Act of Valor: Difference between revisions

''Act of Valor'' is a 2012 war film, revolving around a US Navy SEAL platoon from SEAL Team 7 on a mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA officer and stop terrorists planning an attack against America.

 

 

A trailer can be viewed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dS7XkRcD-c here].

* [[Badass Crew]]: Bandito Platoon, of course.

* [[Bad Humor Truck]] / [[Car Bomb]]: The suicide car bomb that Abu Shabal used is an ice cream truck, and it exploded when several school children, including an American child and the US ambassador, were congregated nearby

** Interestingly, the Navy claims that no taxpayer money was used, as the combat scenes were filmed during scheduled training exercises.

* [[Bang Bang BANG]]: Averted: The gunshots are very much authentic-sounding. That was because they were authentic bullets. The cast was really shooting on set.

* [[Determinator]]: An important quality for SEALs, best shown by how Chief Dave ''will not stop fighting'', even after getting his shooting hand shot up and ''bleeding to death''. He takes pretty much a full AK-47 magazine to the chest, and he's ''still trying to reload his pistol'' as he blacks out from blood loss.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Literally, when intelligence officer Morales is attacked and kidnapped. More figuratively when the SEALs take on hordes of mooks.

** That truck getting blown up by an RPG? No special effects whatsoever, that was a real truck getting hit with a real RPG.

* [[Dull Surprise]]: A common complaint about the acting. Sorta justified, as they are active SEALs with no real acting exprience, but that doesn't make their charcterization any less shallow.

* [[Gatling Good]]: The SWCCs are equipped with these for [[More Dakka]].

* [[Gunship Rescue]]: The SWCC boats coming to extract the SEALs.

* [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|After Rorke jumps on the grenade, it first seems he's died, until we see him blinking a few times... and then his eyes stop moving as the soundtrack goes silent and his heartbeat slows to a halt.}}

* [[Impaled Palm]]: Lisa Morales gets this with a ''[[Cold-Blooded Torture|drill]].''

* [[It's Raining Men]]: First scene of the movie. HALO insertion and parachuting make more appearances as a prime method of inserting SEALsinto combat.

* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: Senior Chief Miller averts this when interrogating Christo, relying instead on psychological head games and leverage. It does come close to getting to this trope when Christo uses a metronome device to demonstrate the two pronged front on America between him and Shabal, however, due to Miller shattering the metronome in irritation at Christo's attempt at playing mind games on him.

* [[Kicked Upstairs]]: Rorke is supposed to be getting a promotion to Lt. Commander and an assignment as aide to the President, including carrying the Football <small>Note:</small><ref> the [[wikipedia:Nuclear football|briefcase containing nuclear launch authorisation codes and retaliation plans]].</ref>. It's portrayed as a positive for Rorke, since he'll have [[Tempting Fate|more time for his family]].

* [[Morality Pet]] / [[Papa Wolf]]: Christo does have a very tiny redeemable factor to his character, and its that he does genuinely care for his family, and it was the prospect of his not seeing his daughter or his wife again, and the fear of what might happen in his absence, that resulted in him telling the SEALs everything he knows about Shabal's plans regarding the ceramic claymore bomb vests during his interrogation. He doesn't regret the decision to team up with Shamal or let him and his Jihadists have the vests, though, as evidenced by his grin when he says to Senior Chief Miller that Shamal's plans cannot be stopped.

* [[Translation Convention]]: Played straight in Ukraine during the conversation between Christo and Shabal. Nicely averted during the interrogation on Christo's yacht: Senior Chief Miller queries Christo in a couple of languages before they settle on English as being most comfortable for them both to converse in.

** Alternately, as both Abu Shabal and Cristo are seen to be fluent English speakers, they're speaking in English for additional privacy.

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: When one of the female jihadis tries firing on the SEALs, they have no qualms about shooting her back.

* [[Would Not Shoot a Civilian]]: The SEALs are careful to avoid shooting civilians in the Mexican village.