James Wright is a British Wing Commander sent in on a last ditch effort mission to help the allied American and Filipino forces stave off the Japanese as they take control in the bloody Battle of Bataan and solidify their stronghold on Southeast Asia. As the sole survivor of his mission, Wright is taken prisoner and brought to a POW camp, where he is to await deployment into the "death march" across the island. When the Japanese leader of the camp, Lt. Colonel Ito, discovers that Wright was trained to fight traditionally in Tokyo prior to the war, he begins to test the prisoner’s will by forcing him to repeatedly fight for his life against Ito’s most skilled warriors. Ito grows frustrated as Wright’s spirit, nor his back can be broken, as he defies the odds against him, and stirs hope back into his fellow prisoners’ will to survive.