History Film / BlackHawkDown

* MonochromeCasting: With the exception of Kurth, all the other American characters are white.[[note]]The book explains that there are aren't many black rangers because few black candidates are able to pass the swimming requirements, a side-effect of American socioeconomics.[[/note]]

* RealityIsUnrealistic: People have pointed out that the soldiers never use the downed helicopters' mounted miniguns to defend the crash sites. Miniguns do not work without electricity, making them functionally useless.

* InterserviceRivalry: Between the Rangers and the Deltas. Steele outright accuses the Deltas of being undisciplined cowboys while Delta regards the Rangers as subpar (at least compared to the unquestionably elite Delta Force) soldiers hamstrung by conventional Army thinking.

* CoolGuns: Whereas the Rangers have only [=M16s=], some with [=M203=] grenade launchers, [=M249s=] and in one case an [=M60=], all with iron sights... the Deltas not only have different helmets and tactical vests but also Colt Model 727 (14.5" barrel) and 733 (11.5") carbines with red-dot optics and weapon lights. An older [=CAR-15=] and an anachronistic [=M4A1=] are also seen. Shughart, one of the Delta marksmen, carries an old-style scoped [=M14=], and his partner Gordon carries a suppressed and accessorized [=M733=], both with camouflage paint schemes. Captain Steele and a Ranger medic also use the [=M733=], but without any accessories. The Delta Force operators are also distinguished by their .45 caliber M1911 pistols, a notable contrast to the 9mm Beretta M9 pistols carried the rangers. The M9 was the standard issue pistol for the US Army at the time.
** According to the book, Shughart's use of the clumsy but powerful M14 is TruthInTelevision. The other operators would apparently tease him for insisting on it. Later on, while seething about his ammunition[[note]]high-velocity armor piercing rounds that passed right through his unarmored targets, causing minimal damage that could be shrugged off by fighters hopped up on khat[[/note]] (and everything else), SFC Howe would decide that Shughart was the smartest guy in the unit[[note]]the heavier 7.62x51mm rounds fired by the [=M14=] caused devastating wounds that couldn't be shrugged off[[/note]].

* SoldiersAtTheRear: One soldier has always been away from the fighting, a fact he says isn't his fault. It's because he has a rare and valuable skill beloved by the infantry that keeps him busy: he can type. [[note]]Although this might seem absurd to modern viewers, remember that in the early 90's, personal home computers were a relatively new thing and not everyone knew how to type or use those archaic, command line-based data entry systems.[[/note]]

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: As the helicopters fly out a version of Voodoo Child is performed by Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in a helicopter accident just a couple of years before the events of this film.

->''When I go home... and people ask me: "Hey, Hoot, why do you do it, man? Why? You some kind of war junkie?" I won't say a goddamn word. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand it's about the men next to you. And that's it.''

* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Not many, but a notable one is Hoot comforting Sgt. Eversmann after they were unable to save Smith.

-->'''Hassan''': You are the ranger who kills my people?\\

** Also, Aidid's fighters were banking on this tendency in the Americans. Yousuf Dahir Mo'alim told Bowden, for the book, that they felt the best way to hurt to Americans was to somehow shoot down one of the helicopters, which would make them rush to the scene where they could be bled.

* MustHaveCaffeine: A group of Rangers and Delta operators are bunkered up inside of a building, besieged by Aidid's militia. Grimes copes with the stress of the situation by finding a coffee pot somewhere and brewing some coffee, which he offers to one of the Deltas.

* InterserviceRivalry: Between the Rangers and the Deltas. Steele outright accuses the Deltas of being undisciplined cowboys while Delta regards the Rangers as subpar (at least compared to the unquestionably elite Delta Force)soldiers hamstrung by conventional Army thinking.

* DisasterDominoes: The convoy is being guided to the crash site by a surveillance plane overhead. However it does not speak directly to the convoy commander but to the headquarters then to the communications helicopter and then to Colonel McKnight. This causes a delay which means by the time they get the order to turn they have either missed the correct road or worse, turn down the wrong street entirely. Had the convoy been guided purely by the surveillance plane it could have secured the first crash site in time, freeing up other forces to head towards Durant's downed aircraft.

* DangerDeadpan: The pilots of Super Six-One calmly report that they're going down after the chopper is hit, and the co-pilot even manages to make a deadpan joke to the pilot. Mike Durant of Super Six-Four is portrayed as a lot more nervous, but his voice is still calm and even as he reports that the chopper is going down. Super Six-One wasn't as badly hit as Super Six-Four, where the helicopter was damaged, but then lost the tail rotor, while Six-One essentially had an engine get destroyed, but still had more control over the aircraft.

* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: A heated argument between soldiers near the beginning of the movie over whether or not "limo" is a real word, regardless of its presence or absence in the dictionary, and therefore legal to use in a game of ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}''.

** When Nelson, Twombly, and Yurek leave the vicinity of the target building to go to the Super Six One crash site, they apparently don't hear Galentine trying to raise them on coms. [[note]][[TruthInTelevision In real life]], radioman [=PFC=] Jason Moore couldn't talk to ''anybody'' on his backpack radio, as seen in the film when Galentine in his role tries to contact Capt Steele after Blackburn's fall. When he fast-roped from the helicopter, Galentine unknowingly clutched the wire to his radio mike between his rifle stock and the rope, and friction burned it through.[[/note]]

** When Nelson, Twombly, and Yurek leave the vicinity of the target building to go to the Super Six One crash site, they apparently don't hear Galentine trying to raise them on coms. [[note]][[TruthInTelevision In real life]], Galentine couldn't talk to ''anybody'' on his backpack radio, as seen in the film when he tries to contact Capt Steele after Blackburn's fall. When he fast-roped from the helicopter, Galentine unknowingly clutched the wire to his radio mike between his rifle stock and the rope, and friction burned it through.[[/note]]

* DescriptionCut: "Convoy is encountering light resistance." Cut to the convoy getting shot and blown up every which way.

** When Nelson, Twombly, and Yurek leave the vicinity of the target building to go to the Super Six One crash site, they apparently don't hear Galentine trying to raise them on coms. ([[TruthInTelevision In real life]], Galentine couldn't talk to ''anybody'' on his backpack radio, as seen when he tries to contact Capt Steele early on. When he fast-roped from the helicopter, Galentine unknowingly clutched the wire to his radio mike against the rope, and friction burned it through.)

** When Nelson, Twombly, and Yurek leave the vicinity of the target building to go to the Super Six One crash site, they apparently don't hear Gallentine trying to raise them on coms. ([[TruthInTelevision In real life]], Galentine had trouble radioing ''anybody'', as seen when he tries to contact Capt Steele early on. When he fast-roped from the helicopter, Galentine accidentally clutched the wire to his radio mike against the rope, and the friction burned it through.)

** General Garrison wanted [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier light armor]] and [[CoolPlane gunship support]][[note]]notably an AC-130[[/note]] for his men, but the request was denied so they were stuck with Humvees, Black Hawks and Little Birds.

** When Nelson, Twombly, and Yurek leave the vicinity of the target building to go to the Super Six One crash site, they apparently don't hear Gallentine trying to raise them on coms.

* {{Retirony}}: According to the book, most of the men in the platoon were just married, intending to marry, intending to get a new job or a promotion, a new father, an expecting father, etc. Justified because marrying and having kids young is very common in the military for various reasons, most prominent being that they are in a career where they could be killed at any moment.

* HeadbuttOfLove: Non-romantic example. At the end of the movie, two Rangers who have just returned safely to their base do this as a sort of manly, utterly exhausted alternative to a hug. [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle In real life, when done with helmets on, this is known as "Turtle Fucking".]]

* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: A heated argument between soldiers near the beginning of the movie over whether or not "limo" is a real word, regardless of its presence or absence in the dictionary, and therefore legal to use in a game of Scrabble.

* FailedState: The film dramatizes the US Army's effort to remove violent warlords from Somalia, where bands of thugs are hoarding relief supplies meant for the sick and starving people. [[TruthInTelevision As was true in real life]], the government of Somalia exists pretty much in name only, with the rival warlords having carved up the country into fiefdoms, with their armed militias imposing thug law on the helpless masses.