It stars Jai Courtney, Nat Wolff, Finn Wittrock, Beau Knapp, Arturo Castro and Leighton Meester.
In 2005, close friends "Cal" (Jai Courtney), "Milk" (Beau Knapp), "Jaeger" (Finn Wittrock), "Snowball" (Arturo Castro) and "Oyster" (Nat Wolff) bowl at Westside Lanes in Bridgewater, NY.
Together, all five enlist in the Marine Corps Reserve and they report to Fort Drum, where Cal is appointed their Staff Sergeant.
Oyster proves to be a slovenly recruit, he frequently picks fights, forgets his cap, and is generally reckless during their time.
Late at night, at Old Point Bar, they start to chat up two girls, Carrie and Val, to whom Cal shows the tattoo on his forearms: Semper Fidelis.
As the evening goes on, a drunken Oyster demands $10 to buy drinks for Carrie and Val, but Cal declines his request.
As the evening draws to a close, Cal, Milk, and Jaeger head out into the night for a friendly race home.
Oyster starts to panic as he stands over the prone Ben, who is now lifeless on the floor with blood coming out of his ear.
At home studying Arabic in the quiet, Cal gets a call from Oyster, then hurriedly dresses and returns to the bar in his police cruiser.
Eight months later, Cal, Snowball, Jaeger, and Milk are on full active duty in the Mosul province of Iraq.
Later their convoy heads out on patrol of the streets of Mosul and the jammer proves ineffective and one of their humvees is hit with an explosion.
Once Jaeger is evacuated, Cal's unit is ordered to raid nearby buildings and find a specific resident.
He tries to keep a low profile but while he's on cooking duty, the prison guards notice him sneaking apples into pancakes to increase flavour.
Oyster is invited into the pantry under the pretense that the guards are giving him more ingredients in order to make apple pies.
Cal completes his tour of Iraq and returns with Snowball, Jaeger, and Milk to a town welcoming them all as heroes.
Eventually, the Prison Guards intervene, pulling the brothers apart, but not before Snowball notices bruising on Oyster's chest.
Cal believes that Oyster's appeal may be aided by getting Dwyer (a key witness in Ben's death) to alter his testimony.
Even Clara, who provides free legal service to veterans, can't seem to make any headway.
Cal, Snowball, and Clara then visit Jaeger at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in Maryland, where they learn that he has lost the lower third of his right leg.
Finally reunited with his friends, Jaeger quietly voices his concerns as to Cal's mental state, as well as Oyster's well-being.
The plan is seemingly straightforward, Oyster once freed will be transported across the water into Canada at Snowball's place of work.
[8] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 48 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".