MartinHafer I saw this film when it originally came out in the theaters...well over 30 years ago. I'd enjoyed it, but times have changed, I have changed and technology has changed...so do I still think it's a decent movie? Well, surprisingly, yes...it still is pretty good.The film is a real change of pace for Clint Eastwood. In this one, he plays a Vietnam War fighter pilot who is called out of reserves to help his country. They need an excellent pilot who can think in Russian to go into the USSR for a covert operation....to steal the Firefox fighter jet!! Why is it that important? Well, because they plane can apparently do about mach 6 AND it has a new neural interface...and it's much more advanced than American fighters. Much of the film consists of the mission getting into the Soviet Union and then to the plane. To me, this was the most interesting part. Then, the final third or so of the film is flying the plane home...and avoiding all the missiles and the other Firefox fighter. This was amazingly made for 1982 but does look a bit dated today. You can't blame anyone for this...CGI technology just has improved tremendously since then. Overall, it's an exciting film and one that is far deeper and more interesting than a standard Eastwood shoot 'em up picture. Worth seeing.By the way, although the film is mostly extremely well made, in the first of many (too many) flashback scenes, Eastwood's Phantom II jet turns into a Thunderchief fighter-bomber. This was a pretty sloppy use of stock footage.

Tweekums British Intelligence has discovered that the Soviet Union has developed a new fighter aircraft, the MiG-31 'Firefox'. This appears to be no ordinary fighter; it has a top speed in excess of Mach five, it is invisible to radar and has a revolutionary thought controlled weapons system. A plan is hatched to steal the prototype aircraft; this will involve USAF pilot Major Mitchell Gant who has been selected because he speaks fluent Russian and just as importantly is the same build as the Soviet test pilot so can wear his flight suit! Unfortunately he is also haunted by what he experienced after being shot down and captured in Vietnam.Once he has been recruited to the mission he flies into Moscow using a false identity before meeting with the contacts who are to get him to the plane. Inevitably there will be a few run-ins with the KGB before he can get there. Once there he meets with a scientist who helped invent the plane; being Jewish the inventors are considered to be suspicious by the Soviet authorities. By now the Soviets know he is somewhere on the airfield but the suspect he must be a saboteur… surely nobody could plan something as audacious as stealing the plan! Of course Gant does steal the plane; that isn't the end though; he still has to fly it out of the Soviet Union and they are determined to do everything to stop him; including launching the second prototype Firefox to shoot him down.This is very much a film of two halves; after the story is introduced there is a classic spy thriller as Gant gets into the USSR and makes his way to the plane. This section is gripping as he must get through numerous KGB check points and sometimes gets in very dangerous. The tension gradually rises as near the airfield and it becomes apparent that the Soviets are looking for him. The second half features the flight; these scenes are a bit more mixed; the design of the plane is great as are the pilot's eye views shown during the flight… unfortunately the views of the plane flying through the clouds are rather poor with fairly obvious blue-screen. If you can ignore that the action is pretty good. I liked the idea of stealing the aircraft and for the most part the concept of the plane was pretty cool; I did think the idea of thought controlled weapons was a bit too sci-fi for my liking. Clint Eastwood did a solid job bother as director and playing the role of Gant and is ably supported by a cast of mostly British actors. Overall I'd say this might not be the best film of its genre but I did enjoy it so would recommend it to fans of cold war thrillers and fans of Clint Eastwood.

Joel Newman I saw this at the movies in 1982 (I was 7 yrs old) and remember being exhilarated. I still think it's a good film (although biased due to nostalgia). But passing himself off as a Russian officer with an American accent is silly; Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood) knows Russian (evidenced by him activating the Firefox's weapons)...it would've been better if the Russian characters when speaking among themselves spoke Russian (with English subtitles). And the music could've been better (I don't like Maurice Jarre - admittedly I haven't heard all his music). Someone else's IMDb review criticized the special effects but I think they're okay. Firefox is well edited and nicely structured; it's got violence, suspense, aerial combat, cold war intrigue; a psychologically wounded protagonist, explosions, a cool underground train station, an awesome plane (or two); helicopters, a submarine, a battle ship and war rooms. It's like the James Bond film Octopussy (without sexuality) crossed with The Empire Strikes Back's air-to-air combat scenes on the planet Hoth. Is that good or bad? Let's just say that Firefox is a memorable film.

Matthew_Capitano Clunk Eastwad was never an actor and his drab appearance in this stained toilet paper is further proof of that fact.The Government needs help in foiling some Bad Guys, so of course NO ONE ELSE is capable of carrying out a covert mission which involves flying a Russian jet than an old retired pilot jogging out in the sticks. Enter Eastwad.After a small eternity of eternally mundane events such as Eastwad trying to shake foreign spies by walking down corridors, hanging around in a train station toilet, and then walking and hanging around some more, we finally get to see the plane. Gee, I wonder if Clunk will be able to successfully fly it to the free world? Totally unexciting and dramatically anemic. Miss this flight on purpose.