Volunteers

Volunteers is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Tom Hanks and John Candy. Plot Lawrence Bourne III (Tom Hanks), is a spoiled rich kid who just graduated from Yale Class of 1962 with a $28,000 gambling debt. After his father, Lawrence Bourne Jr. (George Plimpton), refuses to pay his debt, he escapes his angry creditors by trading places with his college roommate Kent (Xander Berkeley), jumping on a Peace Corps flight to Thailand. On the plane, he meets Washington State graduate Tom Tuttle from Tacoma (John Candy) and the beautiful, down-to-earth Beth Wexler (Rita Wilson), the latter rejecting his advances once realizing why he is really there. In Thailand, they are assigned by John Reynolds (Tim Thomerson) to build a bridge for the local villagers. On day one, Tuttle gets into an argument with the villagers over what wood to use; the only one who speaks English is At Toon (Gedde Watanabe). Tuttle then gets captured by communist forces who brainwash him into doing their bidding, while Reynolds makes passes at Beth. Lawrence befriends At Toon, teaching him and several other villagers various gambling card games, but they are met by the powerful drug lord Chung Mee (Ernest Harada), who forces them to finish the bridge quickly.