Summary

• The movie Lone Survivor, based on Marcus Luttrell's book, diverges from both the book and history regarding the number of Taliban attacking the SEAL team, with Luttrell himself claiming there were only 20-35 Taliban.
• The scene in the movie where the SEAL team captured goatherds has been criticized for its portrayal of a vote on whether or not to kill them, but in reality, there was a heated debate and an executive decision made by the ranking officer.
• The movie's action is likely more intense and dramatized than what happened in real life, with additional enemies and unclear evidence of enemy combatant deaths. Luttrell fired his gun far less than depicted, and the rescue scene was less climactic in reality.

The ending of Lone Survivor depicts Marcus Luttrell's rescue after being ambushed by the Taliban behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, but how accurate is the movie and what happened to Luttrell after his military service? Directed by Peter Berg, Lone Survivor is based on Luttrell's book of the same name and features performances from Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, and more.

Lone Survivor recounts the event of Operation Red Wings, a 2005 mission in Afghanistan to eliminate Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. Led by Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), the SEAL team also consisted of Petty Officer Second Class Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), and Petty Officer Second Class Matthew G. Axelson (Ben Foster). The team is quickly discovered and attacked by the Taliban. Murphy, Dietz, and Axelson die, but Luttrell sustained significant injuries before his eventual rescue.

Lone Survivor's True Story and Real-Life Accuracy Explained

How authentic is the movie's portrayal of the actual event?

Lone Survivor is based on the book of the same name written by Marcus Luttrell and ghostwriter Patrick Robinson. While the movie is mostly consistent with the book, it diverges in a few places, and even the book itself has been scrutinized for certain claims, so the accuracy of the Lone Survivor movie is a complicated matter.

One of the biggest divergences from both the book and from actual history is the number of Taliban forces that ambush Marcus Luttrell and the SEAL team. The movie depicts around 50 Taliban soldiers attacking them in the woods, while the book says there were 80-200 Taliban, but that number has come under fire. Marcus Luttrell himself allegedly said there were actually only 20-35 Taliban. Regardless of the true size of the enemy forces, there isn't any evidence of Taliban fatalities.

The scene in the movie where the SEAL team captures the goatherds has been criticized for the fact that the seals took a vote on whether or not to kill the goatherds. In the Lone Survivor book, there's an explicit vote, but things play out differently in the movie where there's a heated debate, but at the end Mike explicitly says "this is not a vote" and makes an executive decision as the ranking officer. The very nature of the debate is uncomfortable, regardless of if an actual vote occurred or not, but the movie is meant to portray some of the hard choices the men had to make in difficult decisions.

With an increase in the number of enemies (in both the book and the movie), and a lack of clarity surrounding whether there were actually any enemy combatant deaths, the movie's action is likely much more intense and more dramatized than what happened in real life. In a Newsweek interview, Gulab says Luttrell still had all his ammunition on him when he discovered him, which would indicate he fired his gun far less than the movie depicts, although the movie seems to explain this by showing Mike Murphy giving Luttrell all his spare ammunition before he sacrifices himself to make one last call from the sat phone.

The presentation of Gulab and his village is also dramatized from reality in a few ways. Luttrell was in the village for four days and Gulab and the villagers had to move him from location to location to avoid occasional Taliban searches. When Luttrell's rescue helicopters finally arrived, there wasn't a climactic battle or rushed evacuation. In the Lone Survivor book, the United States rescue team stayed and talked with some of the villagers for a while before evacuating Luttrell, who was severely injured, but not in critical condition.

Did Lone Survivor Exaggerate the SEAL Team's Injuries?

Did they really jump off cliffs?

Despite a number of inaccuracies in the scope and scale of the conflict, director Peter Berg paid extra attention to the injuries received by the SEAL team and made sure they corresponded to the injuries indicated on the autopsy reports. Despite the accuracy of injury placement, the actual deaths of Mike, Danny, and Axe were alll adjusted from Luttrell's in the book. For Luttrell, while the extent of his injuries in the movie was severe, it was actually worse in real life.

One of the most extreme injuries depicted in the movie are the multiple jumps over cliffs to escape the Taliban. After tumbling down the steep 20-30 foot cliffs and seemingly hitting every rock, branch, and root on the way down, the four SEALs get back up and keep moving, only to do it again later. The cliff jumps seem even less believable than the multiple bullet wounds sustained by each of the SEALs, although the cliff jumps are not an embellishment made by the movie and Marcus Luttrell says they actually jumped off the cliffs to avoid Taliban gunfire.

Why Couldn't They Use Apache Helicopters

There weren't enough helicopters to go around.

The lack of radio reception quickly becomes a problem for the SEALs who are unable to call for after they realize they need to evacuate the area, but even when they do get in with Bagram Air Base, Lieutenant commander Erik Kristensen (Eric Bana) can't send reinforcements immediately since they couldn't fly Black Hawk helicopters without sending Apache helicopters for , and the Apaches had been called off on another mission due to limited resources.

Instead of sending the Black Hawk helicopters, the reinforcements arrive in much larger Chinhook helicopters instead, but the lack of Apache and the larger helicopters put them at a major tactical disadvantage. One of the Taliban hits the Chinhook with an RPG, destroying the helicopter and killing the entire team aboard it.

What Happened to Marcus Luttrell After the Mission?

Luttrell took another deployment and got even more injuries.

After Operation Red Wings, Marcus was redeployed to Ramadi, Iraq, where he once again received significant injuries and retired from the Military. With the success of the Lone Survivor book and movie, Luttrell became an entrepreneur, started a non-profit organization, and toured the country doing speaking engagements. Luttrell and his wife Melanie have three children, including a son named "Axe" after Matt Axelson.

Marcus Luttrell had two cameos in Lone Survivor. He was the soldier who knocked the contents off the table for Shane to clean up at the beginning, and he was also one of the soldiers on the Chinhook helicopter that got shot down by an RPG.

What Happened to Mohammad Gulab?

He's denounced the movie.

The end of Lone Survivor reveals that Mohammad Gulab and his fellow Pashtun villagers saved Marcus Luttrell to honor a code of honor known as "Pashtunwali." Gulab told The Daily Beast “By rescuing and keeping him safe for five nights in our home we were only doing our cultural obligation.” Pashtunwali doesn't differentiate between friend and foe and the villagers believe it required them to help Marcus no matter what.

Gulab had to move multiple times and some of his family were even killed. Things got even more dangerous from him thanks to the attention he got from Lone Survivor Ironically, despite Gulab's willingness to put his life on the line to save Marcus Luttrell, his effort to flee Afghanistan for safety in America was marked with bureaucratic red tape, and according to Newsweek, he had a falling out with Luttrell over money related to the book and movie, particularly after contesting Luttrell's version of events. Gulab is quoted saying "I'll never regret saving Marcus...[But] I regret what I did to help the movie. [And] I pray that one day Marcus tells America the truth."