History NightmareFuel / ApocalypseNow

** Worse than that; the most disturbing bit of this scene is that the killing of the water buffalo is [[EnforcedMethodActing 100% real]]. '''Yes, you heard us''' '''''For real'''''.

** Worse than that; the killing of the water buffalo is [[EnforcedMethodActing 100% real]].

* Willard is trying to find someone in charge at a chaotic, violent battle over a meaningless bridge upriver. He's led to a soldier named Roach who is called out to the trenches to take out a Viet Cong sniper with his [[MoreDakka grenade launcher]]. Willard asks him if he knows who's in command. Roach just stares at him and says "Yeah" before walking away, letting his silence confirm [[WarIsHell exactly]] what he's talking about.

* Kurtz's domain is littered with corpses and dismembered heads while his group of fanatics just waltz around; it's clear they can kill Willard's squad at any time but they just stare at them. Any reservations Chef and Willard had in killing the colonel (he is/was a highly-decorated member of the army so killing him felt awkward) goes out the window because this is not war anymore, it's pure madness.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/colonel_kurtz_apocalypse_now.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Are my methods unsound?"]]

** The ''[[CreepyCircusMusic music]]'' that's playing at Do Long is just so unnerving to listen to; it's a perfect way to show how far gone everyone is there. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrNhy5BepKA&ab_channel=TheGTAMaster001 Have a listen.]]

* Kurtz himself is something of this. The way he's almost always shown in the dark, and only ever partially visible, is particularly creepy, and one can only imagine how Willard must feel in his presence. Even worse still [[spoiler: he's more than willing to decapitate an innocent man and casually drop his head in front of his commanding officer.]]

* [[spoiler:The collective conclusion of all the terrible things Kurtz had faced in his life and what it turned him into, summarized by his final words, "The horror.......the horror". He doesn't even say it as dramatically as people would think, he's so shell shocked he's gone way past that.]]

* General release prints added an unsettling end credits sequence, [[spoiler:in which the Kurtz compound explodes]]. Since this caused some viewers to misinterpret the resolution[[note]]it looked as if the Army ordered an air strike after the killing of Kurtz[[/note]], later prints use either an end credits sequence with a simple black background, or (emulating the initial, limited release) no end titles at all.

-> ''[[FamousLastWords "The horror... the horror..."]]''

--> ''"[[FamousLastWords The horror... the horror...]]"''

* Even [[https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/115/MPW-57520 the poster]], with its use of [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black]] and a very eerie shot of Kurtz as an EvilOverlooker, looks like something out of a surreal nightmare.

* Kurtz's domain is littered with corpses and dismembered heads while his group of fanatics just waltz around, it's clear they can kill Willard's squad but they just stares at them. Any reservation Chef and Willard had in killing the colonel (he is/was a member of the army so killing him felt awkward) goes out the window because this is not war anymore, it's pure madness.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Are my methods sound?"]]

* Willard is trying to find someone in charge at a chaotic, violent battle over a meaningless bridge upriver. A soldier kills a Viet Cong by sniping him with a grenade launcher. Willard asks him if he knows who's in command. The soldier just stares at him and says "Yeah," letting his silence confirm exactly what he's talking about.

* Kurtz domain is littered with corpses and dismembered heads while his group of fanatics just waltz around, it's clear they can kill Willard's squad but they just stares at them. Any reservation Chef and Willard had in killing the colonel (he is/was a member of the army so killing him felt awkward) goes out the window because this is not war anymore, it's pure madness.

-->'''Kurtz''' ''"[[FamousLastWords The horror... the horror...]]"''

-->''"[[FamousLastWords The horror... the horror...]]"''

* Something about the end credits sequence is kind of unsettling.

* [[AllOfThem ...All of it?]]
* Where to begin? A wounded Vietcong begging for water, as he struggles to keep his entrails inside him with a pot lid. The over-the-top raid on a village where schoolchildren flee from the sound of approaching helicopters, which is then spectacularly napalmed. Hysterical "civilians" [[ParanoiaFuel grenading MediVacs.]] A tiger out of friggin' nowhere. An abandoned [=MASH=] with corpses left to rot in lockers. A plane crashed in the water with no explanation. The massacre of the sampan. A remote outpost with no apparent leadership (presumably being the victim of an apparently well executed VC ambush), the unlucky men stationed there being slowly driven insane by fireworks, flashing lights and haunting music. Kurtz's compound. Kurtz placing Chef's recently severed (and still-twitching) head on Willard's lap and of course the Montagnard ceremony. The film seems to be trying to show the entire Vietnam War as being this trope, and it does a pretty good job of it.

* "There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms."

* Willard is trying to find someone in charge at a chaotic, violent battle over a meaningless bridge upriver. A soldier commits a particularly brutal act on the battlefield. Willard asks him if he knows who's in command. The soldier just stares at him and says "Yeah," letting his silence confirm exactly what he's talking about.
** Earlier on, Willard asks a jittery machine gunner "Who's your commanding officer?" The soldier looks at him and says "Ain't you?"
* Kurtz domain is littered with corpses and dismembered heads while his group of fanatics just waltz around, it's clear they can kill Willard's squad but they just stares at them. Any reservation Chef and Willard had in killing the colonel (he is/was a member of the army so killing him felt awkward) goes out the window because this is not war anymore it's pure madness.

* Kurtz domain is littered with corpses and dismembered head and his group of fanatic just waltzing around, it's clear they can kill Willard's squad but they just stares at them.

* Willard is trying to find someone in charge at a chaotic, violent battle over a meaningless bridge upriver. "Yeah, I know who's in charge," a ScaryBlackMan finally tells him after a particularly brutal act on the battlefield. And then he just glares at Willard, letting his silence confirm exactly what he's talking about.