Captain Nathan Algren (TOM CRUISE) is a man adrift. The battles he
once fought now seem distant and futile. Once he risked his life
for honor and country, but, in the years since the Civil War, the
world has changed. Pragmatism has replaced courage, self-interest
has taken the place of sacrifice and honor is nowhere to be found -
especially out West where his role in the Indian Campaigns ended in
disillusionment and sorrow.
Somewhere on the unforgiving plains near the banks of the Washita
River, Algren lost his soul.
A universe away, another soldier sees his way of life about to
disintegrate. He is Katsumoto (KEN WATANABE), the last leader of an
ancient line of warriors, the venerated Samurai, who dedicated
their lives to serving emperor and country. Just as the modern way
encroached upon the American West, cornering and condemning the
Native American, it also engulfed traditional Japan. The telegraph
lines and railroads that brought progress now threaten those values
and codes by which the Samurai have lived and died for
centuries.
But Katsumoto will not go without a fight.
The paths of these two warriors converge when the young Emperor of
Japan, wooed by American interests who covet the growing Japanese
market, hires Algren to train Japan's first modern, conscript army.
But as the Emperor's advisors attempt to eradicate the Samurai in
preparation for a more Westernized and trade-friendly government,
Algren finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by his
encounters with the Samurai. Their powerful convictions remind him
of the man he once was.
Thrust now into harsh and unfamiliar territory, with his life and
perhaps more important, his soul, in the balance, the troubled
American soldier finds himself at the center of a violent and epic
struggle between two eras and two worlds, with only his sense of
honor to guide him.