Based on actual events, Black Hawk Down is the heroic account of a group of elite U.S. soldiers sent into Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1993 as part of a U.N. peacekeeping operation. Their mission: to abduct several top lieutenants of the Somali warlord, Mohamed Farah Aidid, as part of a strategy to quell the civil war and famine that is ravaging the country.

Young Rangers and veteran Delta Force soldiers must fight side by side against overwhelming odds. For 18 harrowing hours, they remain trapped and wounded in the most hostile district of Mogadishu until a rescue convoy can be mounted to retrieve them. Outnumbered and surrounded, tensions flare, friends are lost, alliances are formed and soldiers learn the true nature of war and heroism.