Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is not a comic book movie – but it strangely enough does have ties to the world of Marvel Comics. Specifically, the character played by John Krasinski, Jack Silva, can actually be seen sporting the skull logo of the famed merciless vigilante Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher on his uniform. What you may be surprised to learn, though, is that this isn’t just some little affectation added by the movie’s costume designer, but instead was actually worn by the real Jack Silva and many other soldiers fighting around the world.
Last week, I traveled down to Miami, Florida for a special press day for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, and it was while sitting down with star John Krasinski that I took the opportunity to ask about the extremely recognizable logo that’s pinned to his character’s chest in the movie. It was thanks to his explanation that I not only learned that the Punisher logo was worn by the soldiers fighting insurgents in Libya, but also by a lot of other military personnel. Krasinski said,
Well, actually it’s a team thing. Those guys actually wore the Punisher emblem that night, and a group of them do. I know that there’s a lot of Navy SEALs who wear it, especially in the contracting work. So that was something I grabbed on to very quickly. And in my head I think I always fanaticized maybe playing The Punisher or some other superhero role sometime soon. So this was my small homage to doing a superhero role.
Of course, fans will remember that John Krasinski very nearly wound up playing one of the biggest superheroes of all time. All the way back in early 2010, the actor was reportedly seen as the frontrunner to play Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That wound up not actually happening, with Marvel Studios ultimately deciding to give the role to Fantastic Four star Chris Evans, but at the same time it’s hard not to still wonder how the movies would have been different with The Office star in the lead.
Unfortunately, while John Krasinski knew that the Punisher logo was a very real thing worn by his character, he couldn’t tell me why the real Jack Silva or other individuals in the military wear it ("I don’t know the exact origin of it, no. So I probably shouldn’t even speculate!"). That being said, the Punisher skull was actually also worn by Chris Kyle (the subject of Clint Eastwood’s 2014 movie American Sniper), and explained it thusly in his autobiography: "What the Punisher did was cool: He righted wrongs. He killed bad guys. He made wrongdoers fear him."
You can watch John Krasinski talk about the Punisher logo in 13 Hours: The Secret Solider Of Bengahzi in the video below:
13 Hours: The Secret Solider Of Bengahzi arrives in theaters this Friday, January 15th.
