History Film / Platoon

Not to be confused with VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}.

* EvilAllAlong: You could argue Barnes if ObviouslyEvil because of [[GoodScarsEvilScars the scar on his face]] and his mannerisms, but that's all superficial and you could easily take him for a battle-hardened platoon sergeant with an incompetent lieutenant on his hands who's just being as brutal as he feels he has to be in order to get himself and the load of draftees that make up his platoon out of the war alive. [[DisproportionateRetribution Then he shoots a civilian woman in the head with a rifle for yelling at him,]] [[WouldHurtAChild and puts his sidearm to a little girl's head]] [[InsaneTrollLogic to get her father to 'admit' he's really VC.]]

* GameMod: There's a ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' mod themed around this movie. Also counts as a NonIndicativeName since it's actually based on 3 different Vietnam War films; this, ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', and ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. A stand-alone sequel, ''NAM'', was released 2 years later.

** Junior worries about Bunny and morality, judging un-Christian. Rewind a moment earlier: [[{{Hypocrite}} he was among the group of soldiers raping the girls]].

* WouldHurtAChild: '''Dear God, Bunny,''' who torments a mentally handicapped child by firing at his feet with a machine gun and then beats him to death for his own twisted amusement.

** [[spoiler:Played straight with Chris who declares early in the movie that he's got less than 100 days to go. After the [[TimeSkip Time Skip]] Chris gets shot when he would've had at most a couple of weeks to go. However it is implied that he survives.]]

** Barnes and Junior both take the loss of Manny hard. It doesn't suggest that they aren't necessarily racist (indeed black Junior is incredibly racist towards white soldiers), but it does indicate comradeship.

* PuttingOnTheReich: The M113 APC at the end of the film has a swastika flag tied to the antenna. [[WordOfGod According to Stone]], APC soldiers during the war were notorious [[TruthInTelevision for displaying Nazi paraphernalia on their vehicles]].

** However, if you pay close attention you will see that two most experienced men (Barnes and Elias) aren't fooled by Junior for one minute. When Barnes gives his lecture on what he's going to do to the next person who falls asleep on watch, he pauses to give Junior a blistering death glare. In addition, Elias pointedly orders Junior to help carry Gardner's corpse

** Junior also, such as when he sprays bugspray on his feet to make it look like he has jungle rot. He also bolts during the final battle, [[sppiler:leaving Bunny to be killed (Though given that Bunny had beaten an elderly Vietnamese villaiger and her disabled son to death, it's [[AssholeVictim hard to feel bad about that.]]) Junior is bayonetted to death not long after.]] His cowardice is so over-the-top that even fellow DirtyCoward O'Neill is disgusted by him.

* WouldHurtAChild: '''Dear God, Bunny,''' who torments a mentally handicapped child by firing at his feet with a machine gun and then murders him for his own amusement.
%%* WouldNotShootACivilian: Averted ''terribly''.

* DirtyCoward: Sgt. O'Neill, who goes as far as to [[spoiler:hide under the corpse of one of his comrades to avoid fighting in the FinalBattle - understandable in the moment as he was about to be surely killed and had no other way to live, but then we find out he stayed there the entire battle while other soldiers got slaughtered.]].
** Junior also, such as when he sprays bugspray on his feet to make it look like he has jungle rot. He also bolts during the final battle, leaving Bunny to be killed (Though given that Bunny had beaten an elderly Vietnamese villaiger and her disabled son to death, it's [[AssholeVictim hard to feel bad about that.]]) Junior is bayonetted to death not long after.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Junior sprays a can of bugspray onto his feet and claims he has jungle rot and can't walk, Barnes doesn't think too highly of his pathetic lies or his blatant cowardice, threatening to stick a centipede in his crotch and 'see if he can walk.' Bunny and Red are equally disgusted, especially when Junior promptly wusses out and declares he ''can'' walk.

* PetTheDog: Barnes of all people is the only member of the platoon comforting Gardner as Doc attempts to save his life (Although, considering he is more than willing to kill his own platoon, his sincerity here is questionable).

%%* WouldHurtAChild: '''Dear God, Bunny.'''

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Bunny and Wolfe in the FinalBattle.]]

* CreatorCameo: Oliver Stone as the company commander who [[spoiler:gets bombed to oblivion by an NVA sapper]].

* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:The FinalBattle ends with an F-5 Freedom Fighter dropping napalm on the whole base]].

** [[spoiler:Oliver Stone, in a [[DeathByCameo]]cameo role is blown up by an NVA suicide bomber, along with Lerner.]]

%* UnfriendlyFire: And more than once.

* EvilVersusEvil: The sociopathic American soldiers themselves (with the exception of Taylor, Elias, and a few others) may not be one of the movies' saintly soldiers, but the NVA who were against them were as bad as they.

** [[spoiler:Wolfe is blown up by an NVA suicide bomber.]]

* PetTheDog: Barnes of all people is the only member of the platoon comforting Gardner as Doc attempts to save his life.

** Junior also, such as when he sprays bugspray on his feet to make it look like he has jungle rot. He also bolts during the final battle, leaving Bunny to be killed (Though given that Bunny had beaten an elderly Vietnamese villaiger and her disabled son to death, it's [[AssholeVictim hard to feel bad about that.]] Junior is bayonetted to death not long after.

--> "Why do you smoke this shit, some escape from reality? I don't need this shit. [[IAmTheX I am reality]]."

* SociopathicSoldier: Quite a few of them, though somewhat understandably so. Barnes and Bunny would be the prime examples. All of the NVA soldiers were just as bad as them.

%%* UnfriendlyFire: And more than once.

%%* YouAreInCommandNow: Red O'Neill. Doubles as an OhCrap.

* [[spoiler:Francis]] is also one of the few to survive the NVA assault on the base.

%%* FinalBattle: And how!