Reposted from: Eun Kyung Kim – TODAY
The upcoming movie “Lone Survivor” recounts the harrowing experience of Marcus Luttrell as he and his fellow Navy SEALS fought off the Taliban in a remote Afghan village. But the intense battle depicted onscreen doesn’t come close to what actually happened, the real-life lone survivor said Tuesday on TODAY.
“The movie is, what, two hours? The gunfight was over three hours long,” Lutrell told NBC’s Kate Snow.
Based on a Luttrell’s memoir of the same name, “Lone Survivor” follows a team of Navy SEALS through a failed 2005 mission known as Operation Red Wings that cost the lives of 19 members of the U.S. military.
Luttrell, who is played in the movie by Mark Walhberg, was part of a four-man team assigned to a reconnaissance mission that centered on a senior Taliban leader. The crew’s cover was blown after a goat herder stumbled upon their hiding place. The three others on Luttrell’s team — Lt. Mike Murphy, Petty Officer Danny Dietz and Petty Officer Matthew Axelson — were killed in the battle that followed.
Lutrell said he had no choice but to keep fighting, even as he watched his comrades dying beside him.
“You just keep going. You get up, fight harder. Every time they take one of your friends down, teammates down, it kind of jacks you up a little bit harder,” he said.
“Lone Survivor” also recounts Luttrell’s rescue by the Afghan villager who saved his life, Mohammad Gulab.
“He started screaming, ‘American,’ and I spun around,” Luttrell recounted. “I was on my knees, and I had my gun at my hip — safety off, tension down on my trigger. He was looking rights down at me. I could see the whites of his eyes.”
Gulab said he had been trying to warn Luttrell.
“I was trying to tell him I wasn’t Taliban. I know that many enemy was