At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, does not exist, nor will it ever exist. His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory. A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.