What's in a "Go Bag"?

May 15, 2005 7:48 AM

What's in Val Kilmer's "Go Bag" in the movie Spartan?

In the great movie Spartan (insert difference of opinion here) Val Kilmer plays a kind of special forces agent, with small bag he refers to (in the excellent commentary) as a "Go Bag" and says that it contains everything tha a real special forces dude would have in such a bag. Can anyone enlighten me what would be in there?

posted by asavage to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Well I'm no special forces guy, but you can figure some of it out from context of the movie. You could say he calls the Chinaman because he doesn't have a go bag at that point.
posted by falconred at 8:22 AM on May 15, 2005

I started writing the list, then realized that I could probably find someone who summed it up better. Check out:

http://www.outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=103

Essentially, it's what you need to be able to survive for 24/48/72 hours, depending on what situations you think you'll find yourself facing. It can also be modular--part A for 24 hours, parts A and B for 48 hours, parts A, B, and C for 72 hours. There are a couple of assumptions here:

1. If it's for an emergency situation, that you'll get rescued within 72 hours (this is the period the government says is the longest you would need to wait for assistance in the US. Which, um, makes me kinda nervous, but that's another story...)

2. That if it's for "other reasons," that you would be able to pick up supplies as you go to be able to extend the period past 72 hours if needed.

Hope that helps.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:23 AM on May 15, 2005 [1 favorite]

That list is okay, but it omits the essential pack of gum. I like Orbit.
posted by Caviar at 12:37 PM on May 15, 2005

For the record, Mamet pointedly doesn't explain things like this -- just like he never tells us what's inside the case in Ronin, and just like he doesn't show us the number on the chalkboard in The Spanish Prisoner. He explains in On Directing Film that basically, giving that information doesn't help the story (which functions according to "what happens next?"), and there's no way to reveal that information without being anticlimactic. You can't beat the audience's own expectations, so let them work.

I was thinking about this last week during Kingdom of Heaven. Obviously Ridley Scott never read David Mamet.
posted by cribcage at 12:22 PM on May 16, 2005 [1 favorite]

Somebody needed to explain that to George Lucas, oh, six years ago.
posted by Caviar at 7:20 PM on June 2, 2005 [1 favorite]