First-Person Shooter: SWAT Training With 'Sabotage' Star Joe Manganiello
If you’ve ever wondered about the specific training actors receive as part of their prep for action movies, this story is you.
For the run-up to the release of this week’s gritty action thriller “Sabotage,” Yahoo Movies was invited to participate in a very basic SWAT tactical training session with star Joe Manganiello and tactical expert Mark Schlegel and we jumped at the opportunity. Because really, who wouldn’t want to better understand the immersive training Manganiello and the rest of the cast (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Josh Holloway, Sam Worthington, Terrence Howard, and Mireille Enos) went through in order to convincingly portray an elite DEA task force?
Our experience took place at the Counter-Terrorism Training Center, an otherwise nondescript warehouse-like structure in Compton. Upon arrival, we were introduced to trainer Schlegel, who also served as a technical advisor on Ayer’s “End of Watch” and who is as imposing and authoritative-looking as he is friendly, patient and down-to-earth. Before we got our hands on any training equipment, Schlegel and Manganiello took a few minutes to explain why this particular type of training — breaching and building clearing — was important for the cast to master.
[Related: Schwarzenegger: Why ‘Sabotage’ Is His Most Violent Film Yet]
"We want to develop the mindset of a team," Schlegel said. "When you’re working as part of a tactical team and doing operations where you are putting yourself at risk and your responsibility is potentially to save lives, there’s a tremendous amount of responsibility you have to not only protect the people you’re serving but also your partners. Developing the mindset of that unity, you saw that [with these actors]. I saw this group of people really come together as a group."
Manganiello and Schlegel (Giana Mucci, Yahoo)
Manganiello added that learning the breaching and clearing — which is shorthand for the procedure task forces use to enter a suspicious structure, assess the threat level and then clear it of any prospective danger — is an art form.
"As much as it is technical and cerebral, there are rules to it," he said. "There is an energetic level to it as well, you have to trust your teammates. We wound up moving as a centipede, as this one organism through the rooms."
Schlegel and Manganiello then took us through the “rules” to breaching and clearing.
Warner and Manganiello (Giana Mucci, Yahoo)
We were handed an M5, an unloaded training version, mind you, and told to follow closely behind them as they walked through the training ground. As we continued, they offered up instructions on how to enter rooms and move swiftly through them. A few things we picked up: Learn to “pie” the door, which means that in order to gain the best field of vision when entering a new room, take a wide step around the door frame instead of staying close to the wall and then abruptly turning the corner into the room. DO stay behind the person in front of you, use a tap on the shoulder to let them know you’re there. DO NOT use your gun as an extension of your hands to gesture in a conversation. DO use the verbal cues “MOVING” when entering a new space. DO NOT follow too closely so that you leave the area behind you (a hallway or open door) vulnerable to attack.
[Related: Watch the Trailer for ‘Sabotage’]
After one practice walk-through and then two passes through the space at full speed, we were given an above-average grade by Schlegel and Manganiello. And, after getting more acquainted with the gun and the deliberate way of movement required, we definitely felt the rush of energy Manganiello described earlier.
In fact, we were so amped by the experience that we tried to get Schlegel to teach us a trick Jiu-jitsu move to take the 6-foot-5 Manganiello down. They both laughed at the idea, but this only motivated us to figure it out for next time.
"Sabotage" is now open in theaters.
