Apocalypse Now is Francis Ford Coppola's stunning vision of man's heart of darkness revealed through the madness of the Vietnam War. Inspired by Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella Heart of Darkness (about a steamer journey up a river into the Congo and African jungle - and into the darkest reaches of the human psyche), the film tells the story of US Army assassin Cpt. Willard and his mental and physical mission, to 'terminate' the dangerously-lawless warlord Colonel Kurtz - who has gone AWOL, become a self-appointed god, and rules a band of native warriors in the jungle.