Guy Savelli is a martial artist and teacher. He teaches the spiritual and mental aspects of martial arts. He has a classified relationship with the U.S. Military, and has been featured in the book the Men Who Stare at Goats. Savelli has been a research subject at Duke University, the Psychical Research Institute, the Syracuse University Department of Parapsychology, and the Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. Results of his work have been published in Research in Parapsychology, 1985, Scarecrow Press, the Journal of Parapsychology, 1986 and 1987, as well as the Parapsychology Department of JFK University. Savelli has also authored an introductory text on the Spiritual, Mental, and Physical Teachings of Chinese Kung-Fu.
The movie is very different from the book: the book is essentially sixteen separate chapters whose only link is their connection to the use of unusual approaches that the army and intelligence services have used, whereas the movie has a linear plot. Both the book and movie start with a general's attempt to walk through a wall (General Hopgood in the movie, and Major General Albert Stubblebine III in the book). The book then chronicles how Uri Geller got Jon Ronson interested in the idea of the goat labs. Real-life Guy Savelli in the movie becomes both Gus Lacey (Stephen Root) and George Clooney's character, Lyn Cassady. Lyn also has characteristics of Peter Brusso, particularly his use of the Predator.