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“	S... O... S... Help... me...	„
	~ Joe

Joe Bonham is the protagonist of Dalton Trumbo's 1939 anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun, its 1971 film adaptation, and Metallica's 1988 song "One".

In the film, he was played by Timothy Bottoms as an adult, and Kerry MacLane as a ten-year-old.

Biography

Joe was an American soldier serving in World War I until he is caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. Next thing he knows, he wakes up in a hospital bed with a mask on, before gradually realising that his arms and legs are all gone, as well as his facial features (eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and tongue).

However, his mind continues to function as normal, leaving him trapped in his own body. After processing this grim realisation, he attempts to commit suicide by means of suffocation. However, he soon finds out that a tracheotomy had been performed on him, which he is unable to manipulate.

Joe initially wants to just die, but he later has the idea to be placed in a glass box and toured around the country in order to show others the true horrors of war. Through months of banging his head on his pillow in morse code, he is able to communicate his wish to military personnel. However, the military will not grant his wishes, as it is "against regulations".

When Joe is given this news, he repeats "kill me" over and over again as he pleads to be euthanised. He ultimately realises that neither wish can be granted for him, and he will be left in a state of living death. The sympathetic nurse that he had bonded with over his time in the hospital attempts to kill him by clamping his breathing tube, but she is stopped by her supervisor.

As Joe is soon left alone, he realises that he will probably never be released from his state of entrapment, and it is implied that Joe will live the rest of his natural life in his condition. As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war, weakly chanting, "S.O.S. Help me..."