Fire Birds (1990)

Director:

David Green

Writers (WGA):

Step Tyner (story) &
John K. Swensson (story) ...

Release Date:

25 May 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

The best just got better.

Plot:

The U.S. Government is willing to help any country that requires help in ridding themselves of drugs with support from the Army...

Plot Keywords:

Drug Cartel | Helicopter | Military | Army Life | Independent Film

Cast

Nicolas Cage	...	Jake Preston
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Brad Little
Sean Young	...	Billie Lee Guthrie
Bryan Kestner	...	Breaker
Illana Diamant	...	Sharon Geller (as Illana Shoshan)
Dale Dye	...	A.K. McNeil
Mary Ellen Trainor	...	Janet Little
J.A. Preston	...	General Olcott
Peter Onorati	...	Rice
Charles Lanyer	...	Darren Phillips
Marshall R. Teague	...	Doug Daniels
Cylk Cozart	...	Dewar Proctor
Charles Kahlenberg	...	Oscar De Marco
Gregory Vahanian	...	Tom Davis
Bob Lujan	...	Steward Rives

Also Known As:

Wings of the Apache

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:L | Canada:14A (Ontario) (video rating) (2004) | Norway:15 | Canada:AA (Ontario) (original rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #30312) | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Company:

Nova International Films

Trivia:

The "Scorpion" attack helicopters are actually Hughes MD-500D Defenders

Goofs:

Factual errors: An OH-58D (The helicopter flown by Sean Young’s character) can not be flown single-pilot in the left seat. Many of the Mission-Related controls are only available to the Right-hand seat (Pilot-in-command seat.)

Quotes:

Brad Little: [demonstrating Apache's capabilities to Preston] You could crash this thing at twenty G's and survive but I am NOT going to prove it to you!

Movie Connections:

Features Crack USA: County Under Siege (1989)

Soundtrack:

White Flag

You've got to be kidding me

The first tip that you're in for a stinker is the generic use of the term "South America" without naming a specific country (kind of like talking about "Asia" or "Europe" or "Africa" in the same way). Then there is Nic Cage as helicopter pilot par excellence Preston telling the Joint Chiefs that the drug cartel is "killing Americans every day." When Tommy Lee Jones shows up for a totally obnoxious performance -- and certainly when the utterly disposable Sean Young appears just minutes later -- you realize you're watching one of the biggest turkeys ever put on celluloid.

The only thing that saves this from being a "1" -- barely -- is the fact that there are marquee stars in this, and the extra point is for marveling at what kind of morons these stars must have for agents.