Inspired by a true story, this film is about the brave young American men that volunteered to join Escadrille de Lafayette, a fighter squadron of the French Air Service formed in 1916 during World War I. Why did these Americans volunteer when their own country was not even at war and that the Germans were stronger as they were more equipped than the French? That was the time when men believed that dying for a cause was certainly more honourable than dying of non-heroic reason. Blaine Rawlings (James Franco) was forced to leave his home in Arizona after the family ranch was foreclosed by the bank. Blaine sees a newsreel of fighter-pilots in France and decides that he has nothing to lose. Briggs Lowry (Tyler Labine) can't do anything right and is shamed into joining his rich father. African-American boxer Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) had been living in France, a racially tolerant country, for many years, wanted to give something back to his new country. These Americans were under the command of French Captain Georges Thenault (Jean Reno) and American Squadron Leader Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson).
