The U.S.S. Forrestal aircraft carrier in the Eastern Mediterranean receives a distress call from an oil tanker. As a U.S. Navy helicopter approaches, Arab terrorists in a gunboat emerge from behind the flaming tanker and shoot it down. Lieutenant Junior Grade Dale Hawkins awakens on a beach in Norfolk, Virginia, and walks to a nearby house, where he and his fellow U.S. Navy SEALs (Sea, Air, and Land commandos), Lieutenant James Curran and Chief Petty Officer Billy Graham, have been partying all night to celebrate Billy’s wedding that afternoon. They ride to the church in a Jeep, and while passing over a bridge, the wedding-phobic Dale Hawkins escapes by leaping into the bay below. As Jolena, Billy Graham’s bride, walks down the aisle with her father, six SEALs, including best man Curran and the groom, are notified on their beepers to return to base immediately. Graham promises Jolena he will call her later. Meanwhile, at an Eastern Mediterranean seaport, the Arabs return with three American helicopter crewmen. The terrorist group leader, Ben Shaheed, tells his men to kill the hostages, then leaves. An interrogator shoots one of the Americans in the head, and prepares to kill a second, but a SEAL team led by Lt. Curran bursts into the room with machine guns blazing. The SEALs kills the terrorists, free the two surviving Americans, take photographs, and gather information. Nearby, Ben Shaheed ducks into a room, tears off some of his clothes, and bloodies himself. When Dale Hawkins breaks in and finds him, Shaheed claims to be a captive Egyptian sailor. In his haste to evacuate quickly, Hawkins leaves Shaheed unharmed. The SEALs fight their way out of the compound, but Graham and Hawkins become separated and stumble into an arms warehouse. During a firefight with terrorists, Hawkins sees dozens of crates of shoulder-fired “Stinger” missiles capable of shooting down aircraft. He tries to blow them up with a hand grenade, but destroys only one box. As he and Graham join the other SEALs for a scheduled rendezvous with a helicopter, Hawkins wants the team to go back and destroy the Stingers, but Lt. Curran overrules him because they must leave immediately. Later, during a debriefing, Navy intelligence officers ask why they failed to destroy the Stingers and the “Egyptian.” Two Israeli intelligence men decide not to tell the Americans that the Egyptian is actually terrorist leader Ben Shaheed. They telephone Tel Aviv, Israel, instead. At the Pentagon, near Washington, D.C., several military men and civilians watch a video of Al-Shahada leader Ben Shaheed being interviewed by half-Lebanese, half-British television reporter Claire Varrens. Shaheed claims that Americans have no business raiding Middle East countries and killing Arabs, and Arabs have a duty to kill them. U.S. government official Warren Stinson worries about Shaheed’s access to Stingers, and again asks Lt. Curran why his SEAL team did not destroy them. In Norfolk, Virginia, Lt. Curran tells his commanding officer, Captain Dunn, that he wants to return to Lebanon and destroy the missiles, but the captain orders him and his men to take time off. The SEAL team, accompanied by Jolena, goofs off on a golf course and races golf carts. When a truck tows Hawkins’s illegally parked car, he gives chase on a bicycle and climbs on the truck. He lowers the truck bed until his car rolls off, and he drives it away. Meanwhile, at SEAL Command Center, satellite photographs reveal the Stingers are on the Lebanon-bound freighter Latanya. The SEALs are ordered to interdict and destroy the missiles, but warned that the freighter also carries Muslim pilgrims. The SEALs board a submarine shadowing the Latanya off the coast of Syria. At night, they release small, motorized rafts from the submarine airlock, ride them to the freighter, and climb aboard. Muslim pilgrims sleep on deck. When the SEALs capture the ship’s captain, he insists there are no missiles aboard. Two terrorists are among the pilgrims, but the SEALs kill them both. The following day, a helicopter arrives with Americans to search the cargo hold, but the Stinger crates are filled with sand. In Washington, D.C., Claire Varrens tells a television host that true Islam is tolerant and does not condone terrorism. However, years of civil war in Lebanon have created enraged and violent militant groups. Lt. Curran approaches Claire afterward, looking for “research material.” Over lunch, he tries to coax information from her, but Claire explains that she is a journalist, not a spy, and has no information about the Stingers. When she asks to witness SEAL training exercises, he takes her to a “kill house” on base where SEALs rush in, firing at pop-up targets all around them. Claire is angry at Curran for putting her in danger, but he wanted her to experience being in the midst of gunfire. When Dale Hawkins sees James Curran and Claire Vareens at a restaurant, he telephones headquarters, identifies himself as Capt. Dunn, and asks them to beep Lt. Curran. Hawkins sits down with the couple and insults Claire by referring to Arabs as “rag heads” and comparing the Middle East to a toilet. Receiving “Capt. Dunn’s” telephone call from headquarters, Curran rushes out and asks Hawkins to give Claire a ride home. Hawkins tries to romance her, but she has no interest in him. The next day, a newscast reports that terrorists in Spain used an American Stinger to shoot down a private jet carrying an Algerian negotiating committee. Curran hurries to Claire’s apartment and demands she help before terrorists shoot down any more airplanes. She refuses to volunteer, but tells him to ask questions and she will tell him what she knows. At a beach house, Curran and Hawkins show her photographs. One is of Ben Shaheed’s go-between at Claire’s interview, but she tell him the man disappeared six months earlier and was probably kidnapped by Israelis. Hawkins suggests that maybe the SEALs should also kidnap terrorists and make them talk, but Claire explains they are religious zealots who do not respond to torture or coercion. Nonetheless, Naval Intelligence decides to kidnap a terrorist-related official named Ali. The SEALs study a scale model of a terrorist compound and rehearse their attack. They parachute from an airplane, land offshore, and swim to a coastal town. Several SEALs grab Ali, but when Hawkins gets trigger-happy and creates a firefight, Graham is killed. Back in Virginia, James Curran breaks the news to Jolena. After the military funeral, Curran tells Jolena her fiancé’s death was a training accident, but she does not believe him. Later, during a drunken wake, Curran blames Hawkins for Graham’s death because he was looking for a fight. When Claire goes to Curran’s houseboat, she finds him morose. She spends the night, and they make love. Later, aboard the U.S.S. Coral Sea off the coast of Lebanon, Lt. Curran tells Hawkins they are going to Beirut, where the Stinger missiles have been stored in a schoolhouse in the Shiite Muslim slums. Various militias are fighting among themselves, so the SEALs are told not to get involved. A helicopter drops them offshore at night and they reach the coast on motorized rafts. In Beirut, they are met a pro-American Druze guerrilla named Amal, who leads them to the schoolhouse. An infrared sensor alerts them that terrorists are on the third floor. Sneaking inside, they wire the crates with explosives. In the harbor, a submarine captain tells Capt. Dunn he can give the SEALs only twenty more minutes before he leaves, because the sun will soon rise and reveal the sub’s location. Near the schoolhouse, Curran is wounded in a firefight, and despite his orders to blow up the building, Hawkins insists on rescuing him first. A SEAL corpsman dresses Curran’s wounds so the SEALs can carry him with them. However, Ben Shaheed spots the SEALs hijacking a Mercedes-Benz and an armored vehicle chases them with machine guns and wrecks the car, but Leary, one of the SEALs, blows up the vehicle with a rocket launcher. Only four SEALs reach the beach and swim into the harbor. In an effort to stop them, Shaheed and his men commandeer a boat and try to run them over, but Hawkins tosses a hand grenade into the boat, destroying it. Shaheed fights with Hawkins underwater until the SEAL cuts his throat. The submarine surfaces and rescues them.