A short action movie produced by the West Point Military Academy has been released in the U.S. Army’s rollout of videos hyping Saturday’s Army-Navy college football game.
In the 11-minute short film, West Point cadets and top brass team up to commandeer a Navy ship in an elaborate operation involving disguises and a scuba dive.
Three West Point leaders dress up like Navy dads, donning baseball caps, T-shirts and sunglasses, to keep from being detected as they infiltrate the Naval Academy. To get there, they scuba dive across a river.
To make sure Navy knows Army can strike at any time, the infiltrators leave a challenge coin on the ground at the Naval Academy and disappear without a trace.
Called “Lead from the Front 2: Don’t Give Up the Ship,” its title is a reference to a Navy motto. The short film is a sequel to another the Army made in 2017, where the same cast of characters stole the Navy’s mascot goats.
“Goatnapping,” while officially prohibited, is an enduring tradition of the interservice rivalry that heats up each year around the Army-Navy football game.
Taunting videos like “Lead from the Front 2” are also a pre-game tradition, allowing the branches to exercise some creativity and brush up their acting chops once a year. According to Military.com, “Lead from the Front 2” is the first-ever sequel to one of the spirit videos.
Not many pro-Navy videos have been released this year, but the Naval Academy did air-drop “Beat Army” leaflets over West Point in a prank mission dubbed “Operation Black Knight Falling.” The name is a reference to the Army team’s name, the Black Knights.
