| Director | Ivan Reitman |
|---|---|
| Genre | action comedy film, buddy film, war film |
| Runtime | 118 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $10 million |
| Box office | $85.3 million |
In the course of one day, Louisville, Kentucky cab driver John Winger loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend Anita, who has grown tired of his immaturity. Realizing his limited prospects, he persuades best friend Russell Ziskey to join the Army with him.
They are assigned to a basic training platoon under drill sergeant Sergeant Hulka. John irritates Hulka with his slacker attitude, and he and Russell become romantically involved with MPs Louise Cooper and Stella Hansen. After Hulka discovers that John and Russell have briefly gone AWOL, he orders Russell to scrub garbage cans for 24 hours and gives the rest of the platoon two weeks of KP duty. Russell stops John from deserting for good, angrily reminding John that it was his idea that they enlist. Louise and Stella find them fighting and return them to their barracks without reporting them.
Hulka is injured when Captain Stillman, the recruit company's commander, orders a mortar crew to fire without first setting target coordinates. Absent a leader, the platoon sneaks off base to visit a mud wrestling bar. When MPs and local police raid the club, Stella and Louise help John and Russell escape, and the four spend the night together. The rest of the platoon is reprimanded by Stillman who threatens to make them repeat basic training.
When John and Russell return to base, John motivates the disheartened platoon and begins preparing them for their graduation ceremony. After a night of practice, they oversleep and arrive late at the parade ground, where John leads them in an unorthodox but highly coordinated drill display. Impressed they completed their training without a drill sergeant, base commander General Barnicke assigns them to a secret project overseas.
The platoon reunites with a recovered Hulka in Italy, tasked with guarding the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, an armored personnel carrier disguised as a recreational vehicle. John and Russell steal it to visit Stella and Louise, who are stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the RV missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to retrieve it, and inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia where they're captured. Hulka avoids capture by the Soviet Army and sends out a radio distress call. John, Russell, Stella, and Louise infiltrate the Soviet base in the EM-50 and rescue the platoon with aid from Hulka.
John, Russell, Louise, Stella, and Hulka return to the United States as heroes and are each awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.}} Hulka retires from the Army and opens a fast food restaurant; John, Russell, Stella, and Louise are featured on magazine covers; and Stillman is reassigned to a weather station in Nome, Alaska.