Everybody went slumming for paychecks in this amateurish "Firefox" clone. The surprising thing is that writer & director Phillip J. Roth and his three scenarists, Jonathan Raymond, Jon Meyer, and Terri Neish, weren't sued for copyright infringement. "Falcon Down" appropriates the plot of Clint Eastwood's "Firefox" and part of the plot of "Firefox" novelist Craig Thomas' sequel "Firefox Down." Watching this improbable aerial thriller once must have convinced the "Firefox" people to forego any lawsuit. "Falcon Down" is abysmal from take-off to landing and wastes the talents of Cliff Robertson, William Shatner, and Judd Nelson. The opening credits are enough to turn you off as we watch a scanner locate different parts of the Earth and then watch as the names of cast and crew emerge for what seems forever. The special effects just barely make the grade, probably because the jets are filmed against night skies. A perfunctory romance between leading man Dale Midkiff and soap opera beauty queen Sandra Ferguson barely heats up.
"Falcon Down" opens with insubordinate Captain Hank Thomas (Dale Midkiff of CBS-TV's "The Magnificent Seven") and Captain Bobby Edwards (Ken Olandt of "Digital Man") flying at night. They disobey their superior officer, Major Robert Carson (William Shatner of "Star Trek") and enter forbidden airspace. No sooner have they trespassed than some inexplicable force blinds Captain Edwards and his jetfighter crashes. Not long afterward a 747 encounters the same effect, similar to electrocution, with rays wriggled all over the aircraft fuselage before it crashes and 200 people perish. When Thomas demands to know what happened to Edwards, Major Carson refuses to divulge any details and brings Thomas up on court-martial charges. Three years later, after the Air Force has dishonorably discharged him, Thomas is working with his father, Buzz Thomas (Cliff Robertson of "633 Squadron"), who has gone into debt and needs $200-thousand to bail him out. Thomas' nemesis from yesteryear shows up and makes our protagonist an offer that he cannot refuse. It seems that a top secret supersonic jet--the Falcon--with a special combat weapons system needs to be stolen and Carson is shelling out the cash. He represents a group of C.I.A agents, including Sharon (Jennifer Rubin) and Harold Peters (Judd Nelson), who need to steal it. Thomas is such an idiot that he believes them. They break into the plant and steal the jet. When U.S. Air Force interceptors scramble and come after them, Peters activates the micro-wave weapon and starts knocking them off. During the aerial firefight, the Falcon takes a bullet in its wing tank and starts losing fuel. Thomas crash lands the jet on the ice cap while a Red Chinese sub with Major Carson on board cruises underwater toward them for a rendezvous. Unfortunately, for the villains, the plane sinks with the pilots and the traitors on board. The Red Chinese had planned on towing the jet underwater back to their base, but efforts to tow the plane fail and it drags the sub down to destruction.
If this plot synopsis makes "Falcon Down" sound provocative enough to watch, look out! Director Phillip Roth never generates any suspense and the dialogue is as forgettable as the plot is preposterous. Roth appears to have cloned some of the imagery from "Firefox," such as the shot where the jet wheels out of the hanger before take-off. Jennifer Rubin keeps her clothes on the entire time and adds nothing to the plot. Dale Midkiff looks hopeless as a so-called 'ladies man' in a movie that went straight to video and has nothing to distinguish it. Dull, dull, dull! I bought my DVD copy of "Falcon Down" for $2.00 plus tax from Movie Gallery during a discount sale. If I had known how egregious this pseudo-thriller was, I'd have put it back on the shelf.
"Falcon Down" opens with insubordinate Captain Hank Thomas (Dale Midkiff of CBS-TV's "The Magnificent Seven") and Captain Bobby Edwards (Ken Olandt of "Digital Man") flying at night. They disobey their superior officer, Major Robert Carson (William Shatner of "Star Trek") and enter forbidden airspace. No sooner have they trespassed than some inexplicable force blinds Captain Edwards and his jetfighter crashes. Not long afterward a 747 encounters the same effect, similar to electrocution, with rays wriggled all over the aircraft fuselage before it crashes and 200 people perish. When Thomas demands to know what happened to Edwards, Major Carson refuses to divulge any details and brings Thomas up on court-martial charges. Three years later, after the Air Force has dishonorably discharged him, Thomas is working with his father, Buzz Thomas (Cliff Robertson of "633 Squadron"), who has gone into debt and needs $200-thousand to bail him out. Thomas' nemesis from yesteryear shows up and makes our protagonist an offer that he cannot refuse. It seems that a top secret supersonic jet--the Falcon--with a special combat weapons system needs to be stolen and Carson is shelling out the cash. He represents a group of C.I.A agents, including Sharon (Jennifer Rubin) and Harold Peters (Judd Nelson), who need to steal it. Thomas is such an idiot that he believes them. They break into the plant and steal the jet. When U.S. Air Force interceptors scramble and come after them, Peters activates the micro-wave weapon and starts knocking them off. During the aerial firefight, the Falcon takes a bullet in its wing tank and starts losing fuel. Thomas crash lands the jet on the ice cap while a Red Chinese sub with Major Carson on board cruises underwater toward them for a rendezvous. Unfortunately, for the villains, the plane sinks with the pilots and the traitors on board. The Red Chinese had planned on towing the jet underwater back to their base, but efforts to tow the plane fail and it drags the sub down to destruction.
If this plot synopsis makes "Falcon Down" sound provocative enough to watch, look out! Director Phillip Roth never generates any suspense and the dialogue is as forgettable as the plot is preposterous. Roth appears to have cloned some of the imagery from "Firefox," such as the shot where the jet wheels out of the hanger before take-off. Jennifer Rubin keeps her clothes on the entire time and adds nothing to the plot. Dale Midkiff looks hopeless as a so-called 'ladies man' in a movie that went straight to video and has nothing to distinguish it. Dull, dull, dull! I bought my DVD copy of "Falcon Down" for $2.00 plus tax from Movie Gallery during a discount sale. If I had known how egregious this pseudo-thriller was, I'd have put it back on the shelf.