10 Things Movies Got Wrong About Basic Training

Ridley Scott's film features G.I. Jane renaming a SEAL training program with a new acronym.G.I. JaneSenator Jordan O'Neil (Demi Moore) joins the fictional Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team training program. This program is based on BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition SEALs).

BUD/S is what theNavy SEALs official siteThe SEALs training program happens only at Coronado in California. It lasts six months. People consider itone of the toughest training programsin the United States military.

InJarhead,Peter Saarsgaard and other actors look older than typical recruits. To join the U.S. Marines, recruits usually must be between17 and 27However, a waiver can be requested up toage 35AsBusiness InsiderBusiness Insider reports many movies show incorrect ages for their armed forces members. One Redditor explained:

Ages look fine; movies and TV shows show private soldiers in their 30s, but reality shows they are 19 or 20. A real infantry platoon makes audiences wonder why kids are playing soldiers.

InG.I. JaneDemi Moore's character enters a barber shop with hair past her shoulders. Finding no one else there, she gets a buzzer and shaves off her long hair.

Though Moore shaving her head was accurate, the timing was not. Speaking toThe Baltimore Sunretired U.S. Navy captain Georgia Sadler said, "No woman in her right mind would have started the training with long hair."

The 1986 movieHeartbreak RidgeMarine Sergeant Tom Highway (Clint Eastwood) dischargesan AK-47 assault rifleat his own soldiers to teach them how to hear the weapon's sound.

In onememorable training sceneinJarheadGyllenhaal's character and his recruits crawl under barbed wire and through mud. Their drill instructor watches. A recruit panics and stands up, getting accidentally hit in the head. Almost nothing follows the incident.

FormerMarine Nathaniel FickNathaniel Fick finds the lack of follow-up unbelievable: "Could a Marine really be shot and killed during training without any fallout whatsoever?"

Top GunThe 1986 action film starring Tom Cruise is a fan favorite despite its errors. There is aTOPGUNThe Navy started the TOPGUN school in 1969 to perfect in-air fighting techniques. The trophy that fuels the film's rivalry is fake. Instead, the elite school uses apass-fail system.

Stanley Kubrik'sFull Metal JacketFull Metal Jacket got praise for its dark look at Vietnam. In its opening sequence,, recruits begin basic training under an imposing drill instructor played by R. Lee Ermey. But he runs all the drills. According to, the recruits begin basic training under an imposing drill instructor played by R. Lee Ermey. He runs all the drills. According to, most training programs use three-person sergeant teams. The leader usually assigns tasks.Jarhead

JarheadThe 2005 film by Sam Mendes earned acclaim for showing US Marines' conflict at the Gulf. It shows the stress of training and deployment. One scene features Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) aiming a weapon at another Marine, a move Marines found both inaccurate and disturbing.

Writing forSlate, retired Marine captainNathaniel FickNathaniel Fick says Swofford avoiding consequences for his actions is unbelievable: "conduct like his... would have landed my Marines in jail."

G.I. JaneG.I. Jane takes big liberties with basic training depictions. The film puts Jordan O'Neil and her trainees through a camp simulation. Even casual viewers see that the scenecrosses from grueling to abusive.

Navy SEAL veteran Tom Hawkins spoke toThe Baltimore SunHawkins discussed the movie's errors, saying that "instructors can't touch a trainee." POW simulation does not happen during basic training. Also, POW simulation does not occur during basic training.

Private Joker stands out among new recruits because of his glasses. He likely would not have kept them in basic training, much less in Vietnam.

The army gives special plastic/cellulose-framed glasses to soldiers needing them. These spectacles are often called "birth control glasses," and they are much stronger than the wire-frame glasses Joker wears in Full Metal Jacket. Private Cowboy wears birth control glasses; it is strange Private Joker did not.