George Clooney's character Lyn Cassady appears to be based partly on US Military top Remote Viewer Joe McMoneagle, and RV Project Database Manager Lyn Buchanan. Reference to McMoneagle is supported in both his being a favored resource, and in a scene where information on a missing general is provided by Cassady in a Remote Viewing session - likely drawn from inspiration from McMoneagle's partly successful attempt to RV kidnapped US Brigadier General Dozier's location in Padua Italy (1981). Also as a reference to Lyn Buchanan, the scene where computer systems are fried and destroyed, seemingly by Lyn, resulting in his initial recruitment by General Hopgood, is also very close to fact.
Jeff Bridges' character Bill Django is, in fact, based on Army Lt. Colonel Jim Channon, who wrote the First Earth Battalion field manual (which is shown in the film). Just like Django, Channon took a leave of absence (with pay) from the Army to go on a fact-finding tour of the New Age Movement in the mid-1970s before coming back and writing the First Earth Battalion manual. The movie, based on the book by Jon Ronson, combines two or three separate programs - the Army's Remote Viewing program (run by the Army's Intelligence and Security Command), the "Jedi" program run by the Special Forces, and Jim Channon's First Earth Battalion (which was a concept and a field manual rather than an operational unit).
The scene in which Clooney's character (Lyn) is on top of the car the morning they wake up in the desert, it can clearly be seen that Lyn leaves a large dent in the car. In the next scene the dent is gone.
Lyn Cassady: There's a story that Wong Wifu, the great Chinese martial artist... had a fight with a guy and beat him. Then the guy gave him this light tap. Wong looked at him and the guy just nodded. That was it. He had given him the death touch. Wong died.
The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
Q
Is "The Men Who Stare at Goats" based on a book?
A
Yes. The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004) is a non-fiction book by Welsh-born author Jon Ronson.
Q
What does the title, "The Men Who Stare at Goats", mean?
A
The title refers to the U.S. Army's research into military applications of paranormal techniques to interrogation activites. The title refers to attempts to kill goats by staring at them.