Flight of the Intruder

Infobox Film
name = Flight of the Intruder


director = John Milius
producer = Brian Frankish
writer = Robert Dillon
David Shaber
starring = Danny Glover
Willem Dafoe
Brad Johnson
cinematography = Fred J. Koenekamp
editing = Steve Mirkovich
Carroll Timothy O'Meara
Peck Prior
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = 1991
runtime = 115 min.
language = English
budget =
music = Basil Poledouris
awards =
imdb_id = 0099587
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"Flight of the Intruder" is a 1991 film directed by John Milius, which is based on the novel of the same name by A-6 Intruder pilot Stephen Coonts. The film stars Danny Glover as Commander Frank 'Dooke' Camparelli, Willem Dafoe as Lieutenant Commander Virgil 'Tiger' Cole, and Brad Johnson as Lieutenant Jake 'Cool Hand' Grafton.

Plot

"Flight of the Intruder" centers on U.S. Navy Lieutenant Grafton, who flies an A-6 Intruder and becomes increasingly disillusioned with political controls imposed on his bombing missions of North Vietnam after his bombardier/navigator is killed during a night-time raid. Other planes from Grafton's aircraft carrier are being shot down by surface-to-air missiles which are stockpiled in the city of Hanoi, off-limits to retaliatory bombing raids. With Cole as bombardier/navigator, Grafton plans a renegade attack on ""SAM" City", a park in the center of Hanoi where the missiles are stored.

The film begins with Lieutenant Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton and his bombardier/navigator(BN) Lieutenant Morgan "Morg" McPhearson flying over the Gulf of Tonkin towards North Vietnam. Morgan navigates their way in while Jake makes comments about him taking his work too seriously. Once calling "feet dry" and passing the coast, they hit their target, a suspected truck park which turns out to be trees. While flying back out over the Gulf of Tonkin, Morgan is shot in the neck by a Vietnamese peasant and Jake declares an emergency. Upon landing on the USS Independence, his BN and friend is dead. Disturbed and covered in blood, Jake walks into debriefing with Commander Frank Camparelli and the executive officer, Commander "Cowboy" Parker. After a brief exchange of what he could recall from his flight, Camparelli tells him to put Morgan's death behind him a write a letter to his wife, Sharon.A new pilot is then introduced in the ready room, Jack Barlow who is named "Razor" because of his young appearance sighted by Camparelli. The next morning, a memorial service is held for Morgan, in which the letter Jake wrote to Sharon is narrated.

Lieutenant Commander Virgil Cole arrives on a C-2 Greyhound, then shortly speaks with Camparelli.

Jake,his room-mate Sammy Lundeen, Bob "Boxman" Walkawitz and "Mad Jack" fly into Subic Bay the next day. After landing, he goes to see Sharon, but she's already departed. He runs into a woman named Callie Troy, who is packing Sharon's things.

After an altercation in "the tail hook bar" with civilian merchants Jake runs into Callie again in a cafe'. After spending the night with her, she reveals her husband was a pilot himself and was killed on a solo mission over Vietnam.

Jake returns to the carrier where Campareilli confronts him regarding the incident. Cole and Jake are paired on "Iron Hand" A-6Bs loaded with STRAMS and Shrikes for SAM suppression. On the mission, they encounter and manage to evade a North Vietnamese MiG-17.

Jake recommends to Cole that they bomb Hanoi, which he could've gotten him Court Martialed. Cole rejects the idea.

On the next mission, Jake and Cole are paired up with Boxman. After hitting their suspected target, Boxman is shot down and killed by another SAM. While watching news in the ready room, US aircraft debris are flashed in victorious manner by the Vietnamese in Hanoi. Cole agrees with Jake to attack Hanoi. They read through maps and articles and decide on SAM City.

While on a mission to bomb a power plant in the vicinity of Hanoi, they drop two of their Mark 83 Snake Eyes, leaving eight for the missile depot. On their first pass, their armament computer goes out and after barely surviving a SAM detonation, their bombs don't release. They come back around and release, the missile depot is obliterated. After landing, Campareilli informs them of their court martial at Subic Bay.

The court martial charges are dropped when Operation Linebacker II is ordered and their mission is covered up. The next day, Campareilli grounds them while the rest of the carrier's A-6 and A-7 crews conduct a daylight raid to destroy the anti-aircraft enplacements. Camparelli is hit by a ZSU-23 AA gun and crash lands. Sammy Lundeen is hit and has to head for the ocean. Razor is ordered by Camparelli to disengage. Jake and Cole fly one more time to assist Camparelli. They destroy the ZSU, but are heavily damaged and forced to eject. Jake lands near the crashed Intruder and runs to cover with Camparelli. Separated from Jake, Cole tries to evade the NVA when he gets into a scuffle with one. He successfully kills him with his bayonet, but is mortally wounded. He comes in radio contact with Jake and lies to him, telling him he's already gotten away. Moments later, a pair of U.S. Air Force A-1 Skyraiders (Sandy) appear and begin providing cover. Cole then tells the lead Sandy to drop ordinance on him and pops smoke. He is killed by the Skyraiders as well as a few dozen NVA and possibly a ZSU. Jake and Camparelli retreat into the wooded areas away from their aircraft, while being pursued by a sniper. The Jolly Green Giant helicopter sent in to retrieve them drops the tow cable. Jake hooks Camparelli in and takes his pistol and hides in a ditch waiting for the sniper to appear. While Camparelli is being pulled to the helicopter, the sniper perks up and Jake jumps out firing his handguns. The penetrator is sent back down and after a suspenseful wait, Jake is hoisted to the helicopter and the Skyraiders conduct one final napalm run.

The film ends with Jake reading a letter from Callie and talking to Camparelli, congratulating him on being selected for promotion to Captain and says he'd like to be on that ship. Camparelli replies, saying he couldn't have it any other way.

Production notes

"Flight of the Intruder" was filmed partly on the USS "Independence" (CV-62). It went out for two weeks of filming in November 1989. The film crew kept the ship's fire party busy with numerous small electrical fires started with their lighting equipment.'

Intruders from VA-165 Boomers were repainted in VA-196 markings for filming as the real VA-196 was unavailable at the time of filming due to the schedule of their deployment cycle.

Former US Senator (and later Presidential candidate) Fred Thompson played a major speaking part during the court-martial sequence of the film, portraying a Captain in the Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. Ed O'Neill was originally cast in the movie but when the movie was screened for test audiences, they laughed at him, as they all perceived him as his Married With Children character. The director recast his character and reshot those scenes.

Aircraft

The film features U.S. Air Force A-1 "Sandy" Skyraiders and a HH-3 "Jolly Green Giant" rescue helicopter in various action sequences, with brief appearances of Navy aircraft including the A-7 Corsair, C-2 Greyhound and the F-4 Phantom II, as well as a North Vietnamese MiG-17.

Two early variants of the A-6 Intruder, the A-6A and A-6B, are portrayed in the film are portrayed by A-6E (without the TRAM targeting equipment) as all surviving A-6 variants at the time of filming had been updated to A-6E or KA-6D standards. The A-6A is a conventional bomber and the A-6B carried specialized electronics and weapons for SEAD missions (the Navy called this "Iron Hand", the Air Force called it "Wild Weasel".)

Differences from book

The movie featured various changes to many minor characters from the book, changing some and merging others. Boxman, for example, was a bombardier-navigator in the book and a pilot in the film. Razor's callsign was derived from his bushy mustache in the book and from looking too young to shave in the film. Big Augie was African-American in the book and white in the film. Cowboy Parker was the squadron operations officer (third in command) in the book and executive officer (second in command) in the film.

The Hanoi Raid launched by Jake and Tiger Cole in the movie was aimed at a stockpile of surface-to-air missiles in downtown Hanoi. In the book, their target was the National Assembly building, to which they failed to inflict any real damage.

Tiger Cole is killed in the climax of the movie, while in the book he is successfully rescued along with Jake.

The carrier is called the "Shiloh" in the book. In the film, it's the USS "Independence".

Popular music

The movie features many 1950s and 1960 pop and rock n' roll music. Dafoe and Johnson sing Petula Clark's notable 1964 music hit "Downtown" on their way back from the prohibited bombing run on a Hanoi SAM missile depot exhilarated from their success.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099587/ IMDb: "Flight of the Intruder Review"]
* [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/17804/Flight-of-the-Intruder/overview NY Times: "Flight of the Intruder Overview"]