G.I. Jane is a 1997 action film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen.
Senator Lillian DeHaven of Texas (Anne Bancroft) publicly criticizes the United States Navy for its failure to integrate both male and female recruits to all its services. She strikes a deal, arranging for a series of test cases. A single woman will join each branch currently fully-staffed by males service and try to perform as well as her male colleagues. The first test case has Lieutenant Jordan O' Neil (Moore) joining the U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team.
The Lieutenant has to contend with the brutal training regime of Command Master Chief John James Urgayle (Mortensen), trumped up charges of being a lesbian (violating the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy), attempts to relegate her to desk jobs, and double-crossing allies. Her graduation test involves an actual operation in the Libyan Desert.
Not to confuse with G.I. Joe.
The film features examples of:
- All Abusers Are Male: Averted but mentioned. Jordan has a black eye (among other injuries) after her POW training. While at a bar in the bathroom, another woman sees it and says "Not that it's any of my business, but I'd say dump the bastard."
- Anti-Villain: Urgayle (type IV) is a pretty decent guy outside of training. And even when he's making his recruits' lives hell, it's what they pay him to do.
- Artistic License – Geography: When the troops are landing in Libya, the coast is shown to be southern, with sea south of the land. Libya has no southern coast.
- Artistic License – Military:
- The all-black "Johnny Cash" office uniform with black slacks and long-sleeved shirts worn by Lt. O'Neil and the Captain when she arrives at the training center, while technically a proper uniform for the time period, is extremely rare in everyday use. Most officers would use a khaki version of that uniform with short sleeves.
- When standing at attention just before training begins, all the trainees stand in ranks with their palms flat at their sides and arms fully extended in the European style. All American military branches stand at attention with their hands in fists and arms slightly bent so their hands sit at their hips.
- O'Neal is a lieutenant but is referred to only by her last name during training by instructors and trainees alike. She would be addressed as "lieutenant" or "Lt O'Neal", as military courtesies exist even in a training environment.
- Time-sensitive special teams training may put somewhat severe limits on the time allowed for food, but certainly not enough to compel trainees to shove each other through the galley just to down a few mouthfulls. On the contrary, such trainees are normally encouraged to eat heartily, as the consistent training requires an increased calorie input to keep up. And, for health reasons if nothing else, they certainly aren't forced to eat out of garbage cans.
- The command master chiefs of any given command rarely involves himself with direct work in the same way Urgayle does with his instructors. The command master chief's job is to be the liason to the commanding officer in regards to matters and concerns involving enlisted personnel at the command. In a training command, he would have a say regarding the training cirriculum and preparation and in the guidelines as to how the instructors go about fulfilling such, but he personally would not be involved in the training evaluations himself.
- Navy SEAL hair regulations for women just require it to be neat and above the collar, just like how Jordan wears it when she first arrives. In fact, as the objective is to look professional, Jordan's shaved head would have the opposite effect, as a bald woman would be frowned upon. Female West Point cadets for example had their hair bobbed in basic training. Tellingly, Jordan's Important Haircut wasn't in the script, and was Demi Moore's suggestion.
- Troops on patrol would use call signs, usually numerical, over the radio rather than their names just in case enemy interception of the signal gave away personal information.
- During POW training, Jordan is beaten so badly her face is left bloodied. Elsewhere in training, an injured officer is struck repeatedly on his wounded knee to make him drop out. Even within the confines of SEAL training, these assaults would be considered illegal and the instructors could face court martial for them.
- The trainees are briefed by the submarine's commanding officer on their upcoming mission, when that would usually be done by someone else, typically an intelligence officer.
- The film portrays drown proofing training as being done more like waterboarding - having water poured onto your face and mouth. SEAL drown proofing is done in a swimming pool.
- Trainees would not be redirected from their training to complete a real world operation without having first completed their training.
- Jordan says she's survived Jump and Dive school, but she has no Jump or Dive pins on her uniform, and as an intelligence officer, it's highly unlikely she would attend either school.
- O'Neal gets her Special Ops pin in silver when officers receive theirs in gold. Before this, she receives some fake "SEAL CRT" pin, despite the instructors wearing the real Trident, which is replaced by the Trident in the next scene.
- Navy SEAL training is called Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training, or BUD/S, not Combined Reconnaissance Team. Captain Salem mentions some of the trainees are qualified SEALs, which begs the question of why they would be going through initial SEAL training, and that some trainees were from US Marine Force Recon, when only members of the US Navy can become SEALs (it is highly unusual for someone in a special forces unit such as Force Recon to start over in another branch's special forces).
- Artistic License – Statistics:
- Having 100% of a test set of 1 woman undergoing SEAL training pass or fail wouldn't prove anything. Especially since most men who apply for said training also fail. Justified in that setting her up to fail was the explicit goal of putting her in the SEAL program, and someone who is actively seeking confirmation bias isn't going to be much interested in what the statistic would or wouldn't actually indicate.
- SEAL training is stated to have a 60% dropout rate. It's actually 75-80%.
- Badass Boast: After one of the new recruits idiotically decides to laugh during Command Master Chief Urgayle's opening speech, the latter walks up to the recruit and responds with a boast where he basically compares himself to God.Urgayle: The ebb and flow of the Atlantic tides, the drift of the continents, the very position of the sun along its ecliptic. THESE are just a FEW of the things I control in my world! Is that clear?
- Bald Head of Toughness: After realizing she is being treated much more delicately than her male counterparts, Jordan shaves her head completely and demands equal treatment from her peers. Cue a Training from Hell that was meant to break her, but only served to make her that much more competent and stronger.
- Beauty Inversion: Between her shaved head and the brutal fitness regimen she went through, Demi Moore, known at the time as a sex symbol, wound up with a deliberately defeminized, androgynous appearance. Years later, Moore said
that this was part of the reason why the film hurt her career, as many male viewers who normally watched her movies to ogle her saw it as Fan Disservice. - Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Jordan gets beaten all to hell during SERE training and has large grazes and scabs on her face for several scenes following.
- Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Jordan is the first woman to join the the U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team, as part of a program to test the viability of allowing more women to do so.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Command Master Chief John James Urgayle is Captain Smooth (only once does he ever bark at a trainee), while his two subordinate instructors jointly fill the Sergeant Rough position.
- Chekhov's Skill: The fact that Jordan used to be a Navy intelligence officer.
- Corrupt Politician: Senator DeHaven to the point where she frames Jordan for being a lesbian in order to avoid military bases closing in her home state of Texas.
- Dare to Be Badass: After the mission briefing, Urgayle turns to the assembled CRT trainees and asks simply, "who's not ready?" No one speaks up.
- Determinator: Jordan endures physical and emotional abuse, sexist discrimination and rigorous physical challenges during her training to join the Navy SEALs, but refuses to drop out.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: On the firearms course, the instructor shows the trainees the tried-and-true method of waterproofing a rifle: stretching a condom over the barrel, provoking lewd laughter from the male trainees and prompting Slovnik to leer at Jordan.
- Double Standard:
- Jordan receives preferential treatment in her training at first such as being allowed an additional thirty seconds to finish a training course and being given an aid step for an obstacle, until she goes to her CO and points out that this is only making her male comrades resent her and defeats the purpose of the argument that women are equal, and demands it stop.
- When Lt. Blondell, Jordan's physician, asks her why she's going through the training, Jordan asks if Blondell asks the men the same thing. Subverted; Blondell replies that she does ask the men the same question.
- During the POW training the interrogation instructor doesn't want to harm Jordan, but Urgayle, understanding the necessity, has no such reservations and proceeds to beat her mercilessly, and even asks her while he has a headlock on her if he thinks they should treat the women differently to which Jordan screams, "Never!"
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Command Master Chief John James "Jack" Urgayle is a more sedate, erudite version, but no less nasty. He also personally conducts torture on Jordan for SERE training. He is however one of the few characters that displays no sexism, treating Jordan just like any of the other recruits, and doesn't seem to tolerate it either. He also eases off a bit when she proves herself, same as he would with any of the men.
- The Dulcinea Effect:
- In private with Jordan, Urgayle mentions that the Israeli Defense Forces tried using women in combat, but concluded that it was not feasible because male soldiers would stop to try and help wounded females, even fatally wounded ones, often at the expense of their own lives. Jordan then elicits that Urgayle received the Navy Cross for pulling a man out of a burning tank, and points out the double standard:Jordan: So if you stop and help a man, that makes you a hero, but if a man stops to help a woman, that means he's gone soft?
- Not stated outright but the Real Life outcome of women in combat situations is invoked by Urgayle when he brutally beats Jordan in front of the male trainees during POW training in order to get information from them, and it proves more effective than interrogating the male trainees themselves, as they are clearly about to crack.Newberry: O'Neill, tell him something or I will!
O'Neill: Don't you tell him shit!
- In private with Jordan, Urgayle mentions that the Israeli Defense Forces tried using women in combat, but concluded that it was not feasible because male soldiers would stop to try and help wounded females, even fatally wounded ones, often at the expense of their own lives. Jordan then elicits that Urgayle received the Navy Cross for pulling a man out of a burning tank, and points out the double standard:
- Elites Are More Glamorous: In-Universe. Senator DeHayne practically drools at the idea of getting a woman accepted into SEAL CRT training, thinking she'll reap massive political gains even if her protegee flunks out in two weeks.
- Averted by C.O. Salem in his opening speech to dispel any romantic notions the applicants might have: not only are they in for the Training from Hell, but the only "privilege" enjoyed by those who pass the course and become CRTs is being deployed more often (and to the most dangerous warzones) than any other unit in the U.S. military.That is all that is to be said about the "special" nature of the CRT training program.
- Averted by C.O. Salem in his opening speech to dispel any romantic notions the applicants might have: not only are they in for the Training from Hell, but the only "privilege" enjoyed by those who pass the course and become CRTs is being deployed more often (and to the most dangerous warzones) than any other unit in the U.S. military.
- Forbidden Fruit: Jordan tells her boyfriend that the more she is tried to be forced out of the program, the more she wants to complete it.
- Forced to Watch: As part of their POW training, Urgayle brutally beats Jordan and pretends that he's about to rape her in front of the male trainees in order to get them to give up information.
- Gender-Blender Name: "Jordan" is both a male and female name.
- Gender Is No Object: The film's aesop is that militaries should be this way. The main character runs into the gender barrier when she joins up for the grueling SEAL training program (even receiving preferential treatment at first that defeats the whole purpose of integration) not simply because she's a woman, but because Men Are the Expendable Gender. Interestingly, Master Chief Urgayle also cites a real-world limitation of this trope, discovered when the Israelis and Russians both tried to field gender-unified combat units: men seem to have an instinctual urge to protect women, even when the women in question are fellow soldiers. In the case of the Israelis, this led to a degradation of unit cohesion, as the male soldiers would abandon their mission to rescue wounded female colleagues. (The Russians abandoned the idea of employing female combat soldiers, while the Israelis began using segregated combat units of both all-male or all-female combat soldiers.)
- Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: Jordan uses the threat of this to get Senator DeHaven to drop the trumped-up charges against her.Jordan: If I have to ask anyone again, Senator, I'll be asking on C-SPAN.
- Important Haircut: When Jordan shaves her head in an attempt to invoke Bald Head of Toughness, the camera switches between multiple angles to underscore her badass, determined expression.
- I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Critics reacted to Jordan's character as if Demi Moore herself was going through what she did. Even on This Very Wiki, posts will refer to Jordan as Demi instead.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Urgayle approaches Jordan in private while she is using the squad shower to share some Brutal Honesty with her. He doesn't even flinch when she turns to face him head-on, wearing nothing but her dog tags.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Used on the trainees during their POW training, most notably by Urgayle on Jordan.
- Jackie Robinson Story: Pretty much the entire plot.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Urgayle is a hardass, but he is shown to care about Jordan the same as any of his other trainees after she proves herself, and is a polite, refined gentleman in his off-duty hours. He is one of the few characters who Jordan's gender never seems to be an issue for, one way or another.
- Kill Sat: The operation at the end of the movie is to recover one of these.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Jordan discusses this with Senator DeHaven after DeHaven reveals she had never intended for Jordan to succeed in the program, and it was all just a ruse to score political points.DeHaven: The truth is, the choice isn't yours, and it isn't mine. American families are just not prepared to have their daughters and young mothers in harm's way.Jordan: You don't know that.
DeHaven: Yes, I do. Roper, Paris, Gallup, all the polls, they all come back the same way.
Jordan: What are you saying? That a woman's life is more valuable than a man's? That a woman's death is more hurtful than a man's?
DeHaven: No politician can afford to let women come home in body bags, especially me. - Metaphorically True: Jordan cannot pick up Urgayle by herself, but her heroism inspires her squaddies to help get him to safety. This is enough for Urgayle to give her his Navy Cross, which had been awarded to him "for pulling a 240-pound man out of a burning tank."note
- Multi-Take Cut: Used in the scene in which Jordan shaves her head.
- No Periods, Period: Averted. When Jordan moves into the male barracks, Slovnik is disgusted when he finds a box of tampons.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Swimming back from a failed boating exercise, McCool confides to O'Neill and his other teammates that his grandfather was not allowed to enlist in the Navy during World War II (unless he was willing to be a cook), because it was "common knowledge" that "Negroes can't see at night." Flea remarks that things have changed since then, and McCool shoots back that they haven't really, if it's still "common knowledge" that women can't serve in combat.McCool: So you see, O'Neill, I know where you're coming from. To them you're just the new n*** on the block, that's all. Maybe you just moved in too early.
O'Neill: Thanks, man. - Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "SUCK... MY... DICK!"
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: During the POW training, when Urgayle is brutally beating Jordan in front of the male trainees, he starts to cut off her pants as if he's about to rape her, simulating what would most likely happen if they were captured for real.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: C.O. Salem gives one to Lt. O'Neil when he talks about the concessions he's had to make to accommodate her:Salem: Most of all what I resent is your perfume, however subtle, interfering with the scent of my fine three dollar and seventy-nine cent cigar, which I will put out this instant if the phallic nature of it happens to offend your goddamn fragile sensibilities!
- Sensitivity Training: Before the title character starts SEAL training, all of the instructors have to receive sensitivity training so they know not to sexually harass her.
- Shower Scene: Jordan showers while Urgayle talks to her.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Subverted. Before deploying the SEAL trainees, the submarine captain takes Urgayle aside and demands Brutal Honesty, saying that if Urgayle has any reason to believe they're not ready for real combat, he must say so now. Urgayle doesn't even hesitate:Urgayle: We'll be fine, sir.
Captain: Excellent. - The Squadette: Jordan.
- Stuff Blowing Up: When Lt. Blondell, Jordan's physician, asks her why she's going through the training.Jordan: Do you ask the men the same question?Blondell: As a matter of fact, yes, I do ask them.Jordan: And what do they say?Blondell: "'Cause I get to blow shit up."Jordan: Well, there you go.
- Things Get Real: The final phase of training, an operational readiness exercise, is interrupted by an emergency that requires the CRT trainees' support: A reconnaissance satellite powered by weapons-grade plutonium fell into the Libyan desert, and a team of U.S. Army Rangers was dispatched to retrieve the plutonium, but their evacuation plan failed, and the trainees are sent to assist the Rangers.
- Torture Always Works: Not stated outright, but Urgayle mentions how waterboarding is a very effective interrogation technique while Jordan is having it done on her for a training exercise.
- Training from Hell: Jordan experiences Navy SEAL training, which is generally considered among the toughest, if not the toughest, training in the US military, including actual tortures like waterboarding (so they can learn to withstand torture if they fall into enemy hands).
- Truth in Television: SEREnote school is universally reviled by everyone that goes through it and everyone that runs it, specifically because normal, reasonable circumstances are thrown out. The only rules are: nothing sexual, and the trainee can't be killed. Everything else is fair game. It messes with the trainees' heads (the thought that "They can't be allowed to do this" takes a while to go away), and the trainers' heads.
- Wicked Cultured: Master Chief Urgayle. A conoisseur of fine wine and poetry and reader of classic literature. In a rare twist, these traits are applied to a senior enlisted personnel rather than an officer where they would be more expected.
- Womanliness as Pathos: This trope is exploited by several characters to try and justify their beliefs that a woman is unfit to join and inherently disruptive to a Navy Seal unit. The main character, O'Neil, is put through miserable hazing and bullying, accused of being a predatory lesbian, and Master Chief Urgayle begins to sexually assault her during a training exercise to show what is "likely" to happen to a woman captured by the enemy — an action that all of the male trainees fiercely object to but do not try to stop. O'Neil fights off Urgayle before things go too far, leaving it ambiguous whether or not he would have truly gone that far.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: During the POW training the interrogation instructor doesn't want to harm Jordan, but Urgayle, understanding the necessity, has no such reservations and proceeds to beat her mercilessly. The other instructor is forced to leave when he raises a stink about it.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Jordan is given an additional 30 seconds to finish the first course, and she finished behind Cortez, whose time was 13:10. The course said cadets had to finish in twelve minutes or less, so even with an additional 30 seconds, she still shouldn't have passed. Unless they passed her anyway and that's why she's so annoyed.
- Young Face, Old Eyes: David Twohy's screenplay describes Master Chief Urgayle as "Body 30. Face 50. Eyes 100." Viggo Mortensen - who later played the much-Older Than They Look Aragorn in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy - plays this aspect of the role to perfection.