Behind Enemy Lines is a 2001 thriller/war film, directed by John Moore, and starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson. Its fictional plot is centered on the story of uncovering a massacre in the Bosnian War of 1992–1995 by an American naval aviator.
Plot
USN Rear Admiral Leslie Riegart's (Gene Hackman) carrier battle group is in the final stages of a NATO peacekeeping deployment, when Naval Aviator Lieutenant Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) and Naval Flight Officer Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) decide to take their F/A-18F Super Hornet (launched from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson), stationed somewhere in the Adriatic Sea, off course to check out a suspicious target. Their plane is shot down by a SA-13 SAM controlled by Serbian forces led by General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa) and his second in command Colonel Viktor Bazda (Marko Igonda). Lokar is committing a secret genocidal campaign against the Bosniak people in a no-fly zone that the NATO plane violates and photographs. Wanting to avoid being discovered, Lokar has the plane shot down. Burnett and Stackhouse eject from their plane and land in Serb-held territory. Stackhouse was injured from the ejection and Burnett attempts to contact Reigart for help, but a Serb patrol finds Stackhouse; Burnett observes as they interrogate and execute him.
Burnett proceeds to evade the Serbs, narrowly escaping their patrols on several occasions. All the while he maintains contact with Reigart to receive information on his extraction point. The resulting attempt to rescue the downed aviator is complicated by political considerations, which are forced on Riegart by his NATO commanding officer Admiral Juan Miguel Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida), including using his own team for the extraction, rather than the team that Riegart put together. Burnett is stalked by Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov), a marksman, who is sent by Lokar to kill Burnett after realizing that Stackhouse had lied about being on a solo mission when he was being interrogated. Although Sasha locates Burnett while he is radioing the carrier group from atop a dam, Burnett escapes after sliding down the dam face. Burnett makes his way to another supposedly safe location that was meant to be an extraction zone, where he again contacts with Admiral Riegart. Burnett is told to move to a different location with the excuse that his area is unfit for aerial extraction. While speaking to the carrier group, Burnett spots the Serb forces, who have been searching for him and attempts to flee. Admiral Riegart fears that Burnett has been captured or killed, but Burnett is located via satellite imagery, and is seen to be fleeing across a field and then falling to the ground. Riegart questions whether Burnett has been shot by the pursuing Serbs, but instead, Burnett had fallen into the mass graves he and Stackhouse had photographed, and hides under a dead body to avoid detection. The satellite image is lost, but it renews Riegart's determination to rescue the downed navigator. He contacts Sky News to inform them of Burnett's fate.
While being pursued by Sasha, Burnett comes across a road and stops a pickup truck. The driver recognizes that he is the pilot from the news and offers to transport him on the back of his truck; bound for the small Bosnian town of Hač. Burnett graciously accepts, but is unaware that the town is a combat zone. Burnett is taken to what appears to be a mall, and accused of collaborating with the Serbian forces, and for causing the genocide, which he had photographed. While attempting to prove his word, the building is hit by a tank shell that propels Burnett through a window. Serbian forces swarm the mall and believe they have found Burnett's body, but he switched uniforms with a Serb militant and escaped, leaving his destroyed radio behind. The Serbians parade the dead militiaman wearing Burnett's uniform by concealing his head with a bag, claiming that Burnett had been shot by Muslim forces. Their ruse works, as Burnett arrives at the next evacuation point, only to see the helicopter changing direction to return to the carrier group.
Burnett makes his way to the crash site and locates his ejection seat, where he manages to reactivate the homing beacon, notifying the carrier group of his presence, but also alerting the Serbs to his location. Riegart immediately sets out to rescue Burnett in full knowledge that doing so would mean his disobeying a direct order and result in being relieved of command. Meanwhile, General Lokar sends both Bazda and Sasha to return Burnett's body, instructing Sasha to shoot Burnett in the head. While making their way through a minefield to intercept Burnett, Bazda steps on a mine and pleads with Sasha to save him. Sasha draws a pistol on Bazda and tells him to remain still, and then leaves him behind, who eventually dies from the mine. Sasha sees Burnett hiding behind the ejection seat, and at first remains confident that he can out-wait the American, but on hearing incoming American helicopter engines, he makes his way over to Burnett and realizes he has been tricked. Burnett jumps out of a snowdrift behind Sasha and shoots him several times but fails to kill Sasha. They engage in a hand-to-hand fight, where Sasha delivers multiple blows to Burnett, but Burnett pulls a flare and stabs Sasha in the chest with it; killing him.
Immediately after Burnett kills Sasha, Serbian T-72 tanks, BMP-1 armor vehicles and infantry break through the tree line, and begin to fire upon Burnett; who runs to a nearby angel statue. As he reaches the statue, U.S Marines UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, under Riegart's command appear over the cliff face and begin to fire upon the Serbians. Although yards away from the rescue helicopter, Burnett turns and runs back to the ejection chair to retrieve the hard drive upon, which the photos of General Lokar's actions were stored. He retrieves the disk and is successfully extracted. After the rescue, he hands over the disc containing the photographic evidence to Riegart and destroys the letter given to Reigart, before his mission began. Titles then reveal that Burnett continued to serve in the navy and that his photographs lead to Lokar's arrest and subsequent extradition to the ICTY. The film ends, as Riegart retires from the Navy, having been relieved of his command.
Cast
Production
The film, released by News Corporation division 20th Century Fox, features fictional news reports from Sky News, a sister company to Fox.[citation needed]
None of the actors playing Serbians were actually Serbians; the producers said that they hired Croats to instruct the actors in bad Serbian language, because they could not find any Serbs willing to work on the film, due to anti-Serb sentiment carried through out the film. Vladimir Mashkov, the actor who played the Serbian sniper, Sasha, is Russian and Olek Krupa, the actor who played the Serbian General, Miroslav Lokar, is Polish. Also, the names of Serbian characters were not Serbian.[citation needed]
It was filmed in Slovakia, not Bosnia. During the shooting of the lakeside scene near the end, the countryside was unexpectedly devoid of snow. To recreate a snowy lake, the film's crew cleared part of a mountain of trees, used molten wax to create the appearance of a lake, and used paper snow to imitate real snow.[citation needed]
A Dolly zoom is used at one point in the film to represent the feeling of vertigo.[citation needed]
Scripting and costuming place Stackhouse and Burnett in the squadron VFA-163 Ark Angels. The real VFA-163 squadron was decommissioned well before the Super Hornet was put into service. The Super Hornet, which did not enter service until 1999, was decorated with VFA-163's 1995 markings on the spine but was in fact on loan from VFA-122.[citation needed]
All of the footage for the Super Hornet's launch off the carrier were those of standard Hornets, even for the "going to after-burners" footage. A couple of frames even showed now-retired F-14 Tomcats.[citation needed]
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) was the aircraft carrier featured in the film. Exterior naval footage was filmed on-board the carrier. Interiors were filmed on the Carl Vinson, and on the USS Constellation (CV-64), as well as on-set.[1]
Historical inspiration
The movie bears some resemblance to the experiences of former USAF Captain Scott O'Grady, who was shot down on 2 June 1995 over Bosnia. He managed to survive for six days before being rescued. He reportedly filed suit against the producers of this film for defamation of character, as well as making a film about his ordeal without his permission.[citation needed] The characters and events the film portrays are, however, almost entirely fictional. O'Grady never entered populated areas, didn't interact with civilians, nor was he directly pursued by Serb forces. Also, O'Grady never flew an F/A-18F, but rather an F-16 Fighting Falcon.[2]
Reception
The movie made $18.7 million in its opening week in the U.S. It eventually grossed $59 million on an estimated $40 million budget.
The movie went to DVD on October 17, 2006 and sold 87,000 units in the opening week, bringing in $1,580,493 in revenue. As of the latest figures, 289,736 DVD units have been sold translating to $4,956,163 in revenue.[3] This does not include Blu-ray sales.
Sequels
The film was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil and Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, which was co-produced by WWE Studios.
Trivia
The opening scene shows the marines playing football on the deck. While the football is accidentally kicked off of the flight carrier, Burnett can be heared shouting "Wilson...!". This is a reference to the 'pet' volleyball Tom Hanks' character Chuck Noland named Wilson in the movie Cast Away. The plot also echoes the movie "Bat 21" in which Gene Hackman played a US airman shot down behind enemy lines - in Vietnam - and is eventually rescued by a determined colleague played by Danny Glover.
References
External links
