Windtalkers is a 2002 American war film directed and co-produced by John Woo, starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, and Christian Slater. It is based on the real story of Navajo code talkers during World War II. The film was theatrically released in the United States on June 14, 2002, receiving mixed reviews and becoming a box-office bomb, grossing just $77.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $115 million.
Plot
During World War II, US Marine corporal Joseph F. "Joe" Enders returns to active duty after having survived a gruesome battle on the Solomon Islands against the Imperial Japanese Army that killed his entire squad and wounded his left ear. Enders and Sgt. Pete "Ox" Henderson receive new assignments to protect Navajo code talkers Pvt. Ben Yahzee and Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse in a JASCO.
Yahzee and Whitehorse, childhood friends from the Navajo tribe, are trained to send and receive coded messages that direct artillery fire. Enders and Henderson are instructed to kill their code talkers if capture is imminent so that the code cannot fall into enemy hands. Both Enders and Henderson are less than happy to be babysitting their Navajo codetalkers, and the Navajos also endure racial harassment by some of the white Marines, notably Private Chick. During their missions, however, Henderson and Whitehorse discover a mutual love of music. Enders and Yahzee also find that they have much in common, notably their Catholic upbringings.
The invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands becomes Yahzee's and Whitehorse's first combat experience. After the beachhead is secured, the Marines come under friendly fire from U.S. artillery. With Yahzee's radio destroyed and the convoy unable to call off the bombardment, Yahzee suggests disguising himself as a Japanese soldier and slip behind enemy lines to commandeer a radio, with Enders as his prisoner. Yahzee is forced to kill for the first time before he can redirect U.S. artillery fire onto the Japanese position. For their bravery, Enders is awarded a Silver Star by the commanding officer, with Yahzee's role almost ignored until Enders points him out.
That night, the Marines camp in the nearby village of Tanapag. As Yahzee is temporarily assigned back to the command post to translate a code, Enders becomes increasingly torn over killing Yahzee and following his orders, but his request to be relieved from duty is denied. The next morning, Japanese soldiers ambush the village. Henderson is killed and Whitehorse is about to be captured. Realizing that the Japanese will torture him for the code, Enders throws a grenade at Whitehorse, killing him and his captors. Yahzee returns to Tanapag and, seeing Whitehorse's body, screams at Enders to explain what happened. When Enders mutters that he killed Whitehorse, an outraged Yahzee aims his weapon at Enders but cannot bring himself to kill him. Enders later confesses that he hated having to kill Whitehorse and that, like Henderson, his mission was to protect the code above all else.
The Marines are sent on another mission and once again ambushed, this time near a deadly minefield on Mount Tapochau, during which many Marines are killed. Enders, Yahzee, Chick, and Cpl. Pappas (the last of the Marines) take cover on a ridge and see Japanese artillery fire from the top of the ridge attacking a Marine convoy below their position. Still enraged over Whitehorse's death, Yahzee charges the Japanese line, killing many Japanese soldiers. Yahzee and Enders are both shot as they call in an airstrike on the Japanese artillery. However, surrounded and knowing the Japanese will capture and torture him for the code as they almost did with Whitehorse, Yahzee begs Enders to kill him. Enders, determined that no one else will die that day, manages to carry Yahzee to safety. Friendly planes arrive and the Japanese position is successfully destroyed. Yahzee rejoices in their success though Enders, mortally wounded, dies.
Back in the U.S., Yahzee and his family sit atop Point Mesa in Monument Valley, Arizona, and, wearing the sacred necklaces and Navajo ceremonial dress, perform the Navajo ritual of paying their respects to Enders.
An epilogue states that the Navajo code was crucial to America's successes against Japan across the Pacific theater during the war and that like all other Native American codes, the Navajo code was never broken.