Iron Eagle
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| Iron Eagle | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Sidney J. Furie |
| Produced by | Ron Samuels, Joe Wizan, Lou Lenart, Kevin Elders |
| Written by | Kevin Elders, Sidney J. Furie |
| Starring | Louis Gossett, Jr. and Jason Gedrick |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography | Adam Greenberg |
| Editing by | George Grenville |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | January 17, 1986 |
| Running time | 117 Minutes |
| Country | USA / Canada |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Iron Eagle II |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Iron Eagle is a 1986 action film about a teenage boy named Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick) who commandeered two American F-16 fighter jets, embarking on a heroic rescue mission to save his father (Tim Thomerson), a prisoner of war being held in a hostile, unnamed Middle-Eastern nation. The film also stars Academy Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr. as Col. Charles 'Chappy' Sinclair and features the hit songs "One Vision" (by Queen) and "We're Not Gonna Take It" (by Twisted Sister) as part of its soundtrack.
The US Air Force has a long-standing policy about not cooperating on any film involving the theft of an aircraft. Consequently, the film-makers turned to the Israeli Air Force for the necessary aerial sequences. The delta-winged hostile aircraft featured in the movie are identified as MiG-23s, but are actually IAI Kfirs, a Dassault Mirage variant flown by the Israeli Air Force (The US Navy and US Marine Corps used to use Kfirs as adversary aircraft, simulating Soviet aircraft).
Iron Eagle was released in the same year as another popular aviation-based action film, Top Gun, thus forcing a shift in release dates as to avoid competition at the box office with each other. The film was followed by three sequels: Iron Eagle II, Aces: Iron Eagle III and Iron Eagle IV.
The movie holds cult classic status among action movie and aerial-combat fans.
[edit] In Popular Culture
The film was referenced on an episode of Family Guy In Movin' Out (Brian's Song), Brian reveals the plot for his novel (entitled "Faster Than the Speed of Love") which turns out to be identical to the plot of this film, which Brian had never heard of.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Out of Africa |
Box office number-one films of 1986 (USA) January 19, 1986 – January 26, 1986 |
Succeeded by The Color Purple |
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