Marines Battle Extraterrestrials in Hollywood
By Sgt. James S. Goff, LOS ANGELES
The Marines and Hollywood actor Tom Cruise have something in common: Saving the world from an alien invasion.
Marines from 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance, 1st Recon and 1st Tank battalions, 1st Marine Division, joined forces to show off their combined military prowess against evil aliens when filming a simulated and intense combat scene for the Steven Spielberg film "War of the Worlds."
The Marines' biggest moment in the film included a massive battle scene that pitted Marines from Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms against computer generated other-worldly enemies. The battle was an all-out assault with light armored assault vehicles, M-1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and a barrage of .50 caliber machine guns.
However, the Corps' role didn't just include being the stars of the movie’s ultimate battle scene, Marines also worked behind the scenes to ensure their accurate and realistic portrayal in the big budget film.
Maj. Kevin Collins, executive and operations officer for 1st Tank Bn., 1st MarDiv, was in charge of numerous Marines working as extras in the film and helped focus on cueing the Marines' actions and coordinated their safety while vehicles were on the move.
"Director Steven Spielberg went out of his way to include us in the process of filmmaking, allowing me to rewrite a section of the script to make it more realistic, which he then shot on film," said Collins. Collins credits the overall safety and incident-free event to the close supervision and situational awareness of the Marines involved.
"We had hundreds of extras running back and forth with tanks, (light armored vehicles) and (humvees) attacking these huge alien vehicles," Collins said. “The professional safety controls we all implemented really kept this shoot safe even with massive pyrotechnic effects and huge amounts of blank firing.
Cruise, who plays a dockworker struggling to get his family to safety once the aliens attack, stated that his experience working with the Marines was unforgettable. Working alongside the Marines, "Was an absolute pleasure," Cruise said.
