Dumbest line in the movie
General Hawk: Somebody take out that damn cannon! There's 200 Joes on that sub!
Okay, I know what you're thinking: Hawk's worried about his men. What's wrong with that? Well, before you accuse me of being heartless, let me explain...
1) When did Hawk start caring? Early on in the movie, Hawk watches as his hot supermodel secretary gets murdered right in front of him, and he just seems to shrug it off, well, apart from "Oh crap! We're under attack!" Again, this wasn't some battle-hardened soldier that Hawk had known for years, this was a young woman who's probably never seen a battle firsthand! Oh wait, maybe that's why he didn't care, because she was just a secretary and not a soldier (it's still a dumb reason). But anyway, 200 redshirts are suddenly in danger and NOW he cares?
2) Why save the sub? As dumb as this sounds, here, we just see people running around while water sprays everywhere. For me, incentive to save a sinking sub is usually people drowning, people getting crushed under falling debris, or maybe even, someone radioing for help. Also, doesn't the sub have it's own guns, so shouldn't it be trying to defend itself? And...this scene seems to only exist for the sake of "People in danger. We must save them. Because the script says so."
& 3) It's just a bunch of redshirts. One thing this movie establishes brilliantly, is that unless you're on the Joes' Alpha Team, you're worthless. Seriously, I challenge you to find a scene in this movie where someone not on the Alpha Team actually succeeds at something. And these are supposed to be the best soldiers in the world. And yet they get picked off easier than the regular military. So seriously, why is Hawk worried about his expendables? Well, I guess if they don't save them, the Alpha Team would actually have to defend themselves. Go figure.
This is actually a problem with a lot of action movies. Redshirts just seem to be there to get killed off. Kinda awkward when they're supposed to have some kind of training. Doesn't matter that they're trained to fight terrorists, the paranormal, something not of this world, or the forces of evil, unless their famous and top-billed, they're just here to get killed off. And yes, it's better that the redshirts die instead of the heroes, but seriously, at least make them look like they know what they're doing. Hollywood really needs to fix this.
General Hawk: Save the sub! All of our human shields are on it!
Brother Maynard, bring forth the holy hand grenade!