84C MoPic
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''84C MoPic'' (also known as ''84 Charlie MoPic''; released in the Philippines as ''Platoon 2'') is a 1989 American independent found footage war
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film written and directed by Patrick Sheane Duncan. It is set during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
as a mock documentary of a supposedly routine Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) mission that goes wrong and eventually turns into a struggle for survival.


Plot

The film's point of view is from an inexperienced cameraman following a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol team from the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade on a five-day patrol deep into "Indian Country" (territory controlled by the
North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...
ese) in the Central Highlands in 1969. The cameraman is nicknamed MoPic by the team, because of his alphanumeric military occupational specialty, 84C20,
Motion Picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
Specialist. He is accompanied by an also inexperienced public relations career officer, LT. At first, the team seems in control. Their leader, Sergeant OD, detects booby traps, and the team lays some booby traps of their own. They evade detection by an NVA patrol, and move deep behind enemy lines. One night, over the radio, they hear an entire American company being overrun by the NVA. They find an NVA unit in the open and call in an artillery strike on it. Now that the NVA knows there are Americans nearby, they avoid any gunfire and make their escape in the bush as silently as possible. OD catches a small NVA patrol on their tail, and the team takes them out and carry off a wounded NVA soldier with them as demanded by LT. Their position is exposed by the noise, and a sniper takes out team member Pretty Boy. The sniper repeatedly shoots him in the limbs in an attempt to lure other team members out into the open. Unable to rescue Pretty Boy, OD mercy kills him. OD then demands LT kill the NVA prisoner with a knife to avoid any more noise. He sadistically makes LT look at pictures of the NVA soldier's family before LT kills the prisoner. The team continues their escape, but encounter VC troops that wound OD and kill Cracker. With OD barely able to walk, Hammer, a less experienced team member, takes point. Hammer triggers a booby trap almost immediately, killing him. With half the team killed, the survivors make their way to their evacuation point, a small village strewn with civilian bodies. During a final firefight, MoPic is shot and killed while OD, LT, and Easy escape in a helicopter along with the camera.


Cast

* Jonathan Emerson as Lieutenant 'LT' Drewery *
Richard Brooks Richard Brooks (born Reuben Sax; May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards in his career, he was best known for ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), '' ...
as Sergeant 'OD' O'Donigan * Jason Tomlins as Specialist 'Pretty Boy' Baldwin * Christopher Burgard as Specialist 'Hammer' Thorpe * Nicholas Cascone as Private 'Easy' Easley * Glenn Morshower as 'Cracker' * Byron Thames as 'MoPic'


Production and reception

''84C MoPic'' was filmed on a low budget in
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
. The film is one of the earlier examples of found footage, a style famously implemented by ''
The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American psychological horror film written, directed, and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. One of the most successful independent films of all time, it is a " found footage" pseudo-docume ...
'' and '' Paranormal Activity''. As of 2025, ''84 Charlie MoPic'' has an 83% "Fresh" rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, based on 6 reviews.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
, awarding the film three stars out of four, wrote: The film received three nominations: * 1989
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
, Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic (Patrick Sheane Duncan) * 1990 Independent Spirit Award, Best First Feature, Patrick Sheane Duncan (Director); Michael Nolin (Producer) * 1990 Independent Spirit Award, Best Screenplay, Patrick Sheane Duncan The film is listed among recommended Vietnam war films in a blog post on the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...
.Lindsay, James M
"Ten More Vietnam War Movies,"
Council on Foreign Relations website (May 20, 2017).


References


External links

*
AllMovie

Trailer
* {{Authority control 1980s American films 1980s war drama films 1980s English-language films 1989 multilingual films American war drama films American multilingual films Camcorder films English-language war drama films Films set in 1969 Found footage films Vietnam War films Vietnamese-language films