一场阵容豪华的政治秀。 西海岸大学的两个热血青年Arian（德里克·卢克 Derek Luke 饰）和Ernest（迈克尔·佩纳 Michael Peña 饰），受他们理想主义导师Dr. Stephen Malley（罗伯特·雷德福 Robert Redford 饰）的精神鼓舞，决定去做一些积极追求生活理想的事情，奔赴阿富汗参加了反恐战争，但这两位青年绝对没有想到，所谓的战争，无关人类和平、国家大义，只是让自己在战场上活下去而已。 与他们命运紧密相连的另一端，美国国内情况迥然不。在加利福尼亚，苦恼的Dr. Stephen Malley试图以Arian和Ernest参战的事情为例，说服自己的学生Todd（安德鲁·加菲尔德 Andrew Garfield 饰）不要放弃政治学习，但Todd全然反感Dr. Stephen Malley的激进想法。而在千里之外的华盛顿，总统候选人、参议员Senator Jasper Irving（汤姆·克鲁斯 Tom Cruise 饰）发现自己正卷入一场政治密谋，他准备向电视台记者Janine Roth（梅丽尔·斯特里普 Meryl Streep 饰）透露有关阿富汗战争的惊人内幕，此番举动很可能直接影响到正在前线作战的Arian和Ernest的命运。
The American government is taking a beating in the public opinion polls for losing the war on terror, despite the President earlier having made the statement that that war had been won, and for its earlier decisions to wage war on Iraq based on "faulty" intelligence while almost totally disregarding the upsurge of an enemy regime in Afghanistan. Reporter Janine Roth, who works for an organization which used to be a true news organization but that was bought out by corporate interests whose financial bottom line is paramount, is planning on using this premise as the core of her upcoming hour long exclusive interview with Republican Senator and Presidential hopeful Jasper Irving. Irving convinces Roth to change the focus of her story to one of breaking news: that the government is taking a new offensive in Afghanistan based on enemy regimes in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan banding together against American forces. This strategy is of Irving's design, as is the want to have Roth be his pro-strategy conduit to the American public. As Roth conducts her interview with Irving, which is more of a debate on the issues, the offensive to which Irving refers has just begun. Two American soldiers, Ernest Rodriguez and Arian Finch, who were friends in university before their enlistment, are caught in a precarious and tenuous situation concerning this offensive. Meanwhile, political science professor Dr. Stephen Malley, who used to teach Rodriguez and Finch, is having an early morning meeting with one of his current students, Todd Hayes. Hayes is a naturally bright student, but has fallen into a state of political social apathy as witnessed by his class attendance record. Malley, using Rodriguez and Finch's situation in his class and following their tenure as students, tries to convince Hayes that he should do something meaningful with his life.
