In a time of economic turmoil, six generals are kidnapped and killed by the PKI and Air Force, purportedly to pre-empt a coup against President Sukarno.

The film shows the G30S leadership as ruthless and planning "every move to the last detail",[1] taking joy in using excessive violence and torturing the generals, depictions which have been read as portraying "the state's enemies as outside the realm of the human".

[5] On the night of 30 September–1 October 1965, a group of Indonesian National Armed Forces members calling themselves the 30 September Movement captured and killed six Army generals thought to belong to an anti-revolutionary "Generals' Council", including Commander of the Army Ahmad Yani; another target, Abdul Haris Nasution, escaped.

From the Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) office there, Lieutenant-Colonel Untung Syamsuri of the Presidential Guard announced that the movement had secured several key locations in the city in an attempt to forestall a coup by the Generals' Council.

[10] In the years that followed, the Indonesian Army and general populace undertook a campaign of retribution, killing or capturing registered and suspected PKI members – including most of the G30S leadership.

The PKI has manufactured a story, based on the forged Gilchrist Document, that a Generals' Council is preparing for a coup should Sukarno die.

Suharto leaves Merdeka Palace for Halim Air Base, where he tells the G30S leaders that he will take full control of the Army.

Suharto, awoken early in the morning, denies Untung's announcement, stating explicitly that there is no Generals' Council and making an adjunct record notes on the true nature of G30S.

As there is a power vacuum with Yani dead, Suharto takes temporary control of the Army and plans a counter-assault with his men, but is unwilling to force a fight.

He instead gives a radio announcement; delivered after forces loyal to him retake the office; it outlines the situation, describes G30S as counter-revolutionary, and states that the Army will deal with the coup.

The Army discovers the camp at Lubang Buaya and the generals' bodies, which are recovered while Suharto delivers a speech describing the coup and the PKI's role in it.

He had previous experience in the genre, having made the war film Serangan Fajar (Dawn Attack; 1981), which emphasised Suharto's role in the National Revolution.

Instead, "for all intents and purposes" the film was the work of its producer, Brigadier-General Gufran Dwipayana, then the head of PPFN and a member of the presidential staff.

[14] The screenplay for Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI was based on a 1968 book by the military historian Nugroho Notosusanto and the investigator Ismail Saleh entitled The Coup Attempt of the 30 September Movement in Indonesia.

[20] Noer attempted to cast actors who resembled the historical figures depicted; Rano Karno later recalled that he was rejected for the role of Pierre Tendean as the latter did not have a mole on his face.

[21] Ultimately the film starred Bram Adrianto as Untung, Amoroso Katamsi as Suharto, Umar Kayam as Sukarno, and Syubah Asa as Aidit; other actors included Ade Irawan, Sofia W.D., Dani Marsuni, and Charlie Sahetapy.

[22] Kayam, then a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, did not have the time to research Sukarno's mannerisms from his books and speeches; instead, he portrayed the president based on testimonials from the staff at the Bogor palace.

[27] Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI portrays the PKI and communism as inherently evil, with its followers "beyond redemption",[28] while the G30S leadership are seen as cunning and ruthless, plotting "every move to the last detail".

[1] The historian Katherine McGregor finds this emphasised in the film's portrayal of the G30S leadership as gangsters, sitting in secret meetings amidst clouds of cigarette smoke.

She considers an opening scene, where the PKI attacks an Islamic school, as likewise meant to show the "evil" nature of communists.

[f][2] Yoseph Yapi Taum of Sanata Dharma University notes that members of the leftist women's movement Gerwani are shown as part of a "crazy" Communist Party, dancing in the nude and cutting off the general's penises.

[30] Before its commercial release, Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI was pre-screened in August 1984 for high-ranking military officers who had been involved in stopping the coup, including Suharto and Sarwo Edhie Wibowo.

Marselli of Kompas, for instance, found that Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI was highly detailed, with extensive work and quality acting going to represent events accurately.

[47] During the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s the historical accuracy of Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI was little disputed,[48] and the film became representative of canonical history;[49] its version of the 1965 events was the only one allowed in open discourse.

[15] By the mid-1990s, however, anonymous Internet communities and small publications had begun questioning the film's contents; one online message, sent anonymously through a mailing list, asked "If only a small section of the PKI leadership and military agents knew about [the coup, as in the film], how is it that over a million people were killed and thousands of people who knew nothing had to be imprisoned, exiled, and lost their civil rights?

The magazine stated that Basarah had called the Education Minister Juwono Sudarsono and asked him to not screen Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI, as it was damaging to the Air Force.

Two other films, Janur Kuning (Yellow Coconut Leaves; 1979) and Serangan Fajar, were likewise affected by the decree;[52] Janur Kuning portrayed Suharto as the hero behind the historic General Offensive of 1 March 1949 in Yogyakarta while Serangan Fajar showed him as a major hero of the National Revolution.

[51] Hilmar Farid, an Indonesian historian, called the film propaganda mixed with "some [of the New Order's] fantasies";[l][59] the Vice journalist Arzia Tivany Wargadiredja echoed this classification.

[57] The former Lekra writer Putu Oka Sukanta, meanwhile, described the film as underplaying the suffering of PKI members and other leftists in the events following the G30S coup, thus becoming "a lie to the people".

[66] A video CD edition was released by Virgo in 2001,[37] and the G30S/PKI museum at Lubang Buaya offers regular screenings in an on-site cinema.