NEW YORK—In the film Gimme Shelter, which hits theaters today, a homeless, pregnant teenager named Apple goes to an appointment for an abortion, which her uninvolved Wall Street father arranged. Apple (Vanessa Hudgens) looks at an ultrasound photo of her baby and decides she can't do it.

Lone Survivor, the new movie based on Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s 2007 memoir about an ill-fated 2005 operation in Afghanistan, is the latest film to collaborate with the military to depict a more realistic portrayal of the Navy’s Special Forces. 

The film opens like a recruitment video, with documentary footage of intense SEAL training, and pays tribute to the SEALs: In messy, uncertain wars, they’re elite practitioners of precision. In the era of the superhero film, the Navy SEALs have inspired filmmakers as the real thing.