Product Details

• Actors: Clint Eastwood, Freddie Jones, Warren Clarke, Kenneth Colley, Ward Costello
• Format: NTSC, Color, Dolby, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 1, 2002
• Run Time: 136 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006RCOB
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,456 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Firefox" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

You can tell Clint Eastwood is getting old by all of the "retired" characters he plays who are pressed back into service, as in this early '80s effort. It's one of Eastwood's lesser action entries, in which he served as both star and director. He plays a retired fighter pilot who is enlisted by the U.S. government to infiltrate the Soviet Union (back in the days when it was still an Evil Empire) and steal an ultra-top-secret fighter plane with all kinds of superior capabilities (back when the Stealth bomber was still a struggling prototype). Sure, no problem. Except that it takes forever to actually get Clint into the plane--and once he's got it, he keeps interrupting the fighter-plane sequences (the best thing about the movie) to land the thing and have fistfights and gunfights. --Marshall Fine

Product Description

An ex-flyer who is a distress victim from Vietnam experience is ordered back into military duty to head a secret mission. His assignment is to sneak into Russia and steal a Soviet warplane which is far more advanced than any other air machine being used by the NATO alliance.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Gant, can you fly that plane? Really fly it?" June 12, 2003

By M. Hart

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

In 1982, while the Cold War was yet raging between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in an exciting action film about espionage called "Firefox". Clint Eastwood plays Major Mitchell Gant, a retired pilot from the U.S. Air Force who suffers from delayed psychological stress disorder from when he fought in the Vietnam War. Being the only pilot qualified to fly Soviet Air Force jets who is also fluent in Russian, SIS agent Kenneth Aubrey (Freddie Jones) has U.S. AF pilot Capt. Arthur Buckholz (David Huffman) recruit Gant to be the primary operative in a U.S.-sponsored espionage mission. The goal is to steal a technologically superior, top-secret prototype jet fighter that is code-named Firefox out of the Soviet Union. Gant, of course, is not particularly interested, but returns to Washington with Capt. Buckholz. There he is given specific training that will enable him to enter the Soviet Union unnoticed. Once in the Soviet Union, Gant meets a Russian who works for the SIS, Pavel Upenskoy (Warren Clarke). The Soviet scientists who reluctantly developed the thought-controlled prototype fighter are a Jewish husband and wife team, Dr. Pyotr Baranovich (Nigel Hawthorne) and Natalia (Dimitra Arliss).

The film is fraught with tension, drama and excitement as Gant makes his way to infiltrate the Soviet AF base to steal the prototype fighter. Special effects used in the film were superb for the early 1980's, though some may regard them as being dated by today's standards. Other memorable characters in the film include Soviet General Vladimirov (Klaus Löwitsch), the Communist Party First Secretary (Stefan Schnabel) and Soviet AF pilot Lt. Col. Voskov (Kai Wulff).

The film is not perfect, but with a superb Cold War plot, good dialog, engaging characters and good special effects, I rate "Firefox" with 4 out of 5 stars. I am very happy that the film was released on DVD in widescreen format. Not everyone who watches the film will enjoy it, but technophiles, fans of sci-fi & action films and Clint Eastwood fans more than likely will.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb Sci-Fi Flavored Espionage Film December 1, 1999

By Michael Daly

Format:VHS Tape

Though my opinion of Clint Eastwood has lowered with the revelations in Sondra Locke's book, there is no disputing his abilities as an actor and director. One of his finest efforts comes in Firefox, Eastwood's taut, exciting adaptation of Craig Thomas' 1975 novel.

Eastwood plays Mitchell Gant, a burned-out Air Force Vietnam vet who is first seen jogging in the Alaskan wilderness. Gant occassionally suffers from bouts of Delayed Stress Syndrome - shown when, as an Air Force helicopter approaches his log cabin home, he flashes back to a harrowing experience of being shot down, captured by Communist soldiers, and being rescued.

Mitchell Gant's battle shock, though, is of little concern to the CIA and British MI6, for they want him for the most audacious intelligence mission yet. The titular Firefox is a Soviet superplane, capable of Mach Six, invisible to radar tracking, and possessing thought-controlled weaponry. Mitchell Gant's job - steal it.

But to get to it he must be infiltrated into Russia and ferried from Moscow to a Red airbase in the Urals, Bilyarsk. The first half of the film takes up the painstaking task by NATO's Russian contacts to infiltrate Gant to Bilyarsk and the efforts of the KGB detatchment assigned to Firefox security to figure out their plan and stop them.

Along the way Eastwood extracts quality performances from the huge cast assembled, notably from Kenneth Colley (Admiral Piett in the Star Wars films) as KGB Colonel Kontarsky. There is some excellent interplay between Gant and the various Russians willing to die to betray the country that has destroyed their lives, most notably when the Firefox project head, Dr. Baranovich, explains why he doesn't resent "the men in London who are ordering me to die" to a thoroughly puzzled Gant.

The second half of the film involves a dazzling aerial chase as Gant pilots the Firefox through the world's largest, most powerful air defense. The SFX work is excellent as John Dyxstra (from Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and the later Batman films) uses ultra-high-speed aerial footage to present a splendid view of Mach Two-plus speeds. Gant encounters missiles and eventually a second Firefox (piloted by Kai Wulff as the project's test pilot Yuri Voskov). The ensuing chase is among the finest in film, from thousands of feet in the sky to mere hundreds of feet from the ground. My favorite part is the admittedly implausible chase through a narrow Arctic canyon at Mach Two or more - yeah, it can't be done by jet fighters in real life, but it's still too good to pass up.

In all, Firefox remains a classic of the spy and sci-fi genres.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I Can't Stop Watching this Film!!! November 7, 2003

By Robert VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've seen this film at least seven times, and I enjoyed it just as much each time.
This is a very enjoyable cold war action/spy drama. Tense action carried out in Clint Eastwood style.
If you like Clint Eastwood. You'll like this film. Some have pointed out some continuity errors in the film, but these don't spoil the story. The characters are acted in such a way as to make you care about what happens to them.
It's looely based on the books. The movie ends in a way I won't spoil. But I will say that after you see this movie you should search out the books, Firefox, Firefox Down (they are selling on Amazon; as used for a penny)