Plot

A pair of U.S. Navy fighter pilots risk their lives during the Korean War.

1950. Ensign Jesse Brown and Lt(jg) Tom Hudner join Navy Fighter Squadron VF-32 at roughly the same time and Brown is assigned as Hudner's wingman. They are quickly the best of friends and always look out for each other. Later that year war breaks out in Korea and VF-32, onboard the carrier USS Leyte, provides air support. Their missions are vital to the war effort and extremely dangerous.—grantss

Two close friends are Naval aviation pilots and they are positioned on an aircraft carrier during the Korean war in 1950. Their friendship is put to a test when one is in emergency when he crash lands a sick aircraft and the other has to mount a rescue mission. Will the mission succeed?—Madan Marwah

After the 2nd World War, the US starts to build its Naval Aviation arm in a big way.

In early 1950, Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) transfers to Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) at Quonset Point Naval Air Station, where he meets Ensign Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the only African American member of the unit. Hudner integrates well into the squadron, which is assigned F4U-4 Corsairs (nicknamed "The Widow Maker") - powerful planes with a reputation for fatal accidents if not handled properly. The squadrons pilots include Marty Goode (Joe Jonas), Bo Lavery (Spencer Neville), Bill Koeing (Daren Kagasoff) and Carol Mohring. Lieutenant Commander Dick Cevoli (Thomas Sadoski) is the squadron CO. Hudner is paired up with Brown. Brown likes to color slightly outside the lines and is not always a stickler for rules.

After Brown's car breaks down, Hudner starts giving him rides and eventually meets his wife Daisy (Christina Jackson) and their young daughter Pam. The Browns are doing well, but struggle with racist neighbors, and Brown has resorted to shouting racist abuse at himself in the mirror for motivation before missions.

VF-32 passes their carrier tests with the Corsair, on the carrier stationed at Quonset Point. Hudner scores perfectly, while Brown is admonished for nearly getting everyone killed when he misses his first landing approach and had to do a fly around. The squadron transfers to the USS Leyte (commanded by Captain T.U. Sisson (Dean Denton)), which is deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to deter Soviet aggression. Before they leave, Daisy has Hudner promise that he will be there for Jesse. On the carrier, Life Magazine does a profile on Jesse being the only African American aviator on the boat. Jesse refuses to be drawn into his struggle as an African American, and only sticks to his job of serving the nation as a Naval aviator. Still, the fellow officers and sailors on the carrier pick on Jesse for being treated in a special way. One particular Marine takes pleasure in harassing Jesse, who refuses to stand up to him.

On the voyage, squadron member Mohring (Nick Hargrove) is killed in a crash while attempting to land a Corsair. Hudner questions why Mohring did not follow instructions (Mohring pushed the throttle on the Corsair too fast, which flipped the plane and led to his accident), but Brown explains that one cannot always follow directions - if Brown had solely done what he himself was told, he would have been stopped early in his career by the many racist superior officers who wanted him to fail.

The unit has shore leave in Cannes, France, where Brown encounters actress Elizabeth Taylor (Serinda Swan) on the beach and secures invitations for the squadron to a casino, impressing them. At the casino, Jesse has to argue with the doorman, who could not believe that Elizabeth had invited an African American to their establishment. Once inside, Elizabeth invites the pilots to her table. The marines from Jesse's carrier were already at the table. After Hudner gets in a drunken fight with a Marine who had previously harassed Brown, Brown tells Hudner not to fight his battles for him, but simply to be there for him. Brown is given an expensive watch by Leyte's African American crewmen, who admire him for his work.

The next day, the squadron is informed that war has broken out between North and South Korea, and Leyte is redeploying to support the South. In November 1950, VF-32 arrives in Korea and learns that Chinese troops have entered the war on the North Korean side and begun to push American forces back. The squadron deploys to destroy a pair of bridges on the Yalu River between China and North Korea (earlier the B-29s were deployed to destroy the bridges but they missed. The bridges are the main access points for the Chinese to deploy more troops into Korea), though they are only permitted to fire on the Korean side of the border. Cevoli tells his squadron that no matter what happens they bring everyone back home.

Brown and Hudner fight off a MiG-15 fighter jet while the others attack the bridges, but one bridge remains standing. While Hudner orders a retreat in the face of anti-air fire from the Chinese side of the river, Brown disobeys him and attacks the bridge solo, successfully crippling it.

Hudner's after-action report praises Brown but also mentions that he was acting against orders, which Brown tells Hudner will be used as an excuse to deny him promotions for the rest of his career, despite Hudner's attempt to revise the report. On another mission to support besieged Marines at Chosin Reservoir (including the Marine who earlier harassed Brown), Brown's Corsair is crippled by gunfire from the Chinese soldiers, and he is forced to crash-land in a clearing in the mountains of North Korea. Hudner sees that Brown is alive but trapped in his cockpit and deliberately crashes his own plane in the clearing in order to aid Brown. Though he puts out an engine fire, Hudner is unable to extract the wounded Brown from the wreckage, and Brown dies shortly after a Marine Sikorsky helicopter arrives to assist him.

Back on Leyte, Hudner's commander determines that it is too risky to attempt to recover Brown's body from the Chinese-controlled area, and VF-32 (minus the injured Hudner) is instead sent on a "funeral flight" to destroy the downed Corsairs, with Brown's corpse still inside.

Several months later, a heartbroken Hudner receives the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman (Bill Martin Williams) for his attempts to save Brown. Hudner speaks with Daisy after the ceremony and apologizes for failing to rescue her husband. Daisy remarks that she only made him promise to be there for Jesse, not to save him, and Hudner tells her that Jesse's final words were about how much he loved her.

The film ends with a note that Brown's remains have never been recovered from North Korea, and that Hudner and Brown's families remain close friends to this day.