History Film / TheMenWhoStareAtGoats

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: At the ending of the film, Bill and Lynn steal a helicopter after lacing the base's water supply with PCP and fly off after [[ButNowIMustGo giving a grand farewell speech]] to Bob and him saying that "like all grand shamans, they returned to the sky". They were never found afterwards and the U.S. Army's investigation theorized the most probable reason why is that they crashed the helicopter in the middle of the Iraq desert and died on impact -- the most probable outcome of two men who do not have helicopter training and were stoned to the very edge of being out of their minds stealing a helicopter.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: While it's most likely no coincidence that Ewan [=McGregor=] constantly talks about Jedi, the real organization covered actually did use Star Wars references.

* HistoricalFiguresInArchivalMedia: UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush appears in the opening credits as the catalyst for Bill heading to Iraq to cover the war.

* TheAlcoholic: Bill is a somewhat functional variation: "Over the years I've built a tolerance to all forms of narcotics."

** By the time [[spoiler:Bill Django]] is found working for Hooper, it seems that years of drug use and earlier failures have left him a permanent and almost crippled example of this.

* BedouinRescueService: Downplayed. Bob and Lyn are picked up by a helicopter crew in the desert.

* KnifeNut: Ben Echmeyer. Some of his more practical teachings (contrast with ShareTheMalePain entry below).

[[TheFilmOfTheBook Based on]] a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats book]], which in turn was an account of a true story. No, really.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: The movie opens with [a mustachioed [[{{Film/Avatar}} Colonel Quaritch]] getting up from a desk and deliberately running head-first into a wall. Cut to a title card stating "More of this story is true than you would believe." The juxtaposition is funny.

* HistoricalFiguresInArchivalMedia: Creator/GeorgeWBush appears in the opening credits as the catalyst for Bill heading to Iraq to cover the war.

* CuteKitten: Part of the reason the American army started investigating psychic powers was due to Russian experiments started because they thought Americans were already investigating this. Part of the experimentation did include scaring kittens. Obviously, those DirtyCommunists went too far in doing so. [[NotSoDifferent America learned its lesson when their soldiers failed to shoot dogs, and instead abused goats.]]

* RealityEnsues: One of the more likely theories as to what happens to Bill and Lyn after the end of the movie. As Bob mentions in narration and the Army investigation pointed out, it was two guys with no knowledge of how to fly and high as a kite hijacking a helicopter -- chances of crashing were pretty high.

** Ben Echmeyer's knife-fighting technique that he taught the First Earth Battalion includes a move in which the knife-fighter jumps at his target with arms outstretched in an eagle-like dive. Bob snarks in narration that it's an InUniverse invocation of CrazyAwesome, as in the target is so bewildered at how insane the other guy must be to try ''that'' that it allows the knife-fighter to get close to stab him.

* SmugSnake: Hooper.
* SoundtrackDissonance: During the opening credits: upbeat music played to clips of Bob packing and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

* WeirdHistoricalWar: A very unusual RealLife example and actually invoked by Hophood when he asks funding for the creation of the First Earth Battalion: maybe it's a whole lot of bupkis, but it also may be true, and in the case that it ''is'' true, America ''cannot'' allow the Russians to hold supremacy in the field of the paranormal.

''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' is a 2009 comedy film directed by Grant Heslov, starring Creator/GeorgeClooney, Creator/EwanMcGregor, Creator/JeffBridges and Creator/KevinSpacey.

* ArmiesAreEvil: Thanks to Larry's scheming, the First Earth Battalion was turned into PSIC, the Army's ''torture division'' (which aside from locking people in rooms and keeping them awake with Barney the Dinosaur music mentions in a quick joke that they used to toss dismembered corpses around to frighten people). Explicitly compared to the Dark Side of the Force.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Locking people in small rooms wherein you flash blinding strobe lights at them while continually playing the "I Love You, You Love Me" song from ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' as loud as you can without making them permanently deaf, until they break from sleep deprivation and sensory overload.]] Variations of this are actually TruthInTelevision.

-->'''Hopgood:''' Did ''you'' make those computers go out?
-->'''Lin:''' ''(sadly sheepish)'' Yes, sir.
-->'''Hopgood:''' ''(grinning broadly)'' Far out!
* WarOnTerror: The trunk narrative takes place in war-torn Iraq.

* RealityEnsues: One of the more likely theories as to what happens to Bill and Lyn after the end of the movie.

* CallToAdventure: "I was a [[LordOfTheRings Hobbit safe in the Shire]], a [[Franchise/StarWars blond farm-boy on a remote desert planet who had no idea that he was about to be drawn into an epic struggle between the forces of good and evil.]]"

** SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: On the other hand, Music/{{Boston}}'s "More Than a Feeling" is ''very'' appropriate.