A haunted Vietnam War veteran returns to Saigon after decades. On the flight, he meets two Vietnamese passengers whose stories force him to confront his memories, guilt, and the ghosts of a past that never let go.

SYNOPSIS:

The story begins in 2013, on a flight from New York to Saigon. Lee, a 62-year-old American veteran and former helicopter pilot, sits by the window, silently fighting the trauma that has shaped his life. Next to him are two Vietnamese passengers: an elderly refugee who fled Vietnam by boat in the late ’70s, and a younger man who left as a child and built a new life in the United States.

As the flight progresses, casual conversations open deep wounds. The old man recalls the chaos of 1975, the fall of Saigon, and his desperate escape by sea. The young man shares painful childhood memories of separation, exile, and survival. Their stories echo Lee’s own flashbacks: terrifying combat missions, the death of comrades, the loss of his Vietnamese love, and the turmoil of Paris in ’68 and anti-war protests in America.

Through these dialogues and vivid flashbacks, the audience witnesses the complexity of the Vietnam War — not just as history, but as a deeply personal scar carried by both Americans and Vietnamese.

When the plane hits turbulence, Lee’s trauma explodes into hallucinations of jungle firefights and Medevac missions. Yet, by confronting these memories alongside the two men, Lee begins to see a path toward reconciliation.

The pilot ends not with closure, but with a sense of unfinished healing: a journey that will continue as Lee arrives in Saigon, where the past and present will collide.

RETURN TO NAM, BEHIND MEMORIES, TRAVELLING