An announcement that the venerable Bunker Hill Military Academy, a 141 year old institute, is to be torn down and replaced with condos sets off the young cadets led by their stodgy commander. Under the command of a student cadet major, the cadets seize the campus, refuse entry of the construction crews and ultimately confront the real military.

Prior to the production of the film, the key actors -Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and others - were required to participate in a 45-day-long period of orientation with the students of Valley Forge Military Academy. They were given uniforms, borrowed from their real life counterparts at the school and given authentic military haircuts. They slept in campus barracks and were subjected to the same rigors and hardship that all Valley Forge cadets went through. While most of the actors enjoyed and excelled at their orientation, Cruise opted to leave the training for the comforts of a nearby hotel until filming began.

Brian Moreland:
Honor doesn't count for shit when you're looking at a dead little boy.

Factual errors: When all the adult staffers of Bunker Hill Academy are loaded onto the bus, we see a Captain and a few other uniformed soldiers. Bache's statement that the Cadet Major is only outranked by the commanding general, then, is untrue. Active military personnel outrank ANY cadet in a K-12 military academy.

Written and performed by The Doors