Patriotic 'Act Of Valor' Earns A Sequel

The movie "Act of Valor," about our country’s brave Navy Seals, did so well at the box office in 2012 that Relativity and The Bandito Brothers are getting ready to do it again. Plans are in the works to film "Act of Valor 2," this time with the focus on elite SWAT officers. For this second film, Scott Wiper ("A Better Way to Die," "The Condemned") will direct. What was it about the first "Act of Valor" that audiences identified with, helping the film do a respectable $70,012,847 in the U.S. alone and $12,484,188 internationally?

Real Acts of Courage

The plot for the film "Act of Valor" was fictitious, and there was some poetic license taken with a few scenes in the film, but the U.S. Navy Seals are real life heroes. The Seals were involved in the covert operation of taking out Osama Bin Laden, and they have also been involved in other classified missions in Iraq and Mogadishu. These are just a few of the real life missions that were inspiration for some of the scenarios in "Act of Valor."

The Movie’s Plot

Photo by Official U.S. Navy Imagery via Flickr

The plot is driven by real-world events that were the basis for the movie: A squad of Navy Seals is tasked with saving a captured CIA operative who has information about the Chechen terrorist responsible for the bombing of an elementary school in the Philippines. The Seals find themselves on several missions as they try to find kidnapped agent Lisa Morales, as well as the person responsible for having her kidnapped who has personal ties to the Chechen terrorist.

These Seals Are Real

Photo by U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Kathryn Whittenberger via Wikimedia Commons

The actors playing the Seals in this movie weren’t actors at all—they are real life Navy Seals. This is the main draw of this movie and explains the films strong box office appeal.
People who had viewed the film in theaters or watched it at home had much the same thing to say as this reviewer on Amazon: “For a military movie, I love this film. Some say the acting isn't all that great but I appreciate the fact that it revolves around the more technical true to life aspect of the special forces world instead of the hyped up made for movie experience that modern war flicks are.”
While some of the scenarios in the film may have stretched the imagination a bit, there is no denying the fact that when you see the action on screen, with the running commentary you almost have to become immersed in what is taking place on screen.

LifeLock's Take

The identity theft protection company LifeLock partnered with Relativity Media for the first film, and Erick Dickens, Lifelock's Director of Product Marketing, said about the partnership: “The last thing our military service members need to worry about during their deployments is the threat of identity theft, but unfortunately the risk for them is very real.”
There is no word yet on when "Act of Valor 2" will be in theaters.

Article submitted by Eddie Fuller
Eddie is a gamer, comic reader and all-around entertainment lover.