Flight of Black Angel
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Captain Eddie Gordon, a top gun pilot of an Air Force academy, is a talented and aggressive pilot who proves too much for his fellow instructees to match. His flight instructor, Matt Ryan (Peter Strauss) tries to encourage him to practice restraint, but with little success.
After his birthday party at his home in Las Vegas, Eddie puts a religiously motivated long-organized plan into action: He kills his brother (Rodney Eastman) and his parents (Ben Rawnsley and K. Callan). He then holds Captain Melissa Gaiter (Patricia Sill) of the Air Force base at gunpoint and forces her to arm his IAI Kfir jet with live ordnance, a radar-jamming pod and a tactical nuclear weapon. Melissa refuses to co-operate further and is murdered.
Later, Colonel Bill Douglas (James O'Sullivan) of the base's flight control is informed of the triple murder at the Gordons' residence while a training exercise involving Eddie is under way. Eddie takes this opportunity to shoot down his fellow instructees. Ryan manages to alert the base and tries to lure Eddie into the firing range of the base's surface-to-air missiles. Eddie however, eludes the missile barrage and destroys Ryan's plane. Before any armed aircraft can take off, Eddie devastates the base's communications, runway, and aircraft.
Eddie lands in Garrison, Utah to hide his jet in a deserted barn, but is accidentally discovered by a family on vacation, Richard (Michael Keys Hall) and Valerie (Michele Pawk) Dwyer and their baby. Before Valerie can raise the police on the CB radio, Eddie takes them hostage.
While Eddie works on defeating the fail-safes on the tactical nuke, he is exposed to lethal radiation, and his health quickly deteriorates. The next day, he and Valerie leave for a hardware store in a nearby city to obtain tools. Valerie uses a traveler's check and writes their hostage location on the back, but the clerk (Scott Menville) does not notice. Valerie then persuades Eddie to go to a drug store to find a cure for his vomiting and nausea. She repeats the same practice; this time, the pharmacist (John D. Brancato) notices Valerie's notes on the check.
Two police officers (George Fisher and Steven D. Simpson) arrive to investigate. Eddie kills one and engages the other in a firefight. Richard and Valerie try to flee with their baby; however, Eddie shoots the second officer, Richard and Valerie. Richard dies and Valerie is seriously wounded. Painstakingly, Valerie manages to collect her baby and crawl to the roadside, where she is picked up by a truck driver.
Ryan is cross-checking police leads when the report of Valerie Dwyer comes in. She insists that she has seen Eddie working on a bomb. Just before a surgery, Ryan learns Eddie's target from Valerie: Las Vegas. Subsequently, Ryan convinces Douglas to concentrate on Las Vegas; he travels to Hill AFB to take an F-16 fighter plane to fly lead. An AWACS plane confirms what Valerie had said.
It has been determined that although Eddie cannot launch the bomb, his jet fuel could detonate the bomb if he is fired upon. Ryan successfully talks Eddie into chasing him out into the desert by provoking Eddie into a duel to see if God made him "the one". After evading Eddie's last missile, Ryan orders the other pilots to clear away, and then fires on Eddie. Both pilots and 36 people on the ground are incinerated.
A recovering Valerie receives sanitized TV news on the incident in her hospital bed with her baby in her arms. The report assert that the pilots were on a "training mission" in the area.

Review: Surprisingly good.
Before he had the big budget of U-571, director Jonathan Mostow proved back in 1991 that he has what it takes to create a gripping movie.
I rented this because I was writing a screenplay with a similar premise.
The aerial combat sequences here are just as -- if not more so -- thrilling as anything in TOP GUN.
I wish they would have got someone else to play Cpt. Gordon aka "Black Angel" -- still, the thesp gets across a spooky desperation.
The script doesn't fully explain his motivation, but it's clear he has some kind of God-complex.
Peter Strauss is also believable as the Mentor.If you like military or doomsday thrillers, this is worth a rent or watching on cable.Also of note: screenwriters John Brancato and Mike Ferris (THE NET, THE GAME) are billed as assoc.
producers, though I don't know what their role in the production was..
Mildly Entertaining.
I bought this movie on DVD as I am a big fan of Iron Eagle and Flight Of Black Angel was suggested as a similar type movie.Firstly, I must say that I approached this with an open mind.
I realized that this wasn't a big budget movie and didn't expect it to wow me, but reading the reviews here made me hopeful that this might be pretty good.The movie starts very slow.
The acting in the opening scenes is mediocre at best.
The direction is pretty good, but relies heavily on slow zooms to invoke suspense and atmosphere - this works to some degree but is overdone to the point of becoming boring.
The lighting is pretty bad on some scenes.As the story develops, it starts to gather some momentum.
The acting seems to improve a little and the script is OK for the most part.
The flight sequences are taken straight out of Iron Eagle which kind of works, but having seen Iron Eagle, I couldn't help make comparisons and it becomes evident that compared to that, the script and acting doesn't come close.
Another annoying thing form me is that some of the scenes show the bombing of US troops and anti-aircraft weapons - these are taken straight from Iron Eagle and you can see the uniforms of the middle eastern enemies from IE who are meant to be US in this movie, but if I hadn't mentioned it you may not have noticed :-) The second half of the movie works much better, the pace is just about right and the introduction of new characters lifts the whole thing.Overall I would say this movie is maybe worth a look if there is nothing else on TV but I wouldn't suggest going out of your way to see it..
Rent it.
A movie about a dedicated pilot who is driven mad to extreme depression, and ends up trying to blow up Las Vegas in the process in order to fulfil his sick purpose.
Good acting, plenty of action, and an unexpected twist in the end makes this one worth watching..
Scary, and Very Realistic.
Just enough details to make this seem very real, and very possible.Makes you wonder about the military phrase "routine training exercise" used in actual news stories.No breaks in the action - and no subplots.
This is straight action from beginning to end.
Well worth watching..
Pretty Good.
This is an exciting action packed flick about a pilot gone mad and attempts to blow up Las Vegas.
Just when you think you know what is going to happen, it surprises you..
Highly recommended, taut storyline, great aerial dogfights.
Is it possible these days to tell a story -- a taut, relentless, no-fat-no-frills story -- in contemporary Hollywood?
This 1991 effort by writer/director Jonathan Mostow reminds me of Steven Spielberg's "Duel" in its relentless pursuit of a linear take-no-prisoners storyline.
No real characters, but who needs 'em?
Let Merchant/Ivory wander through sanguine tepidity ...
Mostow wants to grab you, must compel your attention -- he plies his craft for the MTV 15-second-attention-span generation.I stumbled across this unknown gem flipping through cable stations one meandering Saturday afternoon, and immediately wondered why Hollywood hadn't discovered this amazing director.
Then I searched IMDB and learned he recently finished directing "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."  Hmm ...
guess he was only anonymous to me.The aerial dogfights are simply great.
The maniacal plan of the wacked-out Crazy Christian Crusader main character is riveting, and Mostow's script seems plausible in its attention to military technology detail.Highly recommended..
A real surprise.
I rented this movie one night just because I had nothing better to do.
To my surprise, I found it entertaining.
I will not tell the plot, but this is a pretty good action/thriller.
The colour on it is pretty dull, but the movie has some good special effects and explosions.
Renegade pilot thrills in this occasionally frightening TV movie.
FLIGHT OF BLACK ANGEL is another movie about a renegade fighter pilot taking the fight to the skies above America.
There were a few of these films made throughout the 1990s, John Woo's BROKEN ARROW being the one I know the best.
Although this one's a TV movie, it doesn't suffer from the trappings of that genre because it actually has some violent scenes of murder and destruction in it, so it's not one that plays it safe throughout.I watched this film out of interest because it was an early effort from director Jonathan Mostow, later to make crowd-pleasers like BREAKDOWN and TERMINATOR 3.
Mostow is hampered by a low budget in this one, but the story's interesting and I enjoyed the way that most of the material ends up taking place on the ground rather than in the skies.
Peter Strauss is a dull hero character but William O'Leary is rather convincing as the out-of-his-mind pilot.
The special effects again are limited in nature but there's enough meat in the surrounding scenes to make the whole thing frighteningly convincing in places..
Bottom gun..
"...Black Angel" pretty much just sucks.
There are too many deficits to go into detail.
The only reason to watch would be the flying and it's pretty ordinary....snap rolls are about it.
The story is lame and the execution worse with poor if any technical advice.
Only for hard up sofa spuds who love aerial combat dog fights.
good made for cable film.
This films tells the story of air force pilot who cracks under peer pressure,it was unclear if his parents pushed him to far,or what,he simply had to be the best,Barry Zetlin,who produce this film,assembled a good cast.
The pressure was too much,he cracked under it all.
The fight scenes in the air was well done,I suspect that quite a bit of stock footage film was used.
This is available on DVD in either the UK or Australia.
Before you order it,make sure your DVD player will play it,DVD's players in Canada and the US are region one,in Europe and Australia,they use region 2 and 4 which is Pal System.Region free DVD players can be purchased here in Canada and the US,if you do not wish to purchase one,go on to the internet and type in DVD players hackers list,this web site will give you instructions on how to change the region settings on your DVD player,not all DVD players can the region codes be changed.
Another interesting item,Barry Zetlin,who produced this film appeared in it,a cameo appearance,he has also done this in other films he has produced.
Alfred Hitchcock used to do the same thing..
Ecellent story, well acted.
This is an excellent story of United States Air Force Pilots that could possibly happen.
All parts in film are well acted and believable.
The only bad feature of film is parts of the film that were shown that were supposed to be in Western part of the United States looked like they were filmed in Israel.
The movie keeps you in suspense because when you see it you have no idea what is going to happen next.
I give the movie a 7 out of a 10 because of the non-authentic scenery.
If it wasn't for that, I would have given it a 9.
Peter Straus plays his part well but William O'Leary plays a very complicated part and should have received some kind of film award for his part!.
Great Film.
Flight of Black Angel is easily a great film because it relies on storytelling and characterization rather than special effects to get its point across.
It's low budget but I think that is what works in the movie's favor.
It doesn't have to rely on whiz-bang special effects.
William O'Leary is awesome as the psychotic Air Force pilot who's slipped a gear and decides to carry out God's will and Peter Strauss plays it straight and to the point as his mentor trying to stop him.
The story is very believable and hooks the audience instantly.
Easily one of the best films i've ever watched from a storytelling aspect.
If this movie had a bigger budget, I could see it winning some awards..
Silly movie, only good for when you're drunk.
Ludicrous plot, bad acting, glaring factual errors.
Stylistically, it's a bit of a Top Gun rip-off.
And seriously, who ever heard of anyone landing a fighter on a road and then taking off again later?
If you like to make up funny lines for the dialogue or you like to pick out errors, etc., then this is the movie for you.
And Peter Strauss, next time you play a military man, get a haircut..
meh.
the flight scenes look like they were filmed in Israel because they were.
This movie borrows all of the action sequence footage from the movie "Iron Eagle"...
which was shot using IAF F-16A/Bs and Kfirs (a Mirage III derivative).
Pretty low-budget, I guess if I hadn't seen Iron Eagle so many times before, I wouldn't have paid attention to it.
I rather rented the movie hoping to see more Tomcat footage (an F-14A is displayed quite prominently on the cover of the movie) but there is none.
The acting is good enough, all things considered...
even if the plot line is full of holes.
This is the only time I've ever seen O'leary in a truly serious role...
and he's wickedly good at it!.
Low budget movie shows Blockbuster Hollywood how to do it properly.
This is a made for TV movie and due to budget restraints all the flight footage is reused from the Iron Eagle films.
Hence Israel has to pass for Nevada.
So I originally went into this not expecting too much but wanting an aerial film fix.
Despite what one or two other reviewers have said, this has a very believable plot (especially compared to Iron Eagle films)and the acting was very good.
The reviewer who thinks it's totally ridiculous to land a plane on a road and take off again needs to Google the Swiss and Swedish Air ForcesAn ace aggressor squadron pilot has some kind of breakdown and decides to shoot down his fellow pilots and attack Las Vegas with a Nuclear weapon.
Spoiler ALERT+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ At first, this might seem a little ridiculous, but the way he achieves all this actually all seems very plausible.
Far more so than the way the kids get everything Chappie asks for in Iron Eagle.
He holds someone at gunpoint to get live weapons programmed, brushes off concerns by the armourer who loads the plane and then has to dismantle the nuclear weapon with the aid of a stolen wiring diagram,getting radiation sickness in the process (but as he's on a suicide mission, he doesn't care.) END OF SPOILER ++++++++++++++++++++++++++William O'Leary puts in a good performance as the cold, disturbed pilot,and Peter Strauss is pretty good as the older pilot and mentor who is eventually forced to take on his protégé.
While the pace is a little slow in paces (especially if you are used to the moronic modern Whizzbang Hollywood rubbish),the plot isn't totally predictable and no-one does anything out of character.
The Flight sequences are pretty well edited, especially considering that they are cut together from an entirely different film.
This obviously lends itself to a few continuity errors but I think that's forgivable in this context.
They are no worse than in bigger budget films like Top Gun. Overall, I found it a very enjoyable and well made film, and one I would certainly recommend, even to those who aren't that into planes.
The complete opposite of a film like Flyboys.