Max (2015)

Max (2015) Full Recap

In the mountains of Afghanistan, a Belgian Malininoa named Max walks ahead of a squad of US Marines. His job is to walk out in front, sniff out hidden weapons and bombs, and find them before anyone else gets hurt. Okay, Max, go search. His handler and best friend is a young Marine named Kyle Wcott.

Where Kyle goes, Max goes. The squad raids a village where they think weapons are being sold to the Taliban. Kyle sends Max in first. That's absurd. The villagers swear there's nothing there, and the only people left in the village are old men. Max goes from room to room with his nose to the ground.

Then he stops at one spot and starts digging. Under the floor is a secret room packed with rifles and rocket launchers. Uh, they doubled our patrols, but it's paying off. It's the biggest weapons find their battalion has ever made, and Kyle says they owe it all to Max. Kyle grabs Max by the face and tells him he's a good boy. at a boy.

Back home in Texas, Kyle's family is on a video call with him. His mom, Pamela, can't stop smiling, and she makes Kyle hold Max up to the camera so she can say hi. His dad, Ry, a former Marine who was wounded in the Gulf War. Couldn't be prouder. Kyle's best friend from back home, Tyler, leans into the frame and yells, "Hooray!

Got a boy, Max." But Kyle's little brother, Justin, stays on the couch with his video game and won't even come say goodbye. Kyle laughs it off. He's dealing with an insurgency, and Justin is busy saving the universe. No cousin in this house, please. Then an officer calls Kyle into a tent and shows him photos of the weapons they found.

There are more guns in the pictures than in the report. Somebody is stealing them. The officer asks if there's anything he wants to tell them. Kyle says he just handles the dog, but he knows exactly who it is. It's Tyler. That night, Kyle warns him that he can't cover for him anymore.

Tyler needs to stop or Kyle will report himself. The next morning, the squad heads out on patrol, and Max refuses to move forward. Max senses something is wrong, but the squad pushes ahead anyway. A man runs toward them, and Max charges him. Then a bomb goes off and the canyon fills with smoke and gunfire.

Max is thrown by the blast. When the dust clears, Kyle is lying on the ground. He doesn't get up. Justin spends his summer locked in his room making illegal copies of video games to sell. His friend Chewy picks up the discs for a local gangster named Emlio. Ry wanted him working at the family storage business this summer.

When he finds Justin in his room instead, they argue. Ry tells him he's his own boss and junk is what puts food on the table. Then a car pulls up and two Marines in dress uniforms walk to the door. Pamela takes one look at them and falls apart. Ry knows what it means. Kyle is gone.

At Kyle's funeral, a church choir sings while the Marines fold the flag over his coffin. Then a marine van pulls up and a trainer brings out Max. The dog goes wild, barking and pulling at his leash and nobody can calm him down. Then he runs to the coffin and lies down beside it.

Justin walks over and Max goes quiet. He's figured out that Justin is Kyle's brother. Know how he feels. The trainer, Sergeant Reyes, asks Justin to help them get Max back into the van. Max follows him without a fight. At home, Ry tells Justin he has a lot to learn from his brother about becoming a man.

Justin explodes. Kyle was only ever trying to prove himself to his dad, and that's probably why he joined up. You want to help us get him back to the van? The trainer explains that Max has post-traumatic stress, just like a soldier. Gunshots and explosions send him into a panic, and he won't take orders from anyone but Kyle.

He can't serve anymore. If no one takes him, he'll be put down. Ry says his family takes care of its own. This family takes care of its own. Before they leave, Reyes shows Justin how to get close to Max. No sudden moves. Justin holds out a rubber toy and asks how to make the dog sit.

Reyes tells him to worry about keeping his hand attached to his wrist first. So, Max comes home with the windcotss and he spends his days in a cage in the backyard. Ray makes it clear that Max is Justin's dog now. Justin wants nothing to do with him. He didn't sign up to babysit his brother's crazy dog.

His mom pulls him into a hug and tells him Kyle loved him more than he'll ever know. Max barks all night long and nobody in the house can sleep. At 3:00 in the morning, Justin storms out to yell at him. Max stops the moment he sees him. Justin gives up and sits down by the cage. In the morning, his mom finds him fast asleep on the ground next to the cage, and Max is lying as close to him as the bars allow.

Chewy shows up with his cousin, Carmen, a tough girl who just moved in with his family. Emlio is getting impatient about his games. Carmen hears about the military dog and knows exactly what breed he is. Her family raises dogs and she offers to come over and show Justin a few tricks.

Carmen comes over with homemade treats and walks right up to the cage. Chewy keeps his distance and warns that if she gets bit, it isn't his fault. Carmen tells Justin not to give Max the treat until the dog lets him touch him. A reward has to be earned. Maybe this is a bad idea.

Then she gets Justin to put Max on a leash. You walk the dog, she tells him. Justin takes the leash off and Max walks right beside him without being told. Pamela walks out and can't believe what she's seeing. Carmen tells her Max already knew how. They're just refreshing his memory.

Pamela invites Carmen to stay for dinner. The meat comes out overcooked and Pamela gets upset over it. She's been forgetting things since Kyle died. Ry quietly holds her hand. Pamela tells Carmen they lost their oldest son and Carmen tells them her own brother rescues stray dogs.

How'd you get him to do that? Then the doorbell rings and it's Tyler home early from the war. He brings flowers for Pamela and tells them he got shrapnel in his back and a medical discharge. Ry invites him to march next to him in the Fourth of July parade. Then Tyler steps into the yard and Max goes for him.

Justin has to drag him away. After Tyler leaves, Justin can't believe Max did that. Carmen points out that dogs are usually pretty good judges of character. Max likes Justin fine. Then she asks if he'll be at the bike park tomorrow. The next day, Justin rides to the bike park with Max, running right beside his wheel.

His friends are hitting a dangerous trail called Cutters Run. Justin races down it to show off, and Max follows him the whole way, jumping over logs and tearing through the woods. Justin wipes out at the bottom, and Max stands guard over him, while Carmen and Chewy laugh at the crazy white boy. On the 4th of July, the fireworks start and Max loses it.

Every bang sounds like the war. He throws himself against the cage until Justin opens it and brings him inside. Didn't want Max here in the first place. Remember I Justin and his mom hold him on the floor and talk to him again and again until he stops shaking. Ray offers Tyler a job at his storage business.

Tyler turns it down, saying it doesn't mix with his meds. Then Ry asks the question he's been dying to ask. Tyler tells him a story. In the middle of the firefight, Max went crazy and attacked Kyle. Kyle lost control of his weapon and he was shot. Ray thanks Tyler for telling him the truth.

It's a lie. That night, Ry walks out to Max's cage with a pistol in his hand. Justin runs out and stands in front of the dog. Kyle would never have taken point with a dog he couldn't trust. Ray backs down, but he makes one thing clear. If Max messes up one more time, he's going to be put down.

So, Justin goes to see Sergeant Reyes, the marine who trained Max. He asks if Max could ever have turned on Kyle in the middle of a firefight. Reyes tells him that Max was as good a dog as ever came through his program. Dogs can bite their handlers, he says. But that's not what Justin is really asking.

Then Reyes asks a question of his own. Did Tyler mention why he came home 5 months early? He checks Tyler's record. There's nothing about an injury. Tyler was thrown out of the Marines, and Reyes promises to look into it. Before Justin leaves, Reyes hands him a DVD of Kyle's training videos and makes him promise to keep it secret.

Justin, Carmen, and Chewy watch it together while Chewy cracks jokes about top secret dog food. It shows Kyle working with Max and teaching him his commands. Justin sees how much his brother loved this dog. Welcome to training school, Max. Justin starts training Max with the same commands, just like Kyle did.

Sit down, search. Max follows everyone, and he even sniffs out a toy. Justin hides in the yard. For the first time, the two of them are a team. Good boy. Take it out of there. Then Alio shows up at the bike park with his men. He tells Justin that Kyle was the only guy who ever turned down doing business with him.

Then he demands his game. While they talk, Alio takes a phone call from Tyler. Justin and Max follow Alio deep into the woods. In a clearing, they see Tyler opening a crate of stolen military rifles for a group of cartel men. Standing next to him is Deputy Stack, a local cop with two big attack dogs.

The dogs pick up Max's scent. They charge into the woods and Max takes them both on to protect Justin. Justin runs for his life and leaves his bike behind. When the fight is over, Max is hurt and one of Stack's dogs is badly wounded. Probably some critter, coyote, or something. Justin gets Max to a vet, but the bill is $450.

Chewy offers his whole life savings, a h 100red bucks. The vet won't release Max without full payment. Carmen begs Justin to keep her family out of this because Alio is dangerous. It's $100. When Justin gets home, Tyler and Stack are sitting in the living room with his mom. Stack has a bandage on his arm.

He says Max attacked him and his dog, and he wants Max put down or he'll press charges. Then he pulls out Justin's bike, the one Justin left in the woods. Tyler takes Justin outside for a private talk. He shows him a pistol and tells him what it's worth across the border. Tyler sells stolen weapons to the cartel and Kyle found out.

If Justin talks, he says there will be more family funerals. Tyler calls himself a small fish in a big pond. The big fish sell weapons all over the world, then send guys like him and Kyle off to get shot by them. Kyle always wanted to be a hero, Tyler says. And look where it got him.

Then he asks Justin which one he's going to be. The next day, animal control comes for Max. Justin kneels by the truck and tells him he doesn't deserve this. Then they drive away with him. At the storage lot, Ray finds a unit with a lock he doesn't recognize. Tyler says it belongs to a friend.

Ray tells him that's fine, but he needs to fill out the paperwork. Then he gives Tyler some advice. Every kid gets into a little trouble now and then. That night, Pamela tells Ry that if he wants to know what's going on with Justin, he has to ask him himself. They already lost one son.

If it's all right with Ry, she'd like to hold on to the other one. So Ry sits down with Justin and tells him something he has never told anyone. In the Gulf War, he was shot by his own side. Friendly fire. When he got home, people wanted a hero, so he stopped telling the truth. A real hero always tells the truth.

He says, "No matter what, Justin still can't tell him." Late that night, Ray catches Tyler and Stack moving crates out of the storage unit. Ray notices that Stack has a new dog with him and Stack says the one Max bit was so badly hurt he had to put it down. Ray asks what's inside the crates. Stack tells him he should have stayed home.

They knock Ry out and take him. Ry doesn't come home. He leaves a strange message about a hunting cabin they don't have. Justin rides to Chewy's house and Carmen insists on coming too. At that moment, Max escapes from the pound and races home. Tyler and Alio have Ray tied up in the back of a truck.

After the sail, Tyler wants Alio's men to take him over the border and make sure he's never heard from again. Even Alio isn't sure how far this is going to go. Back home, Max finds Ray's holster on the ground and catches his scent. Justin, Chewy, and Carmen grab their bikes and follow the dog.

Deputies show up at the house looking for the escaped dog. Pamela tells them her husband is missing. The police won't look for him for 48 hours. And her son is out there somewhere. Max is part of the family now, she says. And if they harm a hair on his head, they'll regret it. Max leads the kids into the hills, past a waterfall, and straight into a fast river.

The kids drag their bikes into the water and swim after him. Halfway across, Chewy starts going under because he never learned to swim. Max goes back for him and pulls him to the shore. From the top of a ridge, they spot the trucks below. Ry is there tied up with Alio's men. How about a bunch of Navy Seals?

Justin sends Carmen to the highway to get help. He and Chu stay behind with Max. Down below, Alio's men are setting up an ambush for the buyers and Stack hears something in the woods. Draco, get him. His attack dog has picked up their scent. The giant Rottweiler comes charging through the trees.

Fight smart, Max. Max leads it away from the boys. The two dogs fight across the rocks by the waterfall. Max is smaller, but he's smarter. He knocks the Rottweiler off the rocks and into the river. Then he runs back to Justin. Emlio finds Chewy hiding behind a tree. Chewy swears he got lost out here by himself.

Emlio grabs him and demands to know who he came with. Max comes flying out of the trees and takes him down. While Alio is down, Justin runs to the truck and cuts his dad loose. Ray hugs his son and asks who he brought out here. Besides Max, just Chewy and Carmen. Tyler is coming fast.

Max (2015) Ending Explained

Ray tells Justin to take Max and run for the highway. Justin refuses. Every time he's been in trouble, Max has fought to keep him safe. It wouldn't be right not to do the same for his own dad. Stack comes after them in a pickup truck loaded with stolen weapons, swerving between the trees.

Ray fires at it and the truck flips off the road. All the ammunition inside goes up in a huge explosion. Justin races away on his bike with Max beside him and jumps over the railroad tracks. Tyler is right behind him. He ditches the bike and runs out onto an old railroad bridge high above a ravine.

Halfway across the bridge is broken. Justin is trapped. Tyler walks up with his gun raised. This never had to happen. This never had to happen. Then Max comes out of the smoke and leaps at Tyler. Justin shoves him and Tyler loses his balance. Tyler and Max both go over the edge of the bridge.

Justin screams Max's name. Justin scrambles down to the bottom. Tyler didn't survive the fall. Max is lying on the ground, but he's breathing. Justin holds him and doesn't let go. Later, Justin and Max visit Kyle's grave. Justin admits they fought a lot like brothers do. He's sorry they never got the chance to grow up and become friends.

He thanks Kyle for Max and he tells his brother he loves him. There's a lot of brothers do that at the start. As long as he lives, he'll never forget him. That night, Chewy and Carmen come over for dinner and Chewy shows up an hour late. Emlio is in jail, and Chewy says turning him in was the right thing to do.

Then Ray tells Justin he hauled Max's cage to the scrapyard. From now on, Max lives inside with the family. Justin lost his brother and wanted nothing to do with his brother's dog until that dog saved his life and helped him uncover the truth about how Kyle died. Max taught him what loyalty really means.