LONE SURVIVOR 219
Camp Ouellette). Peter Berg’s director of photography, Tobias Schliessler, shot the
film using Red Epic digital cameras and Fujinon and Angénieux lenses. Marcus
Luttrell and several other Navy SEAL veterans were on set throughout the produc-
tion as technical advisors, while multiple branches of the U.S. military lent their
support.
Plot Summary
In Af ghan i stan, Taliban leader Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami) is the man behind
the destruction of over 20 American Marines, along with villa gers and refugees
who assisted the U.S. troops. A U.S. Navy SEAL team is tasked with capturing Shah.
Four SEALs are dispatched to locate their target: team leader Michael P. “Murph”
Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), snipers Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) and Matthew
“Axe” Axelson (Ben Foster), and communications specialist Danny Dietz (Emile
Hirsch). The team is dropped into the Hindu Kush region of Af ghan i stan but soon
encounters communications prob lems, which will plague the mission. When they
arrive at their rendezvous point, the SEALs are spotted by a shepherd (Zarin Rahimi)
and two young goat herders (Rohan Chand and Daniel Arroyo). After talking it
over, the team decides not to kill the shepherd and herders and to abort their mis-
sion for the time being. However, as they turn back, Taliban fighters discover them
and open fire. The team kills some of the attackers, but is quickly outnumbered. All
four SEALs are wounded during the firefight, and they are forced to jump from a
cliff into a ravine to escape the insurgents. They survive and press on through the
woods in retreat. Dietz, near delirious due to his wounds, begins shouting and
gives away the unit’s position. The Taliban forces shoot and kill him. Murphy
attempts to scale the cliff to find a phone signal to radio for support, and he suc-
cessfully makes a call for backup before being killed by the Taliban fighters. After
receiving Murphy’s call, a rescue team is put in place and takes two CH-47 Chi-
nook he li cop ters to the SEALs’ location. During the attempted rescue, Taliban fight-
ers gun down one of the he li cop ters, killing all on board. The second he li cop ter is
forced to turn back without Luttrell and Axelson. Axelson dies attempting to find
cover, and when the Taliban find Luttrell, a fighter fires a rocket- propelled grenade
(RPG). Luttrell is blasted into a rock crevice, where he takes shelter. He submerges
himself in a small pond, and when he surfaces, he is greeted by a local Pashtun
villa ger, Mohammad Gulab (Ali Suliman), who takes Luttrell in and hides him
while a fellow villa ger travels to an American air base for help. In the meantime,
Taliban fighters come for Luttrell, but the villa gers come to his aid. American troops
arrive in he li cop ters, decimate the Taliban, and evacuate Luttrell back to base. The
film ends with a four- minute montage, showing images of the real- life Marcus Lut-
trell, Mohammad Gulab, and the 19 U.S. soldiers who died during the mission.
An epilogue states that the Pashtun locals assisted Luttrell as part of their code
of honor.
Reception
Lone Survivor premiered at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles on 12 Novem-
ber 2013 and went into wide release on 10 January 2014. The movie proved to a