An epic action-adventure

MANILA, Philippines – From Armageddon to Pearl Harbor to the Transformers franchise, director Michael Bay has spent his 20-year career giving human stories the epic, action-adventure treatment. Together, his 11 films have grossed a staggering $5B-plus, making him the fourth most successful director of all time.

Now, Bay brings audiences Paramount Pictures’ 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, the gripping true story of six elite ex-military operators assigned to protect the CIA who fought back against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked a US diplomatic compound on Sept. 11, 2012. When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right.

The film is written by Chuck Hogan, based on the book 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff and members of the annex security team, and stars James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Pablo Schreiber, Toby Stephens, David Denman and Dominic Fumusa.

The real-life soldiers were happy with the choice of Bay to direct 13 Hours. “I thought Armageddon was awesome,” says Kris “Tanto” Paronto, a former Army Ranger. Former Marine Mark “Oz” Geist adds, “Some people are like, ‘Oh, Michael Bay, he does all the explosions.’ Well, the real event had plenty of explosions. So it’s not like he had to come up with any.”

Bay says the main point of the movie is to honor the heroism of the soldiers. “There was a great human story, that got buried. And that’s the story I’m telling: The guys who were on the ground. The men and women that were stuck in the CIA annex, and how they fought for 13 hours to get out of there alive. We worked very hard to get the facts right from the research of the book that (Zuckoff) did to the amazing access I have from working 20 years with the military, from the boots on the ground, the people who were in country to the CIA at a high level meeting to get just the facts right, the recently-released e-mails. We just had to get it right.”

(13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, now showing nationwide, is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.)