They’re war veterans who have witnessed the true horrors of frontline combat – from losing friends in ‘life-or-death’ firefights to seeing traumatised comrades taking their own lives after returning home.
Now a team of retired Royal Marines have banded together and drawn upon those harrowing experiences to produce a gritty new action film, which they hope will also ‘shine an uncomfortable light’ on the grim realities facing some forces heroes.
Indie film ‘Sunray: Fallen Soldier’ has been developed by veterans over five years on a ‘shoestring budget’ – and has now had its big Leicester Square premier in London, before it releases on Apple TV on Friday.
The adrenaline-fueled action romp follows a war veteran seeking revenge against a violent criminal gang, with hard-hitting fight scenes played by former Commandos.
Afghanistan veteran Daniel Shepherd, who served nine years in the Royal Marines, is the film’s co-director, alongside fellow Commando, James Clarke.
Dan said he wanted to create a film that was action-packed – but which would also ‘shine a light’ on those battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after some of his former comrades took their own lives.
Filmmaker Dan, who lives in Portsmouth, Hampshire, admits he has been ‘lucky’ not to have any ‘major’ mental health struggles himself after his time in the forces.
But he adds: ‘Unfortunately, I have known people who have not come out of the other side. You just don’t see it coming. The way I see it is, it’s our job to continue and tell those stories because they don’t have the opportunity to.’
Royal Marine veterans have filmed their own action movie – which is set for its premier in Leicester Square on Monday, January 20

Called ‘Sunray: Fallen Soldier’, the film stars Commando veterans in leading roles

The film features gritty action set pieces, including this scene where Royal Marines shoot a gangster through the door of a toilet while he is on his phone
Sunray’s green beret veterans use their real-world military training to stage fast-paced gun battles and claustrophobic assaults through dingy corridors, to high-octane firefights from the back of a speeding pick-up truck.
But the film also draws upon the cast’s own lived experiences battling mental health and the loss of colleagues during war to create realistic and sometimes ‘uncomfortable-to-watch’ scenes.
Among the film’s stars is grizzled Royal Marine veteran-turned-professional actor Tip Cullen, who plays ‘Andy’, a father on a brutal revenge mission to kill the gang of underworld thugs responsible for the death of his daughter.
‘The character I play is a broken man and broken character,’ admits Tip. ‘He has experiences very similar to mine of back-to-back operational deployments.
‘But I don’t hold a monopoly on exposure to trauma or kinetic battle. I know friends and colleagues exposed day in and day out to life-or-death experiences.’
Tip, 56, served in the corps for almost 30 years, rising through the ranks from Marine to Warrant Officer 1, before commissioning to the rank of Captain.
The former Mountain Leader deployed on multiple combat tours around the globe, including in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan – and saw friends killed in action.
Tip also grew up in Belfast during the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, where as a young altar boy, losing people to bombings and fatal shootings was ‘just a way of life’.

Veteran Royal Marine Tip Cullen plays a former soldier battling with mental health issues during his mission to avenge his daughter’s death

Pictured is Tip playing Andy in Sunray, which releases later this month

Life imitating art? Tip (pictured) spent almost 30 years in the Royal Marines before retiring and becoming a professional actor

Tip (pictured third from right) served back-to-back operational tours, fighting in warzones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland

Joining the corps at 16, he rose to the highest non-commissioned rank of Warrant Officer 1 before commissioning as an officer and retiring with the rank of Captain
His experience of trauma is something he has brought to his role in Sunray: Fallen Soldier – although the veteran admits it was one he struggled to come to terms with at first, facing a ‘real moral dilemma’.
‘As an actor, you have to hit those marks on the rollercoaster of emotions but to be credible and believable, you have to go to those places,’ says Tip, who since retraining as an actor has gone on to feature in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi romp, Ready Player One, and Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle.
‘For me I dialed into my real-life experiences and my friends and family members I have lost. I had a real moral dilemma – I felt like I was a fraud and cheat because I was having to use real and unbelievable, incredible human beings who lost their lives and I was using them to make a character on stage… I really struggled with this.
‘Then I realised that’s why I am an actor; I am an actor because of these people. I need them with me to make them believable and credible. So, if I’m not hitting my mark, I’m not doing credit for them.
‘Now every time I have to go there, I’m visiting my friend.’
Dan adds the stark realities of mental trauma was something often brushed over in film and on TV.

Sunray: Fallen Soldier has been in the works for five years and releases later this month

The film features brutal scenes and stars a number of Royal Marine Commandos

Retired Royal Marine Daniel Shepherd (pictured) is the film’s co-director

Afghanistan veteran Dan (pictured) said the movie, as well as being an action thriller, also had a message about the trauma some veterans are left to face after being involved in war

The film’s co-director James Clarke is also a former Royal Marine. He is pictured with a mounted machine gun on a helicopter

Royal Marine-turned-actor, Tom Leigh, also stars in the action flick as ‘Smudge’
‘The mental health struggles that a lot of veterans go through after traumatic experiences – is dark and horrible,’ he says. ‘It’s not comfortable. So, we shouldn’t show it in a way that feels comfortable for the audience.’
He adds: ‘We’re not trying to preach. But what we would like to do is remind people that it’s there and that it is a thing – there are people going through it. Also, those who are going through it, maybe we can sign-post them to get support.’
Afghanistan veteran Sam Seeley, who served nine years in the Royal Marines, was involved in writing the film’s script, coming up with the idea as a way to deal with his own mental health problems.
Speaking to his hometown paper in Portsmouth, he told The News: ‘I wanted to attack and create a platform for mental health and veterans but in a fun way.
‘People can be really scared about approaching mental health and are worried about showing people potentially trying to commit suicide
‘We wanted to show it in a way that’s dramatic and hard-hitting but still focuses on the issues at hand, which for us is PTSD and primarily survivors’ guilt.’
Tip says the heartbreaking emotions of losing friends can sometimes rear their head at unexpected moments.

Tip Cullen said he had to go to some dark places to perform certain scenes in the film

The action set pieces of Sunray feature Royal Marine veterans fully kitted out

The team in Sunray are pictured taking cover in a battle during a savage firefight

Flashback scenes of troops during their time in Afghanistan were filmed in a quarry in Hull
‘I remember one time climbing through the Alps with the corps and we pulled a crate out. A song came on, ‘The Green Fields of France’ by The Fureys – when I heard the song, I was looking at one of my friends and we had just come back from an operation where we had lost quite a lot of guys, I just burst into tears.
‘It wasn’t a bad thing it was like liberation. We toasted the lads and carried on. That to me lets me know I’m human.
‘I’ve had friends who haven’t been able to overcome that in some way. I could see it in their eyes and the way they held themselves and they weren’t getting away from it.’
The indie flick – which also stars former Marines Tom Leigh, Steven Blades and Luke Solomon – first began production before the pandemic and was originally penned to be a three-part web series.
Starting on a ‘shoestring’ budget, the team behind it pumped in £6,000 of their own money to film a trailer in 2020 before starting a fundraising campaign to record their series.
But their Kickstarter effort exceeded their wildest dreams, with people donating more than £66,000 in a matter of weeks. This, followed by private investment, led to the team having about £100,000 to produce Sunray.

The film features gritty firefights staged by Royal Marine veterans

Pictured is a scene from the film showing one of characters proving sniper cover as Royal Marine veterans storm a suspected drugs den

The movie follows a veteran, Andy, as he seeks revenge for the drugs gang he believes is responsible for killing his daughter. Pictured is a funeral scene in the film
Filming took place across the UK, with scenes shot in Portsmouth – while a quarry in Hull was used to portray an isolated forward operating base in Afghanistan.
Dan added it felt ‘daunting’ to be at the helm of such a big project – and that he was excited for people to finally see his team’s labour of love when it finally released.
‘We wanted to create something that was punching above its weight. That was always the goal. I believe we have achieved that aim,’ he says.
‘This isn’t your traditional film, it is entertainment but it’s been made by a bunch of people who have really felt every moment of it. That gives it a level of authenticity…. authenticity of character and what it means to feel these certain ways.
‘There’s a lot of faith put in James and I to pull this together because it’s a lot of people’s “story”. It’s fictional but the meaning behind it comes from a lot of people. We’re having to be the custodians of that.’
Tip adds: ‘This is completely a human story. Every person in our society will benefit in some way and take something from Sunray: Fallen Soldier.’
And although the team is excited to finally see their work hitting the big screen, there remains one lingering ‘anxiety’ – what the hard-to-please community of veterans will think of the action scenes.
Tip says he had already had some friendly comments jokingly nagging him about how some of the gun-toting action has been depicted in the latest trailer.
Brushing aside the comments, Tip says: ‘You get people all the time who would say, “you would never do that for real” – well, I have.’
- Sunray: Fallen Soldier will be available on digital platforms and in select cinemas across the UK and North America from January 24. It’s Available now to pre-order in the UK here and USA here.
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