Colonel Allen (William Sadler) is the leader of a covert military unit created for a single purpose: assassinate foreign leaders deemed a threat to the interests of the United States. On January 1, 2003, Colonel Allen recruits 24-year old Marine Corps sniper Oscar Padilla (Demetrius Navarro) to assassinate Saddam Hussein. When the mission goes awry Padilla is captured and tortured in a Baghdad prison. Though eventually freed and returned to the States, the ordeal leaves Padilla with deep emotional scars. Now Colonel Allen must find Padilla and eliminate him before Padilla hurts someone. Purple Heart is the tragic tale of the corruption of power by those who believe that armed conflict is the only way to make society safe; and the corrupted souls of the human beings ordered to wage that armed conflict. Too often, the first casualty of that kind of war is the truth. In the end, the worst horror of war is what we do to ourselves in the name of freedom and democracy.