Without radio contact, 4 army SEALs find themselves hunted by dozens of Taliban rebels.

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June 28, 2005, four army SEALs are sent behind enemy lines to eliminate Ahmad Shah, a powerful Taliban chief. Dropped into a steep forest to observe the enemy, they come face to face with three shepherds: an old man, a child and an adolescent. The Americans hesitate in killing them, wanting neither to compromise their mission nor to endanger their lives, so they let them go after much discussion. But soon they are being chased by dozens of rebels on the orders of Ahmda Shah, without being able to contact their superiors by radio. They realize too late the three were really lookouts for the Taliban...

After a beginning that seems like an ad for the US army introducing a propaganda movie, Lone Survivor switches gears by addressing, in the style of Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, 2005’s Operation Red Wing fiasco, the worst disappointment of American troops in Afghanistan. Even if he tends to be blunt, former director-turned-actor Peter Berg has the intelligence to favor neither the hawkish soldier who is always game to shoot at the least opportunity, nor the happy idiots who call themselves pacifists and think that if everyone sits nicely around a table for a good talk, they can solve the problems of people who have been fighting each other for 2000 years.