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1. Who plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee?
Tom Cruise
Kaffee is a Navy lawyer with a famous father and a gift for plea bargains, and he has never argued a case in a courtroom when the Santiago file lands on him. Tom Hulce originated the role on Broadway in Sorkin's 1989 play.
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2. Who plays Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway?
Demi Moore
Galloway works in Internal Affairs and asks for the case herself, only to see it handed to Kaffee, so she gets herself attached to the team as Downey's lawyer. She is the one who insists the Marines deserve a trial rather than a tidy deal.
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3. Who plays Colonel Nathan Jessup?
Jack Nicholson
Jessup commands the Marine ground forces at Guantanamo Bay and is offscreen for most of the film, which is why his few scenes land so hard. Nicholson shot his part in a matter of days and picked up a Best Supporting Actor nomination for it.
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4. Who directed A Few Good Men?
Rob Reiner
Reiner made it straight after Misery, through Castle Rock, the company he co-founded, and shot the Cuban base scenes on the Southern California coast rather than anywhere near Cuba. It remains the only one of his films nominated for Best Picture.
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5. Who adapted his own stage play into the screenplay?
Aaron Sorkin
Sorkin wrote the play while tending bar at a Broadway theater, drafting scenes on cocktail napkins between orders. The story came from his sister Deborah, a Navy lawyer sent to Guantanamo Bay to defend Marines in a real hazing case, one whose victim survived.
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6. Where is the military base at the center of the case?
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
The base sits on the southeastern tip of Cuba, on land the United States has leased since 1903, which is what lets Jessup boast about eating breakfast within sight of Cuban soldiers. The defense team flies down for a single day of interviews.
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7. What are the two accused Marines' surnames?
Dawson and Downey
Lance Corporal Dawson and Private First Class Downey are tried together. Dawson, the sharper of the two, refuses any deal that means leaving the Corps in disgrace; Downey follows his lead, and admits on the stand that he never heard Kendrick's order himself.
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8. What is the dead Marine's surname?
Santiago
Santiago was a weak Marine who wrote to anyone who might get him transferred off the base, and in one letter offered to inform on Dawson for an illegal shot fired across the fence line. Those letters are what bring the Code Red down on him.
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9. What is the unofficial punishment called?
A Code Red
A Code Red is an unofficial beating handed out by Marines to one of their own who has let the unit down, and Jessup's base practically runs on them. Kendrick denies ordering one under oath; Jessup, when pushed hard enough, does not.
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10. What are Dawson and Downey convicted of in the end?
Conduct unbecoming a United States Marine
They are acquitted of murder and conspiracy but convicted of conduct unbecoming, and dishonorably discharged. Involuntary manslaughter was the plea deal Ross offered and Dawson refused; it is Dawson who finally sees why they are still guilty.
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11. What job is Jessup about to take when the case begins?
Director of Operations for the National Security Council
The promotion to Washington is why nobody wants the Santiago case tried in open court, and why it is handed to Kaffee, a man expected to plead it out quietly. Jessup's pride in the posting is exactly what Kaffee needles on the stand.
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12. What drink is Kaffee rarely seen without?
Yoo-hoo
Kaffee gets through a lot of the chocolate drink during the case, usually while swinging a baseball bat around his apartment, which he says helps him think. The sloppiness is the point: he is a gifted lawyer who has arranged his life so he never has to try.
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13. What sport does Kaffee often play while discussing work?
Softball
Galloway first catches up with him at a practice, where he keeps hitting balls to his teammates while she tries to brief him on a death at Guantanamo. The game is a running measure of how seriously he is taking the case.
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14. Which officer provides information after going absent from the base?
Lieutenant Colonel Markinson
Markinson is Jessup's executive officer, the man who argued for transferring Santiago, and he disappears rather than lie for his commander. He tells Kaffee the transfer order was faked, then shoots himself in full dress uniform before he can testify.
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15. Who delivers the line about not being able to handle the truth?
Colonel Jessup
Kaffee demands the truth and Jessup tells him he can't handle it, then launches into his speech about walls and the men who guard them. The words are Sorkin's; the long pause before Jessup admits to the Code Red, and ends his own career, is Nicholson's.
