Trailer
Plot summary
Doug Masters wants the same career as his father, Air Force Col. Ted Masters, though a rejection notice from the Air Force Academy has already arrived. Then the colonel is shot down over the Mediterranean and captured by Bilya, a radical Middle Eastern state, whose court convicts him of trespassing and sets his execution three days away. Convinced the U.S. government will do nothing, Doug approaches Col. Charles 'Chappy' Sinclair, a Vietnam veteran flying in the Air Force Reserve, and argues that he and his friends can supply an F-16 and reach the base's intelligence. Chappy, already planning a rescue of his own, agrees, and the two prepare a mission with two armed F-16Bs, Doug flying the second.
Cast
- David Greenleeas Kingsley
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Iron Eagle (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The United States Air Force has a long-standing policy of not cooperating on any film involving the theft of an aircraft, so the filmmakers turned to the Israeli Air Force for the necessary aerial sequences.
- The aircraft used for both the American and the Bilyan air forces were Israeli jets: single-seat F-16As, two-seat F-16Bs and F-21/C-2 Kfirs simulating MiG-23s, painted with fictional national markings.
- The script was turned down by every studio before it was picked up by Joe Wizan, former head of 20th Century Fox.
- Louis Gossett Jr. is the only actor to appear in all four films in the series, the original being followed by Iron Eagle II, Aces: Iron Eagle III and Iron Eagle on the Attack.
- The soundtrack album was issued by Capitol Records and features songs by Queen, King Kobra, Eric Martin, Dio, Adrenalin and George Clinton.
- Sidney J. Furie and co-writer Kevin Alyn Elders were inspired by the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; Elders had been production supervisor on Furie's Purple Hearts and the two got to talking about doing "the kind of movie we used to sneak in to see on Saturday afternoons."
