A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal... Read allA reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
- Dave
- (as Todd Latourrette)
- Kuwait Waiter
- (as Fawad Masood Siddiqui)
- Journalist #1
- (as Samuel Gates)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJeff Bridges' character Bill Django is based on Army Lt. Col. James Channon, who wrote the First Earth Battalion field manual. In the mid-'70s Channon took a leave of absence (with pay) from the army to go on a fact-finding tour of the New Age Movement, before coming back and writing the First Earth Battalion manual. The movie combines two or three separate programs: the Army's Remote Viewing program (run by the army's Intelligence and Security Command); the "Jedi" program run by the Special Forces; and Channon's First Earth Battalion (which was a concept and a field manual rather than an operational unit).
- GoofsWhen Brigadier General Dean Hopgood is introduced, his uniform shows two stars, indicating a Major General. A Brigadier General has one star.
- Quotes
Bill Django: Mother Earth, you're my life support system. As a soldier I must drink your blue water, live inside your red clay and eat your green skin. Help me to balance myself. As you hold in balance, the Earth, the sea, and the space environments. Help me to open my heart, knowing that the Universe will feed me. I pray my boots will always kiss your face, and my footsteps match your heartbeat. Carry my body through space and time. You're my connection to the Universe and all that comes after. I'm yours and you are mine. I salute you.
- Crazy creditsAlthough this film is inspired by Jon Ronson's Book The Men Who Stare At Goats, it is a fiction, and while the characters Lynn Cassady and Bill Django are based on actual persons, Sergeant Glenn Wheaton and Colonel Jim Channon, all other characters are invented or are composites and are not portrayals of actual persons. The filmmakers ask that no one attempt walking through walls, cloudbursting while driving, or staring for hours at goats with the intent of harming them... invisibility is fine.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Jay Leno Show: Episode #1.32 (2009)
- SoundtracksAlright
Written by Danny Goffey, Gaz Coombes and Mick Quinn
Performed by Supergrass
Courtesy of EMI Records Ltd.
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music
Ewan McGregor plays journalist Bob Wilton, a jilted husband who goes to war to forget his backstabbing wife only to end up wiling away in Kuwait. One night he meets Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), a familiar name to him from a previous interview he did years before about psychic-spies. Lyn was the best in what was called the "New Earth Army", started by Vietnam-Vet Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) in the 80's to create soldiers with super-powers who could prevent conflict. The Army was later dismantled and used for evil purposes by the movie's antagonist Hooper (Kevin Spacey) but Lyn tells Bob he's been re-activated, and has a secret mission to do in Iraq. Bob, thinking Lyn crazy but interesting at the same time, decides to team up with him and go where the action is. Along the way, Lyn tells him stories of others dubbed, "Jedi Warriors."
Most of the movie is flashbacks, beginning with Iraq War 2003 and chronicling all the way back to the beginning of New Age warfare. There are weird and crazy laughs to be had like Lyn's initiation, where Django urges him he will never be a soldier unless he can free the dance. The lines are good too. "We tried invisibility but then worked it down to just not being seen", Lyn tells Bob upon their first meeting. Clooney is perfectly eccentric as a guy who lives by the mindfulness-over-warfare principal and McGregor is a whiny, but solid straight-man. Bridges is also terrific as this free-spirited hippie. Only the laughs and flashbacks (which feel like a series of sketches) aren't enough to distract from the fact that "Goats" really has no compelling narrative. The forward-moving story in Iraq 2003 has very little momentum. Spacey appears later on again as the villain but the conflict is weak and the movie has more than over-stayed its welcome.
- C-Younkin
- Nov 5, 2009
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $32,428,195
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $12,706,654
- Nov 8, 2009
- Gross worldwide
- $69,095,771
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1