13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)

Film Type:

Feature

Language:

English

Colour Info:

Color

Sound Mix:

Datasat Digital Sound, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital

Camera:

Red Epic Dragon

Frame Rate:

24 fps

Aspect Ratio:

2.39:1 (Scope)

Stereoscopy:

No

Taglines:

In 2012, the threat level in Benghazi, Libya was deemed "critical". When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right.

Filming Locations:

Goofs:

Miscellaneous
Several ammo cans on the roof bear orange stickers that read "1.3G." This is the UN shipping class for blank ammunition (or fireworks). Live ammunition is marked 1.4G

Continuity
When Jack is Skyping his wife and kids, they talk about his beard as if it's a new thing. However, a flashback has already established that Jack had the beard while he was home

Continuity
In the break room early on in the movie, one of the soldiers is seen playing Call of Duty Advanced Warfare on an Xbox One. Advanced Warfare was not released until 2014 and the Xbox One was not announced until 2013. This movie takes place in 2012

Continuity
All of the vehicles used in the movie were Mercedes Benz...the type of C Class they used didn't come out until 2015; the G550 couldn't have come out until 2013 along with the GL SUV they used. The movie is set in 2012. The only car they used that could have been around in 2012 was the M Class SUV used in multiple scenes

Miscellaneous
40mm HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) grenade launchers do not in fact cause massive explosions. Also, when Tig fires a 40mm grenade at the pickup truck with the heavy machine gun, the front end of the truck starts lifting off of the ground a split second before the explosion. The truck wouldn't come up like that without bouncing on the suspension first anyway, given that the grenade hit the hood/grill, not under the vehicle. It wouldn't have destroyed the heavy machine gun either. Those things can withstand a LOT of damage

Factual Mistake
The film claims that the military refused to provide air support during the attack. In reality, multiple Senate investigations found that the planes in nearby Italy were not combat ready. The nearest combat capable craft were stationed in Djibouti on the other side of the continent

Factual Mistake
40mm grenades are shown changing trajectory rapidly in several scenes--specifically, they are shown to rise in an arc and then suddenly plummet toward a target. In reality, a grenade launcher is an indirect fire weapon; the 40mm grenade itself has no propellant and is "lobbed" onto the target. Trajectory changes would be impossible

Factual Mistake
Sean Smith is briefly seen playing on an Xbox console the night of the attack and holding a controller when he meets up with Ambassador Stevens and Agent Strickland. In reality, he was on a computer playing an online RPG game, EVE Online, with friends

Revealing Mistakes
When Silva checks Rone's body for a pulse, Rone's closed eyes flutter

Revealing Mistakes
40mm HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) grenade launchers do not in fact cause massive explosions

Miscellaneous
In the opening standoff, every weapon when pointed makes a cocking sound, even though no one is actually cocking a weapon

Factual Mistake
Sean Smith is briefly seen playing on an Xbox console the night of the attack and holding a controller when he meets up with Ambassador Stevens and Agent Strickland

Factual Mistake
Grenade launcher is an indirect fire weapon; the 40mm grenade itself has no propellant and is "lobbed" onto the target. Trajectory changes would be impossible

Factual Mistake
40mm grenades are shown changing trajectory rapidly in several scenes--specifically, they are shown to rise in an arc and then suddenly plummet toward a target,

Factual Mistake
The film claims that the military refused to provide air support during the attack. In reality, multiple Senate investigations found that the planes in nearby Italy were not combat ready

Factual Mistake
When Jack Silva is in the airplane flying into Libya he is wearing Apple EarPods. These were released on Sept. 12, 2012, weeks after the trip took place

Continuity
When Jack was skyping with his wife and kids, they talk about his beard as if it's a new thing. However, a flashback has already established that Jack had the beard while he was home

Continuity
The movie was set in 2012. The only car they used that could have been around in 2012 was the M Class SUV used in multiple scenes

Continuity
All of the vehicles used in the movie were Mercedes Benz...the type of C Class they used didn't come out until 2015; the G550 couldn't have come out until 2013 along with the GL SUV they used

Continuity
In the break room early on in the movie, one of the soldiers is seen playing Call of Duty Advanced Warfare on an Xbox One

Miscellaneous
When the men call their families, it is shown as daylight in both places. Benghazi and Los Angeles time is 11 hours different, so day in one would be night in the other

Trivia:

John Krasinski, David Denman, and David Costabile all starred in the hit series, The Office (2005). Krasinski played Jim Halpert, Denman played Roy, and David Costabile appeared in the episode The Office: The Banker

Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin tweeted on Jan. 7th 2016: "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) is a powerful film that raises important questions that need to be answered

According to Mark Geist in a January 18, 2016 interview on the Mark Levin radio program, the mortar rounds that hit the roof had a kill radius of twenty-one feet, meaning anybody within twenty-one feet of a round was as good as dead

Michael Bay noted that filming in Malta he used a film crew that was entirely unfamiliar to him. Bay claimed that it was in tribute to the universality of the story that an international crew could work so well together telling a story centered on Americans

A Libyan militia member calls Jack (John Krasinski's character), Captain America during the night raid. Krasinski was on the final shortlist to play the title role, in Captain America: The First Avenger

Michael Bay claimed that what attracted him to this project was that he had used military veterans turned contractors in all of his films as both actors and technical advisers, and he felt he would be uniquely qualified to tell their story

Toby Stephens, who plays Bub Doherty, was a good friend of the real-life Jack Silva

According to Mark Geist in a January 18, 2016 interview on the Mark Levin radio program, during filming he snuck in and took the place of the actor portraying him and Bay didn't notice until Mark looked at the camera

Sean Smith (played by Christopher Dingli ) was an avid gamer, namely of the EVE Online massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), there he attained a almost legendary status as the character "Vile Rat", at the time of his death, the EVE community paid him tributes and showed outstanding support for a fallen comrade

This is Michael Bay's third drama film based on real-life events, after Pearl Harbor (2001) and Pain & Gain

Michael Bay wanted to shoot on film, while the director of photography Dion Beebe wanted to shoot digitally. Bay ultimately accepted filming on digital because of the number of night scenes and the tight production schedule

John Krasinski's character is wearing the Punisher emblem on his bullet proof vest. The character of Chris Kyle in American Sniper (2014)'s navy seal unit also has this symbol on the clothing

According to producer Erwin Stoff the diplomatic compound as well as the CIA annex were built using the actual plans. Stoff: "...what we did is we had actual plans and satellite images of the original structures, and we had the guys. So we (...) built these, we replicated both the annex and the diplomatic mission exactly to the inch

Michael Bay noted that filming in Malta he used a film crew that was entirely unfamiliar to him

Mark Wahlberg was the first choice to portray Tyrone "Rone" Woods but declined due to prior commitments

Glen Doherty was good friends with Brandon Webb, who was a sniper instructor for the Navy SEALs. Webb trained both Marcus Luttrell and Chris Kyle

The original cut of the movie was 240 minutes long

Based on the Benghazi attack which took place on the evening of September 11 2012.

This is Michael Bay's third drama film based on real-life events

Toby Stephens, who plays Bub Doherty, was a good friend of the real-life Jack Da Silva.

John Krasinski and David Denman both starred in the hit show "The Office." Krasinski played the role of Jim Halpert and Denman played Roy, both love interest to Jenna Fischer's Pam Beesly.

John Krasinski's character is wearing the punisher emblem on his bullet proof vest. Chris Kyle(American Sniper)'s navy seal unit also has this symbol on their clothing.

Filming Start Date:

27 Apr 2015