GI Jane 🎥 1997 Movie Info

Plot Summary

A Senate Armed Services Committee interviews a candidate for the position of Secretary of the Navy. Senator Lillian DeHaven from Texas criticizes the Navy for not being gender-neutral. Behind the curtains, a deal is struck: if women compare favorably with men in a series of test cases, the military will integrate women fully into all occupations of the Navy. The first test is the training course of the U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team. Senator DeHaven selects topographical analyst Lieutenant Jordan O’Neil because she is physically more feminine than the other candidates.

To make the grade, O’Neil must survive a grueling selection program in which almost sixty percent of candidates wash out, most before the fourth week, with the third week being particularly intensive. The enigmatic Command Master Chief John James Urgayle runs the training program that involves 20-hour days of tasks designed to wear down recruits’ physical and mental strength, including pushing giant ship fenders up beach dunes, working through obstacle courses, and hauling landing rafts. Even though O’Neil outranks Urgayle, he is in charge of training, and O’Neil has to fight for her spot like all the others. Given a 30-second “gender-norming” allowance in an obstacle course, O’Neil demands to be held to the same standards as the male trainees.

The master chief observes O’Neil helping the other candidates by allowing them to climb on her back to make it over the wall obstacle course. Eight weeks into the program, during SERE training in Captiva, Florida, the Master Chief ties her to a chair with her hands behind her back, grabs hold of her and slams her through the door, picks her up off the floor, and repeatedly dunks her head in ice-cold water in front of the other crew members. O’Neil retaliates and is successful in causing him some injury, despite her immobilized arms.

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