Following the end of the Gulf War, U.S. soldiers are sent to tie loose ends. The soldiers are bored from the lack of action and throw parties at night. Major Archie Gates, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, is trading sex for stories with a journalist, Cathy Daitch, when he is interrupted by Adriana Cruz, the television reporter he is assigned to escort.
While disarming and searching an Iraqi officer, U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow, his best friend Private First Class Conrad Vig, and their unit find a map in the officer's anus. Troy goes to Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin to help translate the map. Major Gates appears after tracking down a lead from Adriana. Archie convinces them that the document is a map of bunkers near Karbala containing gold bullion stolen from Kuwait, which they decide to steal in turn. To keep Adriana off his back, Gates sends Specialist Walter Wogeman to aid her on a false lead.
They set off the next day and, among other goods plundered from Kuwait, find the gold, and stumble on the interrogation of Amir Abdullah. As they leave, Amir's wife pleads with them not to abandon the anti-Saddam dissidents. Still, she is executed by the Iraqi Republican Guard. The group decides to free the Iraqi prisoners, triggering a firefight. They pull out just as Iraqi reinforcements arrive, and as they try to evade a CS gas attack, they blunder into a minefield and get separated. Iraqi soldiers capture Troy while a group of rebels rescue the other Americans and take them to their underground hideout. There, Conrad, Chief, and Archie agree to help the rebels and their families reach the Iranian border after they rescue Troy.
Troy is taken back to the bunker and thrown into a room full of Kuwaiti cell phones. He calls his wife on a MicroTAC and tells her to report his location to his local Army Reserve unit. His call is cut short when he is dragged to an interrogation room where he is interrogated by Iraqi Captain Saïd.
The Americans and the rebels go to a band of Iraqi Army deserters, who are persuaded to sell them luxury cars stolen from Kuwait. The vehicles are outfitted as Saddam's entourage in a ruse to scare away the bunker's defenders. After storming the bunker, they free Troy, who spares Saïd, and find more Shi'ite dissidents held in a dungeon. A few of the soldiers who ran away return, and shoot Conrad and Troy. Conrad dies; Troy's lung is punctured, but he survives.
Archie radios Walter and Adriana and arranges transport while the hapless officers in the camp try to locate the trio after getting the message from Troy's wife. Each of the rebels is given a bar of gold, and the rest is buried as they wait for the transport to arrive. The convoy goes to the Iranian border, where the three Americans intend to escort the rebels across to protect them from the Iraqi soldiers guarding the crossing; American officers arrive and stop the group, however, arresting the trio while the rebels are recaptured. Archie offers the buried gold to the American officers in exchange for letting the refugees through. The commanding officer acquiesces to assisting the rebels get into Iran, but still states that charges (of being absent without leave and disobeying orders by contradicting American post-war policy) and courts-martial will be convened against Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin.
As an epilogue, the film states that the three surviving soldiers (Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin) are cleared of the charges and honorably discharged, thanks to Adriana's reporting. The epilogue goes on to show that Archie goes to work as a military adviser for Hollywood action films, Chief leaves his airport job to work with Archie, and Troy returns to his wife and baby to run his own carpet store. The stolen gold was returned to Kuwait, which claimed that some was missing, implying that the rebels managed to keep the gold they had been given.
