A college student and his friends try to thwart a deranged war veteran's plan to poison the city's water supply.

Ambrose McKinley, a cantankerous blind vet, moves into a retirement community only to learn the residents there have been dying, not from old age, but from dog attacks. After surviving his own encounter with a canine one night, Ambrose comes to believe the assailants are much more than mere dogs...

This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality.

A seasoned senior enlisted special operations (spec ops) United States Marine is wounded during combat operations in Iraq. He is retired from the Marine Corps and visits a friend on a ranch in the south west. When he arrives he discovers his friend has disappeared and no one will even admit to knowing of him.