Brian Geraghty

A depressed lady falls in love with a holographic artificial intelligence (AI) in a cognitive behavioral therapy by virtual reality technology and subsequently suffers a morbid trauma. A depressed woman is prescribed the White Eyes, a pair of special contact lenses, for a cognitive behavioral therapy called Phase Q where a holographic AI is shown in a mixed reality to help her. As a result of using this treatment, she falls in love with the AI character from the program. When the truth strikes her that their love will never work, she commits suicide in her real life. However, everything was just a dark experiment by the world's elite minds who want to decide the fate of humanity with their hands. —Kenichi Iwabuchi & Teli Share

Airline pilot Whip Whitaker miraculously lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe. But even as he is hailed for his heroic efforts, questions arise as to who or what was really at fault.

In 2004, Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) arrives as the new team leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit in the Iraq War. He replaces Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson (Guy Pearce), who was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. Thompson's team was called in after there were reports of an IED in a Baghdadi neighborhood. Thompson inspected the IED via a remote-controlled robot. Thompson decided that he will trigger a controlled explosion of the IED with C4 to eliminate the threat. The wagon carrying the C4 to the IED malfunctions and hence Thompson has to carry the C4 himself. Thompson is decked in blast proof gear. While Thompson is returning after placing the C4, Sanborn notices a local with a phone near the IED. Before the man can be stopped, he triggers the IED, thereby killing Thompson (who was 25 meters away from the IED and still in the kill zone). James's team includes Sergeant J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). When James arrives on the scene, Bravo Company has 39 days left on its current deployment. James is often approached by an Iraqi youth nicknamed "Beckham" (Christopher Sayegh), attempting to sell DVDs. James challenges him to a game of soccer and takes a liking to him. James is a renegade for who the thrill of the dismantlement seems to be the ultimate goal regardless of the safety of his fellow team members, others on the scene or himself. James removes the protective layers on his windows at barracks as they block the sunshine, and he argues that they will not stop a mortar round coming from the roof. On his first day out in the streets, James decides to approach a suspected IED directly with his blast proof gear, without deploying the robot first. James detonates a smoke bomb to protect himself, without giving any warning to his colleagues. As James approaches the IED, a taxi breaks through the cordon and barrels towards James. James pulls out his own pistol and stops the taxi. After a protracted face-off, James forces the Taxi to reverse, where the driver is apprehended by US forces. James then finds the IED and dismantles it. He then finds several secondaries linked to the primary IED, and proceeds to dismantle all of them, before they can be triggered by an onlooking local. On the other hand, Sanborn is by the books. And Eldridge is an insecure soldier who is constantly worried that an error or misjudgment on his part will lead to the death of an innocent civilian or a military colleague. Next day, the team is assigned to a school, where a car has been parked illegally and is carrying something heavy in the back (as its suspension is sagging). As James approaches the car, it is fired upon by a sniper, and the car bursts into flames. James uses a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames, while Sanborn is sent to the roof to suppress the sniper fire. James finds heavy IEDs in the trunk. He removes his blast gear, as anyways he won't survive if the IEDs go off. As James works on locating the triggering mechanism, Sanborn keeps shouting in his earpiece to hurry up, prompting James to remove his earpiece. Meanwhile, Sanborn and Eldridge find a local filming them on a camera and 3 locals giving instructions to him from a minaret. James manages to find the well concealed triggering mechanism. Sanborn hits James and warns him not to remove his headset again. Colonel Reed (David Morse) congratulates James for his bravery. James has dismantled 873 bombs so far. Sanborn and Eldridge consider James' maverick disposal methods and attitude reckless, raising tensions. When they are assigned to destroy captured explosives, James returns to the detonation site to pick up his gloves. Sanborn openly contemplates killing him by "accidentally" triggering the explosives, making Eldridge uncomfortable. Nothing is done, and tensions continue to increase. Returning to Camp Victory in their Humvee, the team encounters five armed men in traditional Arab garb and casual attire standing near a Ford Excursion, which has a flat tire. James' team has a tense encounter with their leader, who reveals they are private military contractors and British mercenaries. They have captured two prisoners featured on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. The group comes under fire; when the prisoners attempt to escape in the confusion, the leader of the mercenaries shoots them, as they are valuable (worth $500,000) dead or alive. Enemy snipers kill three of the mercenaries, including their leader (Ralph Fiennes). Sanborn and James (as spotter) take over the sniper gun to dispatch three attackers (who were attacking with their own sniper rifle from a distance), while Eldridge kills a fourth who tries the flank their position. Sanborn and James finally start to bond and enjoy their time together. During a raid on a warehouse (where they find several components of IEDs and a large amount of ammunition), James discovers a body he believes is Beckham, in which a bomb has been surgically implanted. During the evacuation, Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge (Christian Camargo), the camp's psychiatrist and a friend of Eldridge, is killed in an explosion. Eldridge blames himself for his death as Elridge had goaded Cambridge to see the operations in the field and not pass judgments on people sitting in his cubicle inside the base. Returning to base, James approaches the stall where Beckham used to sell his DVDs and inquires the elderly man about him. The elderly man pretends not to know English. But at night, when the man packs up his stuff in his truck, James corners him with a pistol and asks to be taken to the people responsible for Beckham's death. James is dropped outside a home in a residential neighborhood. James breaks into the house of an Iraqi professor, seeking revenge for Beckham, but his search reveals nothing. Called to a petrol tanker detonation, James decides to hunt for the insurgents responsible, guessing they are still nearby. Sanborn protests, but when James begins a pursuit, he and Eldridge reluctantly follow. After they split up, insurgents capture Eldridge. James and Sanborn rescue him, but one of James' rounds hits Eldridge in the leg. The following morning, James is approached by Beckham, whom James believed was dead, and James walks by silently. Before being airlifted for surgery, Eldridge angrily blames James for his injury. James and Sanborn's unit is called to another mission in their last two days of their rotation. An innocent Iraqi civilian (Suhail Dabbach) has had a bomb vest strapped to his chest. James tries to cut off the locks to remove the vest, but there are too many of them. He abandons the man who is then killed when the bomb explodes. Sanborn is distraught by the man's death. He confesses to James he can no longer cope with the pressure and wants to return home and have a son. After Bravo Company's rotation ends, James returns to his ex-wife Connie (Evangeline Lilly) and their infant son, who still lives with him in his house. However, he is bored by routine civilian life. James confesses to his son there is only one thing he knows he loves. He starts another tour of duty, serving with Delta Company, a U.S. Army EOD unit on its 365-day rotation.

Huntington, West Virginia is a small town and a river runs through it. Next to the river is a steel mill and a school is situated right next to the steel mill. The school is Marshall University. In the middle of the University is a fountain, where the water is turned off at the exact same time and same day of every year. On the evening of November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 chartered by Marshall University to transport the Thundering Herd football team back to Huntington, West Virginia following their 17-14 defeat to the East Carolina University Pirates, clips trees on a ridge just one mile short of the runway at Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia, and crashes into a nearby gully, killing all 75 people on board. Marshall is a school with a proud football tradition and in one instant their entire team, and coaching staff is wiped out. The team loses the game as the last pass in the game made by Marshall, could not be completed at the touchdown line. The coach asks the team to do better. The coach says that winning is the only thing that matters on the field. The deceased include the 37 players. Head coach Rick Tolley (Robert Patrick) and five members of his coaching staff. Charles E. Kautz, Marshall's athletic director. Team athletic trainer Jim Schroer and his assistant, Donald Tackett. Sports information director and radio play-by-play announcer Gene Morehouse. 25 boosters and five crew members. The plane crash landed in a forested area and broke into several pieces. Everything was on fire and there was no chance of anyone surviving. The whole town is impacted by the tragedy. William "Red" Dawson (Matthew Fox), one of the coaching staff, was saved when he gave his seat to another person who had to see his granddaughter perform in school that night. Red Is married to Carole Dawson (January Jones). Since Red's name was on the passenger manifest, he is still declared dead by the papers. The town organizes a funeral for the dead. As the dead are buried, the people of the town find it difficult to move on as the commemorative events continue to roll on. That spring, led by Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie), a player who was ill and missed the fatal flight, students rally to convince the board of governors to play the 1971 season. The others include Tom Bogdan (Brian Geraghty) and Reggie Oliver (Arlen Escarpeta). Paul Griffen (Ian McShane) is the father of the star quarterback of the team Chris, who lost his life in the crash. Annie Cantrell (Kate Mara) was dating Paul's son and was on the cheer-leading squad, who traveled back in a car with her friends. Paul works at the steel mill. Chris and Annie are engaged, but Chris was waiting to tell Paul before he died, and hence now Paul had no idea that Annie was engaged to Chris. In the wake of the tragedy, University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) leans towards indefinitely suspending the football program. Paul also counsels Donald that it does not seem right to resume the football program so soon after the tragedy and that the town should not rush back into it. Paul argues that it would not be a game, but a weekly reminder of what the town lost. 28 kids lost both their parents in the tragedy. Donald is ultimately persuaded to reconsider by the pleas of the Marshall students and Huntington residents, and especially the few football players who didn't make the flight, led by Nate Ruffin. Nate rallies the town's younger population and conducts a demonstration in front of Donald's office to demonstrate the a majority of the people want things to return to normal. Dedmon hires Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) as head coach who, with the help of Red Dawson one of two surviving members of the previous coaching staff, manages to rebuild the team in a relatively short time, despite losing many of their prospects to West Virginia University. Dedmon travels to Kansas City, where he pleads with the NCAA to waive their rule prohibiting freshmen from playing varsity football. This was a rule which had been abolished in 1968 for all sports except for football and basketball, and would be permanently abolished for those sports in 1972. Dedmon returns victorious. Jack Lengyel motivates and leads young players at the same time that he reexamines the Lombardi (Ex coach) creed that winning is the only thing. He uses every trick in the book, including visiting a rival coach for their playbook to prepare his team. The new team is composed mostly of the 18 returning players (three varsity, 15 sophomores) and walk-on athletes from other Marshall sports programs. Due to their lack of experience, the "Young Thundering Herd" ends up losing its first game, 29-6, to the Morehead State Eagles. The loss weighs heavily on Dawson and Ruffin, who had been hurt on the first play of the game. This sets the tongues rolling that it is disrespectful to the dead players to set such an inept team on field. But Lengyel believes in his team & prepares them for their first home game. He sees that the town is still behind its team. The Marshall's pull off a stunning come from behind win & win the town's heart. The Herd's first post-crash victory is a 15-13 win against Xavier University in the first home game of the season, while erasing the painful memories of the crash. Hours after the victory a grief-stricken Coach Dawson remains in the team's locker room, in disbelief over the Herd's first win since the crash. He walks out to a still-full stadium of Marshall fans who share his astonishment and don't want to leave the stadium either. They don't manage to win another game the rest of the season, but their determination to keep the program running delivers huge success in the 80's with 5 championships. All thanks to the courage of those few men who stood up & kept the football going when no one else was willing to do so.

In 1989, Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) is getting trained in a U.S. Marine Corps boot camp by the choleric, hard-boiled Drill Instructor Fitch (Scott MacDonald). After finishing boot camp, "Swoff" is dispatched to Camp Pendleton. Swoff then explains how he tried to fit into civilian life. He thought about going to college but he instead joins 'shows' some highlights of his life including taking a 'dump' and 'studying' (having sexual intercourse) with his girlfriend; who later cheats on him. Swofford finds boot camp tough as he struggles through making friends and living day to day. He then writes "fuck it" on a light billboard with large letters before the movie cuts to him sitting in the head. In the head trying to be "sick" (by drinking a whole bottle of liquid laxative), is slipped food under the door before he is approached by Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), a Marine "lifer" who invites Swofford to his Scout Sniper course. After arduous training sessions that claim the life of one candidate, Swofford is one of the 8 remaining from the original 60 candidates and is selected to be trained as a sniper and paired with his roommate Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), who becomes Swofford's spotter. During all of this Swoff is put through his paces and learns a variety of sniper techniques. Although he first thinks of it as a joke, he starts to fall in love with the idea of getting to kill someone. Shortly after, Kuwait is invaded by Iraq and Swofford's unit is dispatched to the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert Shield. Although the Marines are very eager to see combat action, they are forced to hydrate, wait, patrol the nearby area and adjust themselves to the arid environment. A main technique suggested for boredom and loneliness is masturbation. During the waiting period the "wall of shame" is shown and as Swoff is looking at it a fellow Marine (Fowler) teases Swoff that its only a matter of time before Swoff's girl is up there. this majorly plays on Swoff's mind throughout his deployment. During an impromptu Christmas party thrown by Swofford, who has obtained unauthorized alcohol, Fergus (Brian Geraghty), a member of Swofford's unit, accidentally sets fire to a tent and a crate of flares. Swofford gets the blame because he was supposed to be on watch but had Fergus sit in for him. As a consequence, Swofford is demoted from Lance Corporal (E-3) to Private (E-1) and is forced to undertake the degrading task of burning "diesel fuel" (excrement). The punishments, the heat and the boredom, combined with suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity and feelings of isolation, temporarily drive Swofford to the point of mental breakdown. He threatens and nearly shoots fellow Marine Fergus then turns the weapon on himself and demands the traumatized Fergus to shoot him. When Fergus refuses Swofford leaves the tent. After the long stand in the desert, Operation Desert Storm, the coalition force's ground campaign, begins. The Marines are dispatched to the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. Briefly before the action begins, Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged after the end of hostilities. Troy begins to keep distant from his fellow Marines. Knowing that Troy will never be allowed to re-enlist, the Marines brand him with a hot USMC iron, marking him as one of their own. Following an accidental air attack from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, facing no enemies on the ground. The troops march through the Highway of Death, strewn with the burnt vehicles and charred bodies of retreating Iraqi soldiers, the aftermath of a U.S. bombing campaign. Later, the Marines suddenly catch sight of distant burning oil wells, lit only moments before by the retreating Iraqis, and they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of crude oil falls from the sky. Before they can finish them, Sykes orders the squad to move to where the wind prevents the oil from raining on them. Swofford and Troy are finally given a combat mission. Their order is to shoot two high-ranking officers in Saddam's Republican Guard, holed up at a nearby airfield. At the last second before Swofford takes the shot, a high-ranking US officer interrupts them to call in an air strike. Swofford and Troy vehemently protest but they are overruled and later watch as the planes destroy the Iraqi airfield. On returning home the troops parade through the towns in a jovial celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend, but discovers her with a new boyfriend. Fowler is seen to be with a prostitute in a bar, Kruger (Lucas Black) in a corporate boardroom, Escobar (Laz Alonso) as a supermarket employee, Cortez (Jacob Vargas) as a father of three kids, and Sykes continuing his service as a First Sergeant in Operation Iraqi Freedom. An unspecified amount of time later Swofford learns of Troy's death (the cause of which is never specified) during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends the funeral, meets some of his old friends, and afterwards he reminisces about the effects of the war.