It stars James Woods as Richard Boyle, alongside Jim Belushi, Michael Murphy and Elpidia Carrillo, with John Savage and Cynthia Gibb in supporting roles.

The film tells the story of an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War who becomes entangled with both the FMLN and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.

The film is highly sympathetic toward the left-wing revolutionaries and strongly critical of the US-supported military dictatorship, focusing on the murder of four American Catholic missionaries, including Jean Donovan, and the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero by death squads.

After arriving, Boyle asks to meet a general he met during the Football War, and he and Rock are taken to him in a school-turned-barracks where both discuss the situation and he learns that the Salvadoran Army is being supplied by the United States.

Sensing that disaster is imminent in El Salvador, Boyle eventually decides to leave, but he is reunited with an old flame named María and her two children, and is motivated to help them escape the country.

Afterwards, Boyle goes to the United States Embassy to convince the ambassador to cut aid for the Salvadoran government, but his suggestions are denied and he is told to leave the country for his own safety.

As rebels overrun the government forces in Santa Ana, Boyle witnesses them execute captured soldiers with the same cruelty the military had previously shown them, which greatly disgusts him.

During production a lawsuit arose, started by disc jockey Eric "Dr. Rock" Isralow, who sued Oliver Stone and Hemdale for breach of contract, arguing that he was denied a promised acting role in Salvador, as well as a job as the film's music consultant.

"[13] Walter Goodman of The New York Times wrote an unfavorable review, arguing that while "as an adventure film, [it] has plenty of speed, grit and grime", it depicts "improbable people doing implausible things" and in some cases deviates from reality "for the sake of heightening the drama and hammering in the political point".