Three deer hunting buddies—Michael "Mike" Vronsky (
Robert De Niro), Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich (
Christopher Walken), and Steven "Steve" Pushkov (
John Savage)—who work together at a steel mill in Clairton, Pennsylvania, enlist in the Army and are sent to Vietnam where they witness the horrors of the Vietnam war, changing the direction of their lives.