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Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the screenplay with John Milius and Michael Herr. The film is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The ensemble cast also features Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. Set during the Vietnam War in 1969, Apocalypse Now follows Captain Willard (Sheen) as he embarks on a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane.

Various filmmakers struggled to adapt Conrad’s novel for over forty years until Milius began developing a screenplay on the novel in the late 1960s, changing the setting to Vietnam. George Lucas had intended to direct, but scheduling conflicts led him to leave the project by 1971. When Coppola took over as director in 1975, he handled all of the film’s financing after multiple studios rejected the project. Initially planned to be a five-month shoot in the Philippines starting in March 1976, Apocalypse Now faced multiple difficulties that prolonged filming for over a year. Problems during filming included harsh weather and typhoons, script rewrites, drug usage, Brando arriving on set overweight and underprepared, and Sheen suffering a near fatal heart attack after he was a replacement for Harvey Kietel. Initially budgeted at $12 million, costs had risen to $31 million by the project’s completion and took a psychological, physical, and financial toll on Coppola.

Apocalypse Now received negative publicity for its troubled and prolonged production, which prompted Coppola to premiered the film unfinished at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it was honored with the Palme d'Or. After numerous delays, the film was released on August 15, 1979 and earned over $86 million worldwide, becoming the ninth highest grossing film of 1979. Initial reviews were mixed, with critics criticizing Coppola’s handing of the story’s themes and finding the ending anticlimactic. Vittorio Storar o's cinematography and Walter Murch’s sound design were critically praised, with the pair winning Academy Awards for their respective works. Subsequent releases, including extended versions and re-edits by Coppola, have raised the film's worldwide gross to $104-150 million.

Since its release, Apocalypse Now has been critically reassessed and is now considered as one of the best war films and is often regarded to be one of the greatest films ever made. It has had a significant impact on filmmaking and popular culture with its depiction of the Vietnam War, influencing subsequent films based on the war and is seen as an influence in modern sound design. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2000.

Plot
At Saigon in 1969, burnt-out MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard trashes his hotel room after a night of heavy drinking. The next morning, he is summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang. Willard learns that Walter E. Kurtz, a U.S. Army Special Forces colonel, has waged a unauthorized guerrilla war with American and Montagnard troops at a outpost in Cambodia. Kurtz is also accused of ordering the murders of four South Vietnamese intelligence agents whom he suspected of being double agents for the Viet Cong. Willard is ordered to "terminate Kurtz's command ... with extreme prejudice".

Willard joins a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief Petty Officer Phillips, with crewmen Lance, "Chef" and "Mr. Clean" to quietly navigate up the Nùng River to Kurtz's outpost. They rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment—a helicopter-borne air assault unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore—to discuss an safer passage. Kilgore is initially uncooperative until he learns that Lance is a well-known surfer. Before they can continue through, Willard’s crew accompanies the helicopter squadron, playing "Ride of the Valkyries" on loudspeakers, on a raid at dawn with a napalm strike.

As the PBR continues to travel further to Kurtz’s outpost, tensions arise between Willard and Chief over leadership on the boat and Willard’s hesitation to fully reveal his mission. Willard studies Kurtz’s dossier and is surprised to see Kurtz’s achievements and career opportunities. The PBR reaches a remote U.S. Army outpost to seek information on what is upriver and receive a dispatch bag containing official and personal mail regarding Kurtz. Willard learns via the dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Special Forces Captain Richard Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's, but has since joined Kurtz.

Further upriver, Lance becomes addicted to LSD and activates smoke that attracts enemy fire, which results in both Chef and Clean getting killed. Now in charge of the PBR, Chief learns the truth about Willard’s mission and continues to travel up further. The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, an abandoned Angkor Empire temple compound teeming with Montagnards and strewn with hanged corpses and severed heads. They are encountered by both a crazed American photojournalist and Colby. Willard sets out with with a LSD-influenced Lance to find Kurtz and orders Chef to call in an airstrike if the two do not return.

Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz, who severs Chef's head to prevent the airstrike. The enigmatic Kurtz lectures Willard on his disillusionment of the war and the ruthlessness of the Viet Cong. Kurtz releases Willard so he could tell his family what really happened. While the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo in the night, Willard sneaks back into the outpost and uses a machete to morally kill Kurtz, utters “The horror ... the horror” on his breath. As the compound see Willard emerge with a collection of Kurtz's writings, they bow down to him as Willard and Lance board the PBR to head back down the river.

Cast
For a list of the rest of the cast members not included in the 153-minute version of the film that was released in theaters, see Apocalypse Now Redux § Cast.


 * Marlon Brando as Walter E. Kurtz: a delusional Special Forces colonel gone rogue.
 * Robert Duvall as William "Bill" Kilgore: a warmongering air-cavalry commander and surfing fanatic.
 * Martin Sheen as Benjamin Willard: a wary and ambivalent assassin.
 * Frederic Forrest as Jay "Chef" Hicks: a former chef horrified by his surroundings.
 * Albert Hall as George “Chief” Phillips: the stern captain of the PBR.
 * Sam Bottoms as Lance B. Johnson: a former professional surfer addicted to LSD.
 * Laurence Fishborne as Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller: a cocky seventeen year old crew member of the PBR.
 * Dennis Hopper as the American photojournalist: a manic photographer.

The cast also includes Scott Glenn as Richard M. Colby, a captain who was previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and G. D. Spradlin, Jerry Ziesmer, and Harrison Ford as Lieutenant General R. Corman, C.I.A. agent Jerry Moore, and Colonel G. Lucas, the three men who briefed Willard on Kurtz and assign him his mission. James Keane appears as Kilgore's Gunner, a man ready to battle to the tune of "Ride of the Valkyries" and Kerry Rossall as Mike from San Diego, a soldier who surfs against incoming attacks. Colleen Camp, Cynthia Wood and Linda Beatty portrayed the Playboy Playmates who entertained the soldiers. Director Francis Ford Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro portray a television news crew, and R. Lee Ermey is uncredited as a helicopter pilot. Sheen’s brother Joe Estevez is uncredited as stand ins and voice-overs while Sheen’s son Charlie makes an uncredited appearance as one of the children in Kurtz’s outpost.