Chris Kyle is the US Navy SEAL sniper currently,
on a very important mission in a third-world
country. He is on the rooftop of a building,
studying the path of a US convoy that might be
in danger. Everything seems smooth until a
Muslim woman carrying something underneath
her burqa appears in Chis’s view. She hands
a grenade to a kid which he takes towards
the convoy, presumably to attack it.
Chris gets the green light to shoot the
kid but his values put him in a dilemma.
Seconds later, a loud gunshot is heard and
the scene cuts to Chirs’s childhood. He is in
the woods hunting with his father. Ever since
he was little he had a good aim which makes his
father think he will be a fine hunter one day.
Chris’s father lives by the principle that
there are three types of people in the world;
the sheep, the wolf, and the sheepdog. The sheep
are the weak ones who cannot protect themselves,
the wolves prey on the weak and the sheepdogsÂ
are the ones who protect their flock. The Â
man wants his son to be a sheepdog andÂ
protect his people from the wolves.
Many years later, Chris turns into a young man
but doesn’t forget his father’s words. He is now
a rodeo cowboy living with his loving girlfriend
Sarah. One night after a race, he returns home
to Sarah and a man putting their clothes on.
He beats up the man and kicks Sarah out of the
house. Before leaving, she calls him a failed
farmer who claims to be a so-called cowboy.
Chris acts cool but deep down, he knows she
is right. He hasn’t been the sheepdog that
his father wanted him to be. After drinking all
night with his brother, Chris comes across news
about explosions happening in various US
embassies in different parts of the world.
The hundreds of injured and dead Americas make
his blood boil and give him a purpose in life.
The very next day, he goes to
Armed Force Career assistance,
wanting to join the service. The counselor admires
his determination and suggests he join the SEALS
but not before stressing that most people looking
to enter the SEALS quit in the first half.
Chris keeps that in mind and joins the training.
Apart from everything else, he is exceptionally
good at target shooting and has the potential
to become a skilled sniper. Fast forward after a
months-long extreme training, he finally passes
the test and becomes a member of the SEALS.
One night, Chris is enjoying a night out
at a bar when he meets a beautiful woman
named Taya. They instantly connect and end the
night together in bed. As time goes by, they
fall in love with each other and get married.
On the wedding day, Chris and his fellow SEALS
are informed that they are about to be deployed
to Iraq. They celebrate the milestone and are
excited about their first posting. Taya,
however, is worried for her husband until
he assures her he will return after six months.
The troop is assigned to the city of Fallujah in
Iraq and is stationed to protect the 1st marines,
who are going door-to-door in an evacuated city
to look for terrorists. The scene changes to
the beginning of the film when Chris is ready
to shoot the kid. As the boy sprints towards
the convoy, Chris fires and brings him down.
The woman who gave the boy the grenade rushes
to him and tries to continue the task. But Chris
shoots her right through her chest and the grenade
explodes far from the convoy. Everyone praises
him for protecting the marines inside the convoy
who would be dead by now if it weren’t for him.
However, all Chris can think of is the dead boy.
He never thought his first kill would be a little
kid who probably didn’t know what he was doing.
As days pass, Chris continues protecting the
troops from his position. He’s the best sniper on
his team, so determined that he urinates himself
during the overwatch to avoid leaving his post.
After a particular day at work, he gets a total
of six kills which is more than the
combined total of all his teammates.
They start calling him the Legend but in his
heart, Chris questions if he is the opposite.
Then one day, he gets a call from Taya who
surprises him by revealing she is pregnant. They
start talking on the phone frequently, taking care
of each other even though they aren’t together.
In the following scene, the sniper team is in
a meeting where they are informed about an al
Qaeda leader named Zarqawi. Their primary
target is the leader and his lieutenants,
so if they find anything suspicious related
to his troop, they must act accordingly.
The team continues the door-to-door search the
next day while Chris protects them from afar.
Everything goes smoothly until a soldier
is injured. Chris takes it upon himself
to join the search team while his
fellow snipers watch over them.
During the search, they find an Arabic Sheik
with his family living in one of the houses that
were supposed to be empty. The Sheik claims that
they don’t have anywhere else to go. He wants the
Americans to go away because if ‘The Butcher’
catches them talking with the US soldiers,
he will kill the entire family. The Butcher
turns out to be one of Zarqawi’s subordinates
who could be useful to find the main man. The
Sheik who provided the information is promised
a lot of money and a safe life somewhere else.
The next day, a military vehicle moves out to
meet the Sheik again. On their way, Taya calls
Chris and informs him they are about to have a
boy. As his fellow SEALS congratulate him,
the driver is shot and killed. This is when
we are introduced to a terrorist sniper
Mustafa. He is an Olympic gold medalist,
known for making almost impossible shots,
and is also the one who has attacked them.
The absence of a driver causes the vehicle
to crash. Taya, who is still on the phone,
panics and asks Chris if he is okay
but only hears gunshots in reply.
Chris somehow manages to take a hiding and spies
on the rivals. The Butcher holds the Sheik and
his family hostage before brutally killing his
little son using a drill. The Sheik runs to
the kid’s rescue but is also shot and killed.
Chris doesn’t get a chance to attack the enemies
because Mustafa is constantly firing at him,
having found out where he is hiding. In the end,
both the Butcher and Mustafa leave unharmed. A
few days later, Chris and his team return home.
Taya is beyond glad to see her husband well and
alive. However, after living with him for a few
days, she realizes that he is not the same person
he was before being deployed. He has turned into
a moody man who complains about everything and
has forgotten to enjoy life. It is clear that
the things he saw and the things he had to do have
gotten into his head and changed him as a person.
In the following scene, the couple is returning
from a trip to the hospital when Taya goes into
labor. Chris turns the car back around and a
few hours later, a beautiful baby boy is born.
At home, Taya encourages Chris to talk
about his feelings and experiences. She
thinks letting it all out will help him but
he claims that he doesn’t want to get into
her head and dismisses the conversation.
Soon after, he is informed that their team
will be heading to Iraq again. Taya doesn’t want
him to go but knows that he is true to his job.
Upon landing in Iraq, they are told that their
mission is to hunt down the Butcher and Chris
is leading the team this time. It turns out that
a bounty has been placed on Chris’s head by al
Qaeda since he has killed many of their people.
During the first patrol of Butcher’s supposed
residence, they come across a family. The head
of the family claims that they know nothing
about the terrorists. The team believes
him until Chris notices the mark on his
elbow that looks like he was hurt in a war.
When no one is looking, Chris goes to search
around his room and finds heavy arms and
ammunition inside a hidden compartment on
the floor. The man is instantly caught
and interrogated. To save his life,
he promises to help the soldiers get
into the building where Butcher is.
In the next scene, the troops cautiously surround
the said building. The man knocks on the door
and is welcomed by his fellow terrorist.
He is killed in an instant, followed by
the man when he tries picking up a gun.
The team then enters the house and finds
corpses cut into pieces which is clearly the
butcher’s work. Soon, they are spotted and
terrorists backfire. The Butcher flees through
a tunnel using the shootout as a distraction.
When Chris returns to the US again, he struggles
to adjust to his normal life. He is startled by
loud noises, which remind him of the war.
While he suffers in silence, Taya gives birth
to their second child, this time a daughter.
Chris goes to see her in the postnatal ward and
witnesses the nurse tending to another child while
his daughter is crying. He loses his mind over the
small incident and yells at the nurses.
His strange behavior doesn’t go unnoticed
by Taya. She frequently tells him that he
is never really present in the moment and
is always thinking of something. She wants
him to talk to her, and tell her how he is
feeling but he is not ready to open up yet.
In the following scene, Chris’s team is back
in Iraq chasing down the Butcher’s
van. When the enemies start to fire,
they respond back and run to the nearest building
to retaliate with a better view. Suddenly, someone
shoots down Chris’s companion, Biggles. The group
covers Chris while he brings the injured soldier
to the vehicle and rushes him to the base.
After making sure that he gets proper medical
care, the soldiers set off to look for the
terrorists again, this time in fury. They
turn into killing machines, taking out every
enemy they encounter. At one point, they stop
at a suspicious house to look for more enemies
but are ambushed by the terrorists outside. A
soldier named Marc dies in the ensuing shootout.
Sometime later, the team returns home with Marc’s
body and attends his funeral. Chris reveals that
he read a letter Marc wrote before his death. He
claims that the letter killed him because the guy
had given up on life even before he was killed.
Because of the letter, Chris has decided to
go back for revenge since he cannot let his
friend’s sacrifice go to waste. Taya tries to
convince him otherwise, begging him to stay
for his kids. She even tells him that he might
return to an empty home but Chris doesn’t listen.
When in Iraq, he finds out that Biggles
died during surgery. In a usual mission,
Chris sees a man with a rocket-propelled grenade
getting ready to attack the convoy. He shoots
him dead but notices that a kid is trying to
pick up the grenade to complete the task.
Chris hopes that he doesn’t have to kill
another boy and to his relief, the kid runs
away when he cannot carry the heavy propeller.
In the base, he and his team are told that the
administration is trying to build a wall
around the city. However, a terrorist has
been firing at them from over 1,000 yards away,
leading the team to believe it is Mustafa.
The soldiers are asked to bring down the sniper at
any cost. Despite an oncoming sandstorm blocking
their way, the team goes to protect the troops
building the wall. They take their positions,
aiming in the direction where they think Mustafa
is. But he surprises them by firing from the
opposite direction and killing a US soldier.
Chris quickly tells his people to change their
positions and align themselves
according to his orders.
As he had predicted, he sees movement about 2100
yards away. Even though the others claim that it
is impossible to get a shot from that far, Chris
confirms the target to be Mustafa. He whispers
‘For Biggles’ under his breath before pulling the
trigger and finally killing the enemy sniper.
However, this also causes the other
terrorists to hear the gunshot and
swarm the roof. A shootout ensues which
causes serious damage to both parties.
The troop is about to run out of
ammo when a sandstorm hits them.
Chris believes that he is about to die and calls
Taya, telling her that he is ready to return home
forever. But right after the call, they decide
to use the storm to camouflage and run away.
Chris is shot during the chaos but
to his fortune, the soldiers see
him running towards them and pull him up.
The scene cuts to a few months later. Chris
is drinking in a bar when he gets a call from his
wife. He still suffers from PTSD from the war and
any loud noises scare him. Taya encourages him
to go to a psychiatrist which helps him a lot.
He also joins a support group of war veterans
and talking to them makes him feel seen.
With time, he gets over the trauma and starts to
live life freely even though he cannot turn back
to his young and carefree self after everything
he has seen. Chris reconnects with his family and
moves to a new house with them. He also takes
his son to hunt as he did with his father.
On February 2nd, 2013, a young and troubled
ex-marine comes to meet him. Chris tells
his wife he will be back by evening but neverÂ
returns. It is later revealed that the ex-marine Â
who Chris was trying to help, killed him.
In the last scene, we are shown the picture
of real-life Chis Kyle, his funeral, and
Taya delivering a speech in his memory.
