Black Hawk Down is a 2001 American epic war film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, and co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 eponymous non-fiction book by journalist Mark Bowden, about two Black Hawk helicopters that were shot down during the Battle of Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Sam Shepard, Jeremy Piven, Ioan Gruffudd, Ewen Bremner, Hugh Dancy, and Tom Hardy in his first film role. Orlando Bloom, Ty Burrell, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau also have minor roles.
Black Hawk Down was produced by Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Scott Free Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film had a limited release on December 28, 2001, and went into the public on January 18, 2002. It received positive reviews from film critics, although it was criticized for inaccuracies, and performed modestly well at the box office, grossing $173 million worldwide against a production budget of $92 million. Black Hawk Down won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound at the 74th Academy Awards.
Plot In 1992, a famine in southern Somalia induced by the civil war leads the United Nations Security Council to authorize a military operation with a peacekeeping mandate. Conflict ensues between UNOSOM II and the Mogadishu-based militia loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid. In response, U.S. President Clinton deploys Task Force Ranger—consisting of 3rd Battalion/75th Ranger Regiment, Delta Force operators, and flight crew of the 160th SOAR—to Mogadishu to capture Aidid, who has proclaimed himself president. Aidid's militia attacks a Red Cross food distribution shipment and steals the aid, but the Rangers are unable to respond due to the rules of engagement.
Outside Mogadishu, Rangers and Delta Force capture Osman Ali Atto, a faction leader selling arms to Aidid's militia. The U.S. plans a mission to capture Omar Salad Elmi and Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdiid, two of Aidid's top advisers.
Prior to the mission, Staff Sergeant Matthew Eversmann receives his first command of Ranger Chalk Four after his lieutenant has a seizure. Members of his chalk include fresh 18-year-old Private First Class Todd Blackburn and Specialist John Grimes, a former desk clerk.
Delta Force operators capture Aidid's advisers inside the target building while the Rangers and helicopters escorting the ground convoy take heavy fire from the rallying militia. Blackburn is severely injured when he falls from one of the Black Hawk helicopters, so three Humvees led by Staff Sergeant Jeff Struecker are detached from the convoy to return Blackburn to the UN-held Mogadishu Airport. Grimes is separated from Eversmann's chalk after surviving an RPG explosion.
Just after Struecker's column departs, Black Hawk Super Six-One, piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott, is shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Wolcott and his co-pilot are killed, two crew chiefs are wounded, and two Delta Force snipers on board escape in an MH-6 Little Bird helicopter.
The ground forces are rerouted to converge on the crash site. The militia erects roadblocks preventing Lieutenant Colonel Danny McKnight's Humvee column from reaching the area and inflicts heavy casualties. Meanwhile, two Ranger chalks, including Eversmann's unit, reach the crash site and set up a defensive perimeter, while another helicopter, Super Six-Four piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, is also shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashes several blocks away.
With the primary Ranger forces led by Captain Mike Steele pinned down and sustaining heavy casualties, no ground forces can reach Super Six-Four or reinforce the Rangers defending Super Six-One. Two Delta Force snipers, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, volunteer to be inserted by helicopter to secure Super Six-Fours crash site, where they find Durant still alive. Despite their heroic actions the site is overrun, Gordon and Shughart are killed, and Durant is captured.
McKnight's column relinquishes their attempt to reach Six-Ones crash site and returns to base with the prisoners and their casualties. The men prepare to go back to extract the Rangers and fallen pilots, and Major General Garrison asks for reinforcements from the 10th Mountain Division, including Malaysian troops and Pakistani armored units from the U.N. coalition.
As night falls, Aidid's militia launches a sustained assault on the trapped Americans at Super Six-Ones crash site. The militants are held off throughout the night by strafing runs and rocket attacks from AH-6J Little Bird helicopter gunships until the 10th Mountain Division's relief column is able to reach the American soldiers. The wounded and casualties are evacuated in the vehicles, but a few Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are forced to run on foot from the crash site to reach the Safe Zone at Mogadishu Stadium.
A textual epilogue reveals Durant was released following 11 days of captivity; Gordon and Shugart became the first soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously since the Vietnam War; General Garrison took full responsibility for the mission's outcome, retiring on August 3, 1996, the day after Aidid was killed in a clash with forces of former Somali allies.
Cast
75th Ranger Regiment Josh Hartnett as SSG Matt Eversmann Ewan McGregor as SPC John "Grimesey" Grimes (based on SPC John Stebbins) Tom Sizemore as LTC Danny McKnight Ewen Bremner as SPC Shawn Nelson Gabriel Casseus as SPC Mike Kurth Hugh Dancy as SFC Kurt "Doc" Schmid Ioan Gruffudd as LT John Beales Tom Guiry as SGT Ed Yurek Charlie Hofheimer as CPL Jamie Smith Danny Hoch as SGT Dominick Pilla Jason Isaacs as CPT Mike Steele Brendan Sexton III as PVT Richard "Alphabet" Kowalewski Brian Van Holt as SSG Jeff Struecker Ian Virgo as PFC John Waddell Tom Hardy as SPC Lance Twombly Gregory Sporleder as SGT Scott Galentine Carmine Giovinazzo as SGT Mike Goodale Chris Beetem as SGT Casey Joyce Tac Fitzgerald as SPC Brad Thomas Matthew Marsden as SPC Dale "Adonis" Sizemore Orlando Bloom as PFC Todd Blackburn Enrique Murciano as SGT Lorenzo Ruiz Michael Roof as PVT John Maddox Kent Linville as PFC Clay Othic Norman Campbell Rees as LT Tom DiTomasso Corey Johnson as US Army medic in Pakistan stadium
Delta Force Sam Shepard as MG William F. Garrison Eric Bana as SFC Norm "Hoot" Gibson (based on SFC John Macejunas, SFC Norm Hooten, and SFC Matthew Rierson) William Fichtner as SFC Jeff Sanderson (based on SFC Paul R. Howe) Kim Coates as MSG Chris Wex (based on MSG Tim "Griz" Martin) Steven Ford as LTC Joe Cribbs (based on LTC Lee Van Arsdale) Željko Ivanek as LTC Gary L. Harrell Johnny Strong as SFC Randy Shughart Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as MSG Gary Gordon Richard Tyson as SSG Daniel Busch
160th SOAR "Night Stalkers" Ron Eldard as CW4 Michael Durant, pilot of Super 64 Glenn Morshower as COL Thomas Matthews, commander of 1st Battalion, 160th SOAR Jeremy Piven as CW4 Clifton Wolcott, pilot of Super 61 Boyd Kestner as CW3 Mike Goffena, pilot of Super 62 Pavel Vokoun as CW3 Donovan "Bull" Briley, co-pilot of Super 61 Jason Hildebrandt as CW3 Dan Jollota, pilot of Super 68 Keith Jones as himself, co-pilot of Star 41
Miscellaneous George Harris as Osman Atto Razaaq Adoti as Yousuf Dahir Mo'Alim, the main commander of Aidid's militia in the film Treva Etienne as Firimbi, propaganda minister for Aidid and Durant's caretaker Ty Burrell as United States Air Force Pararescue TSgt Timothy A. Wilkinson Dan Woods as United States Air Force Pararescue MSgt Scott C. Fales Giannina Facio as Stephanie Shughart, wife of Randy Shughart
Production Development Adapting Black Hawk Down: a Story of Modern War (1999) by Mark Bowden was the idea of director Simon West, who suggested to Jerry Bruckheimer that he should buy the film rights and let West direct. West felt too tired after working on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), so he decided to drop out (West later said that he regretted the decision). Ridley Scott was hired to direct the film after he decided to not work on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).
Ken Nolan was credited as screenwriter, and others contributed uncredited: Mark Bowden wrote an adaptation of his own book, Stephen Gaghan was hired to do a rewrite, Steven Zaillian and Ezna Sands rewrote the majority of Gaghan and Nolan's work, actor Sam Shepard (MGen. Garrison) rewrote some of his own dialogue, and Eric Roth wrote Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana's concluding speeches. Ken Nolan was on set for four months rewriting his script and the previous work by Gaghan, Zaillian, and Bowden. He was given sole screenwriting credit by a WGA committee.
The book relied on a dramatization of participant accounts, which were the basis of the movie. SPC John Stebbins was renamed as fictional "John Grimes." Stebbins had been convicted by court martial in 1999 for the rape and forcible sodomy of his six-year-old daughter. Mark Bowden said the Pentagon, ever sensitive about public image, decided to alter factual history by requesting the change. Bowden wrote early screenplay drafts, before Bruckheimer gave it to screenwriter Nolan. The POW-captor conversation, between pilot Mike Durant and militiaman Firimbi, is from a Bowden script draft.
To keep the film at a manageable length, 100 key figures in the book were condensed to 39. The movie also does not feature any Somali actors. Additionally, no Somali consultants were hired for accuracy, according to writer Bowden.
For military verisimilitude, the Ranger actors took a one-week Ranger familiarization course at Fort Benning, the Delta Force actors took a two-week commando course from the 1st Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Bragg, and Ron Eldard and the actors playing 160th SOAR helicopter pilots were lectured by captured aviator Michael Durant at Fort Campbell.
The U.S. Army supplied the materiel and the helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Most pilots (e.g., Keith Jones, who speaks some dialogue) had participated in the historic battle on October 3–4, 1993.
On the last day of their week-long Army Ranger orientation at Fort Benning, the actors who portrayed the Rangers received letters slipped under their doors. It thanked them for their hard work, and asked them to "tell our story true", signed with the names of the men who died in the Mogadishu firefight. A platoon of Rangers from B-3/75 did the fast-roping scenes and appeared as extras; John Collette, a Ranger Specialist during the battle, served as a stunt performer.
Many of the actors bonded with the soldiers who trained them for their roles. Actor Tom Sizemore said, "What really got me at training camp was the Ranger Creed. I don't think most of us can understand that kind of mutual devotion. It's like having 200 best friends and every single one of them would die for you".
The film was originally set up at Disney's Touchstone Pictures label, but Disney boss Peter Schneider placed the film into turnaround, citing its subject matter, and sold the project to Revolution Studios.
Filming Filming began in March 2001 in Kénitra, Morocco, and concluded in late June.
Although the filmmakers considered filming in Jordan, they found the city of Amman too built up and landlocked. Scott and production designer Arthur Max subsequently turned to Morocco, where they had previously worked on Gladiator. Scott preferred that urban setting for authenticity. Most of the film was photographed in the cities of Rabat and Salé; the Task Force Ranger base sequences were filmed at Kénitra and Mehdya.
Music