A simultaneously light-hearted and slightly dark romantic comedy, the setting of LES COMBATTANTS is not the apocalypse, although it may indeed seem like the coming end of the world to the youth of a town who see no life at home and do not so much head elsewhere for concrete opportunities as drift away. After the death of their father, brothers Manu (Antoine Laurent, FAR FROM MEN) and Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs, VANDAL) are trying to keep the family's construction business afloat and innovate it. Their mother (Brigitte Roüan, LOVE SONGS) would prefer that Arnaud keep his options open but the region's number two recruiter is the army (number one is McDonald's). It's love at first fight - to quote the American release title - when Arnaud finds attracted to Madeleine (Adèle Haenel, WATER LILIES) despite her continued determination to humiliate him after he bit her during a self-defense exercise at an army recruiting presentation he attended for the door prize. An oddly joyless seeming adrenaline junkie, Madeleline plans to enlist in the army with an interest in survivalist tactics. She shows more interest in Arnaud when she discovers that he has a rapport with one of the recruiters (Frédéric Pellegeay, LOVE BITES). Arnaud parcels out what little he has learned of military tactics to her as a means of holding her interests until he learns that she is preparing for the end of the world (from no specific cause whether it's nuclear war, viral infections, or economic calamity). Enrolling with her in a two-week training program, Arnaud proves the more adept and popular while Madeleine proves incapable of being a team player (failing to see the logic of any one soldier throwing themselves over a grenade to absorb its blast). When Arnaud is made one of the team leaders on set of maneuvers and Madeleine defies his orders and humiliates him in front of his team, the two will have to use what survival tactics they picked up to make the journey home in the path of a massive forest fire.