Windtalkers

Windtalkers is a 2002 American war film directed and co-produced by John Woo, starring Nicolas Cage and Adam Beach, with Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, and Christian Slater in supporting roles. It is based on the real story of code talkers from the Navajo nation during World War II.

The film was theatrically released in the United States by MGM Distribution Co. on June 14, 2002, receiving mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and grossing just $76.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $115 million, making it a box-office bomb.

Plot

During World War II, US Marine corporal Joe Enders returns to active duty after surviving on the Solomon Islands against the Imperial Japanese Army that killed his entire squad and wounded his left ear. Enders and Sgt. Pete "Ox" Henderson receive new assignments to protect Navajo code talkers Pvt. Ben Yahzee and Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse in a JASCO.

Yahzee and Whitehorse, childhood friends from the Navajo tribe, are trained to send and receive coded messages that direct artillery fire. Enders and Henderson are instructed to kill their code talkers if capture is imminent so the code cannot fall into enemy hands. Both Enders and Henderson resent their new assignments, and the Navajos also endure racial harassment by some of the white Marines, notably Private Chick.

Yahzee and Whitehorse take part in the invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands. After the beachhead is secured, the Marines come under friendly fire from U.S. artillery. With Yahzee's radio destroyed and the convoy unable to call off the bombardment, Yahzee suggests disguising himself as a Japanese soldier and slipping behind enemy lines to commandeer a radio, with Enders as his prisoner. Yahzee redirects artillery fire onto the Japanese position.