Home / Platoon

Platoon

Year:

1987

Duration:

120 min

Genres:

Drama | War

IMDB rate:

8.1

Director:

Oliver Stone

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 22 wins & 10 nominations

Details

Country: UK

Release Date: 1987-02-06

Filming Locations: Philippines

Earnings

Budget: $6,000,000

Opening Weekend: $241,080 (USA) (21 December 1986)

Gross: $138,530,565 (USA)£4,653,069 (UK)

Cast

Actor

Character

Tom Berenger

Platoon

Keith David

King

Willem Dafoe

Sgt. Elias

Forest Whitaker

Big Harold

Francesco Quinn

Rhah

Kevin Dillon

Bunny

John C. McGinley

Sgt. O'Neill

Reggie Johnson

Junior

Mark Moses

Lt. Wolfe

Corey Glover

Francis

Johnny Depp

Lerner

Chris Pedersen

Crawford

Bob Orwig

Gardner

Corkey Ford

Manny

David Neidorf

Tex

Charlie Sheen

Chris

Richard Edson

Sal

Tony Todd

Warren

Kevin Eshelman

Morehouse

James Terry McIlvain

Ace

J. Adam Glover

Sanderson

Ivan Kane

Tony

Paul Sanchez

Doc

Dale Dye

Captain Harris

Peter Hicks

Parker

Basile Achara

Flash

Steve Barredo

Fu Sheng

Chris Castillejo

Rodriguez

Andrew B. Clark

Tubbs

Bernardo Manalili

Village Chief

Than Rogers

Village Chief's Wife

Li Thi Van

Village Chief's Daughter

Clarisa Ortacio

Old Woman

Romy Sevilla

One-Legged Man

Mathew Westfall

Terrified Soldier

Nick Nicholson

Mechanized Soldier #1 (as Nick Nickelson)

Warren McLean

Mechanized Soldier #2

Li Mai Thao

Rape Victim

Ron Barracks

Medic

H. Gordon Boos

Soldier with Mohawk Haircut (uncredited)

Brad Cassini

Soldier (uncredited)

Mark Ebenhoch

Ebenhoch (uncredited)

Robert 'Rock' Galotti

Huffmeister (uncredited)

Eric Hahn

Soldier (uncredited)

Oliver Stone

Alpha Company Major in Bunker

Henry Strzalkowski

Bit Part (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

Prior to the scene where Elias' half of the platoon is smoking dope, the actors actually did smoke marijuana. Unfortunately for them, Willem Dafoe reported, by the time the stage was set and they actually filmed, everyone had come off their high and felt awful.

Share this

Jeff Bridges was considered for Sgt. Elias.

Share this

Technical advisor Dale Dye's wife Katherine was the Vietnamese woman who was thrown into a mass-grave by two American soldiers after the Final Battle.

Share this

Goofs

In the third battle (Ambushed by VC), the machine gunner (Morehouse) was hit spot on by an artillery shell from friendly fire and was shattered into pieces by the explosion. When the troops evacuated, his quite complete body, although charred, was the first one taken out.

Share this

The position of the bandoliers worn by King in the goodbye scene with Chris just before the climactic battle.

Share this

After the first firefight, the blood "M" the medic puts on Private Gardner's forehead disappears.

Share this

Quotes

Chris Taylor: [after taking down a group of NVA soldiers] I got two of them fuckers, man!

Share this

Sgt. Barnes: [to Lt. Wolfe after giving wrong target grid for mortar-fire] You ignorant asshole! What the fuck coordinates you giving? You wasted a lot of people up there with your fucked-up fire mission! You know that? You know that? Ah, shit!

Share this

Bunny: Hey Junior, you never smoked any shit?

Share this

Faq

Is the village massacre based on any actual events?

Yes, and it's probably a composite of several of them. The most famous is the My Lai massacre, believed to have been perpetrated by Lt. William Calley. Oliver Stone quite plainly wrote the scene to be reflective of My Lai and probably many other lesser known incidents of misconduct by American military personnel.

Is there a Nazi flag on the American tank? Why?

Yes, it was likely meant as an ironic statement by the tank crew.

Why did Taylor drop a grenade after the battle was over?

As stated in the trivia, Charlie Sheen improvised this, as he felt Chris would be suicidal by the end of the movie, having murdered Barnes in cold blood and seen the horrors of what the men fighting on the same side as him would do to each other and innocent people during the conflict. Taylor picked up the grenade, but once one of the other soldiers made their way to him, he probably felt it was better to live and get shipped home to be with the ones he loved.

Share this