Colonel Terry Childers (Samuel L Jackson) evacuates the US Ambassador and his wife (Ben Kingsley and Anne Archer) from a tense situation in Yemen. But when his action results in a number of Yemeni deaths, he is court-martialed for breaking the ‘rules of engagement’.
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“If I’m guilty of this, I’m guilty of everything
I’ve done in combat
for 30 years”
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But the military man now faces a test as tough as any he faced under enemy fire: to defend a friend who saved his life in Vietnam, and who is now charged with a major breach of the Marine Corps’ Rules of Engagement which left 80 foreign civilians dead.
“Hodges became a military lawyer,” explains Jones. “And now, towards the end of his career, he finds himself defending a good friend in a court-martial, which he’s reluctant to do because he doesn’t think of himself - rightfully - as a very good lawyer.”
Or, as Colonel Hodges himself puts it: “I’m a good enough lawyer to know you need a better lawyer than me!” But it isn’t so much a lawyer that the defendant, Colonel Terry Childers (Jackson), needs: it is someone who understands what it means to be a soldier, a man of war in time of peace. Because Childers is on a fast-track to become the guinea pig for what happened in Yemen.
“Sometimes,” says Hodges, “you just can’t win, whatever you do.” To make matters worse, Hodges isn’t 100% convinced Childers didn’t act wrongly. He has great respect for his friend, but he knows his impulsive nature all too well. Rules of Engagement, in other words, is not a cut-and-dried, good-guy/bad-guy situation. It is as complex as the political world in which it is set.
It all begins when a situation at the US Embassy in Yemen gets seriously out of control. Childers is sent in to take command of the Marines protecting the Ambassador (Ben Kingsley) and his staff. Shots seem to be fired from the crowd. Believing his men to be in danger, Childers gives the command to fire back, leaving 80 Yemeni men, women and children dead in the aftermath. It is a major international incident, and it doesn’t take Washington long to find a scapegoat.
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Old Vietnam buddy Colonel Hays Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) is his defense attorney. But he is no match for the manipulations of National Security Adviser William Sokal (Bruce Greenwood, right).
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