A gripping action drama both on and off the battlefield, Lions for Lambs is directed by Academy Award® winner Robert Redford and features an all-star cast including Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. A powerful story about two soldiers in war and the controversy that surrounds them, Lions for Lambs is released to buy and rent on DVD on 21 April 2008 from MGM and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.Unfolding in real-time, Lions for Lambs uses the behind-closed-doors events of a single day to tell the story of several individuals caught up at various ends of the war in Afghanistan. The film reveals how an ambitious senator making bold moves in Washington, a broadcast journalist chasing a hot story under intense pressure, and two brave soldiers sent on a secret, perilous mission are all connected to one young man beginning to understand the importance of acting on what you believe in.The story begins after two determined students at a West Coast University, Arian and Ernest (Derek Luke and Michael Peña), follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley (Redford; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Spy Game, Indecent Proposal) and attempt to do something important with their lives. When the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught.
Now as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they connect two stories taking place on opposite sides of America.
In California, Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student (Andrew Garfield), who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest and is in danger of not fulfilling his enormous potential.
Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., Presidential hopeful Senator Jasper Irving (Cruise; Mission Impossible, Minority Report) is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist (Streep; The Devil Wears Prada, The Hours), that may affect Arian and Ernest’s fates.
As arguments, memories and bullets fly, the three stories are woven ever more tightly together, revealing how each of these Americans has a profound effect on each other and the world.