13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

On the night of September 11, 2012, a group of six former special operations soldiers working as private security contractors for the CIA found themselves in the middle of a coordinated terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Over the next 13 hours, they fought to defend the CIA annex and rescue the Americans trapped at the mission, all while waiting for military support that never arrived. Directed by Michael Bay and based on the book by Mitchell Zuckoff, the film chronicles the events of that night with a focus on the operators on the ground.

The film stars John Krasinski as Jack Silva, a former Navy SEAL who joins the Annex Security Team just weeks before the attack. Alongside him are James Badge Dale as team leader Tyrone Rone Woods, Pablo Schreiber as Kris Tanto Paronto, Max Martini as Mark Oz Geist, David Denman as Dave Boon Benton, and Dominic Fumusa as John Tig Tiegen. Toby Stephens plays Glen Bub Doherty, a SEAL who flew in from Tripoli to help. The cast also includes David Costabile as the CIA chief of base, a character based on the real-life Bob, and Matt Letscher as Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Bay, known for large-scale action spectacles, took a more restrained approach here, focusing on tactical details and the personal bonds between the operators. The film was shot on location in Malta and Morocco, with sets built to match the real Benghazi compounds. It was released on January 15, 2016, to mixed reviews but strong audience approval, and it earned two Academy Award nominations for sound editing and mixing. [edit]

Jack Silva, a former Navy SEAL, arrives in Benghazi, Libya, in the summer of 2012 to join the CIA's Annex Security Team. The team consists of six operators: Rone Woods, Oz Geist, Tanto Paronto, Boon Benton, and Tig Tiegen. They are assigned to protect the CIA annex, a covert compound about a mile from the U.S. diplomatic mission. Their days are filled with mundane tasks: babysitting a French oil executive who dismisses them, dealing with bureaucratic restrictions, and counting down the days until their contracts end. The CIA chief of base is a cautious bureaucrat who denies their requests for more resources and refuses to authorize offensive action.

The city is unstable, with multiple militant factions operating openly. The diplomatic mission, led by Ambassador Stevens, is trying to build local relationships while the annex runs covert operations monitoring weapons flow to Syria. On September 11, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the diplomatic compound comes under assault by dozens of heavily armed militants. The attack begins around 9:40 PM, with insurgents breaching the perimeter, setting fire to the main building, and trapping Ambassador Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith inside.

From the annex, the operators see the flames and hear gunfire. They volunteer to mount a rescue, but the CIA chief issues a stand-down order, refusing to authorize movement without approval from Washington. After a maddening 25-minute delay, the team loads into two armored vehicles and races to the diplomatic mission. They find the compound in chaos, the main building engulfed in flames. They secure surviving personnel and search for the ambassador, but the fire and smoke are overwhelming. They conclude that Stevens and Smith are dead.

The team evacuates the remaining 30-plus survivors back to the CIA annex, which now becomes the primary defensive position. The militants launch a sustained, multi-wave assault using RPGs, mortars, and automatic weapons. The operators must defend the annex's perimeter with limited ammunition, no air support, and no quick-reaction force available. The battle stretches through the night and into the early morning hours, with the operators making tactical decisions, communicating with each other, and growing increasingly desperate as help fails to arrive.[edit]