The American fighter pilot assigned by Secret Service (Freddie Jones) is the Vietnam veteran named Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood), a burned-out USAF ace pilot, is smuggled into the USSR to infiltrate the Russian airbase at Bilyarsk, where the supersonic fighting plane Firefox/MiG-31 is being terminated, he must rob it and avoid the mass production that would give the Russians a huge advance. As soon as the pilot detects a threat - either visually or a scope - his brain impulses will direct a missile to that threat, without so much as pushing a button. The Soviets have made a sophisticated aircraft, the latest aeronautic marvel that flies at 6 times the speed of sound, is invulnerable to radar, and worst of all it has a lethal technological weapons system that the pilot can control through cerebral waves and thought.
#FIREFOX FOCUS STEALTH MOVIE#
This thrilling and intriguing movie is set during Cold War, the URSS has developed a high-tech jet called MiG-31 that can be partially controlled by a neuralink. For me it was fun to see Eastwood stretch his directorial skills in a different direction, and even more fun if you actually remember the cold war.or were even alive during the cold war for that matter. It is a 50/50 proposition as to whether you will like this one. The film also borders on science fiction with the jet's thought-controlled weapon systems.
#FIREFOX FOCUS STEALTH FULL#
The real star, though, other than Clint, is the fictional MiG31 "Firefox" fighter jet, invisible to radar, capable of Mach 6 speeds as well as full nuclear armament. As you may have noticed, there are no women listed this is the rare film with no substantial female presence at all. Also featured are Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey, Nigel Hawthorne, and Kenneth Colley. Warren Clarke is memorable as Clint's chief contact. The last section is where the film loses steam, with a lot of repetitious, dated fx shots of the jet in action. The first two-thirds of the film are a treat, with a lot of tense scenes of Clint and his sympathetic Russian contacts narrowly escaping capture. This is a cold war thriller from Clint Eastwood about a Vietnam vet fighter pilot sent undercover and across the iron curtain to steal a new Soviet super-plane. and by my count this line was spoken at least seven times here. So better ice up at a cold one and enjoy Firefox for what it is, Cold War entertainment at it's best. The second half is more like Star Wars and is really great stuff. Also he's suffering from the same post Vietnam War disorder that John Rambo had in First Blood and that really adds to the tension. The first half of the film is a spy thriller and can be pretty nail biting at times as Clint gets his papers checked at regular intervals. Also Raiders of the Lost Ark fans can spot Ronald Lacey playing Semelovsky a Jewish scientist. Warren Clarke is really good but Freddie Jones and Nigel Hawthorne are pretty hammy. The majority of the cast is made up by British character actors. Eastwood directs himself in what is a pretty average performance by his own high standards. The effects like every 80's film have dated badly but for a movie made in 1982 they are rather good. This was a pretty sloppy use of stock footage.įirefox isn't your usual Eastwood film, he's almost branching out into Star Wars territory here with this Sci-Fi heavy Cold War Spy thriller. By the way, although the film is mostly extremely well made, in the first of many (too many) flashback scenes, Eastwood's Phantom II jet turns into a Thunderchief fighter-bomber. Overall, it's an exciting film and one that is far deeper and more interesting than a standard Eastwood shoot 'em up picture. You can't blame anyone for this.CGI technology just has improved tremendously since then. This was amazingly made for 1982 but does look a bit dated today. Then, the final third or so of the film is flying the plane home.and avoiding all the missiles and the other Firefox fighter. To me, this was the most interesting part. Much of the film consists of the mission getting into the Soviet Union and then to the plane. They need an excellent pilot who can think in Russian to go into the USSR for a covert operation.to steal the Firefox fighter jet!! Why is it that important? Well, because they plane can apparently do about mach 6 AND it has a new neural interface.and it's much more advanced than American fighters. In this one, he plays a Vietnam War fighter pilot who is called out of reserves to help his country. The film is a real change of pace for Clint Eastwood. I'd enjoyed it, but times have changed, I have changed and technology has changed.so do I still think it's a decent movie? Well, surprisingly, yes.it still is pretty good. I saw this film when it originally came out in the theaters.well over 30 years ago.