When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

Screenwriter Daniel Pyne was paid over $1 million for his initial draft of this screenplay.

Eleanor Shaw:
I will do whatever is necessary to protect America from anyone who opposes her. I can't... am I the only person in this room who's been reading these NSA reports?


Congressman Healy:
I've read them.


Eleanor Shaw:
All right, then. You know... you know we are on the brink of another cataclysm, probably nuclear, on our own soil.


Congresswoman Becket:
Oh, Ellie, that's a bit extreme.


Eleanor Shaw:
And it's not from random terrorists, but from covert alliances of disaffected nations who've all been made bold by this kind of Jordan one-worlder who believes that human beings are essentially good and that our powers are somehow, I don't know, shameful or evil and never to be used. Make no mistake. The American people are terrified. They know something's coming. They can feel it. And we can either shovel them the same old shit and call it sugar or we can arm them. We can arm them with a young, vibrant Vice President. We can give them heat, energy! Give them a war hero with heart, forged by enemy fire in the desert in the dark when American lives hung on the balance!

Continuity: The place where they drill Raymond Shaw's skull is far removed from where the MRI tracking shows they are implanting a new probe.

Written by John Fogerty (as John C. Fogerty)
Performed & Produced by Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean performs courtesy of J Records