mainly because he hid under a body for the entire battle)]] and as the only remaining sergeant left in the platoon, Captain Harris promptly gives him the newly-deceased Barnes' job as platoon sergeant.]]
107	* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: [[spoiler:Cpt. Harris orders an F-5 Freedom Fighter to destroy his own base during the FinalBattle in a last-ditch attempt to stop the NVA attack]].
108	-->'''[[spoiler:Harris]]''': [[spoiler:Be advised, we got zips in the wire down here... For the record, it's my call. Dump everything you got left on my pos. I say again, expend all remaining in my perimeter. It's a lovely fucking war. Bravo Six out.]]
109	* JadeColoredGlasses: Unsurprisingly happens to Taylor as the film progresses.
110	* {{Jerkass}}: Barnes, Bunny and Junior. Wolfe has his moments as well, especially towards the end.
111	* JerkassHasAPoint: Barnes is a pretty horrible human being, but he's shown to be ''right'' about the village serving another purpose when they uncover a Vietcong ammo depot hidden amongst the crates. And then he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope puts a handgun to a little girl's head]].
112	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sgt. O'Neill is petty, cowardly, and a bit of an asshole, but he more or less begs Bunny not to kill the Vietnamese civilians.
113	* JungleWarfare: The fighting in this film takes place deep in the Vietnamese jungle, complete with ambushes and patrols.
114	* KarmicDeath:
115	** [[spoiler:Chris frags Barnes with three rounds in the upper-right torso, exactly how Barnes shot Elias.]]
116	** [[spoiler:Bunny is jumped and executed by a Vietcong soldier, fitting retribution for his brutality toward the Vietnamese villagers.]]
117	** [[spoiler: Junior is bayonetted to death by another Vietcong soldier, given that he's a gutless coward who runs off during the fight at the base and was part of the group in the village about to rape an underaged Vietnamese girl, it was well deserved.]]
118	* KillItWithFire:
119	** [[spoiler:The FinalBattle ends with an F-5 Freedom Fighter dropping napalm on the whole base]].
120	** [[spoiler:Oliver Stone, in a [[DeathByCameo cameo role]] is blown up by an NVA suicide bomber, along with Lerner.]]
121	* LaserGuidedKarma: Moorhouse is seen raping a young Vietnamese girl in the village scene. Later he is seen carted away dead in the aftermath of the forest fight. [[spoiler: Bunny, Junior and Tony are all fellow participants in the rape. All are killed during the final ambush.]]
122	* LicensedGame: A [[LicensedGame tie-in videogame]] was developed by Ocean Software a year after the film's release. Probably some of the least necessary film-to-game adaptations ever, given that the movie was ''demonizing'' the war. They at least tried to replicate the film's message in the NES game by giving you a [[KarmaMeter "Morale" gauge]] which goes down [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential whenever you kill a civilian]]. Once the bar drops to zero, a NonStandardGameOver occurs. The game's levels recreated the film's scenes, each with their own gameplay style, from a side-scrolling shooter to a FirstPersonShooter, and vice versa. A tactical [[TabletopGame board game]] was released around the same time by Avalon Hill. Another tie-in game was released in 2002, this time a real-time tactics game.
123	%%* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler:Elias]].
124	* MadeOfIron: Barnes had apparently been shot seven times prior to the events of the film and the rest of the platoon think he can't die as a result. Chris shoots him three times at close range to finish him off after he survives the airstrike.
125	* ManlyTears: Chris weeps at the end of the film.
126	* TheMentor:
127	** Elias is faster, stronger and more experienced than his student Chris.
128	** King is also this to Chris, serving almost like a surrogate father figure.
129	%%* MessianicArchetype: Elias.
130	* MilitaryBrat: Chris comes from a military family - his father fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and his grandfather fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
131	* MoreDakka: The M60 machine guns used by King, Tex, Morehouse, and Huey helicopter door gunners.
132	* MyGirlBackHome: Complete with [[FatalFamilyPhoto wallet picture]] and all.
133	* NaiveNewcomer: Chris, at first. He is called out on his naivete by the other members of the platoon, and eventually grows out of it.
134	* TheNeidermeyer: Wolfe, the leader of the titular platoon. An incompetent coward who is unable to control his own soldiers, he lets Elias and Barnes do as they like (and the only order he gives is to burn down the village). US Army leadership classes have used Wolfe an example of how a junior officer should ''not'' behave.
135	* NewMeat: Chris and Gardner, the new arrivals to the platoon. Chris has a panic attack upon seeing his first enemy corpse. Barnes mocks him, calling him a "cherry".
136	* NeverMyFault: The soldiers that advocate killing everyone in the village, including the ones that claim that they're not doing anything wrong when they're trying to ''rape two girls.''
137	** Earlier, Junior falls asleep during his shift, resulting in Viet Cong soldiers breaking into camp. Junior pins the blame of Taylor, who had been ''shot'' because of Junior's failure to stay awake.
138	* NiceGuy: Chris, Elias, King, and a couple of the [[MauveShirt mauve shirts]] like Lerner and Francis. Rhah is more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
139	%%* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Inverted.
140	* NotAfraidToDie: Bunny, because as he says, "[[TheNothingAfterDeath When you're dead you don't know it]]".
141	* ObviouslyEvil: Let's just say Barnes is exactly as nice as he looks...
142	* OldSoldier: Captain Harris, who looks old enough to have served as far back as World War II.
143	* OpposingCombatPhilosophies: Elias (laid-back/tactical) and Barnes (aggressive). Stone based them on two different sergeants he knew while he was in Vietnam. They never met but Stone wondered what would happen if two men of such opposing viewpoints were in the same platoon.
144	* OpposedMentors: WideEyedIdealist Chris is torn between two Sergeants about how he should conduct himself in Vietnam. As his closing monologue goes''" The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I'm sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called "possession of my soul"''.
145	* PayEvilUntoEvil: A Vietcong soldier sadistically murders [[spoiler:Bunny]] in the FinalBattle, and, considering what a monster he was, it's hard to feel any sympathy for him.
146	* PetTheDog:
147	** Barnes of all people is the only member of the platoon comforting Gardner as Doc attempts to save his life (Although, considering he is more than willing to kill his own platoon, his sincerity here is questionable).
148	** Before Elias enters the bunker tunnel, he and Barnes share a friendly goodbye joke.
149	** When the platoon gets ambushed, Barnes' radioman gets some shrapnel in his back from friendly artillery fire after a shell lands too close and ends up blowing out his radio. Barnes tries to dig the searing shards out with his knife while calling out for a medic, so he's at least trying to save the guy.
150	* PistolWhipping: Elias starts his fight with Barnes in the village by striking him in the face with the stock of his rifle.
151	* PuttingOnTheReich: The M113 APC at the end of the film has a swastika flag tied to the antenna. According to Stone, APC soldiers during the war were notorious [[TruthInTelevision for displaying Nazi paraphernalia on their vehicles]].
152	* PyrrhicVictory: The Americans ''technically'' win at the end, but only after taking heavy losses and being forced to literally carpet bomb their own base.
153	%%* RatedMForManly
154	%%* RedEyesTakeWarning: See GlowingEyesOfDoom.
155	* {{Retirony}}: Subverted. [[spoiler:After announcing that he's going home in a chopper in ten minutes with the final battle approaching, King (Keith David) actually does make it out alive.]]
156	** When the Sergeants and Lt. Wolfe are talking about who's going out on ambush Barnes specifically says that the short timers are staying behind so they can avoid this trope.
157	** [[spoiler:Played straight with Crawford who declares early in the movie that he's got less than 100 days to go. After the [[TimeSkip Time Skip]] Crawford gets shot when he would've had at most a couple of weeks to go. However it is implied that he survives.]]
158	* ScreamingWarrior: All of the NVA soldiers during the FinalBattle.
159	* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Subverted with Elias, a stoner with a relativist attitude to war who is still a complete badass and a more effective commander than Barnes.
160	** Although to be fair, there is a literal party scene at one point, complete with joints and a "Tracks of My Tears" singalong.
161	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Junior bolts for dear life when he realizes he and Bunny are completely overrun by the NVA. [[spoiler:He doesn't make it.]] Not too much later, Francis pulls a variant of this, realizing that he's made it out of the final battle unhurt... and immediately remedying this by jabbing his trench knife into his thigh so he can be sent home.
162	* SergeantRock: Elias and Barnes, in [[OpposingCombatPhilosophies their]] [[OpposedMentors own ways]].
163	* ShooOutTheClowns: King, who spends the film acting as Taylor's lighthearted, weed-smoking mentor, is sent home [[spoiler:just before most of the platoon is obliterated.]]
164	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Bunny. [[spoiler:Averted during the FinalBattle.]]
165	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: On the cynical side. Very much so.
166	* SociopathicSoldier: Quite a few of them, though somewhat understandably so. Barnes and Bunny would be the prime examples. The NVA soldiers were just as bad as them.
167	* StockParodies: The "Platoon" pose, as seen on the main page.
168	* StoppedCaring: By the final battle, many of the soldiers have checked out.
169	-->'''Wolfe''': I just don't give a flying fuck anymore.
170	* StraightEdgeEvil: Barnes is seen drinking whiskey, but he expresses contempt for drug users.
171	--> "Why do you smoke this shit, some escape from reality? I don't need this shit. [[IAmTheNoun I am reality]]."
172	* StuffBlowingUp: From [[BoobyTrap booby traps]], a village, a forest, to [[spoiler:''an entire military base'']].
173	* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler:During the FinalBattle, there's that one guy who runs straight into company command and suicide bombs it ([[CreatorCameo taking the director with him]])]].
174	* StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: [[spoiler:Barnes dares Taylor to kill him after the FinalBattle, which he does.]]
175	-->''[[spoiler:Do it.]]''
176	* ThousandYardStare:
177	** [[spoiler:Chris after he kills Barnes]]. And just as dramatically, when Chris first arrives in Vietnam, one of the soldiers boarding the plane back to the States sports a doozy of one.
178	** Captain Harris in the film's very last shot of him after the final battle. Dale Dye has said that this shot wasn't even planned or acted - Oliver Stone and the camera crew happened to film him in the middle of a legitimate flashback.
179	* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:Elias is shot and left to die by Barnes, and is gunned down by the NVA as his comrades look on helplessly.]]
180	* TruthInTelevision: Ask any Vietnam veteran [[WarIsHell what the war was like]].
181	* TunnelNetwork: Elias infiltrates an underground VC tunnel at one point in the film.
182	* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Junior]] gets bayoneted multiple times while trying to run away from the final battle. The goofy cross-eyed face he makes is just the icing on the cake.
183	* UnfriendlyFire: And more than once. The only time Barnes is talked out of it, there are multiple witnesses.
184	* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: Some of the movie's scenes are filled with a deep blue tint, as intended by cinematographer Robert Richardson. Said tint is omitted from UsefulNotes/BluRay[=/=]HD releases.
185	* UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar: One of the definitive films about it.
186	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The really big fight at the end is based on the New Years Day Battle of 1968 that Stone lived through.
187	* VillainousValor: Barnes is undoubtedly evil. He's also survived being shot several times, leads from the front and never backs away from either combat or leadership.
188	* WarIsHell: This movie does not attempt balance: it is an all-out WarIsHell work. It contains war crimes including murder and attempted rape, graphic imagery of violent death and maiming, PTSD, drug use, mistaken fire on friendly units, and focuses on lethal infighting. [[note]]For the record, the drug use was generally one of the more ''positive'' elements the protagonist encountered.[[/note]] Stone's complete refusal of nuance arguably makes this one of the only Vietnam films not to accidentally make war look fun, as (to the ire of Creator/StanleyKubrick) Film/FullMetalJacket most famously did.
189	* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Eventually, the platoon gets torn between those who side with Elias or Barnes.
190	-->'''Taylor''': I can't believe we're fighting each other, when we should be fighting them.
191	* WeaponsUnderstudies:
192	** Colt Model 653 carbines stand in for CAR-15[=/=]XM-177's.
193	** An F-5 Freedom Fighter stands in for either an F-4 Phantom or an F-105 Thunderchief, which would've been more accurate for the air support role. F-5s were used in Vietnam by the USAF, but only sparingly so for combat evaluations and unlikely for the situation in the movie.
194	%%* WideEyedIdealist: Taylor, at first.
195	* WouldNotShootACivilian: Averted ''terribly'' during the village scree, where Barnes riles up the soldiers into burning down a Vietnamese village after finding Manny dead and several soldiers start executing random civilians, out of suspicion of them being members of the Vietcong.
196	* YouAreInCommandNow: Red O'Neill is given command of his own platoon at the end of the movie. Doubles as an OhCrap.
197	* ZergRush: The final attack of the NVA.
198
199	!!The video games provide examples of:
200
201	* DolledUpInstallment: The RealTimeStrategy game was originally going to be just, well, a generic Vietnam War-themed strategy game. That is, until the publisher got the rights to the film, and the game's story was retooled to fit the film.
202	* GenreShift: Each level has different gameplay changes. [[spoiler:You even get to fight and kill Barnes in a grenade-throwing duel]].
203	* NonStandardGameOver:
204	** What happens if you kill way too many civilians.
205	** If you forget to get the explosives and put them on the bridge, a single enemy kills you with a flamethrower and performs a TotalPartyKill.
206	* OneManArmy: The player, who is presumably Chris. His "lives" represent other members of the platoon.
207	* TimedMission: The final mission, [[spoiler:where you must find and kill Barnes before the F-5 Freedom Fighter drops the napalm]].
208	* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: In the game, the morale gauge decreases whenever you kill a civilian.

Context Film / Platoon