Continuity mistake: When Cortez gets out a photo of his wife pregnant, the photo changes between shots. She is facing a different direction in the next shot. His USMC tattoo, however, stays the same direction throughout the scene. (00:26:55)
Jarhead (2005)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black, Scott MacDonald
Staff Sergeant Sykes (Foxx) warns Swoff (Gyllenhaal) that his friend Troy (Sarsaarg) will be kicked out of the Marines pending the end of his tour in Iraq for lying about his criminal record on the entrance forms. Swoff and Troy are given a job by Kalinski (Cooper) to take out a target. Just as they are about to shoot him, Maj. Lincoln (Haysbert) arrives and aborts their mission, calling in an airstrike to take the target out. Troy breaks down and cries only because he wanted to take the shot. When they return to their camp, they find the entire platoon celebrating that the war is over. Swoff fires his rifle into the air as it was the only time during the war that he got to fire it. The rest of the men do the same. They are shipped home and when they arrive, a Vietnam vet boards their bus and salutes them. A epilogue follows, showing all the men after the war. Swoff breaks up with Kris (who has a new boyfriend), Kruger (Black) works in an office, Fowler (Jones) is seen in a bar with a girl (possibly a hooker), Cortez (Vargas) is seen at a carnival with his family, Escobar (Alonso) is seen working at a convenience store, and Sykes is still fighting in Iraq. Fergus (Geraghty) finds Swoff and tells him that Troy had died. Swoff attends his funeral and cries beside Troy's coffin. We are never told how he died. The last shot is of Swoff staring out a window, and only seeing himself out in the desert again.Update Troy died from a Drunk Driver. Its in the book Jarhead
Anthony 'Swoff' Swofford: The M16A2 service rifle is a lightweight air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed shoulder weapon. It fires a 5.56 mm ball projectile at a muzzle velocity of 2,800 feet per second. This is my rifle. Repeat after me.
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Answer: He was just an old former Marine (I would assume a Vietnam vet) that wanted to congratulate the Marines, and give them a better welcome home than the Vietnam vets ever got.
EMTurbo