When ex-biker-gang member Sam Childers (Gerard Butler) makes the life-changing decision to go to East Africa to help repair homes destroyed by civil war, he is outraged by the unspeakable horrors faced by the region’s vulnerable populace, especially the children. Ignoring the warnings of more experienced aide workers, Sam breaks ground for an orphanage where it’s most needed in the middle of territory controlled by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a renegade militia that forces youngsters to become soldiers before they even reach their teens.
But for Sam, it is not enough to shelter the LRA’s intended victims. Determined to save as many as possible, he leads armed missions deep into enemy territory to retrieve kidnapped children, restoring peace to their lives - and eventually his own.
Contains Examples Of:
- African Terrorists: The Lord's Resistance Army.
- Amazing Freaking Grace: During the scene where Childers gets baptized.
- Badass Biker: What he was.
- Badass Preacher: What he became.
- Child Soldiers: Part of the reason the LRA is abducting so many children. Also the sniper turns out to be younger than Sam expected.
- Children Forced to Kill: In the opening sequence the boy with the scarred face is forced to club his mother to death in order for his brother & him to be left alive, though forced into fighting for the Lord's Resistance Army.
- Church Militant: Sam becomes one to fight his Evil Counterpart, the LRA
- Cluster F-Bomb: Childers was prone to dropping these during his criminal days. This noticeably ceases after his conversion and baptism.
- Corrupt Church: The LRA
- Crisis of Faith: Sam briefly has one after the death of his friend Donnie.
- Film of the Book: Based on Sam Childers' memoir Another Man's War
- Gone Horribly Right: Sam's wife became a born-again Christian when he was in jail. After he got out, she persuaded him to start coming to church because she wanted him to share her new-found faith. She probably wasn't expecting him to take it quite so seriously.
- He Who Fights Monsters: A female relief worker warns Sam about this, and he blows her off, saying, "You fight the evil here your way, I'll fight it my way." A few scenes later, we seem him on a slippery slope in that very direction.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Sam finding salvation and redemption in Jesus.
- Historical Beauty Update: As the footage at the end shows, the real Sam Childers is balding, heavyset and has a far rougher appearance in contrast to the lean, wavy-haired and ruggedly handsome Gerard Butler.
- Papa Wolf
- Real Men Love Jesus: The Movie!
- Reformed Criminal
- Saving the Orphanage
- Scary Black Man: The members of the Lord's Resistance Army.
- The Dog Bites Back: One of the Child Soldiers shoots the last LRA soldier then pulls off a Heel–Face Turn.
- Too Dumb to Live: The relief worker who attempts to negotiate with an LRA member, though fortunately Sam shows up to bail her out.
- Took A Level In Jerk Ass: He turns from an idealistic, Nice Guy Anti-Hero to an angry, bitter Well-Intentioned Extremist. Although eventually he gets better.
- White Man's Burden: If you feel cynical about it.
