History Film / CourageUnderFire

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: [[spoiler: Monfriez is proven wrong in his evaluation of their situation post-crash. Should he trusted Walden's command, everyone would make it alive, including her]].

* FemaleMisogynist: Rady's wife shows some of this, feeling that Walden needlessly took them into danger and makes some comments that border on being anti-gay against Walden. Rady basically tells her to shut up and that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Monfriez (correctly) points out that Rady's wound is likely mortal, and that staying at the crash site to defend him is likely to get all five of them killed.

* MilesGloriosus: [[spoiler: Montfriez is a particularly egregious example. In his version of the events, he both up-plays his importance and combat performance, while at the same time presenting Walden as an incompetent HystericalWoman. In reality, he completely folded under the pressure, wanting to just save his own skin, while Walden was every bit as competent as her medal recommendation states, if failing to lead her men]].

* NonActionGuy: Ilario, Matt Damon's character. He is a combat medic, after all, and when Serling visits him, [[DeskJockey he's manning pharmacy in his base]].
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Subverted; Monfriez, a DrillSergeantNasty, yells at a trainee about leaving a comrade who was tangled in barbed wire behind. We later learn, however, that [[spoiler:he'd done just that to his wounded commanding officer after she'd threatened to court martial him]].

* OhCrap: Serling in the opening battle. "Cease fire! Cease fire! You just lit up a friendly!"

* TheReveal: The actual crash and following events are played in the third act, completely changing the story: [[spoiler:Walden was indeed the gallant officer, while Montfriez staged a mutinity, accidently shot her during attempted arrest and ultimately left her to die]]. Him claiming her cowardice and poor performance is [[spoiler:nothing more than covering his tracks]].
* ShellShockedVeteran: Under the facade of DrillSergeantNasty, Montfriez is a completely broken man due to his wartime experience. It's implied he keeps posturing the badass image of a battle-hardened veteran as his coping mechanism. [[spoiler: He's ultimately DrivenToSuicide over his guilt of leaving Walden to die]].

* StabTheScorpion: Walden and one of the soldiers under her command are having an argument. Suddenly she shoots behind him, at an Iraqi soldier that was about to kill him. [[spoiler:Alas, he thinks she was shooting at ''him'', and he shoots her back.]]

* TraumaButton: When Serling goes to speak with Walden's parents, her daughter comes into the room and stares wordlessly at him. Walden's father explains that it's because men dressed like him came with news about her mother's death. Serling immediately removes his jacket to try and put the girl at ease.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: [[spoiler: Both Walden and Montfriez have valid points after the crash. He insists on making sure the people that are still alive make it out of the siege. She insists that they stand a good chance of standing their ground ''and'' saving Rady. Both are equally viable solutions to their problem. Also, while Walden eventually threatens Montfriez with being court-martialed for continuously questioning her direct order, he has the point himself that those orders are progressively less realistic and will likely get them all killed]].

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: [[spoiler: Monfriez is proven completely wrong in his evaluation of their situation post-crash and Walden was always correct in her assesment]].

* NonActionGuy: Matt Damon's character.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Monfriez (correctly) points out that Rady's wound is likely mortal, and that staying at the crash site to defend him is likely to get all five of them killed.

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: [[spoiler:Walden takes the HonorBeforeReason approach to leadership, and tries to compensate in the field by throwing her authority around in a life and death situation rather than trying to inspire/persuade her men. It leads to them finally turning on her, and while them leaving her to die is unforgivable, Walden really could have handled the whole situation better.]]

* WorstAid: At some points, the soldiers are fairly liberal with moving Rady, not something you usually want to do when someone has a head wound. Justified, as they're better about it when not under attack, and the time when they're really swinging him around is when they're trying to evacuate a combat zone while they're being shot at.

-->'''Serling''': "You think that matters?"

** Serling's commanding officer sympathizes with his guilty conscience and is aware of his alcohol abuse, and sticks up for him during his friendly-fire investigation.

* TheRashomon: Walden's entire downed helicopter crew survived except for her, and all give different accounts of what she was like. Ilario sings her praises, while Monfriez calls her a coward who collapsed under pressure. Altameyer is dying of cancer and is on so many drugs and painkillers that he's mostly in his own world when Serling tries to talk to him (although he seems to become despondent whenever the topic is brought up), and Rady was shot in the head and unconscious the entire time. By the end, [[spoiler:Ilario tells Serling the real story, that Montfriez and Altameyer got scared and started rebelling (Montfriez more than Altameyer) against Walden's authority when she refused to leave Rady behind. Ilario timidly sided with them, leading to a standoff between Walden and Montfriez when she demanded he turn over his weapon. Walden then shot an approaching Iraqi soldier, causing a startled Montfriez to think she was shooting at him and shoot her in the stomach. When rescue arrived, the injured Walden held back the Iraqis on her own while the three escaped with Rady, assuming they would come back for her. But Montfriez told the rescue party she was dead, abandoning the captain to her fate to avoid a court-martial, which led to the whole crash site (and presumably Walden) being napalmed. Altameyer was wounded and could not protest, while Ilario was too afraid to. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The three men were subsequently traumatized by guilt to varying degrees.]]]]
* TheReveal: The actual crash and following events are played in the third act, completely changing the story: [[spoiler:Walden was indeed the gallant officer, while Montfriez staged a mutinity, accidently shot her during attempted arrest and ultimately left her to die]]. Him claiming her cowardice and poor performance is [[spoiler:nothing more than covering his tracks]].
* SincerityMode: Serling sounds noticeably genuine when he [[spoiler:pleads with Montfriez not to kill himself, agreeing with him that he's 'been a good soldier' and Serling doesn't want to lose any more good soldiers]].

* BigBad: [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope There isn't one.]] At the end of the day, all the tragedy comes down to weak people making bad decisions.]]

* BreakingTheGlassCeiling: The film is about whether or not Captain Walden, an army helicopter pilot, should be the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor ([[PosthumousCharacter posthumously, in this case]]). In the end, [[spoiler:the medal is indeed awarded]].
** This is noticeably something of a plot point because Serling treats this assignment as rather routine until he learns that Captain Walden was female, at which point the more political implications of his task become more than clear to him.

* FunctionalAddict: Serling is this, but his alcohol problems are getting worse due to SurvivorsGuilt, among other factors.

* HeManWomanHater: Monfriez has elements of this. [[spoiler:When ending up under Walden's command, he instantly started to resent her, and eventually staged a mutinity against what he considered an "unworthy" officer.]]
* HonorBeforeReason: Serling wants the committee that's investigating the incident where he accidentally fired on one of his own tanks to give a real evaluation rather than just sweep it under the table[[note]]His reasons have little to do with honor, however: he's trying to make sure that he was justified in what he did, and that Boylar's death, while regrettable, was not actually his fault, in an attempt to deal with his guilt[[/note]]. He's also determined to investigate Walden's case thoroughly and honestly, rather than just creating a good PR story, even after his CO removes him from the assignment.

* PetTheDog: Montfriez is kind of a dick, [[spoiler:and ultimately the villain,]] but he saves Illario's life when he's about to fall out of the Huey to his death.

* TheRashomon: Walden's entire downed helicopter crew survived except for her, and all give different accounts of what she was like. Ilario sings her praises, while Monfriez calls her a coward who collapsed under pressure. Altameyer is dying of cancer and seems to become despondent whenever the topic is even brought up, and Rady was shot in the head and unconscious the entire time. By the end, [[spoiler:Ilario tells Serling the real story, that Montfriez and Altameyer got scared and rebelled against Walden's authority when she refused to leave Rady behind. Ilario timidly sided with them, leading to a standoff between Walden and Montfriez when she demanded his weapon. Walden then shot an approaching Iraqi soldier, only for Montfriez to think she was shooting at him and shoot her in the stomach. When rescue arrived, the injured Walden held back the Iraqis on her own while the three escaped with Rady, assuming they would come back for her. But Montfriez told the rescue party she was dead, abandoning the captain to her fate to avoid a court-martial, which led to the whole crash site (and presumably Walden) being napalmed. Altameyer was wounded and could not protest, while Ilario was too afraid to. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The three men were subsequently traumatized by guilt to varying degrees.]]]]

** Turns out Walden [[spoiler:found this out the hard way. She makes it clear to Montfriez that no matter what happens, she ''will'' have him and the others court-martialed. As a result, he leaves her to die]].
** [[spoiler:Montfriez, Altameyer, and Ilario are all complicit in Captain Walden's death. Instead of them taking the NeverMyFault approach, potentially portraying any one of them as a soulless monster, all of them clearly ''[[KarmicNod understand]]'' that what happened to her was their fault.]]

* UnfriendlyFire: Played with. [[spoiler:Montfriez shoots at Walden after he mistakenly believes she's deliberately shooting at him. Later, when the rescue choppers arrive, he claims Walden is already dead so the A-10 airstrike will kill her.]]

* WorstAid: At some points, the soldiers are fairly liberal with moving Rady, not something you usually want to do when someone has a head wound. Justified, as they're better about it when not under attack, and the time when they're really swinging him around is when they're trying to evacuate a combat zone.

* BigBad: [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope There isn't one.]] At the end of the day, all the tragedy comes down to weak people making bad decisions.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Serling figures out the mystery behind Walden's death and her daughter receives her mother's Medal of Honor. Serling also tells Boylar's parents what happened to their son, and it is is implied he will eventually come to terms with what happened. Aside from that, the movie doesn't end particularly happily for anybody.]]

* BurnBabyBurn: [[spoiler: What happened to Walden's body. "Oh Jesus... the fire..."]]
* CharacterShilling: Everyone who knew Walden while she was alive who doesn't later turn out to be a complete asshole thinks she was wonderful. Admittedly, almost none of the sources Serling gets his info from are unbiased, (her parents, the soldiers she saved, the Army brass that are trying to lionize her, the guy who [[spoiler: feels guilty about leaving her to die,]] etc.) but the way the film almost goes out of it's way to portray her as tough, smart, courageous, selfless, and morally in the right at basically every turn comes across as a bit clumsy.
* CountryMatters: If it wasn't clear why Monfriez doesn't like Walden he drops this little nugget in the middle of their standoff.

* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler: Montfriez, Altameyer, and Ilario (who's weak and goes along with them) wanted to abandon Rady to escape the Iraqis, but Walden refuses.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Monfriez. Driving headfirst into a ''train'' no less]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first time Serling goes to question Montfriez, he shows up just in time to watch him give hell to a soldier who had just abandoned a comrade during a training exercise. [[spoiler: It's his guilt over leaving Walden to die to save his own ass talking.]]
* FriendOrFoe: Serling's backstory/subplot involves this - when enemy tanks became intermingled with his own, he mistakenly destroys his best friend's tank. Notably, he immediately takes steps to ensure it doesn't happen again, ordering all his tanks to stop and turn on their headlights. He ultimately receives a commendation for his quick thinking, but carries SurvivorsGuilt throughout the film over his friend's death.

** [[spoiler: Specialist Illario]] is also a functional addict, shooting up morphine between his toes to dull his own guilt over what happened in the war.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The Army doesn't want it known that Boylar's death was the result of being shot accidently by his own commanding officer. Serling slips the reporter who has been hounding him an audio tape of the entire battle.

* HeManWomanHater: Monfriez has elements of this. [[spoiler: When ending up under Walden's command, he instantly started to resent her, and eventually staged a mutinity against what he considered "unworthy" officer]].
* HonorBeforeReason: Serling wants the committee that's investigating the incident where he accidentally fired on one of his own tanks to give a real evaluation rather than just sweep it under the table[[note]]His reasons have little to do with honor, however: he's trying to make sure that he was justified in what he did, and that Boylar's death, while regretable, was not actually his fault, in an attempt to deal with his guilt[[/note]]. He's also determined to investigate Walden's case thoroughly and honestly, rather than just creating a good PR story, even after his CO removes him from the assignment.
** Walden refuses to leave Rady behind even though he's been shot in the head and will likely die no matter what happens. (Although he actually ends up living) [[spoiler: This forms the core of the conflict with Monfriez and Altameyer that later ends in her death.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Ilario and even Montfriez have this reaction as they watch Walden's position get napalmed after leaving her to die. Also Montfriez after he first shoots Walden, then realising that she was actually firing on the Iraqi troops who'd just appeared.]]

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Subverted; Monfriez, a DrillSergeantNasty, yells at a trainee about leaving a comrade who was tangled in barbed wire behind. We later learn, however, that [[spoiler: he'd done just that to his wounded commanding officer after she'd threatened to court martial him]].
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: [[spoiler: Walden takes the HonorBeforeReason approach to leadership, and tries to compensate in the field by throwing her authority around in a life and death situation rather than trying to inspire/persuade her men. It leads to them finally turning on her, and while them leaving her to die is unforgivable, Walden really could have handled the whole situation better.]]

* OhCrap: Serling in the opening battle. **"Cease fire! Cease fire! You just lit up a friendly!"

* PetTheDog: Montfriez is kind of a dick, [[spoiler: and ultimately the villain,]] but he saves Illario's life when he's about to fall out of the Huey to his death.

* TheRashomon: Walden's entire downed helicopter crew survived except for her, and all give different accounts of what she was like. Ilario sings her praises, while Monfriez calls her a coward who collapsed under pressure. Altameyer is dying of cancer and seems to become despondent whenever the topic is even brought up, and Rady was shot in the head and unconscious the entire time. By the end, [[spoiler: Ilario tells Serling the real story, that Montfriez and Altameyer got scared and rebelled against Walden's authority when she refused to leave Rady behind. Ilario timidly sided with them, leading to a standoff between Walden and Montfriez when she demanded his weapon. Walden then shot an approaching Iraqi soldier only for Montfriez to think she was shooting at him and shoot her in the stomach. When rescue arrived, the injured Walden held back the Iraqis on her own while the three escaped with Rady, assuming they would come back for her. But Montfriez told the rescue party she was dead, abandoning the captain to her fate to avoid a court-martial, which lead to the whole crash site (and presumably Walden) being napalmed. Altameyer was wounded and could not protest, while Ilario was too afraid to. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The three men were subsequently traumatized by guilt to varying degrees.]]]]
* TheReveal: The actual crash and following events are played in the third act, completely changing the story: [[spoiler: Walden was indeed the gallant officer, while Mnontfriez staged a mutinity, accidently shot her during attempted arrest and ultimately left her to die]]. Him claiming her cowardice and poor performance is [[spoiler: nothing more than covering his tracks]].
* SincerityMode: Serling sounds noticeably genuine when he [[spoiler: pleads with Monfriez not to kill himself, agreeing with him that he's 'been a good soldier' and Serling doesn't want to lose any more good soldiers.]]

** Turns out Walden [[spoiler: found this out the hard way. She makes it clear to Montfriez that no matter what happens, she ''will'' have him and the others court-martialed. As a result, he leaves her to die.]]
** [[spoiler: Monfriez, Altameyer, and Ilario are all complicit in Captain Walden's death. Instead of them taking the NeverMyFault approach, potentially portraying any one of them as a soulless monster, all of them clearly ''[[KarmicNod understand]]'' that what happened to her was their fault.]]

* UnfriendlyFire: Played with. [[spoiler:Monfriez shoots at Walden after he mistakenly believes she's deliberately shooting at him. Later, when the rescue choppers arrive, he claims Walden is already dead so the A-10 airstrike will kill her]].
* WithDueRespect: [[spoiler: "I strongly urge you to dismount the vehicle, ''sir!'' [[DrivenToSuicide Yaaaaaaaaahhhh]]!!!"]]
* WorstAid: At some points the soldiers are fairly liberal with moving Rady, not something you usually want to do when someone has a head wound. Justified, as they're better about it when not under attack, and the time when they're really swinging him around is when they're trying to evacuate a combat zone.

* TanksButNoTanks: The Abrams tanks in this movie are actually British Centurion tanks modified to look like Abrams, a common practice in movies that aren't BackedByThePentagon. The turret machine guns on the M1 and [=M1A1=] are remote controlled and can't be operate manually as Serling does in the opening (the [=M1A2=]'s turret guns can be manually operated, but it wasn't in service then).

* BolivianArmyEnding: The last we see of Walden is her bleeding from a gut-shot [[spoiler:done by her own men]] trying to hold off insurgents with her sidearm as they are being evaced. It's obvious that she dies and the body was never retrieved because it was a hostile area and there probably was NotEnoughToBury.

* BreakingTheGlassCeiling: The film is about whether or not Captain Walden, an army helicopter pilot, should be the the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor ([[PosthumousCharacter posthumously, in this case]]). In the end, [[spoiler:the medal is indeed awarded]].

* FunctionalAddict: Sterling is this, but his alcohol problems are getting worse due to SurvivorsGuilt, among other factors.

* UnfriendlyFire: Occurs in both the film's plot and subplot. [[spoiler:Monfriez shoots at Walden after he mistakenly believes she's shooting at him]]. Serling accidentally kills a soldier under his command when he fires on his tank mistaking it for an enemy tank.

* HeManWomanHater: Monfriez has elements of this.

* RealityEnsues:
** Turns out Walden [[spoiler: found this out the hard way. She makes it clear to Montfriez that no matter what happens, she ''will'' have him and the others court-martialed. He leaves her to die.]]
** Monfriez is shown to be somewhat sexist, and naturally this creates friction when taking orders from his female CO.
** [[spoiler: Monfriez, Altameyer, and Ilario are all complicit in Captain Walden's death. Instead of them taking the NeverMyFault approach, potentially portraying any one of them as a soulless monster, all of them clearly ''[[KarmicNod understand]]'' that what happened to her was their fault.]]

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The aide from the White House sent to watch the Medal of Honor investigation. His primary concern is the public relations benefit they'll gain from this.