Combat Shock 1986

Frankie Dunlan, Frankie Dunlan, a Vietnam War veteran, runs alone through the jungle in a memory-drenched opening, and his narration reveals that he “goes back there every night.” He then wakes up in a rundown New York apartment, where he lies beside his wife Cathy Dunlan and their deformed infant son. The couple argue over Frankie’s unemployment and the baby’s health, with Frankie convinced the deformities stem from chemical weapons used during the war.

A junkie scores from the local kingpin, Paco. Frankie waits in line outside the unemployment office while the junkie frantically searches for a needle to shoot up. A random woman snatches the junkie’s gun and ammunition, stuffing them into her purse. The scene unfolds with Frankie killing time, even as he witnesses despair and theft collide with danger.

Frankie visits the unemployment office but finds no work, and his social worker urges him to return to school, noting he has been unemployed for four months. He calls his father for money, and learns that his father believes him dead—killed in Saigon. Frankie explains that he was reported killed 15 years ago, but he survived and spent three years in an army hospital. He tells his father that his wife is pregnant again and they’re facing eviction, while his father admits he is broke and near death.

Seemingly broken, Frankie encounters the woman who stole the junkie’s gun and forces a tense confrontation that ends with Paco and his thugs pursuing him. In the scramble, the gun falls from the purse, and Frankie shoots and kills Paco and the three men, an act he rationalizes as a desperate attempt to “save” his family.

A chilling voice-over then reveals a brutal truth: Frankie’s father was right about the war’s reach—he had died in Saigon, and the village his unit encountered had killed themselves to avoid rape and murder by soldiers. Realizing the horror of that memory, Frankie resolves that he must perform a grim salvation of his own, and he returns home with a cold, haunted resolve.

Back with Cathy, she is horrified by his scarred appearance and briefly tends to his wounds before he sinks into catatonia, staring at the TV. He reloads the gun and experiences a hallucinatory moment involving Cathy, which pushes him toward a horrific act: he murders Cathy and the baby. In a chilling finale, he places the baby’s body in the oven, pours himself a glass of spoiled milk, and then shoots himself in the head. The film ends with a train passing into the night, leaving the memory of war and a broken family to linger.