Plot

During the last days of the Great War, a group of U.S. soldiers are sent behind enemy lines to rescue a lost platoon.

During the last days of the Great War (July 28th, 1914, to Nov 11th, 1918), a group of U.S. soldiers are sent behind enemy lines to rescue a lost platoon. A ceasefire with Germany would come into effect on 11 am, on 11th November 1918. 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Just even a few hours before the ceasefire, the commanders on both sides continued to launch offensives in a bid to capture territory. The fighting has become more intense because the French and their allies will demand to keep whatever territory they have managed to conquer before the treaty takes place and the Germans will permanently lose whatever land their enemies occupy.

On November 8th, Captain William Rivers (Bates Wilder) from the US army 77th Liberty Division leads one such attempt on German lines in the Argonne Forest. River' mission was supported by the 365th unit on their flanks. The 365th is a unit of African American soldiers. River complains that the 40th unit had seen no combat training and hence were useless on the battlefield as some of them did not even have rifles.

The German positions were too well protected, and their machine guns mowed down the US attack as soon as they came out of their trenches. With the setting sun behind them, the German soldiers were no visible and the US soldiers had nothing to aim at. Rivers loses his composure under the heavy fire and has to be knocked out by his men. The attack has disastrous results for the US army and entire units are wiped out, with few survivors.

Rivers regains consciousness after a little while and gets his composure back. The division is still throwing men at the German lines and are getting mowed down. Rivers channels his resources such as Private Cardinni (Edgar Damatian) and Pinchelli (Judah McFadden) to flank the German trenches and kill their troops and machine guns from behind. But this modest gain comes at a huge cost with almost his entire platoon wiped out in the attack.

Rivers' unit had contact with some African American soldiers during their battle as well. But now the African American soldiers have a different problem. They are far behind enemy lines and their supply routes are cut off. The D company of the 365th regiment is estimated to be 6 miles behind the enemy front. They were on the flank of the 77th Liberty Division.

This news (that a unit of colored soldiers is cut off behind enemy lines) reaches Colonel Jack Morrison (Billy Zane) at Chaumont (US Army HQ) on 9th Nov. He raises the issue with General Pershing (Ron Perlman), who reckons that the unit will come under heavy German attack as they would want their position back before the ceasefire. Pershing wants to be seen as positive towards colored men and authorizes a support mission. It will be a publicity nightmare if the division is killed. Pershing states that every human being has a motive to act and for the African Americans he says it is critical for them to have trust in the US Army, which is why the promise made to them needs to be kept. Pershing says that the African American unit had completed the task of breaking through the enemy lines and capturing their objective and he wanted to send a message that the US Army would do everything in its power to bring them back from the hill.

The orders flow down to Rivers that he has to lead his platoon to rescue the African American soldiers. He resists as his platoon don't get along well with colored men. Rivers takes with him Cardinni, Pinchelli, Corporal Anson Kirby (Andrew Stecker) and O'Malley (Cody Fleury). Jenkins (Eric M. Johnson) is a colored radioman in the battalion in which Rivers serves and volunteers for the rescue mission. Captain Hooker (Wade Everett) is the battalion commander and is actively hostile to African Americans. He discourages Rivers from undertaking the rescue mission. Pvt. John Cain (Hiram A. Murray) is another colored soldier in Hooker's unit who is re-assigned to Rivers as his runner.

Rivers and his men start towards the last known location of the colored unit. They encounter Mary (Jordan McFadden), who is a nurse with the red cross. She takes Rivers and Cain to a few wounded soldiers from the same unit. Joseph Le'Fluer (Leonard Searcy) tells Cain that the remaining men are dug up on top of a hill number 473. on the way they hook up with Captain A.J. Stevens (Jeremy Michael Pereira) who confirms that the colored unit is on hill 473, but Germans have been moving artillery and 3 battalions in front of the hill all day. He reckons the Germans will take the hill before the war ends.

As the unit presses forward a stray grenade kills Pinchelli. The unit revolts against sacrificing good men to save African Americans, but Rivers stands firm and says that he will follow orders but won't force others to do the same. Despite their protests, the unit begrudgingly continues on their path.

They finally find the colored unit and Rivers speaks to CO Sgt Perry. Rivers relays his orders to rescue the unit, but Perry and his men want to hold on to the hill which they sacrificed many (27) good men for. Rivers tells him about the impending German assault on the hill and their desperation to get it back before the war ends. But Perry is firm. Rivers convinces his men to stay and defend the hill, so they can bring the colored boys back and complete their orders.

Rivers makes a plan to defend the hill against superior German forces. A German captain approaches Rivers and asks him to surrender, but Rivers declines. The German assures that their attack will commence at dawn. Rivers takes advantage of this and launches a sneak attack in the evening itself, forcing the German hand and inducing their attack before they are fully re-grouped.

The US army inflicts heavy casualties on the Germans but deplete their ammunition in the process. Rivers dies eventually from a bullet wound. But he succeeds in defending the hill till 11 am on 11th Nov 1918. The war is over.