Generation Kill: Difference between revisions

* [[As Himself]]: Sgt. Reyes. He was slated to be played by someone else, but the actor became ill.

* [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]]: Captain America.

"He's shooting at scraps of metal."<br />

[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Can you believe that fucking retard is in charge of people?]] }}

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Cpl. Josh Ray Person

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Person again.

* [[Casual Danger Dialog]]: Played absolutely straight and taken directly from the actual accounts of the Marines under fire. At one point, Person climbs out of his Humvee, calmly walks into enemy fire, and yells for the rest of the convoy to back up while bullets whiz over his head ("Would you please back the fuck up?!"). Fick does this soon after when he dives out of his Humvee to run between them all and personally give them directions on how to fix the traffic jam, once it becomes apparent that radio communication is just causing confusion. Listen closely and you'll even hear Gunny Wynn express surprise.

* [[The Chains of Commanding]]: Discussed in the final episode as one of the reasons that Captain America wasn't removed from command even after everything that he did. {{spoiler|The chains weren't on him, in case you were wondering.}}

* [[Fake Nationality]]: In the miniseries, a few American Marines were played by foreigners. Noteably Swede Alexander Skarsgård? as Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert and Israeli Jonah Lotan as Navy HM2 "Doc" Bryan. Also Moroccan-British Nabil Elouahabi played Kuwaiti translator Meesh.

* [[A Father to His Men]]: Lt. Fick, who, ironically, is younger than some of his troops, nonetheless takes on this role of his platoon. It comes to a head in the sixth episode, when "Casey Kasem" goes over Fick's head and orders one of his teams out to check out a possible tank, saying he's "covering" for Fick (while calling his competence into question and accusing him of cowardice behind his back). The Lieutenant is understandably pissed that he's using his men to get to him.

* [[Five-Man Band]]

** [[The Hero]]: Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert.

* [[Genghis Gambit]]: Sixta is smarter than he appears; he knows exactly how ridiculous it is to keep harping on the Marines for the grooming standard, and not only does he do it so they can hate him as an outlet, he has Gunny Wynn tell him when moral drops so he can time it right.

* [[Gratuitous Spanish]]: Actually Portuguese. Sgt. Baptista is a Brazilian immigrant and during times of stress he unconsciously starts radio chattering in his native tongue, which drives the other Marines crazy.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: This show loves this trope.

** Brad after Trombley {{spoiler|shoots civilians with his ok.}}

** Ray after Rudy checks him too hard during the football game. Rudy's response is to BSOD ''even worse''.

** Subverted the first time Trombley kills someone. For a second, he ''looks'' like he's about to BSOD, but then:

* [[Heroic Fatigue]]: Everyone is running on little to no sleep, but it is especially significant in a couple cases.

** Person's dependency on Ripped Fuel allows him to drive the humvee for days on end. It also makes him a manic motor-mouth that drives Colbert crazy but gives Evan Wright plenty of amusing material.

** We find out it was ''Lt. Fick'' himself who authorized Casey Kasem's [[For the Evulz|pointless orders]] to send sick Marines on patrol, apparently while in a fugue state due to over 72 hours without sleep. Fick looks horrified as he realizes he can't take punitive measures against the Gunnery Sergeant for orders he endorsed; Kasem's [[Smug Snake|evil smirk]] clearly implies he knew Fick was completely out of it, and took advantage of it.

* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: A strangely literal case in the form of Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley, who joined the Marines specifically to shoot people, showed an unnatural desire to see the results of his kills even from a civilian boy he accidentally shot, and who said that combat was far less nerve-wracking to him than watching game shows at home.

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]] - [[The Wire|Ziggy]] and [[True Blood|Eric]] were marines and Captain America went to military school with [[Malcolm in the Middle|Francis]] - and the reporter is no other than Beecher from Oz.

** Person needs [[Twilight|Emmet Cullen]] move the fucking Humvee.

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Brad Colbert has shades of this trope, usually condemning religion and the desire to have children, he has a [[Freudian Excuse]] though

* [[It Works Better with Bullets]]: After spending several minutes explaining to Captain America and Encino Man why they absolutely ''must not'' call in an artillery barrage that will inevitably injure, maim or kill the entire platoon, Lt. Fick eventually gives up and walks away to the disbelief of his platoon, who are rather understandably worried about getting hit by friendly artillery fire. Fick reassures them quickly, however:

* [[Kicked Upstairs]]: Sort of happens to Encino Man and Captain America, the resident Niedermeyers. They get removed from frontline duty and placed into desk jobs so that the Marines can get competent officers who are actually damn good at commanding troops in battle.

** ''Averted'' with Casey Kasem, who, after the events of the book and the series, was promoted into a leadership position, where he not only excelled, but earned the respect of the men who had once had nothing but disdain for him.

** "Encino Man" whose claim to fame includes attempting to order an artillery fire mission in which his men were right in the way (called "Danger Close"), but failing to do so because he didn't have the right protocols, and generally being distressed whenever anyone questions his orders. He actually tries to court-martial a few subordinates after they demanded that he not call in the artillery strike. The book doesn't specifically mention what happened as a result, but Encino Man was eventually removed from duty for another unrelated incident. Lieutenant Fick made Captain at some point between OIF-1 and leaving the Corps, so it's likely that no one took Encino Man or Casey Kasem very seriously in the long run.

** "Casey Kasem," who as a logistics and appropriations NCO failed to secure enough batteries to run Night-Vision or Heat Sensors or LSA lubricant for heavy machine guns, and seemed to act like a sycophantic suckup to Encino Man. However, "Casey Kasem" later turned his reputation around after the events of the book, when his company commander Captain Brent Morel was injured; he took command of the remaining troops of his platoon and is generally credited for saving their lives.

** In his own book, Nathan Fick explains why First Recon ended up with such incompetent officers. Recon is primarily intended to send small teams of highly-competent troops into enemy territory to perform recon missions. The company and battalion-level officers are primarily assigned to do organizational and logistics work, and were never really intended to command in the field. The enlisted Marines, NCOs, and platoon commanders are extremely well-trained and highly competent men who are supposed to operate mostly independently of battalion and company-level command. Thus, the book and series showcase what happens when you take a unit trained and organized for a specific mission and then use them for something completely different from their original purpose.

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: Every time the more reasonable marines try to deal with [[The Neidermeyer|The Neidermeyers]].

* [[Road Movie]]: The book even compares the humvee Wright rode in to having the dynamic of a family on a road trip, with Colbert the stern father, Person the mother, and Trombley and Wright being the kids messing around in the back seat.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: Subverted.

"It was the enemy who stole your food from you, and you should be really, really mad at them. Before we step off on this next mission, I'm reminding you of who your enemy is. The enemy." }}

* [[Running Gag]]: The fate of Evan Wright's girl-back-home picture, passed around between the lonely Marines for the whole series.

"I think it's safe to say we all know her *intimately* at this point." }}

** Which Person later "pimped out" to someone in Bravo Three for some PEQ-4 Batteries before he got a chance to give it back to said reporter

* [[Semper Fi]]: Subverted to some degree. Although there is an amount of "moto" chest thumping, the series does subvert parts of the Marine Corps myth. Examples: "Captain America," "Encino Man," "Casey Kasem," and who could forget the genius idea of repurposing a reconnaissance unit as a light assault unit in light armored Humvees?

'''Person:''' You know what happens when you get out of the Marine Corps? You get your brains back. }}

* [[Sergeant Rock]]: Too many to count. Obvious choices are Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert, Sgt. Eric Kocher and Sgt. Antonio "Poke" Espera. "Casey Kasem" would become this ''after'' the events of the novel/TV series.

* [[The Squad]]

* [[Tank Goodness]]: They rarely show in the book, and only 3 times in the series-one destroyed one in a city, one brief shot of one firing after the night ambush and once when Person is telling Wright how to 'enjoy' a passing tank.

* [[Third Person Person]]: Lt. Col. "Godfather" Ferrando at times, sometimes with his surname and sometimes his nickname.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Bravo Company commander Captain Craig "Encino Man" Schwetje, and his senior enlisted man Gunnery Sergeant Ray "Casey Kasem" Griego. Note that despite the show's assertion, Casey Kasem could have been either Ray Griego, or his brother Gunnery Sergeant Daniel J. Griego.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: Do ''not'' bring Charms candy into any Marine vehicle. It's ''bad luck''<ref> The book mentions an incident when Trombley quickly and surreptitiously eats a bag of Charms candy, telling the reporter not to tell anyone. Nothing bad happens</ref>.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: The Marines acknowledge the fact that many of the Iraqi, feyadeen, and foreign troops who do stand and fight them have to be brave and disciplined men.

* [[You Look Familiar]]: Sort of. Eric Kocher played Gunnery Sgt. Rich Barrett. Simultaneously, Owain Yeoman played Sgt. Eric Kocher. David Simon just has a thing for this on varying levels: Jeff Carisalez is also in the series, though he doesn't play himself ala Rudy Reyes, and, humorously, plays an ''invented'' character. Inversely, the real Ray Person read for himself, but being five years older, out of the Marines, settled down in life and not on Ripped Fuel, he was far too calm and sane to play the 2003 version of himself.

* [[You Need to Get Laid]]: Cpl. Person blames the entire war on this, claiming that the Iraqis wouldn't need Marines to come in and save them if they just had more sex.