New movie 'Only the Brave' honors the service and sacrifice of front-line firefighters

LOS ANGELES -- The new movie "Only the Brave" tells the true and tragic story of the "Granite Mountain Hotshots," an elite group of 20 firefighters who lost their lives while battling the Yarnell Mountain Fire in Prescott, Arizona in 2013.

Josh Brolin stars as the superintendent of the crew. Miles Teller plays a new recruit. The actors in this ensemble cast went through their own fire training "boot camp" to prepare for the film.

"There wasn't a lot of ego, there wasn't a lot of bull," said Brolin. "Everybody had to kind of be stripped raw, it wasn't a necessarily comfortable situation all the time, but that's what we wanted to do. I think that's what it deserved. And I think the first responders and firefighters who have seen it have reacted very positively and are happy with the accuracy of the movie."

"We all bonded on this thing, we really formed our own kind of a brotherhood," said Teller. "I think if you assembled the cast, we would be able to be like a poor man's hot shot group. We absolutely learned some skills."

The actors are proud to be able to pay tribute not only to the brave men they portray, but also their extended families.

"You know we're not all perfect, we all have faults and fissures," said actor James Badge Dale, who plays one of the firefighters. "They loved each other and tried to navigate each other and to juxtapose that with these guys working up on the line."

"That balance is the relatability," added actor Taylor Kitsch. "This movie is for the first responders, and their families, and the Granite Mountain Hotshots."

"At the end of the day it was always about doing right by these guys," said actor Geoff Stults, who also plays a firefighter.

"Only the Brave" is rated PG-13 and is in theaters Oct. 20.