As you all know I was recruited recently to be in a war film as an actor. We weren’t told a lot about it at all, just to turn up to a central location, we’d be paid $110 for a day’s work and that there were about 25 of us needed. By ‘Us’ I mean white or black men aged between 19 and 34.
So I turned up, boarded a coach that was waiting at 6am for us and got chatting to some of the other people hired for the day. Everyone was pretty nice, chilled, a bit sleepy as it was an early start. We then got briefed on what we were doing as we set off leaving HCMC. The Vietnamese government had commissioned a film from one of the top SE Asian film studios to mark the 40th anniverary of the reunification of North and South Vietnam. Because of this, they needed 25 people to form a few squads of men acting out the role of the US marines in Bien Hoa. The film itself was to be called ‘The Red Road’ – The rough translation, anyway, and on the 30th april it would be shown across the largest TV stations throughout Vietnam! I was pretty excited that millions of people get to see me on TV 🙂
I managed to catch some sleep and woke up as we arrived. It was basically a clearing in the middle of a wooded/jungle area outside the city limits. We were issued our ‘kit’ including a real M-16. We realised a lot of the kit – webbing, backpacks and guns were actually authentic, which to be honest was a bit of an odd feeling.
What was stranger is that there we a number of mounds around the area with trenches behind them that were dug out very well and looked solid. I wondered how long this all took to make (The clearing, trenches, etc). When asked, one of the producers proudly tell me “oh hahaha no no, many years ago americans make it and run away, get shot by vietnamese, they attack.” Oh. Right. We were standing on the ruins of a base. Wow.
Anyway, no sooner as we had finished talking, two huey helicopters screamed in from somewhere and landed near us. Once all the dust had settled we were told to go over to them – One team in each.
I never signed up for this. Holy shit, we get to go a helicopter. The scene was “Chopper lands in clearing, marines jump the hell out fast and run in single file off camera” – Sounds easy enough. Honestly though, Jumping in and out of a huey is actually harder than it looks with all the kit on. 7/8 people inside plus pilot, ‘gunner’ and co-pilot all running to get in within 10-15 seconds is pretty hard going. It took off fast, spun round and headed off. We only really had one take as the fuel for these things is fucking expensive, so we had to do it right. I should probably mention that there we no ‘windows’ as such, it goes straight outside into the sky. I should have probably mentioned I’m scared of heights, heh.
As you can see from the video, It went pretty damn well for both teams. We landed, exited without a hitch and ran off camera.
We then were loaded onto a bus and moved maybe half a kilometer north, through the trees to another clearing, where a FULL GODDAMN MILITARY BASE HAD BEEN MADE.
There were 7 APC’s dotted around (Armored personnel carriers for those that have no idea- Troop transporters), a few watchtowers 4/5 tents set up around trenches and general.. military.. stuff just around. There was an artillery battery set up to the side and it was just very impressive all round to look at.
We had a break for lunch, it was about then I realised how much I’d been sweating – I still had jeans under my trousers and a t-shirt on under my top. The prop company were funny about us wearing it straight off (probably to save money on cleaning it..) Still looked badass though.
Anyway, we filmed more ‘generic base shots’ with us milling around, pointing, cleaning the guns (I took the opportunity to teach everyone how to actually cock the weapons and dry fire them ^^) and we had then another helicopter scene – This time the same thing but in reverse. Getting all our shit together then running into the huey for an emergency take-off. MORE AIRBORNE FUN.
Anyway. Night fell and we had to film the “patrolling the base / jungle in an APC” scene which was ace. I’d never been in one that actually moved before, so this was a new experience for me.
This went on for a good few hours, and as we approached 10pm, the finale was being set up and talked about.
This involved the full scale NVA assault on the base, and we weren’t told very much except there would be a lot of pyrotechnics. All 7 APC’s lined up behind the base, and we had to run either side of them, to keep formation. I was hopeful the drivers knew what they were fucking doing as running 1 meter away from a fast moving APC with huge tracks is pretty inimidating, especially if you’re leading everyone else..
We practiced a few times and then on action, we ran. We prepared for the final take and usually the shout of “READY… ACTION!” let us know that filming had begun but this time.. “READY…. ** BOOM **”
There was a huge fucking explosion that made every sane person duck. Now I’ve seen pyrotechnics before but this was *huge* – You could feel it in your lungs. We ran like we’d never ran before as more and more huge fucking explosions went off. Bit of debris and sand went EVERYWHERE. Just as we were running out the base front door the watchtower – now with an added mannequin” exploded in a ball of flames, sending huge chunks of wood flying everywhere. Of course, I’d have loved to film this but sadly I only managed to spin round off camera and snap this.
As you can see.. there isn’t much base left at all. Everything else was blown to hell. I was covered in dirt, mud etc. We weren’t done filming yet. We were then taken to the artillery battery and filmed loading and firing the things, repeatedly.
Anyway, about 1am we all piled back on the bus which took us back to HCMC. One of the best days I’ve had a since I got here. I met some utterly fantastic people, nearly got blown up, flew in a helicopter, twice and was in a moving APC. It was fantastic- I even got paid for it!
Tomorrow, I begin the trip up to Hanoi.
It’s 1,450 miles i’m gonna put my little bike through, and it’s going to be 20 days of riding and chilling out inbetween. Many guesthouses, probably a few mechanics, lots of coast and some beautiful views to come.
Hope you’re all well ❤
Marc's Adventures in Vietnam 