Behind Enemy Lines
Director John Moore was nearly killed in the scene where the tank busts through the wall. He was pulled away by a stuntman just in time.,No missile in existence would be capable of chasing the F/A-18 as it is portrayed in the film. A missiles rocket motor only holds enough fuel for one pass at a target. The second missile fired in the film flies through a fireball, completes a loop, and continues to chase the F/A-18 the way a dog chases a cat. In reality, the missile would have either exploded the first time it got close to the fighter, or simply ran out of fuel.,Admiral Reigart: [firmly talking to Burnett on the radio] Burnett!
[pauses]
Admiral Reigart: Zero-six, you've been shot down, life is tough. You're a combat aviator! Start acting like one! Remember your training, put some angles between you and your pursuers. Evade and survive and we will bring you home! You got that? We WILL bring you home!,The UK theatrical version had one dialogue substitution (removal of a single use of the word "fuck") to secure the "12" rating. For the DVD/video release, this substitution was waived by the BBFC.,Featured in Behind the Scenes: Behind Enemy Lines (2002),Welcome to Mindhead (Abort Sequence Edit)
Performed by Compufonic
Written and Produced by Michael Licata and Carlos Vasquez,"Behind Enemy Lines" is a film with a bit of controversy. The story clearly was based on the experiences of US Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady...but they took great liberties with the facts and O'Grady felt he was maligned by the movie because the lead (Owen Wilson) had a lousy attitude at the beginning of the film and was insubordinate...unlike the real life O'Grady. The film also changes a lot of the facts--making the plane a two-seat Navy plane (an F-18 Super Eagle) flown from an aircraft carrier instead of the single seat F-16 O'Grady flew from an air base. Regardless, the film still is quite exciting and worth seeing.

The story begins on a US aircraft carrier. Lt. Burnett (Wilson) is annoyed flying during the 1995 cease fire over what was Yugoslavia, as they are simply flying reconnaissance missions...and avoiding combat with the Bosnians. After submitting his request for discharge from the Navy, the Admiral (Gene Hackman) chews Burnett out and assigns him extra duty...in this case, a recon mission on Christmas.

Unfortunately, the two-seat plane is shot down by Serbs...a violation of the cease fire. After both the pilot and navigator eject, the Serbs execute the pilot...and the navigator, Burnett, manages to escape and the rest of the film concerns the Serbs trying to kill Burnett because of the information he's gained from the mission about troop movements and genocide. To avoid death, Burnett runs many miles over hostile territory to safety.

As I watched the film, it became clear that the film was intended thrill audiences at the expense of common sense....especially at the end of the picture. Seeing the Admiral flying a helicopter on the rescue mission seemed pretty dopey and the US Navy would never risk a command officer on such a mission. There also were some stunts at the end which were pretty dim as well. Exciting? Yes....but at the expense of realism. In reality, helicopters AND Marine fighter planes were involved in the mission (the film onlys showed helicopters, which seemed silly flying into such hostile territory when they DID have an aircraft carrier filled with planes!).

Oh, and while it's not terribly important, the film takes place over Christmas and O'Grady's plane was actually shot down around June.

Overall, a fun film to watch but do NOT take it to be a history lesson.,