Stripes is a 1981 American war-comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, and John Candy. It also featured several actors in their first significant film roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, John Diehl, and Judge Reinhold. It was one of John Candy's breakthrough film appearances. Dave Thomas, Bill Paxton, Joe Flaherty, and Timothy Busfield also appear.Plot:
John Winger is a cab driver, who, in the span of a few hours, loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend. Realizing that his life is a failure, he decides to join the United States Army. Talking his best friend Russell Ziskey into joining with him, they drive to a recruiting office and are soon off to basic training.
Upon arrival at Fort Arnold, they meet their fellow recruits, and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka. Moments after arriving, John offends Sgt. Hulka and is ordered out to do push-ups. He stands out as a misfit throughout the rest of basic training. Their commanding officer is the incompetent Captain Stillman. As basic training progresses, Russell and John become close to female MPs Louise Cooper and Stella Hansen. Not long before graduation, Sgt. Hulka is injured when Stillman orders a mortar crew to fire without setting target coordinates.
The men go to a mud wrestling bar, where John convinces Dewey "Ox" Oxberger to wrestle a group of women. When the club is raided by MPs and police, Stella and Louise cover for John and Russell. The rest of the platoon is taken back to base to face an irritated Captain Stillman, who threatens to force them to repeat basic training.
After partying with Stella and Louise, the buddies return to the barracks, and John motivates the platoon with a rousing speech and begins to get them in shape for graduation. After a long night of drilling, they oversleep and almost miss the ceremony. They rush to the parade grounds out of uniform and give an unconventional yet highly coordinated drill display led by John. General Barnicke is impressed when he finds out that they had to complete training without a drill sergeant, and decides they are just the kind of "go-getters" he wants working on his EM-50 project in Italy.
Once in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Sgt. Hulka and assigned to guard the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle. Bored with their assignment, John and Russell steal the EM-50 to visit their girlfriends, stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the EM-50 missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to get the vehicle back before his superiors find out it is gone. Hulka urges Stillman not to go, but is overruled.
Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka, realizing where they are, jumps out of the truck just before it is captured. He makes a Mayday radio call, and John and Russell realize that the platoon came looking for them and that their friends are in trouble. John, Russell, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate a Russian base where the platoon is being held. With some assistance from Hulka, they free everyone.
Upon returning to the United States, John, Russell, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are treated as heroes, each being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens the HulkaBurger franchise. Stella appears on the cover of Penthouse, Ox makes the cover of Tiger Beat, Russell recreates his firefight with the Russians for "Soldier of Fortune" and rates them as "pussies", and John is featured on the cover of Newsworld. Captain Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska.