Thousand-Yard Stare Full Metal Jacket takes place in Parris Island, South Carolina and Vietnam. The main characters are: Joker, a military journalist who goes to war in Vietnam to interview a soldier; Cowboy, sergeant of a squad who must take over after the death of his leader; Pyle, an overweight soldier who has a nervous breakdown in the camp where Joker and Cowboy go. The film begins with Sergeant Hartman, the drill instructor, yelling at the soldiers on their first day of boot camp. He then continues to follow Pyle, as he struggles to keep up with the rest of the battalion. Pyle has his battalion punished since he was caught eating a donut. Hartman says it's the other soldier's fault for not helping Pyle. Joker teams up with Pyle so he can help him personally. One night, Pyle gets beaten up by the whole battalion with soap in the pillowcases. Pyle then starts acting strange and Joker notices him talking to his gun. On graduation day, Joker is assigned to a military reporter while Cowboy and Pyle are assigned to the infantry. That night, Joker finds Pyle loading his rifle. Hartman wakes up and comes in to tell Pyle to stand down. Pyle shoots himself and Hartman. The film then fast forwards 1 year later where Joker is now a corporal and now working for the stars and stripes. The NVA attacks the base where Joker is located, leading his team of reporters to send him and a photographer named Rafterman to a Vietnamese town to cover a battle. They meet Cowboy and his team again. Joker interviews the soldiers as they go into battle. As they move, their squad leader dies, putting Cowboy in charge. Another soldier dies in a trap, prompting other soldiers to want to help him. However, Cowboy wants to be on the defensive and calls for tank support instead. Mother, a soldier with heavy weapons, disobeys the cowboy and moves in anyway. Cowboys finds they can't get support, so he decides to move in as well. They discover there is only one sniper, so they hide to come up with a plan. As Cowboy speaks over the comms, he is pulled through a hole in the wall. The soldier tries to help him but they are unsuccessful, so Cowboy dies. Mother tells the team that they must avenge Cowboy and hunt the sniper. Joker enters the building and finds the sniper who is a teenage girl. The Joker's rifle jams but alerts the rest of his team. Rafterman arrives to support him and shoots her, fatally wounding her. The sniper is still alive, begging for death, Joker doesn't want to leave her there. Joker is then forced to shoot her, the rest of the soldiers congratulate him while Joker looks at her with the "thousand yard stare". The marines march chanting as the building burns behind them. The films ends with Joker saying that he is happy to be alive and that he is no longer afraid. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay The actors of Full Metal Jacket did a perfect job in portraying their roles. One performance I enjoyed was that of Vincent D'Onofrio as Gomer Pyle. I thought not only was his acting excellent, but so was his dedication to his role. Vincent had to gain weight to be able to play his role, which is surprising. Vincent's role was pivotal in showing that even training camp can be brutal on a person's mind. Vincent did a great job describing this, a.