If you're American producer and you want to get some impressive combat scenes in your movie, you can call theDepartment of Defense and ask for some of their fancy equipment. Plus any soldiers who happen to be free. To give an example,Black Hawk Down wasn't forced to use out-of-date Hueys because the Pentagon lent them Black Hawks. The 2007Transformers movie got brand-spanking-new tanks, planes and helicopters (half of which turned out to be villains).

One reason for this is, if the film is positive about the military, it is good public relations, and this supports its mission. In fact, if it'sreally good, e.g. is very positive of the military and a box-office success, it will causeenlistment in the military to increase. Some people said that the Pentagon, in addition to the support it gave for the movieTop Gun, should have been paying them for what amounted to a two-hour recruiting commercial.

There's a catch—the Department of Defense will keep an eagle eye on the script and production. If they don't like the portrayal of the military in your film, they can yank the co-operation. This was a major reason for the failure of the TV seriesSupercarrier. Other movies the Department of Defense rejected wereForrest Gump, because the army protagonist was stupid,Mars Attacks!, becauseeveryone was stupid, andIndependence Day. Still, if your film justhas to have a full-sized aircraft carrier, where else can one turn? CGI means that this trope may or may not be heading for extinction, although for sheer accuracy and time-saving, aid from the Pentagon is still an enticing option. This has a side effect of making intelligence personnel intoAcceptable Targets as evil military types can easily be converted to evil spooks and the militarydoesn't particularly care if such types, even those from the same country, are shown as evil.

As might be gleaned from that list, movies can certainly succeed and even thrive without Department of Defense help. Still, it costs quite a bit more money to go it alone, so some filmmakers give concessions on the script rather than face rejection. Sometimes this can be subtle, while other times it becomes almost a form ofExecutive Meddling.This article covers things in a little more depth.

This is not a solely American trope - it has happened on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and in other countries as well.

It’s not only limited to the military. If you were to shoot a motion picture or television series about any kind of specialized public profession with either lots of hardware or specific locations, such as a police department, fire department orocean lifeguards, it can be very beneficial from both an artistic and [but most important] financial point of view to receive support from the real thing. TheNYPD in particular has a dedicated Movie and Television Unit which handles this in addition to its duties of managing the traffic and potential confusion resulting from filming (such as from scenes where actors pretend to shoot each other outdoors).

US examples

Film

• Black Hawk Down did make a major change to the true story, possibly at the Pentagon's behest. The clerk was replaced by a fictional character, for the very good reason that that person had been convicted of sexually assaulting his own daughter.
• In theWorld War II set filmThe Enemy Below, the crew of the destroyer used for the film played the role of the ship's crew in the film, including the captain, who played the chief engineer.
• Pearl Harbor filmTora! Tora! Tora! was filmed on the various active military bases around Oahu attacked that day, and featured a lot of pyrotechnics set off on said bases.
  • It also featured a large number of US naval vessels standing in for ships that were there that day, causing a lot of unavoidable anachronism.
• A Few Good Men didnot have Pentagon approval, and had to shoot in alternate locations.
• The Final Countdown features a considerable number of the crew of the real USSNimitz. About the only thing they couldn't do was ask the captain to actually sail into Pearl Harbor (theNimitz was stationed in the Atlantic at the time).
• One of the biggest bumps in the live-actionTransformers movie was that most of the military hardware was going to become the vehicle mode of the Decepticons (bad guys), from a modified Abrams tank forDevastator Brawl to the top-of-the-line F-22 used for Starscream. In fact, according to the DVD's special features, it was the military's liaison officer who managed to convince them to let the shoot continue, as, good or evil, the Decepticons were being portrayed as the mostbadass robots in existence—for example, that an ace flier like Starscream, forced to adopt a disguise to hide in an inferior culture, would naturally go with the most dangerous fighter in the world. It also probably helped that (unlike the series on which it is based) this was one of the onlyalien invasion movies where the military have weaponsthat actually work (the military men being the good guys who side with the good robots with the intelligence officers being theobstructive bureaucrats who try to capture and study the evil robots was likely a factor). In fact, the two V-22 Ospreys in Qatar at the start of the movie were theonly two such aircraft in the USAF at the time.
  • Naturally, they're goingUp to Elevenin the sequel, where most of the soldier extras present are actual soldiers.
  • Michael Bay has been honest in calling himself a "world class ass kisser." The military looks good in his films and he is proud of that fact. He also talked about how obsessed with details they are, the uniforms are accurate and the terminology used was filmed as a training scenario with the actual people who do those things. One scene had an analyst slipping into a private meetingin the Pentagon. The US Secret Service said that there is noway that would ever happen—security in such meetings is too strong. A compromise was made: someone knocked on the glass, acknowledging that the analyst was being observed.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home got US backing too. The real USN nuclear aircraft carrier USSEnterprise was unavailable and had highly classified and moderately radioactive interiors though, so USSRanger stood in.
  • As withTransformers,Star Trek IV had only intelligence officers portrayed unsympathetically. That's presumably why the two guys who interrogate Chekov are from the FBI.
    • Of course, in war movies, Intel guys are alwaysAcceptable Targets.
• Top Gun.Yep. The Navy wanted some good publicity - and got a huge increase in interest as a result (also on the USSRanger [CV-61]).
• The Hunt for Red October: The film-makers were allowed in the real USSDallas to take photos of non-classified areas.
• In an inversion,Platoon was a success in spite of the Pentagon refusing to supply anything for the film.
• As wereApocalypse Now andAn Officer and a Gentleman.
• InThe Movie ofTom Clancy'sThe Sum of All Fears:
  • the carrier that was attacked was originally to have been sunk, but in order to keep military support for the film, the script had to be adjusted so that the carrier survived, though it was mission killed (that is, couldn't do much of anything except limp away).
  • When the time came to film the nuclear detonation scene, in which the Presidential motorcade to be severely damaged by the blast,^[1] the director used real military personal that were trained specifically for that situation. All he had to do was point to the overturned limo and tell them 'The president is in that car!'.
• Iron Eagle had to make use ofIAF aircraft, as the USAF thought the script was so ridiculous that there was no way in hell they'd support it. This explains whythe enemy country isusing Israeli "Kfir" aircraft.
• Amazingly, the Army approvedStripes because they thought it would be a good recruitment tool. Even more amazingly, they were right!
• G.I. Joe the Rise of Cobra featured real Apache helicopters flown by real Army pilots. Odd, as most of the film deals with fantastic vehicles and weapons that bear no resemblance to the real military.
• Crimson Tide depicted a mutiny on a US navy submarine, so naturally didn't make the cut. To get around this the filmmakers used chase helicopters to follow an actual submarine out to sea so they could film it diving. They also used a French Aircraft Carrier for some scenes.
• The scene inThe Bourne Identity in the US Consulate in Switzerland features a team of US Marines who are the actual guards of US Embassies and other State department buildings.
• The US, British and French militaries supplied about 23,000 troops during the filming ofThe Longest Day.
• InBattle: Los Angeles, the USMC provided a number of troops to serve as extras, and lent a huge amount of aircraft such as various helicopters and even V-22 Opsreys. They also allowed the crew to film some parts of the movie in Camp Pendleton. Behind the scenes, the cast were trained at a boot camp run by military advisors to make sure they acted, fought, and spoke like Marines. Aaron Eckhart joked that they were very particular about the terminology they used, such as calling a helicopter a "helo" instead of a "chopper".
• The Green Berets is one of the most famous examples of this. Legend has it thatJohn Wayne personally requested support fromLyndon B. Johnson.
• Similarly toPlatoon,The Hurt Locker didn't have military backing, partially because of budget issues. One might think the film's much-criticizedlapses in military procedure would have been fixed had they had Army consultants, butsince it didn't make war look fun,the army would have none of it.
• Iron Man - The Air Force provided material with the then-new Airman's Battle Uniform's camouflage pattern. Actor Terrance Howard also did some immersion research with airmen to prepare for the role.
  • However, the Pentagon backed outThe Avengers, stating that they found the film too unrealistic to get behind, specifically S.H.I.E.L.D., and the question of who exactly they answer to. The US Army still participated, however.
• In Jack Webb'sThe DI, active-duty Marines portray all but one of the recruits.
• In the film adaption ofBattleship, the US Navy bent over backwards and then some to not just make locations available, but provide large numbers servicepeople for the shoot. Those extras and even most of the named characters in the film? Serving personnel, some of them playing themselves. Considering the script is apparently played for maximum realism, and the filmmaker's self-described "Love Letter to the Navy" even went so far as to give some screen time to disabled vets out of respect, it's quite understandable.
  • It also fits in with the US military's needs now thatIraq and Afghanistan are drawing down: the new "Asian pivot"—and the fact that, in general, the US is by nature primarily a naval power^[2] when not actively fighting a big war on land—means that American strategy centers on the Navy and Marines much more than it did earlier (you will also notice a greater number of Navy recruiting ads in the early 2010s).
• Act of Valor (which started life as a recruitment film) takes this to an even greater extreme, as the main characters are all played by real U.S. Navy SEALS (who were between deployments at the time of shooting), the crew was given unparalleled access to Navy equipment, live ammo was used for most scenes (not to mention a scene where a truck gets blown up with an RPG that was done for real without any effects), all the tactics used in the film are real, and several things in the film are based on real life missions. It's worth mentioning that the film gained a considerable amount of support afterOsama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. SEALS. Most of the film's criticism stemmed from its use ofactual Navy SEALs in acting roles, whose wooden line readings detracted from the otherwise lauded action sequences.
  • Many of the battle scenes inAct of Valor, such as the scene with the gunboats firing on the camp, were actually documentary footage of live-fire training exercises.

Live Action TV

• JAG was notable as a series that had a great deal of Pentagon support after it became a hit, although this did lead to a few episodes that were clearMilitary On Board.
• Originally the Air Force just wanted to review the scripts toStargate SG-1, but the producers decided to ask for advisors to avoidArtistic License Military, and actually listened to them (though a few errors still got through - Samantha's hair getting too long, Gen. Landry having his hands in his pockets, etc). Before long, the show was using real Air Force personnel playing many of its extras, and two Chiefs of Staff appearing as themselves: GeneralsMichael E. Ryan andJohn P. Jumper.
  • InStargate: Continuum, the Navy let them film the outside and inside of a real nuclear attack submarine, in the Arctic, doing a number of through the ice-pack surfaces for it. Not to be outdone, the Air Force let them film inside real F-15's.
  • The 'no hands in pockets' rule is broken all the time -especially by generals.
• Also not a military example, butDragnet was backed very heavily by the Los Angeles Police Department, and many off-duty officers became extras. Rather than let the producers of the show make mock-ups of the LAPD's distinctive shield-shaped badges, the two main characters were allowed to borrow genuine ones that were brought to the set every day by a police adviser. Reportedly, Joe Friday even had a working phone number. When Jack Webb, the actor who played Sgt. Joe Friday died, the badge number he used, 714, was retired from the LAPD, and is now buried with him.
  • SimilarlyAdam-12 andEmergency were backed by the LAPD and LAFD, respectively.
• An episode ofNCIS dealing with Muslim religious beliefs turned out to be backed by the Pentagon. It actually was pretty fair and portrayed the religion well, if a bitheavy-handed on the whole thing.
• Gunnery Sergeant (Honorary) R. Lee Ermey. A retired Marine drill instructor, he's portrayed similar roles in several movies and served as military technical adviser as well. He's hosted two military-themed shows (Mail Call andLock 'n Load), and never had a problem accessing military bases and the biggest explosion-making toys they could offer.
• Due to being filmed in New York, theLaw and Order franchise has been able to use theNYPD's Movie/Television Division to full effect.
• In an episode of the American version ofTop Gear, the hosts manage to recruit the services of a Cobra attack helicopter to see if the Dodge Viper they were testing could outrun or evade it.^[3]
• The short-lived FOX cop-dramaK-ville was filmed on location in New Orleans and the show was allowed to use the real-life uniforms and logos of the New Orleans Police.
• Oddly enough,Paranormal Investigation shows get backing from the military as well. TheGhost Hunters were asked to investigate the USSLexington and the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base while theGhost Adventures crew were asked to investigate the USSHornet.
• The documentary miniseriesVictory At Sea.

Other

• CollegiateBasketball rivals Michigan State University and the University of North Carolina, with the agreement of the United States Navy, played a basketball game on the aircraft carrier U.S.S.Carl Vinson at Naval Base San Diego on Veterans Day 2011 (11/11/11). Thevisuals alone are freaking epic, especially as the sun sets.

Video Games

• Subverted by theMedal of Honor reboot and its sequelWarfighter. A number of Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) members, including one of those who (allegedly) killedOsama Bin Laden, were reprimanded for serving under the advisory board without the Pentagon's approval.
• A version ofBattlezone entitledThe Bradley Trainer (also known asArmy Battlezone orMilitary Battlezone) was designed as a training aid for the U.S. Army as targeting training for gunners on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Atari was approached through an intermediary as it saved both the Army the trouble of having to go through the red tape of procurement and Warner Communications of being treated as a defence contractor; several of the game's developers, most notably original Battlezone programmer Ed Rotberg, expressed hesitancy over the project as they had strong anti-war sentiments and thus wanted nothing to do with contributing to any real-world conflict, directly or otherwise. Rothberg publicly admitted that he wasangry and frustrated at being roped into what amounts to a military contract.
• America's Army was likewise commissioned by the U.S. Army as a recruitment tool, with media outlets agreeing that it's an overtPropaganda Piece designed to encourage youths to serve the military. The game was also intentionally made to be available to players outside the United States, with the Army themselves reasoning that "we want the whole world to know how great the U.S. Army is."
• TheIntel740 graphics processor traces its origins from GE Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, both military contractors.
• Prior to the release ofAmerica's Army, there wasMarine Doom, a single-level WAD forDoom II developed on behalf of the United States Marine Corps as a training tool, later released to the public. General Charles C. Krulak issued a directive to exploit off-the-shelf computer games to aid in improving "Military Thinking and Decision Making Exercises", leading to the WAD's development.

Non-US examples

Film

• The filmakers of the originalGojira film were denied this support but in an interesting way of getting around that they found out the schedule of a military convoy (on its way to be decommissioned) and filmed it twice along its route without permission.
• TheJames Bond filmGoldenEye was backed by the French navy, who lent the crew a frigate and a helicopter for a scene in which the helicopter is stolen (the helicopter is a model in later scenes though).
  • During the production ofThe World Is Not Enough, MI6 initially moved to block the filming of a scene around their headquarters, citing security concerns - but were overruled by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, saying "After all Bond has done for Britain, it was the least we could do for Bond."
• TheThe Lord of the Rings movies used the New Zealand army to do tasks from landscaping Hobbiton to filling out their legions of extras. The Mordor scenes were filmed on an abandoned minefield, being the only place inNew Zealand with the right amount of ash and desolation.
• Saving Private Ryan had the help of the Irish Army, Navy, and British MoD reserves for use as extras during the Omaha Beach sequence.
• Irish Army Reservists also served as extras forBraveheart. Since as Craig Charles put it, "(they) see very little real action and were probably making the best of it", on-site medical personnel were kept rather busy during the fight sequences.
• The sixties Danish monster movieReptilicus featured dozens of soldiers and displays of some of the best gear possessed by the Danish army at the time (apparently unusual at the time; most similar movies had to rely onStock Footage). That didn't stop the movie from beinghilariously awful, though.
• InHero, starringJet Li, the extras playing the soldiers of the Qin army were actual Chinese soldiers provided by the PLA.
  • This was once again done in the Three Kingdoms period piecesRed Cliff andRed Cliff 2 where the soldiers of the Wei, Shu and Wu armies were PLA soldiers.
• Those Wacky Nazis used thousands of soldiers, some diverted from fighting positions at considerable cost, as extras in the 1945 movieKolberg (about the successful resistance of the fortress-town of Kolberg against the French in 1807). By the time the movie came out there were few theatres left unbombed to watch it in, so its propaganda effect was minimal to say the least.
  • Inglourious Basterds had a fictional depiction of this, though only showing one actual soldier involved in thefilm.
• InThe Empire Strikes Back, Norwegian reservists played the soldiers in the Battle for the Ice Planet Hoth. This explains why the ground rebels (but not the pilots, who attack AT-ATs from the only direction they have guns) during that segment manage to completely avoidHollywood Tactics: They use proper cover, supported firing positions and observers with binoculars against distant targets.
  • SoHoth might actually be a vacation for them, huh?
• French director Abel Gance was able to get military assistance in making the anti-war filmJ'accuse! (1919) by convincing them it was going to be a propaganda movie. 2000 soldiers on leave from the Battle of Verdun played soldiers who rise from their graves to condemn the uncaring civilians.Within a few weeks of their return to the front, eighty per cent of these soldiers had been killed.
• InThe Beast, Captain Dale Dye negotiated to get an old Russian tank from the Israeli Defence Forces. The film, set in Afghanistan, was shot in the Sinai desert.
• Possibly the most epic example: Sergey Bondarchuk's 1968War and Peace movie, featuring horses and entiremilitary units (as well as a special "cinematographical cavalry corps") provided by the Soviet Ministry of Defense. But then, the Soviet Ministry of Defense was very fond of this trope in general, often providing soldiers for patriotic war films.
• Sergei Bondarchuk did the same thing in 1971 inWaterloo, where Soviet soldiers were used in huge shots featuring thousands of soldiers.Hilarity Ensues in several known instances where the soldiers panicked and scattered during scenes with cavalry charges.
• Most of the U.S. Marines who invade the Bashaw's palace inThe Wind and The Lion were actually Spanish Special Forces, as the movie was filmed in Spain, with Sevilla and Almeria standing in for Tangier.
• Many Vietnam War movies, such asApocalypse Now and theMissing in Action series, were filmed in the Philippines, which has jungles, needs money, and most importantly, uses US military equipment. The Armed Forces of the Philippines often lent vehicles such as F-5s and Hueys to the film makers in place of American military vehicles.
• The Swiss comedy movieAchtung, Fertig, Charlie!' (English:Ready, Set, Charlie!') set in basic training of the Swiss Army was supported by the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (yes, it is rather odd) by providing vehicles, extras etc. Later on, said department criticised the moviemakers for their "unrealistic, comical illustration of basic training"...a claim most Swiss thought was silly, even if they agreed it was true, seeing as Switzerland has universal male conscription.
• According toTurner Classic Movies, the castle inAkira Kurosawa'sThrone of Blood was a full-scale authentic Japanese castle, built by US Marine Engineers as a construction exercise for the production.
• The Mexican military was going to provide the vehicles for the movieOnce Upon a Time In Mexico, but they changed their minds once they found out the villain was an army General. The filmmakers had to make do with donations from private collectors.
• The 2010 remake ofThe Karate Kid got official support from the Chinese government, and features several prominent scenes set in notable national landmarks.
• Sergei Eisenstein's films are made of this trope. The best example would have to be the filmOctober: Ten days that shook the world in which Eisenstein convinced the powers that be to actually have the Cruiser "Aurora" shell the Winter Palace again. Apparently more people were inured in its re-enactment of the storming of the palace than were in the actual, historical event.
• Lord of War is a subversion. Most of the military hardware - like the rows of battle tanks and the piles of rifles - is real. But, consistent with the theme of the movie, the lenders weren't governments but private arms dealers.
• District 9 borrowed some CasspirAPCs for the film, and also used them as part of the South African advertising campaign.
• The live-action adaptation ofRescue Wings was set at the Komatsu JASDF airbase, and featured actual F-15s, UH-60Js and support from both the Air and Maritime Self Defense Forces.
• The 1943 Nazipropaganda filmTitanic was commissioned byJoseph Goebbels to be the most lavishly produced film to date, going so far as to requesting significant resources and manpower from the Kriegsmarine, including the use of the liner turned naval auxiliary shipCap Arcona to stand in for thetitular vessel, and had mandatory blackout rules waived for production to continue at night. Director Herbert Selpin demanded more extravagant sets to be produced, and went on a tirade where he complained that the Kriegsmarine personnel (who were often drunk and unruly) ended up molesting the female cast instead; Goebbels was infuriated and had Selpin hauled off by the Gestapo and jailed, where he would be seendead the next day in his cell in an apparent suicide. In a fit of irony, the film's heavy use of Kriegsmarine resources may have helped the Allied war effort as it needlessly diverted from the operations they would have otherwise taken part in, instead sending in leagues of drunken sailors to lust on the poor female cast members.

Live Action TV

• In the climactic battle of theDoctor Who serial "The Invasion", most of the UNIT members are actual British soldiers of the Coldstream Guards. Highly impressive, consideringDoctor Who's usual budget (a third of a shoestring).
  • The Sea Devils saw the Royal Navy waive fees onStock Footage and many extras were played by volunteering sailors.
  • The new series appears to be getting quite a bit of military backing, culminating in the appearance of Challenger II battle tanks in one of the Christmas specials.
• A Polish 1960s cult series on WWII calledFour tank men and a dog had its equipment granted (free of charge) by the Army. Either through connections or simply thanks to magic of Television. Someone called the general: "Comrade, we need a thousand men and a tank squad for two weeks, it's for TV series", and boom.
  • Actually, during the Soviet occupation, the communist nations had quite an easy access to both military hardware and personnel (not so hard with mandatory enlistment and wanting to glorify the military a bit). Strangely though, at least in Czech production, the resulting series/movies were surprisingly realistic, dealing with bullying and other darker topics of peacetime military.
• Top Gear frequently has appearances from members of the British Army or Royal Marines, taking part in all sorts of hijinks under the guise of car tests. This includes hunting down Jeremy Clarkson in a tank and more recently having the new Ford Fiesta take part in a Royal Marine beach assault.
  • In one episode, the RAF^[4] lend a Eurofighter Typhoon jet and pilot to race Richard Hammond's Bugatti Veyron.
  • Segments have taken place on the deck of an aircraft carrier at least twice.
• The production for CCTV's live-action TV adaptation of theRomance of the Three Kingdoms had some help from the People's Liberation Army, who provided a few divisions of troops for use as extras.
• The 1973-77 BBC seriesWarship was filmed on a number of Royal Navy vessels.
• The Bill was backed By Scotland Yard and was allowed to use real police logos, actual uniforms and real equipment. When the show ended they bought all their props to prevent criminals getting hold of them.
• The Mexican showEl Equipo (tagline: "They know Good Defeats Evil"), basically a 60-minute long government ad, used troops of the security agencies. And vehicles. And equipment.And classified locations...

Video Games

• The World War I-themed gameValiant Hearts: The Great War was developed with support fromMission Centenaire 14-18, the French government's official commission for commemoration of the Great War's centenary.
• Namco sought the assistance of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force for recording jet engine sounds to be used inAce Combat 5: The Unsung War.
• Sega collaborated with prominent defense and aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin for the Model 2 and 3 arcade boards' graphics chips which were derived from those used in military flight simulators.

• Trope
• Show Business
• Politics Tropes
• Backed by the Pentagon