Chinook: Echoes of War

“Three Crashes. One Day. No Escape.”

Genre: War Drama, Historical Fiction
Setting: Vietnam War, 1968, Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the jungle
Tone: Gritty, intense, visceral, with moments of camaraderie and dark humor
Format: 8-episode limited series, 50-60 minutes per episode
Based on: A fictionalized true story inspired by the experiences of Private Evans

Series Overview
Chinook is a raw, unflinching war drama that follows Private Daniel Evans, a young, inexperienced Chinook helicopter mechanic thrust into the chaos of the Vietnam War in 1968. Assigned to a remote forward base, Evans is a fish out of water, surrounded by battle-hardened soldiers and the deafening roar of Chinook helicopters. Under the wing of a tight-knit platoon of Black infantrymen, led by the enigmatic and brutal “Chief,” Evans learns to survive in the unforgiving jungle. As he transitions from mechanic to crew chief to flight engineer, Evans endures unimaginable horrors, including surviving three helicopter crashes in a single day—a feat that cements his legend. Told through a drunken recounting in 1983 to a wide-eyed recruit, Chinook explores survival, brotherhood, and the psychological toll of war.

Main Characters
• Private Daniel Evans (20, White, Midwestern): A nervous, green mechanic fresh from training. Evans is eager but unprepared for the brutality of Vietnam. His arc transforms him from a naive rookie to a hardened survivor, shaped by the jungle and his platoon. By 1983, he’s a grizzled, alcoholic veteran haunted by his past.

Synopsis
In the suffocating jungles of 1968 Vietnam, Private Daniel Evans, a rookie Chinook mechanic haunted by his brother’s death in the war, lands at a remote forward base where death is a heartbeat away. Attached to a platoon of Black infantrymen who wear enemy ears and scalps as grisly trophies, Evans is an outsider forced to prove himself under the ruthless tutelage of “Chief,” a charismatic but unhinged sergeant spiraling into madness. As monsoon rains, booby traps, and Viet Cong ambushes close in, Evans’ mechanical skills earn him a perilous promotion to crew chief, plunging him into the chaos of helicopter missions. Betrayals fester—sabotaged tools, leaked intel, and racial distrust threaten to tear the platoon apart. When his Chinook is shot down on a recon mission, Evans’ jungle-honed instincts save the crew, but the cost is steep. Days later, a second crash kills half his team, leaving him and a secretive co-pilot to evade a sadistic Viet Cong tracker.

On the same day, a third crash leaves Evans as the sole survivor, badly wounded and hunted through a nightmare of swamps and mines. Each crash strips away his humanity, forcing impossible choices: kill a child soldier, abandon a wounded comrade, or embrace the platoon’s savagery. In 1983, a drunken, broken Evans recounts his miraculous survival to a skeptical young mechanic, his slurred tale unraveling a web of guilt, betrayal, and a secret that could destroy the platoon’s legacy. Chinook is a pulse-pounding war saga of one man’s fight to survive a day of unrelenting hell—where the jungle, the enemy, and his own allies are equally deadly.