- Mark "Billy" Billingham spent 27 years in the military in the Parachute Regiment, with the Special Air Service (SAS) as a Mountie troop leader, sniper, and jungle warfare instructor.
- Since leaving the armed forces, he's worked as an A-list bodyguard to Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. He's now a consultant on Channel 4's "SAS: Who Dares Wins."
- We asked Billy to rate the realism of popular military scenes in movies, including "American Sniper", "Commando", "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down."
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Mark Billingham: Stop! First thing, totally unrealistic. He just fired a nuclear weapon from his shoulder.
Mark Billingham: I'm Mark "Billy" Billingham. I spent 27 years in the military, nine in the parachute regiment, 17 to...plus years with the SAS. Since leaving the armed forces, I then became head of security for a number of A-lists, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. And I'm currently now working in the TV industry as an adviser on "SAS: Who Dares Wins."
"Black Hawk Down" (2001)
Mark Billingham: The equipment and the Little Birds, what the helicopters use, is probably quite right. That's exactly how you ride into battle, like these do. Flying down the streets the way that we see there is probably a bit unrealistic, bearing in mind it's a hostile environment. Now, don't get me wrong, these things can fly under washing lines, they're unbelievable, but I just find that a little bit unrealistic. I'm guessing because of the timelines they had to move in daylight.
OK, the second phase I'm looking at now, they're coming in in the Black Hawks and delivering the troops by what we call fast rope, which is the ropes from the side of the aircraft. The unrealism again in my eyes is they're dropping right onto the target, broad daylight, and you're basically a sitting duck.
As for running out in front of a 50-cal weapon, I think that's a little bit OTT. The grenade launcher from the small-arms weapon there is totally overkill. What it would do is fragmentation, a little bit of a noise; it certainly wouldn't burst into flame.
"6 Days" (2017)
Mark Billingham: OK, so the first incident you see there is what they call a coach option, where they're about to storm a coach for whatever reason, believing there's terrorists on it. Now, the drills and skills and the equipment, back in the day, is actually very correct, pretty spot-on.
What we call rehearsals and what they're rehearsing there is close-quarter battle, clearing a building, a stronghold where hostages may be held. The drills and the skills, again, exactly as they would have. This is a very sort of light roll; they'll do this five or six times. This is a walk-through/talk-through, then they'll do it a little bit faster, and then eventually they do it in full equipment. So, what I'm seeing there is actually pretty accurate.
The effects of a grenade is exactly that. The only thing missing was probably the noise. There's a little bit more noise to it, but there's not big balls of fire, there's no walls falling in and falling down, that's exactly as it is.
"Commando" (1985)
Mark Billingham: It's an Arnie movie, the way he's dressed is just ridiculous, it's all about, "Look at my image," as opposed to what I'm trying to do. He's got weapons and guns all over him.
He just fired a nuclear weapon from his shoulder. I mean, that is just ridiculous, you know. I've never even seen that sort of rocket launcher anyway. And the other thing is the enemy are running along and firing from down here, from the hip for some strange reason and running in front of each other, but no one seems to be shooting. It's just f------ ridiculous, you know, he stood behind a couple of leaves and no one can hit him.
Wow. One of those nuclear grenades again that seem to just destroy everything in a 50-mile radius. Totally unrealistic.
"Bravo Two Zero" (1999)
Soldier: Of course you're afraid. You get your...
Mark Billingham: OK, my biggest criticism there is you're on operations, you're already in the enemy territory behind the lines, and your weapons should already be done and ready to go. If they're not caught out in the open then it's a bad use of ground. They should have been in cover.
What the anti-tank weapons could do that they've just fired, which is the 66, again totally unrealistic, unless it's a fuel bowser, it wouldn't burst into flames, so that's just for effect.
"American Sniper" (2014)
Chris Kyle: He has eyes on our guys.
Dandridge: Can you confirm it's him?
Chris: It's him. Oh, it's him.
Mark Billingham: Right. You know, people do long-distance shots, and to say that's over a mile and being able to confirm firstly that's the target is, I would say, virtually impossible. Because of the distance, no matter how good the sights are, and also it's a desert terrain, you'd normally get the heat rising so there'd be some sort of distraction between. If it's not the heat naturally coming off the ground, then out there it's heat from the buildings. It may be a miracle day where it was totally calm and there's no heat rise, which I find...I've never known it, having been a sniper.
You can see it's a target, I'll give him that, and, you know, it's worth a shot.
You may have seen him fall; it doesn't mean he's been hit. It doesn't mean he's dead. So they're the questionable things, I would say, but however, an amazing job, and amazing things that snipers can do. It is possible.
"Bodyguard" (2018)
David Budd: Stay down! The bullets can pierce the windows, but they can't get through the armored metal. Control, Sierra Zulu Seven Nine, status: zero Thornton Circus. Control, Sierra Zulu Seven Nine, status: zero Thornton Circus. Lavender....
Mark Billingham: His sole job is to protect that principal, so, reality, rather than curling up in his own seat, I would have crawled into the back and got hold of her because you don't know what she's gonna do. Is she gonna panic? Is she gonna raise her head into the glass? He really should have reacted better by being on top of her, getting her down low in the rear wheel and protecting her.
David: Shooter's located on roof of Pascoe House, one, zero, zero.
Mark Billingham: If he got her out of the vehicle, get down with her and get her moving, he's now starting to, you know, try and take control of the vehicle, which he should have done from the start, to be honest. And again, realistically, he's already said there's one sniper, which how he identified was a bit unrealistic. He should have just took her up a side street, you can't see everywhere from any sniper position, so.
Right now, the biggest problem with this, if you're a bodyguard, well, his primary role is to look after a principal. He's now left her unattended, all on her own, to go and be a hero. Then he took himself out of the vehicle, leaving her vulnerable, then he's now left the vehicle to become a hero. Where is she? She's on her own. Totally not doing a bodyguard's job.
"Patriot Games" (1992)
Jack Ryan: Camp 18.
Operator: Enlarging.
Jack: Enlarge primary target.
Operator: Enlarging.
Mark Billingham: OK, that's a view initially from the operations room as an operation is taking place, which again is pretty realistic in terms of the atmosphere inside the operation room, when it's going down. Everybody's watching all the radars, watching the TVs, listening to the communications, and everybody's got their heart in their mouth and not really saying a lot.
Operator: Airborne support approaching.
Mark Billingham: Put a little bit more detail, and I've never actually seen it myself, but it's pretty realistic.
"Lone Survivor" (2013)
Mark Billingham: The wearing of shades, it's very much an Hollywood thing. That doesn't happen. So, as you're moving through shade, you lose all perspective. All right, so that's the only fault that we see with the equipment and movement from the start.
Soldier: You mean fall off?
Soldier: Yeah.
Mark Billingham: What they were actually doing, again, is not unrealistic as in terms of tasks that the military would do. It would be done a lot more covertly. It was a little bit loud, they were not cammed up. For whatever reason, which I find a little bit unrealistic is the bunching up, where they all just come together knowing full well that they're being shot at. The big drill is to stay away from each other, 'cause the more together, the bigger the target. Where the rocket-propeller grenade, the RPG-7, landed and all of a sudden everybody's catapulted in the air, totally unrealistic. What it actually does, it would blow you off your feet to a degree, but you'd be covered in shrapnel and probably have body parts missing. So it's a little bit Hollywoodized with the rolling down the hill and all the rest of the stuff.
Marcus Luttrell: Oh, my rifle.
Mark Billingham: The weapon is not a massive priority really. If it was a person left behind, yes. They've been in contact, they've managed to break contact by falling back, and now they're hidden again. They've really given their position away again by talking too loud and not moving and getting the hell out of it.
"Who Dares Wins" (1982)
Mark Billingham: Stop! They're flying through the air, hanging off the bottom of an helicopter, no. That does not happen. OK, some of the explosive entry drills, the window charges, pretty realistic, the door, shotgun drills on the door, again, realistic. Also there's grenades being thrown around in there. Most of this is stun grenades as opposed to fragmentation grenades. The equipment they're wearing, from what I can see, again is pretty realistic. The synchronized abseiling down the wall is a little bit dramatic. 'Cause it takes a while to set up an abseil and do all that sort of stuff. You just wouldn't have time to be able to do that. It's not like you see in "Spider-Man," where you can just attach it and go. Gotta get into position, and then once it goes [snaps] noise, and then you go, but it's not synchronized abseiling.
"The Longest Day" (1962)
Mark Billingham: Did people get hung up on churches and trees? Yes, they did. You know, when they jumped into and around villages, you got blown all over the place or you were dropped in the wrong place, so that can happen. The way that probably happened is a little bit, sort of, again unrealistic. You know, you come down with one hell of a smash and you'd probably get badly injured as opposed to bounce around like you're on a bouncy castle. He's still got his reserve parachute attached to him, and the way to get down is pull that parachute, 'cause then it'll drop down to the ground. Unattach one side and then climb down it. For whatever reason, he decides to watch the show going on below him for a while, and then decides, "Oh, maybe I should get out," and then starts cutting himself away, so. There's bullets and bombs going off all around him, but the German still let the knife fall, which is a bit weird.
"Saving Private Ryan" (1998)
Private Ryan: Over the side!
Mark Billingham: The chaos of it all, the ridiculous sort of obstacles you come up against, which is not just bullets and bombs, the water getting off a boat. So I think this is portrayed really, really well. And having seen the tracer lines of the rounds going through the water, although I've not been shot at underwater, I have seen the effects of firing through water, and that, in my eyes, in my opinion, is pretty realistic.
Producer: Somebody tried to disprove on YouTube that bullets couldn't hit people if they were going through water because —
Mark Billingham: I've seen people shot in the f------ water. I mean, it goes off at a tangent, but if you, you're firing at a bunch of people, you're firing randomly, it's quite likely that something, somebody's gonna get hit. You know it's the same as just firing into a crowd. It's indiscriminate. The realism of the sounds of bullets going past you, that's shown really, really well. The chaotic-ness of what's going on around you, and not just the fact that you're being fired at.
Producer: Military movies, you have a bit of a bit of a love-hate relationship with them?
Mark Billingham: When I do find I'm watching anything military-orientated, I do tend to be a little bit critical about the scenes. If I had to say I had a favorite movie that is military-based, I would say it's "Heartbreak Ridge," purely because of the influence of Clint Eastwood, and obviously it's based on a real story. It's a little bit dramatized, but it's actually a quite good movie, in my eyes.
Produced by Ju Shardlow