Delroy Lindo

Four African American vets battle forces of man and nature, when they return to Vietnam searching for the remains of their fallen Squad Leader and the promise of buried treasure.

A small group of people at a business meeting. One of the group, a younger man, suddenly passes out on the board room table. Outside the building, flocks of birds begin to crash into nearby buildings and other stationary objects. At University of Chicago Dr Keyes is approached by two government officials and asked to leave with them, no questions asked. He's taken to a government facility where he meets a friend, Dr. Serge Leveque (Tchéky Karyo), a nuclear weapons expert. The two are shown into a large hangar where they're astonished to see the room is full of bodies draped in white sheets. An Army general, Purcell (Richard Jenkins) tells them that everyone in the room suddenly died at the exact same moment. After a few seconds of speculation, Keyes and Leveque conclude that all the victims had pacemakers. Purcell is impressed, telling them they figured out the mystery faster than anyone else he'd spoken to. While in it's re-entry procedure, the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor find themselves several miles off course. Instead of being aligned with Edwards Air Force Base, they are heading directly for downtown Los Angeles. The shuttle makes an emergency landing in the L.A. River, avoiding a catastrophic accident. Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Hilary Swank) was the navigator for the mission and is nearly court-martialed before it's determined that she performed her duties perfectly and that the strange magnetic anomalies around the world were responsible A series of disturbances caused by instability in the Earth's magnetic field lead geologist Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) and scientists Serge Leveque (Tchéky Karyo) and Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci) to learn that the Earth's molten core has stopped rotating. Within a year, the Earth's magnetic field will collapse, irradiating the planet. The three develop a plan with the United States government to bore into the Earth's core and plant a series of nuclear charges at precise points to restart the core's motion and restore the field. A former colleague-turned-adversary of Professor Zimsky, the rogue scientist Ed "Braz" Brazzelton (Delroy Lindo), has developed plans for a nuclear-powered vessel that could quickly drill through to the core aided by a high frequency pulse laser, with a hull made of "Unobtainium", an indestructible metal that can withstand the heat and pressure of the core. Braz also reveals that he and Zimsky have a checkered past: Zimsky stole a few research ideas from Braz and it led to a falling out between the two. Braz is willing to work with Zimsky again if it means saving the Earth. Though funding for his research has been hard to find, Purcell tells him he'll give him all the money he needs to complete work on a ship made of his compound in a few short months. The government funds the construction of the ship, which Brazzelton names Virgil, while Keyes enlists the help of computer hacker Theodore Donald "Rat" Finch (DJ Qualls) to keep news of the potential global disaster off the Internet and stem a worldwide panic. However, there is a hint that the Army is hiding the real reason of the impending catastrophe. Virgil is made up of several compartments and if any compartment of the ship is damaged, the operating system will eject that compartment to avoid risk to the rest of the ship. Keyes, Zimsky, Levequeand part of the crew. Virgil is piloted by Space Shuttle pilots Commander Robert Iverson (Bruce Greenwood) and Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Hilary Swank). The Virgil is launched through the Marianas Trench from an offshore platform. The team accidentally drills through a gigantic empty geode structure, damaging the lasers when it lands at its base and cracking the geode's structure and causing magma to flow in. Keyes and Zimsky find out that they are in fact inside a cobalt cocoon full of Amethyst. The crew repair and restart the laser array in time, but Iverson is killed by a falling crystal shard while returning to the ship. As Virgil continues, it clips a huge diamond that breaches the hull of the last compartment. Leveque sacrifices himself to save the nuclear launch codes before the compartment is crushed by extreme pressure. Virgil eventually reaches the molten core. The new data they gather there reveals a flaw in the plan. The outer layer of the Earth's Core is less dense than anticipated, and the explosions cannot generate the needed power. After some calculations, they decide that by splitting their nuclear weapons into the remaining compartments and jettisoning each at specific distances, they can create a "ripple effect", where the power of each bomb will push against the blast of the next, generating the needed energy wave. However, because Virgil was not designed to jettison undamaged compartments, the plan requires someone to deactivate a safety switch that is in an area exposed to the extreme temperatures. Brazzelton volunteers and deactivates the switch, dying shortly afterwards. Meanwhile on the surface, the public becomes aware of problems after super storms start to cover the world. Finch is unable to stop worldwide panic but instead learns of the top-secret project "DESTINI" (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative), which is to be deployed if the Virgil mission fails. Finch relays his information to Keyes, who discovers that Zimsky was one of DESTINI's lead scientists. DESTINI, according to Zimsky, was designed as a weapon to propagate earthquakes through the Earth's core, but its first activation has unintentionally stopped its rotation instead. Zimsky reveals the government will use it again to attempt a restart of the core. Keyes is convinced it will have disastrous results, so he has Finch hack into DESTINI's system and cut its power supply to buy the Virgil more time. Keyes and Zimsky realize they have miscalculated the necessary yield, but Zimsky gets trapped in a detaching compartment. Zimsky suggests they use the ship's nuclear fuel to achieve the sufficient yield, which will save the planet but leave Keyes and Childs without power. As the triggered explosions go off, successfully restarting the core's rotation, Keyes and Childs realize they can use the Unobtainium shell to convert the heat and pressure from the wave-front to power the Virgil, and they are able to escape the core. They break through the crust underwater, leaving them on the ocean floor without power and communications. They believe themselves lost but use the remaining power to activate a weak sonar beacon. The beacon attracts a nearby whale pod, and Finch is able to trace their whale songs to locate the Virgil. A week after the mission, Finch logs onto a computer at an internet cafe and releases the information about Project DESTINI, the Crew of Virgil and their mission onto the Internet.

Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford) is brought to a maximum-security military prison to begin a ten-year sentence for his decision (in violation of a presidential order) to send U.S. troops on a mission in Burundi, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers. Irwin walks about how castles have not changed in 1000 years in their role on the battlefield. They sit on high ground and command a territory as far as the eye can see, they have big walls for protection and strong enough to withstand a frontal attack and has a garrison of men who are trained and willing to kill. Finally, a castle has a flag, and that flag belongs to the soldiers of the castle. Nobody takes the flag, but the garrison of the castle. When the flag flies high, the castle is complete. Irwin compares the prison to a castle that is designed to keep people in. Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), the prison's commandant, is a great admirer of the general but is offended by a comment by Irwin that he overhears. Irwin criticizes Winter's much-prized military artifacts collection, saying that the used bullets from the Civil War it includes is something no combat veteran - such as Irwin - would ever have. Colonel Winter, who has never seen combat in his career, quickly resents what he perceives as Irwin's attempt to change the attitude of the prisoners, and his admiration and respect of Irwin fades fast. A tenet of Winter's methods for running the prison is that the prisoners are no longer soldiers and therefore should not follow military customs and courtesies. Irwin notices that Winter instructs his guards not to intervene when a fight breaks out in the common outside area among inmates. Then, non-lethal force is used in the form of rubber bullets to bring the inmates under control. Irwin is assigned to laundry duty. There are specific gangs of inmates who protect their own turf. A "white" gang works on the prison wall and doesn't allow anyone to touch it. The inmates complain to Irwin that Winter instigates violence, uses extreme force and then only provide basic medical treatment. There have been 13 critical injuries in the last 11 months. Twice inmates have been hit in the head with rubber bullets and killed. Irwin is only ever visited by his daughter Rosalie (Robin Wright). On one occasion, Irwin is punished harshly after stopping a guard from clubbing a prisoner, Corporal Ramon Aguilar (Clifton Collins Jr.), who had made the mistake of saluting Irwin in the prison yard. Continuing to observe acts of cruelty, Irwin attempts to unify the prisoners by building a "castle wall" of stone and mortar at the facility, which in many ways resembles a medieval castle. Envying the respect Irwin is clearly receiving, Winter orders his guards to destroy the wall. Aguilar, directly involved in the building of the wall, takes a stand before the bulldozer. Winter orders a sharpshooter to fire a normally non-lethal rubber bullet directly at Aguilar's head, killing him. After the wall is destroyed, Irwin and the inmates pay final respects to Aguilar in formation. Colonel Winter later tries to make amends with Irwin, but Irwin calls him a disgrace to the uniform and demands his resignation. The prisoners begin to behave like soldiers around Irwin, using code words and gestures, infuriating the commandant. Winter reaches out to an anti-social prisoner named Yates (Mark Ruffalo), a former officer and Apache pilot convicted of running a drug smuggling ring, bribing him to inform about Irwin's plans in exchange for a reduced sentence. Irwin organizes a plot to throw the prison into chaos. His intent is to show a friend, Brigadier General Wheeler (Delroy Lindo), the commandant's superior officer, that the commandant is unfit and should be removed from command under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a visit by General Wheeler to the prison, Winter receives a letter threatening the kidnapping of Wheeler by the prisoners. After ordering his men into action, Winter discovers that the kidnap scheme was a fake. Irwin orchestrated it as a way to detect how prison guards would react during an actual uprising. Wheeler offers to transfer Irwin to another prison but Winter declines. Yates tells Winter that Irwin intends to take over the prison, then raise the flag upside down to signal distress. Yates becomes the key to their plan, tasked with stealing a U.S. flag from the warden's office, revealing that he is on Irwin's side and seizing a Bell UH-1 helicopter used by guards. Winter orders all the prisoners to the yard in an attempt to prevent their plot, but Irwin anticipated this and a prisoner uprising commences. Using improvised weapons (some resembling medieval ones) and the tactics of a military unit, the prisoners capture an armored vehicle and the helicopter. The prisoners place a call to Wheeler's headquarters and inform him of the riot. Winter has little time to regain control before Wheeler can arrive to see the prison under siege. He orders the use of live ammunition against the prisoners. He also knows from Yates that Irwin's ultimate goal is to raise the American flag upside down, a classic signal of distress. Irwin's men create havoc but ultimately are confronted with overwhelming numbers of guards, all armed with live ammunition in their weapons. Knowing further resistance would only mean a massacre, Irwin orders the prisoners to stand down. Despite Winter having successfully halted the uprising with the threat of overwhelming force, Irwin elects to hoist the flag personally. Winter then tells Irwin to return his flag but Irwin replies "It's not your flag". Irwin begins walking toward the flagpole to raise it. An increasingly unsettled Winter tells Irwin, "You will not raise that flag upside down," but Irwin continues walking toward the flagpole. Colonel Winter orders his men to open fire on Irwin, but they refuse to do so on the orders of Winter's second-in-command, Captain Peretz (Steve Burton). The colonel cannot persuade anyone else to follow his command, so he proceeds to shoot Irwin fatally himself. Peretz places the commandant under arrest. The prisoners salute the flag, and Winter now sees that Irwin has actually raised the U.S. flag in the correct manner, meaning he shot Irwin for no reason. It flies above the prison's walls as Brigadier General Wheeler arrives and Colonel Winter is led away in handcuffs. The story ends with the inmates building a new wall as memorial to their fallen comrades. Aguilar's and Irwin's names are among those carved onto the castle wall.