Windtalkers

World War II, Sgt. Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) rallies to return to active duty with the aid of his pharmacist Rita (Frances O'Connor) after previously surviving a gruesome battle against the Imperial Japanese Army that killed his entire squad and left him almost deaf from a Japanese grenade explosion. Enders has a perforated ear drum, and his vertical equilibrium was out of whack. He could barely even stand straight without falling down and was advised to stay at the naval base hospital for the rest of his life. While Enders gets his balance back, Rita helps him pass his hearing ability test to be restored back to active duty. Enders' new assignment is to protect Navajo code talker Pvt. Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), which earns him the rank of sergeant. Sgt. Ox Anderson (Christian Slater) also receives a parallel assignment protecting Navajo code talker Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Yahzee and Charlie are Native Americans who have been inducted into the army due to their ability to talk in code, which cannot be deciphered by the enemy, giving the US a crucial advantage in battle. The natives were given crash courses in the operation of radio equipment, the code itself and the ability to transmit and receive code under enemy fire. Yahzee and Whitehorse, both lifelong friends from the same Navajo tribe, are trained to send and receive coded messages that direct battleship bombardments of Japanese entrenched positions. Enders and Anderson are told by Major Mellitz (Jason Isaacs) that the code cannot fall into enemy hands, implying that they are to kill their code talkers if capture is imminent. Mellitz is clear that the mission is to protect the code first and foremost. Both Enders and Henderson resent their new assignments, and the Navajos also endure racial harassment by some of the white Marines, notably Private First Class Charles "Chick" Clusters (Noah Emmerich), a BAR gunner. Enders makes it a point not to get too friendly with Yahzee and Charlie. Yahzee tells Enders that it is his war too and he is fighting for his people. During their missions, however, Henderson and Whitehorse discover a mutual love of music. Enders and Yahzee also find that they have much in common, notably their Catholic upbringings. The orders are for the company to attack the Island of Saipan, which needs to be converted into a base for a further invasion of Japan. Saipan will be used as an advanced Naval base and an airstrip to land and refuel B-29's, and to get the bombers within range of Tokyo. Saipan is protected by 30,000 Japanese soldiers. The invasion of Saipan on June 16th, 1944 is Yahzee and Whitehorse's first combat experience. After the beachhead is secured post a bloody battle in which Yahzee is exposed to the horrors of war, the Marines come under friendly fire from American artillery. Yahzee's radio is destroyed, and the convoy is unable to call off the bombardment. Without the ability to communicate and American artillery shells raining down on them, Yahzee disguises himself as an Imperial Japanese soldier and slips behind enemy lines taking Enders as his prisoner of war in search of a radio. Enders eliminates several Japanese soldiers and Yahzee is forced to kill for the first time, slaying a Japanese radioman before he can redirect American artillery fire onto the Japanese position. For their bravery, Enders is awarded a Silver Star by the commanding officer, with Yahzee's role almost ignored until Enders points him out. That night, the Marines camp in the nearby village of Tanapag. Yahzee is sent back to headquarters and that night the Marines make camp in a village thought to be secured. Later the next morning, Japanese soldiers ambush the camp. During the fight Anderson is decapitated, and his code talker Pvt. Whitehorse is about to be captured by the Japanese. Enders sees Whitehorse being beaten and dragged away by the Japanese and tries to shoot the captors with his side arm, but it has run out of ammunition. Enders primes a grenade as Whitehorse nods to him, allowing Enders to throw the grenade at him in order to protect the code, and the ensuing explosion kills both Whitehorse and the Japanese captors. Yahzee returns to the front-line and soon learns that Enders killed Whitehorse. When Enders mutters that he killed Whitehorse, an outraged Yahzee aims his weapon at Enders but cannot bring himself to kill him. Enders later confesses that he hated having to kill Whitehorse and that, like Henderson, his mission was to protect the code above all else. Soon after, the Marines are mobilized on another mission. But they are yet again ambushed, this time near a deadly minefield. Barely able to fight their way out of the kill zone and take cover on an old battle torn ridge, the Marines see Japanese artillery fire coming on top of the same ridge which is decimating American troops below their position. Still enraged over the death of Whitehorse, Yahzee charges the Japanese line fearlessly, and in so doing, fumbles the radio needed to call in bombardments. Yahzee and Enders attempt to retrieve the radio. Yahzee and Enders are both shot as they call in an airstrike on the Japanese artillery. However, surrounded and knowing the Japanese will capture and torture him for the code as they almost did with Whitehorse, Yahzee begs Enders to kill him. Enders is determined that no one else will die that day. Enders manages to carry Yahzee to safety after taking a shot in the chest. Friendly planes arrive and the Japanese position is successfully destroyed. Yahzee rejoices in their success though Enders, mortally wounded, dies. Back in the U.S., Yahzee, his wife, and his son sit on atop of Point Mesa in Monument Valley, Arizona, and perform the Navajo ritual of paying respects to the man who saved his life. An epilogue states that the Navajo code was crucial to America's successes against Japan across the Pacific theater during the war and that like all other Native American codes, the Navajo code was never broken.