Clint Eastwood's Firefox : the missile cruiser

[nautilusnut]

Actually VrgniaMaillman, the chances of hitting an incoming plane at 20ft and Mach 2 would be almost nil- far better to fire afterward when they could pursue the heat signature at a much higher altitude.

[Mach592]

But Lt Belenko defected in 1976 before this movie was released

[kirkjamestkirk]

@Mach592 You got a point. But still Zuyev managed to escape after the movie ;D /watch?v=_glEQuvurFQ

[Mach592]

I read that after this movie came out all MiG 29s had their throttle quadrants padlocked and only the airbase political officer had the key

[kirkjamestkirk]

@Mach592 Indeed but one guy is easy to fool : that didn't stop Alexander Zuyev to defect with a Mig-29 in the 80's or Viktor Belenko before him with his Mig-25 ;D

[cesarbr1000]

The book was fabulous, but the movie...

[VrgniaMailman]

The last 40 minutes or so of this movie - from the time the Russian Jewish scientists cause the fire in the hangar - are extremely fascinating, exciting. But scenes like the one above disappoint me in a way. Imagine being the captain of the Soviet missile cruiser. You know that the most advanced fighter in airplane history has been hijacked, you see it coming straight at you at 20 feet and accelerating, and you don't fire your missiles then???!!! Very unrealistic.

[lassecfc]

(MiG-31, NATO code name "Firefox") what ??? the real code name is Foxhound

[Antifaith29]

@lassecfc This movie was made during the cold war. A certain suspension of disbeleif is required. Its not like they could have had a real MiG31 to take a look at.

[Antifaith29]

@Antifaith29 Also fairly certain this movie was made before the MiG 31 was even a thing.

[sexcation]

I like watching airplane movies with actors that are pilots in real life.

[demonio2500]

thé citrón

[1IIIIIIIIII1]

RIP CLINT......YOU WILL BE SADLY MISSED......ONE OF THE ALL TIME GREATS EVER

[RagDollMovies]

@1IIIIIIIIII1 hes not dead retard

[VrgniaMailman]

@RagDollMovies I like your comment!!! Short, funny, to the point.

[tomekvonfehmarn]

chitiri rakiety..or something like that

[shlakenjake]

Wow, Firefoz is a fast browser.

[marioTmaggot]

I used to love this movie as a kid.

[tidmouthshed]

Klaus Lowitch stole this film as General Vladimirov. Brilliant.

[123456RaulMorales]

Vypuskaite piervie rakieti-fire forward missiles,now!!Vypuskaite vtorie!-fire rearward missiles,now!!

[gijoe989]

clint eastwood,s firefox:the missle cruiser is one awesome movie gijoe989.

[ProjectFlashlight612]

The shot at 0.50 is the single coolest airplane scene in movie history.

[jbadaluco]

i saw this movie with my dad when i was 7 years old and to this day i love this movie. i always watch it whenever i find on tv or if i hear that it is going to on. i remember the arcade game as well and that was kick ass. man i would love to find one of those games.

[c10h15n68]

Most impressive scene ever! Clint Eastwood always rulez!

[zate1982]

This is an interesting piece of sequence, because it was made with a very unusual technique, the REVERSE BLUE SCREEN in which the model is painted with a phosphorus paint and photographed with strong lighting against a black background, then rephotographed with ultraviolet light. That creates the two necessary mattes.

[xsf908]

1:42 Ticonderoga class missile cruiser ?

[sparrowlt]

I still diont know what made the 2nd helicopter blow...

[pg1171]

@sparrowlt Mach 6 Jet Wash! Ever heard of a jet having an engine flameout because they got into the jet wash from another jets engine plume? Same thing. Except at Mach 6, a LOT of air is displaced. Like hitting a solid concrete wall at Mach 6. The air being pushed away from the jet hit the helicopter like a brick wall. Think of smackig a baseball out of the stadium! Same thing!

[sparrowlt]

@pg1171 Well.. i really doubt he was doing MACH 6 at 20 feet... the top speed of the FireFox was MACH 5 at altitude, at ground level it was probably more like MACH 2 or 3 and he was trying to save fuel to reach the sub..

probably was at arround MACH 1.5

[strade100]

the techno- babble baffles me -- it was just a bloody good film!!

[devilsrain729]

"Coming in at 20 feet" Sick

[Dirtcreature]

Bit sad that people are poking holes out of a Clint Eastwood movie. If you want reality, what are you doing watching a film?

And for those who can't read and never picked up the book, another main reason America and Nato wanted to "borrow" the Firefox is because the metal of the fusalage which renders it immune to radar is also highly resisant to heat. Craig Thomas probably didn't want to be cheesy and say "Adamantium".

[ryan49er1]

@Dirtcreature I agree...most people here don't know its a story....they'd prolly hate little red riding hood because the wolf could talk

[SOWHATIMADEIT]

funny

[StanAlter]

I saw this a a kid, sat through a bunch of boring stuff just to see the plane!

[hckie]

@StanAlter same here :|

[amd17xp]

awesome!

[Dirtcreature]

You fly 20 feet above the sea, take out a chopper by flying over it, blow up two incoming missiles and outrun the other two missiles.

Dunno about Mitchell Gant, but I'd feel like Master of the Universe after doing that!

[Elevationary]

@Dirtcreature t looks very similar to a Euro fighter,..the typhoon,...to fly that fast and out run two missiles,you would have to find some way of defeating G forces...you would die from heart failure at those speeds.

[kirkjamestkirk]

@Elevationary nope. Load factor of G-force are only dangerous when the direction of the load is downwards meaning in a tight and fast turn 'cos blood is running from your brain to your legs. Speeding straight is not comfortable but not dangerous. SR-71 has out run many soviet missiles over USSR (basically for the pilot it's like sitting in a Space shuttle during launch)

[Vyppaaa11]

@Elevationary Look up the X-15.  It flew at mach 6 and carried a (living) human safely.

[Elevationary]

@Vyppaaa11 I have already figured out how it is able to reach those speeds,without blacking the pilot out,in order to go that fast ,you need to be at the outer edge of space,where gravity is much weaker,the craft would have to carry liquid oxygen as well as its fuel supply ,because there is no oxygen up that high for breathing and for combustion,it would also take a lot less longer for longer destinations flying....but thanks for the info.

[Vyppaaa11]

@Elevationary The edge of space has nothing to do with it. G force is G force even in outer space (that is how similated gravity works, well, will work). The Mig-25 could fly at mach 3.163 at 15,000 feet. Altitude has nothing to do with it. Getting up to those speeds is the only reason the SR-71 and X-15 flew that high. At those altitudes the air is thiner meaning less friction. Imean look at appolo 12. It hit somthing like 12,000 mph on re entry and all three ocupants were fine.

[milander007]

@Vyppaaa11 - the thinner the air the faster you have to go to stay in it (aerodynamics) and the faster you go the more air is hitting your plane. The SR-71 was at its hottest, 300 Centigrade,at its highest altitude (and speed).

The re-entry vehicles of the apollo and gemini missions had heat shields designed specifically to deal with the extreme temperatures of re-entry. The shields literally burnt away.

[Vyppaaa11]

@milander007 Well that is mostly correct. At higher altitudes the air is indeed thinner meaning that it is easier to pass through. But the reason aircraft like the SR-71 never did mach 3 at sea level is because the air would have been to dense and one of 3 things would have happened. 1)the aircraft could not reach the same speed or 2) the aircraft's temperature would exceed safe levels (this was a common problem with F-111s).

[Vyppaaa11]

@milander007 And the heat shields did not burn away. I know this for al fact because my grandfather was one of the engineers that built the mercury and gemini capsules.

[yamahonkawazuki]

@Vyppaaa11 that has to be fun to talk about wiht him. my paternal grandfather. worked for douglas aircraft during ww2. and buillt/designed the c47 aka the dc3.

[Vyppaaa11]

@yamahonkawazuki Well he died when I was 4 from a heart attack ( was sitting about 8 feet away while we were watching tv) but I've heard alot from my dad (aka his son)

[Vyppaaa11]

@yamahonkawazuki And he designed the sky train (gooney bird)? cool!

[musicalaviator]

@Elevationary Because everyone knows it's impossible to survive a launch into space in a space shuttle, don't they. or not. The space shuttle circles the entire planet in about 2 hours when in orbit. Speed does not equal G forces. Only acceleration (including turning)

[yamahonkawazuki]

@musicalaviator EXACTLY