Directed by John Dahl, the film stars Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Marton Csokas, Joseph Fiennes with Motoki Kobayashi and Cesar Montano.

Nurse Margaret Utinsky, who had established a relationship with Gibson prior to the Japanese occupation, assists in smuggling medicine into the POW camp with the aid of the Filipino underground movement.

Prince devises a plan where the guerillas cut off the telephone lines to Cabanatuan as well as distract and ambush a nearby battalion of the Imperial Japanese Army to prevent reinforcements from reaching the POW camp as the Rangers proceed with the raid.

The Rangers succeed in carrying out the raid, catching the Kempeitai by surprise and killing all the camp guards, while the guerillas inflict heavy casualties on the Japanese battalion.

Director John Dahl had six hours of footage of Captain Robert Prince which he gave to actor James Franco to prepare for his role.

[6] Retired Marine Corps captain Dale Dye was the film's military advisor and trained the cast in a boot camp in northern Queensland, reprising a role and practice from Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan and Platoon.

[10] Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe criticized a lack of character development and the pace of the film, saying, "On screen, at least, the raid to free the prisoners isn't all that great – just a bunch of explosions and combat maneuvers.

"[11] Mike Clark of USA Today said, "Just about any golden age Hollywood hack could have made a zestier drama about one of the greatest rescue missions in U.S. military history," and criticized "Franco's droning voice-over" for spelling out "every sliver of historical context", and also said "a huge chunk of time is given to an uncompelling romance between a major...and a widowed nurse.