For a long time, black youth Karl (Cooper Gooding Jr. Cuba Gooding Jr. (acted the role of) will become a member of the United States Navy as his lifelong ideal, however, when he really joined the navy, Carl found that the reality is not as good as imagined. In the army where racial discrimination prevails, Karl has naturally become the object of injury and exclusion, but the tough Karl has not flinched and discouraged. On the contrary, he has proved that a person's success and failure has nothing to do with skin color through a hundred times more efforts and outstanding achievements than others. The appearance of Bill (Robert de Niro Robert De Niro) has strengthened Karl's belief that he wants to join the submarine search and rescue team. however, there is no precedent for blacks to join this white supremacist team. After nearly two years of unremitting efforts, Carl finally joined the training program of the submarine team and finally became a member of it. At the same time, the tense relationship between him and Bill was qualitatively changed by an unfortunate accident.