are timed and scored: marching tens of kilometres with equipment and weapon in all weathers, obstacle courses, and night navigation exercises. The training is punctuated by firearms training and assault tactics, climbing and rappelling, boat handling, sky diving and scuba diving, explosives instruction, and hand-to-hand combat, which is what Gruner learnt. During the training period, any mistake can instantly disqualify the candidates. The ultimate goal of this training is to detect individuals with the physical, intellectual, and psychological potential needed to serve in the Commandos Marine. Gruner was operational with the French Commandos Marine in Djibouti and Somalia, where he was involved in active combat, especially anti-piracy operations. For Gruner, it was the occasion to forge himself the heart of a fighter for a forthcoming professional kick boxer career, and to learn the combat and discipline ropes necessary to be a credible action films actor, director, and producer. When he got out of the service, he had developed a sense of "never giving up" and was feeling in his mind that he was indestructible. This is how he has been capable to reproduce for the screen actual combat and fighting techniques, which he had learnt in real life as a Special Operation Forces Commando. This also explains some strange weapons seen in his movies, which are traditionally used by military special forces only, and therefore not usually shown in the film industry. Career 1980s: Kickboxing In 1981 Gruner left the French military with the aim to train full-time in order to compete professionally as a kick boxer. He traveled to the French Alps and began an intensive training regimen. In order to pay for his training expenses, he had to hold down four jobs, as a bouncer, a ski patrol member, a martial arts trainer, and a ski lift operator. This taught him the financial basics and philosophy of professional fighting. It is a business at the professional level, and winning or losing is not as important as it is for amateurs. For the pros, it is all about money. Sometimes a guy with as many "loses" as "wins", but who fights in an entertaining way, will make more money than an undefeated fighter... this wisdom would be key for him to learn how to manage properly the ups and downs of a film industry career, which is cyclical by nature. In 1984, he began fighting as a professional kick-boxer.