23:20 - The little bird pilot who jumps out and pulls the injured Delta operator out is played by U.S. Army pilot, Keith Jones (CW4). He is playing himself and is re-enacting his real-life rescue of Daniel Busch. He pulls Busch out, advises Eversmann on the crashed Blackhawk occupants, and airlifts Busch out to safety. Jones received a silver star for his actions.
Fun Fact: Then Delta guy that gives the speech at the end was Norm Hooten irl, and in fact he was a legendary Delta Soldier.....who actually WAS pretty good on his own. So while it might seem a contridiction......it wasnt. Also Delta Soldiers are even a breed above Rangers, in-human in someways, so i like to think Hoot telling Eversman to stay was his way of looking out for Eversman.....basically saying "youve pushed yourself enough, you dont have to try to keep up with me".
It's impossible to describe how far beyond the average soldier Delta guys are. I've read some books written by ex-members, and the things they do and the way they train is lunacy. It was said you could identify a fellow delta member by the actual callouses that developed on their trigger fingers from the sheer amount of time they spend training. They're one of the few units in the world who will actually do live fire training with their OWN members sitting in shoot houses as hostages, because the level of competency and trust is so high. I think only a few units in the entire WORLD can actually claim to be as good as they are. A truly special breed.
@@mikeserot1410 I think you'll find thats Eversmann - the real Eversmann went back with Blackburn after he fell. The stuff that happens to him afterwards is what happened to Hooten, Di Tommasso and one of two others - they wanted a character that you could follow all the way through and chose Eversmann's name when combining different peoples elements into one. With Hoot in the film the bit with the safety was Hooten but pretty much everything else is another Delta guy known as Mace. Many of the Delta guys weren't keen ont heir names being used hence some name changes etc. If you read the book almost everything attributed to Hoot in the film is Mace including putting on a polo shirt and chinos and going back into the city unarmed to try to find the missing helicopter crew guys. In the book there's a certain reverence for how insanely good Mace is at this stuff by most everyone who had contact with him. If anything the films Hoot tones down just how amazing the stuff he did is (like the return to the city). There are changes throughout to make it simpler and in one case much less traumatic as in reality Durant was good enough to get his bird down with everyone still alive - what is shown as what happened to Gordo & Shuggart happened to the rest of the crew too.
I saw a interview recently with a gentleman called Tom Satterly who was there, who said that sadly Randy Shughart and Garry Gordon and possibly one other despite their insanse level of bravery were hacked apart. Their bodies were apparently returned in binbags and left outside an American base some days later. As a brit I just have so much respect and admiration for all those men, what a fucking ghoulish thing to have lived through
That interview is gut wrenching. The part that made my heart sink was about the guy who died a few days later after he was just talking to them and walked away to rest.
Also worth mentioning that those 2 guys ( Shugart and Gordon ) were up in the air providing sniper fire for the troops. They knew full well ( they could see it ) how bad the situation was yet they requested to be put down knowing this is likely be their death. The ranger force on the ground was equipped to fight close to medium range with automatic weapons. They had semi-auto rifles with very limited ammunition with a scope + a sidearm. That gear is for accurate fire in medium to long range, not at all for the scenario they were going into. Yet they wanted to go. As Hoot said it at the end, its about the men next to you. This likely comes down to the relation between the 160th SOAR ( Special Operations Air Regiment ), the pilots who were transporting them. Those guys risked their lives over and over and over again, extracting SF guys from situations any other pilot refused to fly into. They often crashed their bird or took insane amount of damage in order to exctract them but when a SOAR pilot says I'm coming these soldiers know he meant it and he will be there for them. So they likely felt like they could do no less. Also as someone who isnt American I have a tremendous amount of respect for those guys laying down their lives to save their comrades.
The scene where the guy in the helicopter was paraded around after being killed really hits hard. I won't get into too much detail but while in Iraq in 2006 when one of our guys got badly wounded or killed by either gunshot or ied the "civilians" would cheer and do other absolutely terrible things and we couldn't retaliate obviously. My unit learned that the hard way a year prior in 2005 with the haditha massacre. A marine was killed by an ied and they took revenge killing a bunch of unarmed civilians that celebrated his death.
That scene was a re-enactment of footage which made it onto the news, globally, after the battle. Except that in the actual footage Shugart's and Gordon's bodies were both stripped naked before being paraded through the streets.
@Harv72b I'm fully aware. Unfortunately this isn't really uncommon but rarely recorded. A lot of things that were in the hamas attack videos were really bad but I can tell you I saw way worse things done.
I actually got to meet the real Matt Eversmann (played by Josh Hartnett) when he visited the office some years ago. Nice guy. Wears a hearing aid now, doubtless due to all those loud explosions he's endured over the years.
disagree: there's no disconnect between "we do this for the guys next to us and no other reason" and "nah, i'm going out again but you'd better stay here" (where it's safer)
In reality 5 of the Blckhawks were hit badly - 2 sort of crash landed in friendly territory near the port and one made it back to base. The bird that dropped off Shughart & Gordon was hit and the missile basically took off one of the Delta guys legs. Shughart & Gordon defended the site for over an hour and the whole chopper crew had survived the crash but not the overrun - stuff like that is shortened and condensed in the film. The scale of everything was larger than whats shown in terms of the carnage.
Well hello there on this end! Glad to see the youtube algorithm is actually algorithming properly! Lorna: "2001. I was 16" Colin: "I was 11" I was 4 and im out here lookin older than both of you. Yall out here drinkin that elven spring water and shit..... This was probably the first modern warfare movie ive seen and the events were relatively recent for my parents at least so the effects of this film in particular stuck If you guys like Saving Private Ryan, then you guys would most likely like the mini series called Band of Brothers. A lot of the directors and producers on Saving Private Ryan also worked on Band of Brothers, including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Be warned though, a lot of episodes, particularly the ones in the middle and one specific one towards the end will be a pretty hard watch Seems Im gonna have to binge all your war reactions and everything else LOL
You two might like the new Masters of the Air series. It’s made by the people who made Band of Brothers and The Pacific, but it’s even better in my opinion.
one of the most impressive and emotional films about what a soldier goes through and the cruelty of a war with that ending of the letter story very strong and sad
Unfortunately, it's not as accurate as it should be. Granted, they can only fit so much into two hours, but a lot of key players were left out or melded into other characters. Hoot's actions were based on those of four men, three Delta Force soldiers including Norm Hooten and John Macejunas and a Marine, whose name I forget. None of the elite Air Force Combat Controllers, the men who coordinated the Little Bird gun runs, and the four SEALs from SEAL Team 6 who participated in an unarmored, uncovered Humvee, were left out. 5 Black Hawks actually got shot down that day. Supers 6-1 and 6-4 crashed inside the city as we see, but Super 6-2 was struck by an RPG while defending the 6-4 crash and had to crash land at the airfield. Super 6-6 was shot up badly and made an emergency landing at the airfield as well. Its crew jumped into the one spare Black Hawk and jumped back into the fight, making supply runs into the city all night long. Super 6-8 took the RPG to its main rotor and ditched at the nearby port facility where the rescue convoy of Malaysian APCs and Pakistani tanks would link up with the Ranger convoy that night. The tanks never made it into the city due to the narrow streets, but they provided cover from the main road that the Rangers and Delta operators are shown running down. The soldiers DID have to run out of the city, but managed to catch up with the convoy outside the city and catch rides back to the Pakistani soccer stadium.
@@weebitreactsPlease react to The Rock (1996) and Con Air (1997) if the two of ya’ll haven’t seen them! They are my #1 & #2 favorite movies of all time.
32:40 You are too young, so I'm I really, this operation was conducted to secure food in Somalia by the United States Military (not UN) The EU did nothing, UN, nothing Asia, nothing Africa nothing After this. America got very timid about foreign wars. Until they got attacked in 2001
The bodies of Gordon, Shughart, and others of the helo crew were dragged through the streets mostly naked. I was in the XVIII Airborne Corps current operations center at Fort Bragg when we became aware of all that was going on over there. We were so over-the-top furious because we were so damned helpless to do anything about it. All of them (Delta, Rangers, 10th Mountain Division, and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment) were our brothers-in-arms. It still hurts 30 years later...
One of the reasons I like Black Hawk Down, and Ridley Scott movies in general, is the sense of dread, defeat and bleakness throughout the whole film. You get a sense of hopelesness. Humanity at its worst. It doesn't depict Hell, it is Hell itself...constant carnage served up to you without meaning or purpose.
Definitely, so many movies will depict people witnessing tragic events then 5 minutes later expect them to have gotten past dealing with those emotions. Not that here.
@@LuckyNemo03 Even his other films like Alien Covenant have a bleakness, a lingering dread where it's not guaranteed everything will work out in the end. Scott is a beautiful but cold film maker. And that's just the way I like it.
His movies have mostly dread? Maybe at points in his films but despite that they show victory in a sense despite defeat. Humanity at it's worst but also humanity at it's best.
@@SamJackson-xu1py His films are not optimistic. Is what I'm saying. Black Hawk Down, Prometheus, Alien, Alien Covenant, the Counsellor, they all have a looming sense of dread.
Sadly yes, Sergeant Ruiz did not make it. While he was successfully evacuated out of the immediate area, he died en route to a hospital in Germany. Also, may I suggest reading the book “Inside Delta Force” by Eric Haney. Haney was one of the first members of Delta. I won’t go into a whole lot about the book, but what I will say is that Delta Force is VERY interested in how well you can function as an individual because if you’re given the chance to go through their selection course, they already know you can function well in a team.
This event caused a lot of criticism of the top military leadership, including President Clinton. A lot of people questioned why we were even there. While I certainly am not a pacifist and do think there are times when large/powerful countries should intervene in situations, this one was questionable. And how things were handled was downright awful.
Deltas are scary. Genius energizer bunnies. Then something really gruesome. Durant recently said that he wasn't beaten unconscious with a gun as he had previously claimed, it was a severed arm.
I think the reason why the other vehicles went much further ahead at the end, was because they had even more critically wounded soldiers inside that had to get medical attention immediately. Not sure, but that's the only thing I can think would make sense.
Spring allergies? So you can't ride in automobiles? What kind of mattress do you use? How do you lock/unlock doors? I can't imagine life if I had to avoid springs.
Speaking of Tom Hardy, he starred in another inspired-by-actual events film, Bronson (2008). It's a gritty crime/drama. I doubt it would be good for a reaction video. For one, I don't think it was very popular, so the potential audience for you is likely small. Secondly, because of the intensity and violence, there may not be much to show after a RU-vid edit. 🤣
Yeah YT does not like violence that's for sure haha! We can maybe give it a whirl ourselves. Not sure if Colin has seen it already but I definitely haven't ^^
Nice reactions you two, good to see more people reacting to quality war movies again. And being Scot’s/Brits I think a good WW2 movie that deserves a reaction is A Bridge too Far as it covers Operation Market Garden from start to finish and heavily shows the bravery and exploits of not just the yanks but the British 1st Airborne and XXX Corps.
Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon were the two delta force guys that went in, knowing full well there was a good chance they wouldn’t survive, and sacrificed themselves to save that pilot, two Medal of Honor recipients they’re legends in the military world Rest in Piece
No one likes war but it war will never go away, these movies are made for people that don’t understand the bravery and they’re made to respect our soldiers and what they actually went through.
15:18 I also feel weird about this movie because I know that a lot of the actors are British, but like even some of the American actors sound like they’re faking their accent. It’s strange
Note this second comment is here as I want to give more context to the battle which the movie either misses or slightly re-writes. 1. Mogadishu at the time of the assault wasn’t as well built up as depicted. The Market area and some of the surrounding areas were a bit more built up but not to any high standards, the rest of the city - especially the area where the second crash happened - can best be described as a shantytown. 2. Blackbird’s fall wasn’t caused by a RPG, it was just due to inexperience and a mistake in the heat of the moment where he missed rope. 3. The delay that took place on extracting the prisoners was quite real (10 minutes) but for slightly different. The delta operators believed it would be McKnights call for when they should extract them to the convoy, however McKnight was under the impression it was the Delta’s call of when to extract them to the convoy, so both groups kind of sat there for 10 minutes waiting on the other. 4. The strike against the first black hawk wasn’t as coordinated as depicted. The militia had trained to use RPGs against the black hawks, however the guy leading them up to take the shots, not so much, it was very much more similar to how the second one happened with it being more spontaneous. 5. Blackbirds convoy was even more harrowing that depicted. The HUMVEES they are in barely had much around outside of their Kevlar plates, and even then rounds start going through them after a short while. The majority of blackburns convoy was actually wounded on getting back to base along with the one killed as shown. 6. The lone delta operator holding the first crash site is true, he held the area until extracted by a little bird as depicted, he was wounded 16 times and sadly passed away on the return flight. 7. Eversman’s chalk while the first to arrive of the rangers wasn’t the first to be on site. A CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) team was deployed into the area almost immediately. Made up of 15 men: 7 Rangers, 5 Delta Operators, 2 Pararescue Jumpers and 1 Combat Controller. These 15 would create the initial perimeter around the crash site and eversmans chalk would be the first to arrive and reinforce. 8. The two air controllers who were in the little bird above the city directing McKnights cowboy hey a lot of flak in this depiction due to almost seeming non-chaluntness and inability to give directions. However, they were just as much under hardship trying to direct McKnight as the Somali militia were building barricades on the go to direct the US convoy into confusion throughout the city so the militia fighters could continue to engage them. There are literal times they would come down a street only to see the militia members actually building said barricades infront of them. And unwilling to break through them incase it disables a vehicle or were booby trapped with explosive/ieds, they were forced to drive around until casualties became to much as depicted and were forced to extract out. Almost every single member of McKnights convoy was either wounded or killed. 9. The actions of the two Delta Snipers (Gordon and Shughart) are extremely well depicted. These two made the ultimate decision and sacrifice too protect the second crash site knowing that it would in all turns potentially be a suicide mission. 9.5. Mike Durant was also taken prisoner as shown too. About to be ripped apart by the mob it was militia members who scattered the crowd and took him prisoner as their own. 10. One part of this movie that goes get a bit overlooked and even depicted poorly is the Pakistani and Malaysian contribution to the battle and the extraction of the US Forces. Not only were Malaysian and Pakistani forces engaging enemy combatants around the hot zone as spill over from the US attack, but also the convoy they pulled together was no joke and did itself suffer casualties on the way in. 10.5. Quite interestingly the Malaysian forces were fighting their own BHD situation not far from the sites. During the convoy to extract the rangers, 2nd platoon from A Company separated from the convoy and ambushed by RPGs which disabled their vehicles. Fighting into the nearby building they themselves became swarmed with militia fighters attempting to overrun their positions. Thanks to contributions by USMC AH-1 Cobras and a 160th SOAR Black Hawk (same unit that deployed the rangers in) they were finally relieved by friendly forces. 11. The Mogadishu Mile as the rangers call it was the run the men made. However, unlike the movie portrays the choice to run wasn’t made spontaneously it was fully agreed upon by the still fighting men of both rangers and delta forces to make the run due to the limited amount of space available in the convoy - partially due to several vehicles being hit and disabled fighting into save those rangers. As such after discussions of the rangers riding ontop was dismissed as being way to dangerous and turn the vehicles from prime targets into “Prime” targets, it was agreed those still able to would make the return run home using the convoy for as long as they could as cover - they didn’t want them trailing slowly due to the potential of ambush and getting hit by more RPGs which being full of wounded rangers would just make the whole situation into one even worse one. As for smaller tidbits: 1. The Somali commander they capture at the start actually gets a better depiction than shown. In reality after the deltas disable his vehicle he didn’t sit and wait, he took of running and was finally captured in a gas station not to far away. 2. Delta Team is the American equivalent to 22 SAS - funnily enough it was founded by members of 22 SAS on request of the US government wanting a highly skilled Tier 1 operations group on the SAS’s quality. As for the Ranger Delta rivalry that is just the standard inter brach rivalry of Spec Ops Operators vs your everyday army brats. And the scene between the Ranger Captain and the Delta Operator about the safety was less him admonishing the delta as he knows their type, but more setting an example for his men not to follow - cause you know a bunch of young idiots would just start doing that to be cool. 3. And a simple question people ask. Did the UN known about the operation, yes and no. They knew an operation was being pulled together by the US Task Force Elements, but weren’t prime to all the details. However, they had suspicions. The reason the US didn’t say anything to them as the UN did have Somalians assisting them in their work as well as believing the Malaysian and Pakistani troops were of lower quality and might blab something while guarding the border checkpoints - or if they were captured. However, on execution of the plan and going in the UN Forces became aware and did start preparing for their potential need as a QRF. With 10th Mountain, Malaysian and Pakistani troops on standby.
Ewan McGregor's character John Grimes is based on John Stebbins who was known as the coffee man during previous deployments in Iraq and Panama but his name had to be changed for this film because in 1998 he raped his own 8 year old daughter and was imprisoned.
There are a lot of inaccuracies (as there generally is in a 'based on a true event), but this gives a taste of what these men went through. In real life, Blackburn had been with the 75th Ranger Regiment for some time and deployed to Somalia with them. In addition to the Army units portrayed here, there were men from the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron (Combat Controllers and Pararescue medics) as well as a handful of men from SEAL Team 6. ALL the Delta soldiers, Air Force operators and SEALs were given "Ranger cuts" before they deployed as to not attract attention from the press. 5 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down during the first day. As shown in the film, Super 6-1 and Super 6-4 were lost inside the city. Super 6-2, the Hawk that dropped Gordon and Shughart at the 6-4 crash was hit by an RPG while they were circling over the site providing air cover. It crash landed at the Ranger base. Super 6-6, which carried Rangers, took a ln RPG to the tail and crashed at the nearby sea port. Super 6-8, as shown, took an RPG to the main rotor and made it back to the base. The helicopter pilot that runs to the 6-1 crash from the Little Bird, Chief Warrant 5 Officer Keith Jones, plays himself and recreated his rescue of Delta Operator Dan Busch and another Operator whose name escapes me. Matt Eversmann ended up in the back of a Humvee and wandered through the city with the convoy. The entire crew of Super 6-4 managed to live through the crash, not just Mike Durant. They defended the crash site with Shugart and Gordon until they were all murdered and Durant was taken hostage. 19 helicopters participated in the initial assault - 8 Hawks and 11 Little Birds. Super 6-1 and 6-2 carried Delta snipers, 6-3 was the Command & Control bird with Matthews and Harrell, and 6-4 through 6-7 carried Ranger chalks. 6-8 was the Combat Search And Rescue bird. The reason Pila was called Corporal when he spoke with Captain Steel and Sergeant when Struecker announces his death over the radio is because he was promoted to Sergeant that very morning. After the crew of Super 6-6 crashed back at the base, they grabbed the one spare Black Hawk and flew resupply missions all night long. They dropped water, medical supplies and ammo to the men on the ground, so they were never without ammo. The convoy that made its way into the city actually had tanks as well, but the streets were too narrow, so they stayed on the main road and fired rounds down the alleyways to cover the evacuation. The Rangers did have to run out of the city, but the convoy was waiting for them to take them back. Half went back to the base and the others went to the soccer stadium.
Why focus on liberties taken when you can just focus on the accuracies and not inaccuracies as personally I think the inaccuracies are just technical stuff.
Nice reaction!. Please 🙏 it would be amazing if you react to "Poseidon" 2006. It's a really good movie. I'm leaving my like and i'm suscribing 😊. Excellent reactions.
I did (Colin) but I decided not to say anything because I was calling out all the actors 😂. I did say that his accent was better than Ewans though as a wee nod that I knew who he was 😊. Thanks!
Colin should embrace the Tom Hardy comparisons, imo. "Bane" would be a pretty bad-ass nickname 😄 Lorna's boo-boo face when Colin said how old he was in 2001 needs a new word created for it that means "super adorably cute & endearing" 🐼
Other war movies to keep in mind, very much in this style of mission creep: Lone Survivor, 13 Hours, Dunkirk, 1917 and Fury. And classic war movies: Apcalypse Now, Platoon, The Thin Red Line.
If you want a good war movie to watch, its an oldie, but Battle of Britain from 1969 is a good one. It has an early appearance by Scots actor James Cosmo, but was by the standards of the day star studded.
This is one of my favourite films, unfortunately Jennifer Anniston spoiled it for me, don’t know if you seen “We’re the Millers” but in one scene she refers to it as “Black cock down” I’ve been traumatised ever since. First time with you guys, I shall have to watch more 👍
Something that the film gets very wrong is how the strobe markers are used. The Rangers used IR strobes to mark THEIR positions so the Little Bird pilots could mark friendly locations. Everyone else was cleared as targets. Also, the convoy DIDN'T leave the soldiers to run all the way to the soccer stadium. They pulled back outside the city and regrouped along the main road. Pakistani tanks fired shells into the city down the narrow alleyways to cover the retreat. The Rangers and Delta operators were able to ride back to the stadium after running a mile to get OUT of the city.
The running they did at the end to the stadium actually did happen. Its called the Mogadishu mile and the army uses it in training and workouts now. In reality it was a 2.5 mile run that they did in the heat with all their gear and sleep deprived
personally, i think the 3 best war films were all vietnam based. platoon, full metal jacket and apocalypse now. if you havent seen any of those, theyre way worth a watch...although id say full metal has been done to death on yt
War-themed films: my God, where to begin? Well, you still haven't seen Casablanca, so let's start there. But you won't see any combat in that one. My other 3 favorites are all Vietnam-themed: Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now (theatrical cut) & The Deer Hunter. Glory (American Civil War) also highly recommended. I know The Patriot (American War of Independence) has major flaws (just about every historical/war pic has its share of inaccuracies, including BHD) but I still found it thrilling & extremely well-made. We're just getting started!
I was stationed on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf at the time. They sent us to Somalia. We got there in three days. We were 5 Miles from the coast and we had planes flying over the area and the released the hostage. I made the eyeglasses for the Marines that went to the shore
Sad fact: the real life sergeant based on Sgt. John Grimes is currently serving 30 years in military prison for abusing his own daughter. Happy Veterans Day!
Glory is an amazing film about the American Civil War. Also, Colin is adorable. Also also: this cast is insane and that my US military exploits young folks to fight our 'conflicts'.
