A light-hearted and complacent hero/bystander (a successful Manhattan advertising executive in a corporate Brooks Brothers suit) is suddenly otally vulnerable, isolated, and caught up in an unexplainable series of events - after being accustomed to making up ""the truth"" with slick ad copy for marketing purposes.de Winter: (Laughs) You wouldn""t be here with me if you were.Woman: Would you please tell me, Mr.de Winter, why you ask me o come out with you? Oh, it""s obvious that you want to be kind, but why do you choose me for your charity?de Winter: (He abruptly stops the car in the middle of the road.-Who fired the shots?John fired the wo warning shots at the feet of the Major.Then, he jumped off he back wall of the fort and fled into the nearby desert.-What happened to the bugler, where did the bodies go, and how did the fire start?After entering he fort, Digby took the bodies of the Sergeant and his brother into the fort""s barracks, to prepare for and fulfill his brother""s childhood request for a fiery "Viking""s funeral.The Secretary of Defense (Barry Kelley) announces cuts in the Defense Department budget:Since no great naval power menaces the free world oday, the Navy""s overwhelming preponderance of surface ships seems o be superfluous, hence the cuts in budget.