Rescue Dawn question (Minor spoilers inside)

[FP]

It is based on a true story so the ending should come as no surprise.

When he is on the chopper after being rescued one of the soldiers has him pinned down and is screaming at him to "authenticate" which he eventually replies "rescue dawn." They subsequently ask him 2 more questions which he answers and the chopper pilot says "confirmed!" and everyone laughs and hugs.

I understand these code words are used to identify friendlies but are they also used to identify specific soldiers? When a soldier goes out on a mission are they individually assigned a code word to use?

Very good movie, the acting was different but it really portrayed how terrible the situation was.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

i didnt even hear about this movie till this thread.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Originally posted by: HybridSquirrel
i didnt even hear about this movie till this thread.

x2

 

[OrganizedChaos]

He should have kept the sole for sentimental value.

 

[0roo0roo]

theres a documentary called little deiter learns to fly by the same diretor on this dude.

 

[FP]

Nobody knows? Maybe I should change the title to get more of our military folk in here.

 

[keird]

There are procedures in place to verify identities of service members. Dead (dental and DNS). Alive - I won't go in to the specifics, but the scene that you describe sounds like a hybrid of a couple different procedures.

 

[ElFenix]

great movie, dunno the answer to the question though.

 

[AUMM]

just saw this movie last night, great flick

 

[Squisher]

Even if we have some military pop in here, they might not know what procedures were in 1967.



BTW-when Dieter meets his fellow POWs those shots of their shrunken stomachs had to be CGI. No?

 

[Rubycon]

Looked at title - I didn't know I was in trouble. :Q

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Squisher
Even if we have some military pop in here, they might not know what procedures were in 1967.



BTW-when Dieter meets his fellow POWs those shots of their shrunken stomachs had to be CGI. No?

You can read up on a lot of it online. Most of them really did lose the weight themselves, as did Christian Bale. He also really did eat maggots in that one scene.

 

[purbeast0]

i just watched this last night. it was different than i expected and a pretty slow movie. it was pretty cool how you actually could see christian bale getting skinnier as it went on, and yah, those other guys were freaking skinny as hell. my fiancee and i kept wondering if it was real or not.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Christian Bale FTW. If you think he's skinny in this, watch The Machinist.

From IMDB:

The producers of the film claim that Christian Bale dropped from about 180 pounds in weight down to about 120 pounds in weight to make this film. They also claim that Bale actually wanted to drop down to 100 pounds, but that they would not let him go below 120 out of fear that his health could be in too much danger if he did. His diet consisted of one can of tuna and an apple per day. His 63-pound weight loss is said to be a record for any actor for a movie role. He regained the weight in time for his role in Batman Begins (2005).

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
great movie, dunno the answer to the question though.

agreed

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Looked at title - I didn't know I was in trouble. :Q

you're not dawn any more....

 

[Vonkhan]

Yes, that's the way it works. When Scott O'Grady was rescued, he was required to authenticate by his high school nickname when drunk

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: binister
...I understand these code words are used to identify friendlies but are they also used to identify specific soldiers? When a soldier goes out on a mission are they individually assigned a code word to use?...

<--- 12 years in the military and never heard of using authentication on specific soldiers.

 

[jjones]

I wondered about near the end of the movie when Duane gets killed. I wondered if it really happened that way. Since Dieter was the only one to make it back, he could have said anything about Duane's death.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: jmmtn4aj

Originally posted by: HybridSquirrel
i didnt even hear about this movie till this thread.

x2

shame. it spent so little time in the theaters. Werner Herzog is one of those directors to pay attention to.

anyhoo, watched this on Blu Ray over the weekend (awesome!). And I loved it. felt a little "off" at the beginning, but it really sucked me in.

I understood Rescue Dawn to be the call sign for his mission, and to identify the unit he was with. I believe that is what prompted the CIA to take him into custody

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Squisher
Even if we have some military pop in here, they might not know what procedures were in 1967.



BTW-when Dieter meets his fellow POWs those shots of their shrunken stomachs had to be CGI. No?

no. they actually starved themselves for the role, without prompting by Herzog. talk about dedication...

actually, the Laotian guy that looks the worse off, suffered from renal failure shorty before filming, so lost some 80 pounds b/c of his kidneys shutting down--he never tried to starve himself, but apparently pretended that he did while on set.

 

[Clockwerk]

Sounds like sign/counter-sign or duress codes, can't imagine remembering them that long though.

 

[Rudee]

I tried watching this movie on PPV the other day, but turned it off half way through as it was boring as heck.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Rudee
I tried watching this movie on PPV the other day, but turned it off half way through as it was boring as heck.

SUX2BU!

 

[HombrePequeno]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
Christian Bale FTW. If you think he's skinny in this, watch The Machinist.

From IMDB:

The producers of the film claim that Christian Bale dropped from about 180 pounds in weight down to about 120 pounds in weight to make this film. They also claim that Bale actually wanted to drop down to 100 pounds, but that they would not let him go below 120 out of fear that his health could be in too much danger if he did. His diet consisted of one can of tuna and an apple per day. His 63-pound weight loss is said to be a record for any actor for a movie role. He regained the weight in time for his role in Batman Begins (2005).

Not only that but he actually bulked up too much (Christopher Nolan didn't specify how much to bulk up) so he is actually slimmed down a little bit in Batman Begins.

One of my friends is in love with anything Herzog. I've only seen this one so far so I'm definitely going to check out other Herzog flicks.