{"id":17467,"date":"2017-05-12T13:27:40","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T13:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/05\/12\/former-sniper-among-military-advisers-adding-realism-to-the-wall\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:50:40","slug":"former-sniper-among-military-advisers-adding-realism-to-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/off-duty\/2017\/05\/12\/former-sniper-among-military-advisers-adding-realism-to-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Former sniper among military advisers adding realism to ‘The Wall’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When a war movie is less about action and more about mind games, the filmmakers must pay special attention to detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the case, at least, with “The Wall,” the Amazon Studios-produced movie that comes out Friday starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Avengers: Age of Ultron”) and WWE superstar John Cena. They play U.S. soldiers conducting a stakeout in the Iraqi desert that goes very wrong\u00a0\u2014 Cena’s character is hit by a bullet from an unknown location, and Taylor-Johnson’s wounded character takes cover behind a crumbling wall, where he communicates with the mysterious sniper via radio. With much of the 90-minute movie focused on one soldier’s interactions with an unseen enemy, there’s plenty of time for the audience to observe tiny details. And the filmmakers and actors wanted to make sure they got those details right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays a soldier in Iraq whose main cover from an enemy sniper is a crumbling wall.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: David James\/Courtesy of Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I experienced a whole other side of working with the military, which is the individual soldiers and veterans who helped us make this movie,” said director Doug Liman, who also worked on “The Bourne Identity.” He’s received military support before, he said, but not like this:\u00a0Gold Star wives shared stories and photos of their husbands who died while serving in the military, for instance, and veterans shared their experiences in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those veterans, known to some simply as ” The Reaper<\/a>,” helped the filmmakers and actors maintain authenticity by relaying his own stories from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan as a sniper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Irving served with 3rd Ranger Battalion\u00a0from 2004 to 2010 and experienced something similar to what happens to the soldiers in “The Wall.”\u00a0In 2009, the staff sergeant was in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when his team was pinned down by an enemy sniper and Taliban insurgents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We were pinned down playing volleyball with bullets for about three hours,” Irving told Army Times.\u00a0He and five other members of his reconnaissance team were inside four-foot hole,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Things did not look too promising,” he said. “And we debated committing suicide.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Irving and his team could use a grenade for that purpose, a good friend of Irving’s rescued them and they relocated to a chest-high ravine. They remained under attack for another 12 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone had bullet holes in their clothes,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nick “The Reaper” Irving used his experiences as a sniper in Iraq and Afghanistan to help the filmmakers and actors.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Olugbenro Ogunsemore\/FOX<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irving knew Cena from working together on the Fox TV show “American Grit,” and after Cena received the script for “The Wall,” he wanted Irving to take a look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irving ended up flying to California and was on set for the movie’s entire three-week production, adjusting the script whenever something didn’t fit right with the military. Usually, it was terminology.\u00a0 “We would sit inside the office and go line by line for hours on end,” Irving said. “Going over and fixing different things within the script that didn’t fit right with the military.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irving also helped the actors get into the mindset of being out in the desert with an enemy.\u00a0Taylor-Johnson\u00a0would ask for suggestions: “How would this go about \u2026 what would you say here \u2026 how did you feel here?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Wall” shows details that would happen in real life, like the proper way for\u00a0Taylor-Johnson’s\u00a0character to apply a tourniquet and gauze after he’s shot, Irving said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the methods Irving used to figure out a sniper’s distance was the so-called “snap-bang theory,” which uses sound delay to give an idea of how far away the shot is coming from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without electronics in a situation like that, Irving said, you have to go back to a “gritty, on-the-fly type of sniping.”