Lone Survivor is a 2013 American war film written and directed by Peter Berg, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana. The film is based on the 2007 nonfiction book of the same name byMarcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. Set during the war in Afghanistan, Lone Survivor dramatizes the failed United States Navy SEALs counter-insurgent mission Operation Red Wings, during which a four-man SEAL reconnaissanceand surveillance team was tasked to track down and kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah.
Berg first learned of the book Lone Survivor in 2007 while he was filming Hancock. He arranged several meetings with Luttrell to discuss adapting the book to film. Universal Pictures secured the film rights in August 2007 after biddingagainst other major film studios. In re-enacting the events of Operation Red Wings, Berg drew much of his screenplay from Luttrell's eyewitness accounts in the book, as well as autopsy and incident reports related to the mission. After directing Battleship for Universal in 2012, Berg returned to work on Lone Survivor. Principal photography began in October 2012 and concluded in November after 42 days; filming took place on location in New Mexico, using digital cinematography. Luttrell and several other Navy SEAL veterans acted as technical advisors, while multiple branches of the United States Armed Forces aided the film's production.
Lone Survivor opened in limited release in the United States on December 25, 2013, before opening across North America on January 10, 2014, to strong financial success and a generally positive critical response. Most critics praised Berg's direction, as well as the acting, story, visuals and battle sequences. Other critics, however, derided the film for focusing more on its action scenes than on characterization. Lone Survivor grossed over $149.2 million in box-office revenue worldwide—of which $125 million was from North America. The film received two Academy Awardnominations for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
Historical accuracy[edit]
Michael Murphy (left) with Matthew Axelson, taken in Afghanistan
While based on true events, a number of historical inaccuracies in the film have been noted.[51] Early in the film, the four-man SEAL reconnaissance team is discovered by three goat herders—an elderly man and two teenage boys. In fact, Marcus Luttrell wrote in his book that only one of the goat herders was a teenage boy, not two.[52]
Also in dispute is the number of Taliban fighters involved in the ambush. In Luttrell’s original after-action report, he stated that he and his teammates were attacked by 20-35 insurgents, while his book places the number at over 200.[53] The screenplay describes “A solid line of at least fifty Taliban in firing positions on top of the hill above them."[53] The summary of action for Lt. Murphy's posthumous Medal of Honor describes the enemy force as numbering "more than 50,"[54] while the official citation puts the number at "between 30 and 40 enemy fighters."[55]
The film shows Luttrell (Wahlberg) being able to walk after the Taliban’s ambush on the four-man SEAL team. In reality, Luttrell explained that his legs were numb immediately after the ambush, and when feeling did return to them, the pain from the shrapnel in his legs made it too painful to walk; he had to crawl seven miles looking for water and sanctuary.[51][56]Luttrell also expressed that he did not witness the MH-47 Chinook helicopter being shot down, as seen in the film.[51] At the end of the film, the Pashtun villagers fight off a Taliban attack in a firefight that never actually happened. In reality, the Taliban fighters were outnumbered by the villagers and had no intentions of attacking the village. They did, however, try to sneak in and capture Luttrell in secret. Luttrell also did not go into cardiac arrest after he was rescued, nor was he near death, as seen in the film.[53]
During a briefing, early in the film, an officer states that a SEAL on a previous mission in the Afghan mountains was bitten by a rattlesnake. As the four-man SEAL team are fighting and withdrawing down a rocky slope one of them encounters a large rattlesnake which is heard rattling before it is seen on screen. Rattlesnakes are found in almost every mainland country of the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, excluding Panama, Ecuador and Chile, but they do not occur outside the Americas. The venomous snakes encountered in the rocky valleys of the Pashtun region would be the Saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) and the Levant viper(Macrovipera lebetina), with an outside chance of a rare Persian horned viper
