Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood) is a troubled Vietnam war veteran who happens to also be one of the best all-round pilots in the service – or was, as he has gone more or less AWOL to his ranch in Alaska.
He is approached with a new mission to fly, except this time the plane is not even American – and is Russia’s latest technological marvel, The Firefox. Posing as a heroin businessman, Leon Spragg, he meets up with Russian associates who then kill the real Spragg, dumping the body in the river and doing their best to protect them.
Military associates around the plane, situated in the east of the country, suspect there are traitors in the camp, but appear to not be expecting Gant, who is determined to carry out his mission – and escape with the Firefox…
A total contrast to some of Eastwood’s other work and based on a novel by Welsh author Craig Thomas, the film (with Vienna doubling as Moscow, except for one back projection simulation of Red Square in one brief scene) is highly entertaining, with visual effects courtesy of STAR WARS legend John Dykstra and a music score by Maurice Jarre (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, WITNESS)