The Men Who Stare at Goats

Year:

2009

Duration:

94 min

Genres:

Comedy | War

IMDB rate:

6.3

Director:

Grant Heslov

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Details

Country: USA

Release Date: 2009-11-06

Filming Locations: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Earnings

Budget: $25,000,000

Opening Weekend: $12,706,654 (USA) (8 November 2009)

Gross: $32,416,109 (USA) (31 January 2010)

Cast

Actor

Character

George Clooney

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Ewan McGregor

Bob Wilton

Jeff Bridges

Bill Django

Kevin Spacey

Larry Hooper

Stephen Lang

Brigadier General Dean Hopgood

Robert Patrick

Todd Nixon

Waleed Zuaiter

Mahmud Daash

Stephen Root

Gus Lacey

Glenn Morshower

Major General Holtz

Nick Offerman

Scotty Mercer

Tim Griffin

Tim Kootz

Rebecca Mader

Debora Wilton

Jacob Browne

Lieutenant Boone

Todd Lawson LaTourrette

Dave

Brad Grunberg

Ron

Elsa Villafane

Gus' Mother

Fawad Siddiqui

Kuwait Waiter (as Fawad Masood Siddiqui)

Samuel Ray Gates

Journalist #1 (as Samuel Gates)

McCaleb Burnett

Journalist #2

Sean Phillips

Vietnam Soldier

Matt Newton

Vietnam Private Chris

MinhTu Van

VC Woman (as Minh Tu Van)

Robert Curtis Brown

General Brown

Hrach Titizian

Kidnapper #1

Shafik N. Bahou

Kidnapper #2

Christopher Maher

Iraqi Driver

Drew Seltzer

Technician

Donn Lamkin

Lyn's Father

Sean Curley

Lyn (12 years old)

Michael-David Aragon

Insurgent

Morse Bicknell

Ben Echmeyer

Terry Serpico

Krom - Phil Driver (as Terry M. Serpico)

Wiley M. Pickett

Krom - Texan (as Wiley Pickett)

Diego Serrano

Krom - Chilean

Reginald Huc

Krom - 3rd Security Man (as Regi Huc)

Kevin Geer

CIA Agent

Kevin Wiggins

Major General Jack Gillian

JJ Raschel

Clifford Hickox

Arron Shiver

Norm Pendlleton

Jaime Margarida

Major General Pendleton

Steve Witting

PSIC Worker #1

Hunter Bell

PSIC Worker #2

Edward Holley

Army Soldier

Christopher Robinson

Stryker Soldier

William Sterchi

Bob's Editor

Alan D'Antoni

Gas Station Driver

Jay Spadaro

Gas Station Driver

Chick Bernhardt

Krom - SUV (as Dale Chick Bernhard)

A.J. Tannen

Army Broadcaster (scenes deleted)

Barry R. White

Krom agent

Alexandra Andrews

Scotty's Bride (uncredited)

Sarah Belger

Soldier (uncredited)

Robert Anthony Brass

Sgt. Bishop

George W. Bush

Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Steven Ray Byrd

Military Driver / Soldier (uncredited)

Rafael Christian

US Soldier (uncredited)

Michael Clark

Army Broadcaster (uncredited)

Robert Farrior

Sergeant Skinner

Christopher Fodge

US Soldier (uncredited)

John Galindez

Russian Scientist (uncredited)

Timothy Holmes

U.S. Soldier (uncredited)

Saddam Hussein

Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Brent Lambert

Ann Arbor Newspaper Staff (uncredited)

Billy Lockwood

Lieutenant Hahn (uncredited)

John Macho

Jedi #2 (uncredited)

John McTasney

Master Sgt Kauzlarik

Michael J. Morris

Army Officer (uncredited)

John Nussbaumer

Major with Daisy (uncredited)

Susan Pages

Officer's Wife (uncredited)

Paul J. Porter

Captain Wogolman (uncredited)

Frank Powers

SSG Stevens

Brian Tester

U.S. Army Officer (uncredited)

Casey Wayne

MP (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

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.

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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).

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This film talks extensively about being Jedis and using Jedi powers. Ewan McGregor played Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels.

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Goofs

In the 1980s Ft Bragg was an open post so there were no guarded access points.

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Ft Bragg isn't a training post, but in every scene troops were marching in formation across parade fields.

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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.

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Quotes

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.

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Bill Django: I'm liberating this base!

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Bob Wilton: Would you stop saying that? I've been... I've been blown up! I'm in the middle of a desert! I'm not gonna be okay.

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Faq

Q

A Note Regarding Spoilers

A

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.

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