The movie opens up with a short introduction
about dogs being used during the times of the
First World war. It is also mentioned that more
than 3000 dogs served in the US military forces
during their wartime in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Following this, a well-trained army dog, Max, is
seen leading a group of U.S soldiers to a village
in Afghanistan. While the villagers are protesting
against the arrival of the soldiers, Max and his
handler, Kyle, enter a house. Max continuously
smells over a carpet and discovers the hidden
compartment of guns and other deadly ammunition.
It is then proved that the villagers are selling
illegal ammunition to the terrorists.
After a tough day at work, Kyle returns to
his base and talks to his parents back home;
mother Pamela, and father Ray. Ray is also a
retired U.S military officer. The parents seem to
love Max and they treat him like a member of their
family. However, Kyle’s brother, Justin, does not
seem to be fond of dogs. He also does not like his
father being strict and trying to keep him under
control. Justin mostly plays video games and evenÂ
pirates them to sell in his friend circle.
In the next scene, Kyle is called by
his superior to his office. There,
the superior tells Kyle that the guns they
collected from the village the other day
are less in number and doubts that someone
from their group is stealing them. Kyle then
confronts his group and gets to know that his best
friend Tyler, is the one who is doing all this.
However, since does not want to ruin their
friendship, he decides to give Tyler a chance.
The next day, when Kyle and his group are on their
next mission, Max leads them to a place and stops
in the middle, as if he has sensed something. In
the meantime, Kyle confronts Tyler that he knows
about his illegal business of smuggling weapons.
However, instead of apologizing, Tyler asks Kyle
to remain quiet and focus on the mission. He also
orders Max to keep going and because of this,
Max runs into a trap set by the terrorists.
Sadly, a number of explosions occur around Max,
and seeing this, Kyle runs to save his beloved
dog. He asks Tyler to provide him with cover, but
Tyler leaves him alone and hides in a safe place.
As a result, Kyle is killed in the shootout.
In the following scene, the military officers
visit Kyle’s house to inform his family about
his death. When the family is supplied with
the news, the parents along with Justin are
devastated. Later, the family gathers in a
church to perform the last rites for Kyle,
and Max is also brought there. He seems very sad
to have lost his master and silently sits beside
his coffin. After the ceremony, when the officers
try to take Max away to their military base,
he does not comply with them and retaliates.
However, the dog recognizes Justin and approaches
him, believing that he will take care of him
like Kyle did. Sadly, Justin accompanies the
police officers and helps them put Max inside
a police van to take him to a dog shelter.
The next day, as Justin is playing video games,
he starts reminiscing about his late brother.
Sad, he visits Kyle’s room and goes through
his pictures and belongings. At the same time,
Ray also arrives there and tries to console him.
Surprisingly, Justin erupts and blames his father
for Kyle’s death. While the father-son duo is
arguing over the matter, Pamela arrives there
and informs them that Max is going to be
put down by the military officers.
Wasting no time, the family goes straight to the
dog shelter to see Max. There, they meet with one
of the dog’s caretakers, who informs them about
Max being violent and out of control. He also
states that Max has been traumatized because of
Kyle’s death and has started to react violently
to any loud noise or person around him. To
their surprise, when Justin enters the room,
Max becomes silent and sits on the floor. Max
seems to follow Justin’s orders as he apparently
senses Kyle-like features in him. After seeing Max
behaving friendly with Justin, the family decides
to adopt Max. Moments later, Justin and the family
return home but Ray mentions that they cannot take
Max inside, as he is too dangerous. Hence, they
are compelled to tie him up outside the house.
Later at night, Max keeps on barking and howling,
disturbing the family as well as the neighbors.
Ray yells at Justin and asks him to silence Max.
Reluctantly, Justin wakes up from his bed and goes
outside to calm the dog. As expected, Max becomes
silent after seeing him, but does not allow him
to leave afterward. With this, Justin is compelled
to accompany him like Kyle used to in the military
camp. After Justin falls asleep, Max comes
near him and guards him like a loyal dog.
The next morning, Justin wakes up and goes to
meet his friend Chuy. There, he also comes across
Chuy’s cousin; Carmen, who seems to be fond of
dogs. When Justin mentions that he is having
trouble with his dog, Carmen offers to help him
take control of his dog and also train him.
In the following scene, Justin can be seen getting
ready for Carmen’s arrival, putting on his best
clothes to impress her. Moments later, Carmen
and Chuy arrive there. Carmen teaches some tricks
to Justin about how to go near a dog and make
him obey orders. After some hours of training,
Justin is finally able to make Max walk alongside
him. Just then, Pamela approaches Chuy and
Carmen and invites them to stay for dinner.
During the dinner, Pamela talks about Kyle and
starts crying, making everyone feel awkward.
Outside, Max starts barking aggressively,
and soon, the doorbell rings. When Justin
opens the door, he finds Tyler on the other
side. The parents are happy to see their son’s
best friend, and inquire about the reason for
his sudden return from the service. Tyler tells
them that he was injured in one of the battles
and has returned home for recovery. Hearing
this, Ray invites Tyler to the July parade.
Later, when the family takes Tyler to see
Max, surprisingly, the dog becomes aggressive
and starts barking. Max even breaks his chain
and tries to attack Tyler. Fortunately, Justin
and Carmen stop him in the nick of time. Here,
we get to know that Max hasn’t forgotten about
the incident, and has an eye for vengeance.
The next day, Justin takes Max to a bicycle park
where he rides with his friends and Max follows
him around. Later, when Justin returns home,
he is surprised to find a cage in
the front yard. On asking Pamela,
he gets to know that Ray has made it for Max,
so that he won’t be able to attack other people,
like he did with Tyler the previous day.
Later that day, after locking Max in the cage,
the whole family goes to the July parade.
While others stay to enjoy the fireworks,
Justin realizes that Max is alone and returns.
He arrives home to find Max terrified because
of the fireworks. Justin tries to take Max out
of the cage but the poor dog doesn’t move an
inch. As a result, Justin enters the cage
and sits alongside Max to calm him down.
The next day, Tyler meets with Ray and requests to
let him work in his warehouse during his vacation.
Ray also becomes happy and readily accepts
his request. Later, while conversing,
Ray asks Tyler about how his son died. Expectedly,
Tyler lies, mentioning that Max was the reason for
Kyle’s death, as the dog disobeyed his
orders and ran into the danger zone.
Hearing this, Ray becomes enraged and rushes home
with the intention to release his anger on Max.
He takes out a gun and points
it at Max but fortunately,
Justin arrives there and stops him.
In the next scene, Justin visits the military
dog shelter and talks with one of Kyle’s friends,
Sergeant Reyes. Reyes tells him that Max is the
best dog that has ever been trained in their
facility and also assures him that Max could
have never hurt Kyle. Furthermore, he informs
him that Tyler is actually suspended from his job
and also provides him with a DVD containing videos
of Kyle training Max for the first time.
Following this, Justin visits Chuy’s house and
asks Carmen to watch the DVD with him. When he
sees Max being friendly and obedient to Kyle
in the video, he dismisses his doubt about Max
turning up on Kyle. In the meantime, Chuy’s other
cousin, Emilio, who is associated with a cartel,
meets Justin and forces him to provide him
with a game that has been released recently.
While they are talking, Emilio receives a call
from Tyler and this makes Justin suspicious.
Hence, as soon as Emilio leaves, he
along with Max start following him.
After some time, Justin arrives at a place, in
the middle of the woods, where he can clearly
see Tyler meeting with Emilio. Soon, a group of
Italian gangsters also arrive, who are eager to
buy weapons from Tyler. Here, Justin gets to
know that Tyler is actually smuggling weapons
from Afghanistan and selling them in the states.
Right then, the gangsters’ dogs hear Max barking
and start running towards him. Despite
being outnumbered, he defeats the two dogs,
and escapes with Justin. While running away,
Justin bumps over a rock and his bicycle goes
flying into a ditch. As a result, he is forced to
run on foot, through the dense forest. Luckily,
they manage to reach the highway, where a decent
lady offers them a lift and drops them home.
When Justin walks inside his house, he
is surprised to see Tyler and his illegal
business partner, Deputy Stack talking with
his parents. It turns out that Tyler discovered
Justin’s bicycle in the woods and deduced that
he saw them dealing the weapons. Meanwhile,
Stack pretends to have a wound in his hand and
also claims that it is because of Max. He then
tells the parents that they should take away
Max as it is a danger for everyone. When Justin
protests, Tyler asks to talk to him privately
and threatens him to keep his mouth shut. Afraid,
for the safety of his family, he agrees to
let Max go. Moments later, the dog shelter
employees arrive there and take Max away.
In the next scene, Tyler returns to work,
and there, Ray confronts him for using one
of their storage units without any paperwork.
In reality, Tyler is using it to store guns,
but he lies that it is being used by his friend.
On the other hand, Max is brought to the dog’s
shelter but is very difficult to control.
In no time, he runs away from the place
after attacking the security guards.
Later at night, Ray walks up to Justin
and tries to strike up a conversation,
but the latter remains silent. Ray immediately
deduces that his son is hiding something,
and urges him to speak, but as Justin
is scared, he does not reveal anything.
Later, Ray visits his storage units and catches
Tyler and Stack loading guns in a truck. He
confronts them but is held hostage by Emilio.
Meanwhile, Pamela gets a strange voicemail from
Ray, informing her that he will be spending
the night in one of their hunting houses.
The voice mail is strange because Pamela does
not recall owning any hunting house. Right then,
Max arrives outside the house, and seeing him,
Justin and Pamela become happy. Justin then takes
Max and goes straight to Chuy’s house.
There, he tells Chuy and Carmen about his
father’s absence and the group goes out to
search for him. They arrive at the storage
units and find a broken lock. Max smells the
lock and guides them the way towards Ray.
After roaming around the whole night, Justin
and his group finally arrive at a secluded place
in the woods. They spot Tyler and his group
dealing in weapons with Ray inside their car,
held hostage. Sensing the danger, Carmen returns
to inform the police while Justin and Chuy keep an
eye on Tyler and his associates. Unfortunately,
the dogs brought by Tyler’s associates
realize the group’s presence and start running
towards them. Surprisingly, even this time, Max
defeats the two dogs. Because of this, Tyler and
Emilio rush towards the woods to find Justin.
When Ray notices that Stack is alone and has no
one around, he manages to attack him and free
himself. Soon, Max and Justin arrive there, and
the father-son duo have an emotional reunion.
However, the danger has not been averted yet,
so they decide to make a plan. Both of them walk
on different routes to confuse Tyler. Meanwhile,
Stack gets inside his car and starts searching for
the father-son duo. When he spots Ray and tries
to run him over, Ray shoots the car, causing it
to disbalance and explode under a bridge.
Elsewhere, Max is eventually caught by Tyler,
who holds him at gunpoint. Tyler expresses
his frustration for not being able to close
the deal because of Justin, and prepares to shoot
him. Right then, Max attacks Tyler from behind,
causing both of them to fall from the bridge, and
into the river below. Carmen also arrives with the
officers and all the bad guys are arrested.
In the last scene, Justin and Max can be seen in
front of Kyle’s grave where Justin is expressing
his feelings for him. Justin thanks Kyle for
leaving a dog like Max and salutes him for the
first time. Later, when he returns home, he finds
Carmen and Chuy inside his house with Pamela
preparing for dinner. Justin is surprised when
he does not find Max’s cage outside the house.
He enquires Ray about it, to which he replies that
they won’t be needing it anymore, as Max willÂ
be living with them, as a family member.
