13 Hours is an intense action film, with great dramatic performances. The film allows us to vicariously live through the harshest 13 hours of the security team called GRS. The GRS was stationed in Benghazi (2012) and were pinned down and massively outnumbered at the “secret” CIA compound, after very nearly getting killed trying to save the US Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

The moment in 13 Hours when Boon quotes Campbell tees us up. It tells us this is a mythological moment that is approaching, it is an archetypal crossroad for these men. It isn’t here yet, but it is coming.  

This moment may have been fictional altogether, but we can read it as a moment to see what these soldiers are approaching, not just physically but psychologically, and spiritually.  

Michael Bay and the screenwriters likely wanted to inject some of what they knew about mythology and archetypal struggles into this film.  Afterall, screenwriters study Joseph Campbell’s writing on mythology now as part of the screen-writing craft. Regardless, it is a powerful statement because it points to some underlying themes. They are archetypal because they speak to the universal theme of a life and death struggle.

It speaks to the universal struggle in all of us. We are all struggling in some way and grappling with this concept in our lives, when are we the creator or the destroyer in our own lives? 

The Emily Dahl Foundation.