With production scheduled to begin in August 2003, Jane embarked on an intensive eight-week training program in May 2003. The program encompassed true-to-life military training along with physical fitness training and diet, and was designed by Harry Humphries, a former Navy Seal who is the founder of Global Studies Group, Inc. (GSGI). A consulting/training/security company comprised of current and former military, special operatives and law enforcement personnel, GSGI began working in motion picture production with the Hensleigh-scripted action hit The Rock.
Jane’s military and weapons training was designed to replicate the training Castle would have received as a Marine who rose to become a Special Operator with a counter-terrorism emphasis. Says Technical Advisor Mike Mello of GSGI, “As a Special Operator, his training is much more advanced, much more specialized than your average individual. He’s going to know counter-guerrilla tactics and psychological tactics; he’s going to have special weapons training. We teach the same things that get taught in the real world, because that’s our frame of reference. Everything that Tom was taught is real, live stuff that is used today.”
GSGI’s Kirk Campbell, a former Navy SEAL, oversaw Jane’s firearms training. Jane’s instruction began with the Colt 1911, the standard law enforcement handgun. The Colt was followed by shoulder-fired weapons such as the M-16 and the M-16’s cut-down version, the M-4, used by tactical teams throughout the world. The final category of firearms was comprised of grenade launchers.
Mike Mello trained Jane in tactics and combatives, which encompassed unarmed combat and what are known as “edge weapons.” The unarmed combat section included work on kickboxing, with different strategies from Israel, Japan, the Philippines and Brazil. The “edge weapons” emphasized a wide variety of knives, including such exotic blades as the karambit from Southeast Asia and the “Balisong,” also known as the “butterfly knife.” Jane was taught how to properly hold each knife, how to set up angles for cuts, how to strategize. Explains Mello, “We really focused a lot on ‘edge weapons’ because Tom’s character, Frank, plays with a lot of knives. We started out with a very base level and worked him up into some rather advanced, complex patterns. Since we had a very short period of time to take this individual and get him looking extremely proficient, we had to rush him. Tom was getting material that, on an average, some people wouldn’t be getting until a year down the road.”
Meanwhile, Jane was also following a rigorous fitness and diet regimen, created for him and overseen by fitness trainer John MacLaren. The program was designed to give Jane the strength, agility, energy and stamina to meet the demanding challenges of The Punisher. “The focus was to get Tom lean and powerful and more muscular, but also to make him very mobile, very athletic, which was necessary for all the combat scenes,” says MacLaren. “I like to use the example of a panther, because it’s an animal that doesn’t waste a lot of energy; yet it’s very quick and has a tremendous amount of power. It has precision, elegance, and tremendous economy of motion.”
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