How movies like ‘The Final Reckoning' accurately depict DoD assets

Yahoo

16-05-2025

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Have you ever wondered how some of your favorite movies nail their depictions of U.S. Military personnel and other governmental agencies?
Well, a big support to filmmakers is the entertainment liaison office for a corresponding agency.
Lt Col Gina 'Flash' McKeen, director of the United States Air Force and United States Space Force Entertainment Liaison, says that the process is one that allows productions to get the details right by consulting Department of Defense (DoD) assets.
'So our role in the entertainment liaison office, and it's the same for all branches of the service, in the Air Force One, which is where I work, we help connect any entertainment media project to official assets that are that are belonging to the DoD,' said McKeen.
'So essentially, if you have an Air Force story or a Space Force story, a production company would reach out and request support,' McKeen explains.
That support could be a script consultation to clarify terminology and ensure it's being used correctly or more extensive, like orchestrating a time for the production to be at a base to record official Air Force assets.
Speaking specifically about the USAF and USSF Entertainment Liaison Office specifically, McKeen says that 'Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning' is one such movie to reach out for help.
'They were able to film Air Force aircraft doing their actual mission,' said McKeen. 'So, you'll see that in the film. We also got to bring in advisors, actual special operators to the film set, to be special military experts for the actors so that they could get everything right.'
Those individuals made checks on terminology used in the film, advised how one would act in the given scenario (no spoilers), how their uniform would look, how their equipment would be worn, etc.
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'So it's really mutually beneficial. They get production value, credibility, realism, and we get authentic depictions of our military,' McKeen said.
Before a film production crew can get consultation from an entertainment liaison (related to DoD assets), the specific office will consider the following:
Reliability and credibility with financing and distribution.
Depiction of the DoD asset (Ex: a military member does something wrong, there must be an equal level of accountability depicted as well).
After this review process, the liaison office will work with the production to take advantage of real base operations.
'So say they wanted to get footage of an F-35 flying and they needed to have it flying in front of mountains. They could tell us that, and then we could say, 'well, there's going to be F-35 missions happening in this location around this time. These are planned training flights. Would you like to come record those?' And if that works out for them, then we do all the extra stuff to give them access,' said McKeen.
This includes drafting a production assistance agreement with the production, which is a correspondence on what will be provided by the DoD on behalf of the production.
This service has been offered in some capacity since the late 1940s, although things have evolved over the years.
The USAF and USSF Entertainment Liaison Office has been in operation as it is now for 30 to 40 years.
For more information about the USAF and USSF Entertainment Liaison Office, click here.
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