Flight of Fury (2007)

John is sent in to recover a stolen Stealth Bomber. His trusty sidekick Rojar and ever faithful Jessica fight the rebel forces of Banansistan, led by the vivacious Ellianna.

Director:

Michael Keusch

Writers:

Steven Seagal (screenplay), Joe Halpin (screenplay)

Stars:

Steven Seagal, Mark Bazeley, Steve Toussaint

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steven Seagal	...	John Sands
Steve Toussaint	...	Col. Ratcher
Angus MacInnes	...	Gen. Tom Barnes
Mark Bazeley	...	Capt. Richard Jannick
Ciera Payton	...	Jessica
Alki David	...	Rojar
Tim Woodward	...	Admr. Frank Pendleton
Vincenzo Nicoli	...	Peter Stone
Katie Jones	...	Eliana Reed
Gary Cooper	...	Cmdr. Bud Jackson
Bart Sidles	...	Capt. 'Fox' Hinkle (as Barton Sidles)
Cristina Teodorescu	...	Pendleton's Operational Soldier Lisa
Rares George Panfil	...	Williams
Noah Lee Margetts	...	Eliana's Soldier
Karen David	...	Barnes's Operational Soldier Flanders

Storyline

--**Contains Spoilers**----Air Force pilot John Sands has been wrongfully imprisoned in a military detention center, where his memory is to be chemically wiped because some of his superiors feel threatened by the knowledge that he gained from his assignments to operations that were deemed too sensitive for the regular intelligence services. Later, after John escapes from the detention center, a top secret Air Force Stealth Bomber known as the X-77, which uses the latest in stealth cloaking technology, making it capable of going anywhere undetected, is stolen by corrupt Air Force pilot Ratcher. General Tom Barnes, John's former commander, hears that John has been arrested after taking down a group of men who were robbing a rest stop. Knowing that John was Ratcher's trainer, Barnes sends John to northern Afghanistan with fellow pilot Rick Jannick to recover the X-77, promising John that he will be a free man if he succeeds. Barnes has Admiral Frank Pendleton, who is on an aircraft ...

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Plot Keywords:

pilot | terrorist | bomber | street shootout | m 16 | 

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Taglines:

A flight plan to freedom...

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, some language and brief sexuality

Details

Country:

UK Romania USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 February 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Black Thunder

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$68,529

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castel Film Romania, Clubdeal, Steamroller Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In an interview on young actresses being pressured to perform nude, Ciera Payton said she had just turned 18 when she was cast in a lead role opposite Steven Seagal in this film. It was her first professional acting job, and filming would take place in Romania. But before accepting the role, neither the film's producers nor her agent showed her the film's full script. So it wasn't until halfway through her flight from the U.S. to Romania that she read the entire screenplay for the first time and discovered a scene in which a character comes out of the shower naked. She said she panicked when she realized it was her character. She would also be performing a sex scene with another woman. When she stepped off the plane, knowing no one else on set and without enough money to even place an international phone call, Payton decided to go straight to the top and approached Seagal in his trailer. After thanking him for the opportunity, she explained that she hadn't been informed about the expected nude scene, and she wasn't comfortable performing it. "He's kind of sitting there," said Payton, "and he's trying to think of what to say, and he goes, 'You won't even show your tits?'" The actor sent Payton outside and gathered some of the other on-set higher-ups into his trailer, all of whom were male. Then he called Payton back in to question her. Was she really not going to perform the nude scenes? Wouldn't she just take her top off? "At one point," says Payton, "somebody in the room is just like, 'You know, we stuck our neck out to hire you for this.'" When Payton's post-shower scene in "Flight of Fury" was finally filmed, she convinced on-set higher-ups to let her wear a negligee rather than appear nude. Producers of "Flight of Fury" did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Seagal also has not been available for comment, and Anthony Falangetti, an attorney representing Seagal, states that, "It appears based upon Ms. Payton's assertions, that she did not have to do anything she didn't want to do." Still, she was pushed far beyond her comfort zone; she was clothed for the sex scene with her female co-star, but their interaction was graphic, and it was choreographed by the same all-male team that pressured her to perform topless. "They are choreographing, 'Suck her breast here, kiss her there, pull her hair back," says Payton. "And they keep saying, 'Remember what you're doing, that's good, that's good.' It was so creepy. ... I just felt really (terrible), and very powerless." It took Payton, who has since gone on to appear on "Californication," "Ballers" and "The Walking Dead," a long time to come to terms with what happened. "To be reduced to some sex toy or something, none of that feels good," she said.

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Goofs

The US Navy Commander on the Aircraft carrier is wearing Army or Air Force collar insignia. He's also wearing an Enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialist pin, but he should be wearing Navy pilot wings.

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Quotes

John Sands: [to Jannick] How old are you, now?
Jannick: I'm drinking age.
John Sands: Drinking age?

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Connections

Referenced in Best of the Worst: Shakma, Python II, and Beaks: The Movie (2014)

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Soundtracks

Country Steel
Written and Performed by David Wurst
Courtesy of CSS Music

User Reviews

Mediocrity, a step up for Seagal.

Following the appalling Attack Force, chances were that Seagal could only have a step up with Flight Of Fury. To out-stink Attack Force would take some doing. Flight Of Fury is a marked improvement overall, but still in the grand scheme of thinks, mediocre. Mediocrity is seemingly an achievement for Seagal these days, a sad insight into his movie career's decline. Where Attack Force was a hodge-podge of plot lines altered drastically from conception, to filming, to post production, Flight Of Fury keeps the plot line more simple. Someone steals a high-tech stealth fighter, planning to use it to fire chemical weapons (which we later, bizarrely discover, will destroy the whole world in 48 hrs). Seagal has to get the plane back. It's that simple, no annoying sub-plots, and conspiracies weighing the film down like far too many of his recent works. That's not to suddenly say the storytelling is good though, it's pretty poor. The introduction to side characters is badly done for example.

In filmic terms FOF is bad. It's badly acted by all involved, and Seagal looks bored to tears almost. He's just got the look of a toddler who's been forced to perform the school nativity against his will, and so performs with a constant grimace and air of half assedness. Can we blame Seagal though when the material is so un-ambitious and cruddy? Not really. This is the final film of his Castel Studio's, multi-picture deal. The producers can't be bothered to make anything remotely good, promising a 12 or so million dollar budget, and (after Seagal's obligatory 5 million) probably pocketing a nice hefty chunk of it themselves (If the film was made for the remaining 7 million, then I'm Elvis Pressley!). So in that respect why should Seagal put the effort into a film that's already got distribution sorted before it's made. Fan's though may argue, he at least owes them the effort. He's seriously looking jaded, and the continued use of stand ins and dub-overs is further indication of this. Michael Keusch directs with some efficiency, while the cinematography is quite good, but in all technical areas (and as usual with Castel, a bog standard stunt team) there's nothing more than mediocrity, and nothing to help the film rise above its material, and bored leading man. Again there's a few action scenes focusing on characters other than Seagal, which in all truth we don't want to see.

Overall the action isn't too bad. It's nice and violent, and on occasion we're treated to a few vintage nasty Seagal beatings, but overall nothing special. Partly due to a poor stunt crew, and the lack of time to film anything too complex or exciting. For me, Shadow Man was a more enjoyable film, because while ignoring the incoherent, jumbled, plot line, there were more vintage Seagal moments, and more of him in centre stage. He never disappeared for long periods during the film. Seagal disappears bizarrely during one action scene here, and re-appears after, with little explanation. There's far too much stock footage used. Using stock shots isn't an entirely horrendous thing, but using it as a crutch is. We're treated to countless establishing shots of naval ships, all the time, which get annoying. Plus the continuity of the stock footage is all over the place (just check the backdrops, chopping and changing).

The film is just middle of the road. It says it all that the films best scene is a completely needless, and gratuitous girl on girl scene, with two hot chicks. Seagal even perks up briefly then too! Overall this may be one of the better stock footage based actioners out there, but that's not saying much at all. This will please many fans, but they should bear in mind, Seagal himself would probably want to forget this one's existence. **