In addition to losing radio contact, the platoon is harassed by unseen North Korean infiltrators who silently kill the Americans and take their weapons.

Platoon leader Lieutenant Benson has only vague instructions to reach a certain hill to link up with American forces.

The patrol stops a jeep driven by Staff Sergeant "Montana" and shell shocked passenger "the Colonel" from the First Cavalry Division.

After the Battle of the Nakdong River, where "our men fell like rain", the tough experienced Montana decided he and his Colonel, whom he treats like his father, have had enough of the war.

Montana disobeys Benson by instinctively shooting a surrendering North Korean sniper, who turns out to have a concealed weapon inside his hat.

The cynical Montana transforms the platoon back into a military formation while also curing Zwickley's neurosis by slapping him around.

Montana shoots three enemy soldiers disguised as Americans after a North Korean prisoner is used as bait and killed by his own men.

Benson calls the roll of the men in his platoon in alphabetic order (including those killed in the attack) as Montana throws the medals to the dead on the slope of the hill.

Unable to get tanks and military extras from the Pentagon, both Mann and composer Bernstein[6] concentrate on the landscape, in this case filmed at Bronson Canyon.