FAQ for
Full Metal Jacket (1987) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Full Metal Jacket can be found here.

A full metal jacket (or FMJ) is a bullet encased in a copper alloy such as gilding metal, or cupronickel, or a steel alloy shell. This shell can extend around all of the bullet or often just the front and sides with the rear left as exposed lead. The jacket allows for higher muzzle velocities than bare lead without depositing significant amounts of metal in the bore. It also prevents damage to bores from steel or armor piercing core materials. This bullet type distinguishes itself from hollow point bullets.

Full Metal Jacket is based on the semi-autobriographical book The Short-Timers (1983) by Gustav Hasford and Dispatches (1977) by Michael Herr.

"Physical Training" is what the letters "PT" stand for. It could be either regular scheduled PT or incentive PT which was for punishment of some infraction or just if the DI was bored and wanted to play with you. It is where a DI gets you or the whole platoon and barks out orders to perform various exercises like side straddle hops (aka.jumping jacks), mountain climbers, squat benders, etc... at a fast pace. Also referred to as being "Quarterdecked" or "Pitted". Usually it would go on till the DI got tired of yelling.

Gomer Pyle was the naive and dim-witted country boy, who worked as a gas station attendant in The Andy Griffith Show from 1960, and got his own show, Gomer Pyle, USMC in 1964, where he joined the Marines. The nick-name 'Gomer Pyle' has since been used in the military for a dumb-witted, hard-to-train recruit, like Pvt. Lawrence.

They were filmed at the abandoned Beckton Gas Works in the east London borough of Beckton.