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Platoon

FILM · 1986 · UK

Platoon

Directed by
Oliver Stone
Runtime
120 min
Studio
Hemdale Film Corporation, Arnold Kopelson Productions

28 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

  • Platoon — production image

28 Interesting Facts About Platoon

Interesting Facts (16)

  1. #001

    In many U.S. military leadership classes, the character of Lieutenant Wolfe is used as an example of how not to behave as a junior officer.

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  2. #002

    The Vietnamese boy tormented by Kevin Dillon and Charlie Sheen had cataracts, but his family was too poor to cover the treatment costs. Dillon and Sheen reportedly felt so bad about it that they pooled the money so the boy could have surgery.

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  3. #003

    According to his DVD commentary, the scene in which Chris saves a Vietnamese girl from being raped was inspired by an incident in which Oliver Stone intervened in an assault on a villager in Vietnam.

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  4. #004

    During the famous "arm-raising" scene, the fake blood packs meant to simulate the bullet wounds on Elias's body malfunctioned and never burst. However, Willem Dafoe's performance in that take was considered so impressive that the scene was left as it was.

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  5. #005

    The film was shot almost back to back. As soon as their characters were killed off in the film, the actors returned home. The emotion Charlie Sheen showed in the closing helicopter scene was largely genuine, since he knew he was finally going home.

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  6. #006

    The paper attached to Manny's (Corkey Ford's) body is a South Vietnamese safe conduct pass. These documents were dropped in mass over South Vietnam in a failed attempt to get the VC and NVA to surrender. By pinning the pass to Manny's body, the enemy troops show their contempt for the Americans.

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  7. #007

    Kevin Dillon was furious while shooting the scene in which his character beats the village boy to death, because the man he was doing it to was a Filipino the producers had found somewhere. He was deaf and blind in one eye and had no leg. Dillon felt sorry for the man because he was always a nervous wreck, and Dillon was not sure he even knew they were only making a film. The scene was so intense that even his mother could not bear to watch it.

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  8. #008

    Special Marlboro cigarette packs were made for the film at Oliver Stone's insistence, who wanted the cherry red color on the pack to be closer to those made in the late 1960s.

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  9. #009

    Before filming began, all the actors had to undergo two weeks of intense basic training in the Philippines under the supervision of military advisor Dale Dye. Oliver Stone's intention was not to bond the men and make them act as a single unit, but to deprive them of sleep and exhaust them completely so that they would be worn down and thus lose their characters.

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  10. #010

    Military advisor Dale Dye witnessed Oliver Stone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder while shooting the village scene on set. Based on their shared experiences in Vietnam, he claimed that afterwards they cried together beautifully.

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  11. #011

    In the opening title scene, Big Harold falls and rolls down a hill. Forest Whitaker claims the fall was real and unintentional.

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  12. #012

    For the climactic death sequence of Sergeant Elias, Willem Dafoe had to detonate the "bullet-hit" squibs on his body with a handheld device while trying to run from enemy fire. As he stumbled, the device was clearly in his left hand, but Dafoe claims it can be seen flying out of his hand at one point, which explains why some of the explosives did not go off as planned.

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  13. #013

    The movie poster depicting Elias with his hands in the air is a recreation of a 1968 photograph by Art Greenspon. This photograph was recognized as the thirteenth greatest military photograph in a September 2000 issue of the Army/Navy/AF Time.

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  14. #014

    Before the scene in which half the platoon smokes marijuana, the actors were actually smoking marijuana. Willem Dafoe reported that, unfortunately for them, by the time the scene was set up and they shot it, everyone's mood had soured and they felt bad.

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  15. #015

    After Taylor (Charlie Sheen) takes his revenge on Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), the other platoon survivors arrive to search for him and someone asks Taylor if he is all right. As he does so, Taylor quickly throws a grenade. The script did not call for this, but Sheen thought his character would be suicidal at that point in the film. Oliver Stone liked it and kept it in the film.

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  16. #016

    In his review, Roger Ebert said: "François Truffaut once said that it was impossible to make an anti-war film; the very act of depicting war glorified it and ultimately made it entertaining. I wish he had lived to see Platoon. Here is a film shot at ground level from the point of view of the infantry, and it does not make war look like fun."

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Production Story (3)

  1. #017

    Oliver Stone wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 1971 and eventually sent it to Jim Morrison in the hope that he would play the role that Charlie Sheen would later take. Morrison was carrying the screenplay on him when he was found dead in Paris.

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  2. #018

    The final battle in the film was a reenactment of a real event witnessed by technical advisor Dale Dye, who was a war correspondent with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines.

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  3. #019

    The cast and crew arrived in the Philippines in early 1986, just before the 1986 Edsa Revolution that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos. Willem Dafoe said that when he woke up a day or two after arriving in Manila, he saw a line of tanks rolling through the streets. He was told the film would probably be cancelled and that certainly no one would be allowed to leave the country. Director Oliver Stone reportedly had to bribe the new government to let them start filming.

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Behind the Scenes (2)

  1. #020

    Director Oliver Stone treated the actors very rudely and abusively during filming. According to John C. McGinley, everyone hated Stone throughout the shoot, but this was Stone's specific aim: to subject the cast to something resembling the horrors of war and get the most realistic performances. Most of the actors and crew agreed that Stone's behavior was at times on the psychotic edge, caused by a combination of sleep deprivation, post-traumatic stress disorder and the intensity of the shoot. The editor claimed that one day Stone yelled at him because he had received footage of a scene they had not yet shot. Johnny Depp recalled that during a particularly stressful scene he was so frightened by Stone's aggressive behavior that he almost started vomiting. Stone still insisted on a second take.

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  2. #021

    At one point a character is warned not to drink water from the river because he could catch malaria. During filming, Willem Dafoe got thirsty and drank from a river without knowing there was a dead water buffalo upstream. He was sick for 24 hours, but it was not actually malaria, which is transmitted by mosquito bites.

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Characters & Cast (4)

  1. #022

    Technical advisor Dale Dye was also the door gunner on one of the Hueys after the ambush at the church. Because Dye also played Captain Harris, he made sure his visor was down to conceal the gunner's identity.

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  2. #023

    Charlie Sheen was initially rejected for the role of Chris because he was considered too young for it. The role was offered to his older brother Emilio Estevez, but the project fell through due to financial problems. Two years later the project was greenlit, but Estevez had already moved on to other projects. Sheen read for the role again and won it.

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  3. #024

    Tom Berenger lost 28 kilos during the pre-shooting training camp. Filming began the day after the camp ended. Oliver Stone did not want the actors to lose their edge.

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  4. #025

    Oliver Stone considered casting Johnny Depp for the lead role of Private Chris Taylor, but because Depp was thought to be too young for the part and not well known at the time, he was cast in the smaller role of Private Lerner. More scenes with Depp were shot, but most of his lines were cut from the final edit. Stone nevertheless said Depp would one day be a big star, making him one of the first filmmakers to draw Hollywood's attention to Depp. The first of these was Wes Craven, who introduced Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

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Deeper Meaning (2)

  1. #026

    Near the end of the film, when reinforcements arrive after the battle, Rhah nervously looks around, reaches into a dead VC's chest pocket, takes something out and hides it. The substance he removes is heroin, which VC soldiers used as a painkiller. Many heroin-addicted US soldiers did the same thing. The scene implies that Rhah's mystical quality is a symptom of a larger problem.

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  2. #027

    Oliver Stone initially searched for a Native American actor to play Sergeant Elias. When he could not find one, he cast Willem Dafoe instead. A few scenes with Elias reflect Stone's original idea of the Native American spirit that Elias represented.

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Career & Awards (1)

  1. #028

    According to Oliver Stone, he deliberately cast Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe against type. Berenger was mostly known for playing good men, while Dafoe had mostly played villains up to that point. Both men received Oscar nominations for their work.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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