United States Navy SEALs in popular culture

Navy SEALs training with MP5 submachine guns. SEALs are known for their use of camouflage green face paint.

This is a list of depictions of United States Navy SEALs in popular culture. The U.S. Navy SEALs are the U.S. Navy's principal special operations force and a part of the Naval Special Warfare Command and United States Special Operations Command.^[1]

Games

• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series
• The Counter-Strike series features DEVGRU.
• In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, SEAL Team 10 is deployed on a mission to rescue the President of the United States, who has been taken hostage by a terrorist group; furthermore, the fictional villain group "Dead Cell" was a USN group used to test the preparation of U.S. Armed Forces in case of attack, acting as an OpFor, in a manner similar to the now no longer existing SEAL Team Six's "Red Cell", SEAL Team 10 is later wiped out by the "Dead Cell" members.
• In Red Alert 2 and its sequel, Yuri's Revenge, SEALs are powerful infantry that can be deployed by the allies.
• In the Navy SEALs video game published by Ocean Software for several systems, including the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 systems^[2][3]
• In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, DEVGRU discovers the nuclear warhead in Al-Asad's palace.
• In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, SEALs are playable on a few multiplayer maps and appear in three missions in single-player campaign mode.
• Sam Fisher, the protagonist of the Splinter Cell series, is a former Navy SEAL.
• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 mentions the SEALs in the description of the MP5A3.
• In Medal of Honor, the Tier 1 operators known as "AFO Neptune", are DEVGRU.
• In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, SEALs appear in the mission "Hunter-Killer", in which they are sent to attack Russian command warships in New York Harbor.
• Section (David Mason), one of the playable protagonists in Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a Navy SEAL.
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter continues the story through the perspective of (Preacher) and (Stump), who are Navy SEALs.
• Deep Fear A survival horror game features Navy SEALs who are wiped out by the creatures.
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege contains two Navy SEALs from the Operation Dust Line expansion pack, nicknamed Blackbeard and Valkyrie, the latter of whom is a woman (no women have served in the SEALs as of 2018).
• Counter Strike: Global Offensive has DEVGRU as a playable faction in several maps.

Comics/Graphic Novels

• Ultimate Moon Knight
• SOCOM: SEAL Team Seven
• Sin City
• U.S. Navy Seals: In the 22nd Century
• Torpedo and Wet Suit, characters from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon, comic and toyline.
• Shipwreck, a character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon, comic and toyline, was a regular sailor through most of his character life but has received SEAL training prior to the release of his second figure in the 'Battle Corps' line. Other G.I. Joe SEAL members include Tracker,^[4] Wet Down,^[5] Lincoln Talbot^[6] and recent addition Night Fox.^[7] The character of Harpoon^[8] from G.I. Joe Extreme is also a Navy SEAL. Depth Charge^[9] is listed as a UDT, a forerunner of the Navy SEALs.

Literature

Some of these books may not be fiction.

• Books by Dick Couch
• The Bahrain Conspiracy by Bentley Gates.
• Rainbow Six is a novel about a fictional multi-nation counterterrorism unit by Tom Clancy which features ex-SEAL John Clark.
• Rogue Warrior series, by Richard Marcinko.
• Suffer in Silence, by David Reid.
• Without Remorse, featuring John Clark, by Tom Clancy.
• Some books by Patrick Robinson
• Seal Team Seven, by Keith Douglass
• SEALs: UDT/SEAL Operations in Vietnam and SEAL Team: Rollback, by Tim L. Bosiljevac
• The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. Narrator's brother Luke was a retired SEAL and one of his combat missions is mentioned in the book.
• Uncommon Heroes Series by Dee Henderson
• Subterranean by James Rollins. 2 guards are SEALs.
• Sigma Force Novels by James Rollins. Sean McKnight is a former SEAL.
• Deep Fathom by James Rollins. Protagonist Jack Kirkland is a former SEAL.
• Paladin of Shadows series by John Ringo. Protagonist Mike Harmon is a former SEAL, as is his friend and classmate former Master Chief Charles Adams.
• Covert One, a series by Robert Ludlum, has the mention of SEALs in a couple of novels (e.g. - The Cassandra Compact, The Ambler Warning).
• Scot Harvath is a series by Brad Thor. Protagonist Scot Harvath is a former SEAL turned U.S. Secret Service agent. Featured in the following books: The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union, Blowback, Takedown, The First Commandment, The Last Patriot, and The Apostle.
• Carl Hamilton, by Jan Guillou. The book is about a Swedish officer, his life and some of his missions. He's trained by SEALs in San Diego, CA.
• Suzanne Brockmann is a romance novelist whose "Troubleshooters" (Random House) and "Tall, Dark & Dangerous" (Harlequin) series of romance/action novels feature SEALs, their missions, and their love interests.
• Rachel Gibson is a comedy/romance novelist whose recent 2013 “Run to You” (Avon: HarperCollins) and “Rescue Me” (2012 Avon: HarperCollins) romance novels feature retired SEALs, their reentry to work and true love. A third ex-military character, is ex-Marine sharpshooter who competes with them, giving us some rivalry slang.
• H. Jay Riker : Seals; the Warrior Breed a series of 11 books
• From the Depths, by Gerry Doyle.
• In Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child SEAL Team "Blue-Seven" is deployed to set explosives and collapse the "Astor Tunnels" in New York
• Warrior Elite, The Finishing School and Down Range by Dick Couch follow SEALs through BUDS, SQT and the GWOT.
• No Easy Day and No Hero by Mark Owen are books about the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as Owen's life and career as a Navy SEAL, including his service in DEVGRU.
• American Sniper by Chris Kyle is a book about Kyle's life as a sniper in the Navy SEALs.
• The Monkey Handlers, by G. Gordon Liddy
• Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell is a book which accounts Luttrell's service in Operation Red Wings as a Navy SEAL.
• Enemies, Foreign & Domestic: A SEAL's Story by Carl Higbie
• SEAL Team Rollback, by J. Demarest. A fictional account of classified UDT/SEAL missions in Vietnam.
• Star Carrier series by William H. Keith, Jr. (under the name Ian Douglas) has the SEAL evolve into SEALS with the second "S" meaning "Space" (although an individual member of the unit is still called a SEAL). At one point, a SEALS team boards an enormous alien ship only to find out that the ship's single occupant is a sentient gas bag hundreds of meters in size that perceives the SEALS as little more than parasites.
• Leslie Wolfe's Alex Hoffmann series (Executive (2011), Devil's Move (2014), The Backup Asset (2015), The Ghost Pattern (2015), and Operation Sunset (2016)) features ex-SEAL Louie (Lou) Bailey, a technology expert and white hat hacker.

Film

• In 1986, Gregg Henry starred as Navy SEAL Lt. Matt Ryder in The Patriot.^[10]
• SEAL teams are featured in the films The Abyss (1989, directed by James Cameron), Navy SEALs (1990, directed by Lewis Teague), and The Rock (1996, directed by Michael Bay). In all three films, the SEAL teams are led by characters played by actor Michael Biehn.
• In 1990, Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn starred respectively as Lieutenants Dale Hawkins and James Curran, 2 officers who lead a SEAL team to fight a radical terrorist group and stop that group from getting their hands on Stinger missile launchers in the film Navy SEALs.
• The 1991 film The Finest Hour portrays SEAL training as well as combat missions in the Middle East.
• Ex-SEAL, now cook Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal) is the only person who can stop a gang of terrorists when they seize control of a US Navy battleship (Under Siege) and a train (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory).
• The 1997 Ridley Scott film G.I. Jane presented the idea of women training and becoming SEALs. Actress Demi Moore played Lieutenant Jordan O'Neill opposite actor Viggo Mortensen's character Master Chief John James Urgayle, and actor James Caviezel's character Slovnik.
• The direct-to-video 1997 film True Vengeance, Daniel Bernardt plays an ex-Navy SEAL who is forced to assassinate a corporate executive after his daughter is kidnapped by the Yakuza. Working against both the clock and the police who are on his trail, Bernhardt leaves a path of dead and broken bodies as he attempts to rescue his daughter. Miles O'Keefe does a good stint as an ex-comrade of Bernhardt's with a personal score to settle.
• The low-budget 1999 film U.S. Seals, filmed in Bulgaria and criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of SEAL operations.
• Jim Street (Colin Farrell) in the 2003 film S.W.A.T.
• A SEAL team has been featured in Antoine Fuqua's 2003 Tears of the Sun, led by actor Bruce Willis.
• Lieutenant Shane Wolfe, a fictional character portrayed by Vin Diesel in the 2005 film The Pacifier.
• Lieutenant Darius Stone/xXx (Ice Cube) and NSA Agent Kyle Steele (Scott Speedman) are both former SEALs in the 2005 film xXx: State of the Union.
• SEALs are mentioned in the 2005 film Yours, Mine and Ours.
• The 2006 film Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil is about a Navy SEAL raid on a nuclear missile site in North Korea.
• In the 2009 film Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, Navy SEALS mount an attack on Colombian special forces to clear their names and rescue a hostage.^[11][12]
• SEALs make an appearance in Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• The films Zero Dark Thirty and Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden portray Navy SEALs during Operation Neptune Spear which resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden.
• SEALs are featured in the 2012 film Act of Valor, the first of its kind to use active duty SEALs instead of actors. They filmed with live ammunition and showcase their gear, tactics, and the SEAL brotherhood.
• SEALs make an appearance in the 2013 film Captain Phillips.
• The 2013 film Lone Survivor is based on SEAL Team 10's failed operation, Operation Red Wings.
• The 2013 film World War Z Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator is dispatched to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do in South Korea with a U.S. Navy SEALs support team
• In The Interview (2014), SEAL Team 6 members rescue TV tabloid host, Dave Skylark (James Franco) and the show's producer, Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) as they make their escape from North Korea. All the rescuers are Asians dressed in North Korean garb, leading Skylark and Rapoport to first assume they have been captured. Instead, Seal Team 6 leads them to a Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat (RHIB) and on to freedom.
• SEAL training is also depicted in Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, a biopic about SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper.
• In the movie Sahara, Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn's characters are former US Navy SEALs.
• In the 2015 film Navy SEALs vs. Zombies, a squad of Navy SEALs are sent to rescue the Vice President from the midst of a zombie outbreak.^[13]
• Navy SEALS are also featured in the 2017 film Transformers: The Last Knight, where they work alongside the Transformers Reaction Force (TRF) to track Cade and Viviane who are on the HMS Alliance trying to find Merlin's staff, which is buried in a Cybertronian spacecraft.

Television

• In the show 24, a SEAL strike team assists a Counter Terrorist Unit S.W.A.T. team assaulting a private military contractor's facility.
• Bruce Campbell plays Sam Axe a retired SEAL, in the popular USA network series Burn Notice.
• Max Martini played former Navy SEAL who was suffering from Capgras Syndrome on the show Criminal Minds
• O. J. Simpson starred in Frogmen - an unaired pilot from 1994 about a team of Navy SEALs known as frogmen.^[14]
• JAG / NCIS universe:
  • John M. Jackson played Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden, the Judge Advocate General and a former SEAL in the Paramount series JAG. The series and its spin-off franchise NCIS (NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans) featured cases *involving Navy SEALs.
  • LL Cool J portrays Special Agent Sam Hanna, a former Chief Petty Officer and Navy SEAL, in NCIS: Los Angeles.
  • In Hawaii Five-0, Alex O'Loughlin plays Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett USNR, a former SEAL who left active duty to lead the Five-O Task Force. It is also revealed that McGarrett has some history with fellow Navy SEAL-turned-NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna (see above).
• The television series Last Resort features SEALs among the crew of the renegade US nuclear missile sub USS Colorado, holed up on a Pacific island.
• Tom Selleck played private investigator character Thomas Magnum, a former SEAL Commander and Naval Intelligence Officer who served in Vietnam, in the 1980-1988 CBS television series Magnum, P.I.
• Dillon Casey plays Sean Pierce a Navy SEAL officer assigned to Division in seasons 2 and 3 of the television series Nikita on CW.
• In the Lethal Weapon TV series Martin Riggs is described as a Navy SEAL-turned-police officer.
• One Life to Live
  • Mark Lawson played former Navy SEAL Brody Lovett from 2008-2012.
  • Justin Paul Kahn played Navy SEAL Wes Granger from September 25, 2008- March 20, 2009.
• In Quantum Leap's second episode of Season 3, Sam Beckett leaps into the body of Herbert "Magic" Williams, the RTO of his older brother's SEAL platoon in Vietnam.^[15]
• Jonathan LaPaglia plays a time traveling former SEAL Lieutenant/NSA operative Frank B. Parker in the television series Seven Days.
• Hulk Hogan and Chris Lemmon played a pair of former SEALs turned mercenaries in the television series Thunder in Paradise.
• In the shows One Man Army, Special Ops Mission and Combat Missions some contestants are SEALs among other special operations units.
• The television series SIX and SEAL Team, are based on DEVGRU, more commonly known as SEAL Team Six, a maritime counter-terrorism unit part of the Joint Special Operations Command, consisting of specially selected SEALs.

See also

• Delta Force in popular culture
• United States Army Special Forces in popular culture

References