A spiritual sequel to Hal Ashby’s 1973 classic ‘The Last Detail,’ Richard Linklater’s latest stars Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne as Vietnam veterans who reunite to perform a sacred task: laying one of their sons to rest.
Thirty years after they served together in the Vietnam War, former Navy Corps medic Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carell) re-unites with ex-Marine Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Reverend Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) on a different type of mission: to bury Doc’s son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War. Doc decides to forgo burial at Arlington Cemetery and, with the help of his old buddies, takes the casket on a bittersweet trip up the East Coast to his home in suburban New Hampshire. Along the way, Doc, Sal and Mueller reminisce and come to terms with shared memories of the war that continues to shape their lives.