The story unfolds in the aftermath of the Gulf War; burnout Special Forces Major Archie Gates (George Clooney) figures out from a reporter that the Iraqis have stashed Kuwaiti gold in a nearby village, and that there is a map showing the location of the village. The map, as it turns out, has been retrieved from an Iraqi soldier's posterior by two grunts: straight arrow Sergeant Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and redneck Private Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze); later, Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) joins Barlow and Vig. Gates tracks the three down, and they devise a plan to retrieve the gold (though we have no idea how they plan to smuggle it back to the states). .
Eventually, the foursome ends up in the Iraqi village where the gold is stashed, but the natives mistakenly think that this is their chance to rise up (as President George Bush had exhorted them to do) to fight Saddam, whose forces occupy the village. Eventually, Gates decides to help the villagers out, and the Americans get caught up in a mini-rebellion. In the rebellion aftermath, the soldiers free Amir Abdullah (Cliff Curtis) from an Iraqi bunker, who serves as a guide for the rest of the movie. .
Early in the movie, we start to assess the race relations that form our opinions for the rest of the feature. Ice Cube's character is a victim of indirect racism by Spike Jonze's character in a meeting between the soldiers. By calling the Iraqis "dune-coons-, Jonze is playing off of the bigotry "coon- stereotype that is historically applied to an African-American. The thought may stay in the viewer's mind that Jonze's character is a somewhat blatant racist, as he is presented as an unintelligent redneck. At one point mid-film, he even argues that there aren't any good Black quarterbacks. By presenting a racist character as such, Russell avoids the need for scripting actual racial slurs. The impression this gives, however, is just as effective to the average moviegoer.