Plot

Lt. Jordan, a US Navy topographic analyst, joins the US Navy Special Warfare Group and struggles to prove her worth in a unit dominated by men. But a cynical woman Texan senator has sold her out.

When a crusading chairperson of the military budget committee pressures the would be Navy secretary to begin full gender integration of the service, he offers the chance for a test case for a female trainee in the US Navy's elite SEAL/C.R.T. selection program. LT. Jordan O'Neill is given the assignment, but no one expects her to succeed in an inhumanly punishing regime that has a standard 60% dropout rate for men. However, O'Neill is determined to prove everyone wrong.—Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com>

A Senate Armed Services Committee interviews a candidate for the position of Secretary of the Navy. Senator Lillian DeHaven (Anne Bancroft) from Texas criticizes the Navy (Secretary of the Navy Theodore Hayes (Daniel Von Bargen)) for not being gender neutral. Behind the curtains, a deal is struck: If women compare favorably with men in a series of test cases, the military will integrate women fully into all occupations of the Navy.

The first test is the training course of the U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team (similar to the SEALs UDT/BUDs) Senator DeHaven selects topographical analyst Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil (Demi Moore), because she is physically more feminine (& hence would look good on the cover of magazines) than the other candidates. Jordan is known to speak her mind and not take shit from her superiors in operational situations. Jordan is dating Lieutenant Commander Royce Harper (Jason Beghe). Royce thinks Jordan won't survive the course and discourages her. This makes Jordan more determined to make it through.

To make the grade, O'Neil must survive a grueling selection program in which almost sixty percent of candidates wash out, most before the fourth week, with the third week being particularly intensive ("hell week"). Captain Salem (Scott Wilson) is in charge of the program. The enigmatic Command Master Chief John James Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen) runs the training program that involves 20-hour days of tasks designed to wear down recruits' physical and mental strength, including pushing giant ship fenders up beach dunes, working through obstacle courses, and hauling landing rafts.

His fellow trainers are Instructor Max Pyro (Kevin Gage) & Instructor Johns (David Warshofsky). trainees include Sergeant First Class Cortez (David Vadim), Ensign F. Lee 'Flea' Montgomery (Josh Hopkins), 'Slov' Slovnik (Jim Caviezel), Newberry (Angel David), Stamm (Stephen Ramsey) & Lieutenant 'Wick' Wickwire (Boyd Kestner). Lieutenant Blondell (Lucinda Jenney) is the medical officer on the training program and the only other female on base. Jordan has to shave her head to make sure her hair doesn't interfere with the physical demands of training. Slovnik has the hots for Jordan and makes several attempts of sexual harassment at her.

Given a 30-second time "gender-norming" allowance in an obstacle course, O'Neil demands to be held to the same standards as the male trainees (she gets the same barracks and same everything as the rest of the batch). The master chief observes O'Neil helping the other candidates by allowing them to climb on her back to make it over the wall obstacle course. Cortez sabotages Jordan by refusing to pull her up (she was the last one) and Urgayle chews him out.

Eight weeks into the program (She has already missed her period, as an nasty knee injury and jungle rot on the foot), during SERE training in Captiva, Florida, the Master Chief ties her to a chair (Jordan is captured with her team, after Cortez and Slovnik refuse to obey her orders and get caught, forcing the rest of the team to retreat) with her hands behind her back, grabs hold of her and slams her through the door, then picking her up off the floor he repeatedly dunks her head in ice-cold water in front of the other crew members. O'Neil retaliates and is successful in causing him some injury, despite her immobilized arms. In so doing, she acquires respect from him, as well as from the other trainees.

Navy leaders, confident that a woman would quickly drop out, become concerned. The media learn of O'Neil's involvement, and she becomes a sensation known as "G.I. Jane." Soon, she must contend with trumped-up charges that she is a lesbian and is fraternizing with women. O'Neil is told that she will be given a desk job during the investigation and, if cleared, will need to repeat her training from the beginning. She decides to "ring out" (ringing a bell three times, signaling her voluntary withdrawal from the program) rather than accept a desk job.

It is later revealed that the photo evidence of O'Neil's alleged fraternization came from Senator DeHaven's office (Chief of Staff (John Michael Higgins) figures it out as all faxes have the same smudge marks on the papers). Royce informs Jordan, who confronts DeHaven. DeHaven never intended for O'Neil to succeed; she used O'Neil as a bargaining chip to prevent military base closings in her home state of Texas. O'Neil threatens to expose DeHaven, who then has the charges voided and O'Neil restored to the program.

The final phase of training, an operational readiness exercise, is interrupted by an emergency that requires the CRT trainees' support. The situation involves a reconnaissance satellite powered by weapons-grade plutonium that fell into the Libyan desert. A team of U.S. Army Rangers is dispatched to retrieve the plutonium, but their evacuation plan fails, and the trainees are sent to assist the Rangers. The Master Chief's shooting of a Libyan soldier to protect O'Neil leads to a confrontation with a Libyan patrol. During the mission, O'Neil, using her experience as a topographical analyst, realizes when she sees the team's map that the Master Chief is not going to use the route the others believe he will in regrouping with the others. She also displays a definitive ability in leadership and strategy while rescuing the injured Master Chief, whom she and McCool (Morris Chestnut) pull out of an explosives-laden "kill zone." With helicopter gunships delivering the final assault to the defenders, the rescue mission is a success.

Upon their return, all those who participated in the mission are accepted to the CRT. Urgayle gives O'Neil his Navy Cross and a book of poetry containing a short poem, "Self-pity", by D. H. Lawrence, as acknowledgment of her accomplishment and in gratitude for rescuing him.