Falcon Down

Being a huge science fiction fan I picked this movie to balance out my wife's romantic comedy pick. Ironically, in spite of all the expectations of a terrible B grade movie, I was pleasantly surprised in some areas. OK, so there was a laughable storyline. Was this a blatant ripoff of that terrible 70's movie FIREFOX with Clint Eastwood? And if so, why would anybody choose to ripoff such a disaster to begin with? Dale Midkiff couldn't act his way out of a paperbag, much less this movie. The CGI special effects were embarrassingly bad and were barely a step above 1950's Buck Roger's flying saucers. BUT here's the good stuff. Judd Nelson is actually pretty good in this film. Maybe I'm so used to seeing him in his typical schoolboy role, but he really does a reasonable convincing job as the conspirator. And any opportunity to watch William Shatner is always good. The set design was surprisingly good for a movie that probably didn't have much for sets. A very interesting design for the flight deck, especially from an aircraft buff like myself. And a nice design for the aircraft itself, reminiscent of the old Valkyrie experimental airplanes that were mothballed by the airforce after a few disastrous test flights.

As I was flying right behind TWA 800 flight on my way to Sweden and heard the explosion, it still makes me cringe, I still believe, it was a missile that took the plane out! There were over 150 witnesses in NY Long Island and close by areas who witnessed something like a rocket coming out of the ground or water. When interviewed by FDA, and other Government Orgs, without being able to get together to make up a story that was the same among all witnesses, I truly believe it was a coverup. FBI did not take the statements from the witnesses in account and dismissed them. The FAA was never asked to testify.

Watch the documentary on You Tube!

So, I watched this movie with interest.

Just a comment on the trivia bit: The Valkyrie supersonic bomber is a long fuselage with a delta wing at the root and canards at the cockpit area. The Valkyrie is 180 feet long; the Falcon is 49 feet. The Valkyrie has six engines, the Falcon has one. The Valkyrie does not resemble the Falcon in the slightest, not even the Dassault Falcon. I do believe that the trivia bit just may be a little off.

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Film...the final insult. These are the voyages of the aircraft "Falcon." Her 2-hour mission: To revisit tired, old clichés, to seek out the phone-it-in skills of William Shatner and Judd Nelson, to hammily go where too many action films have gone before!

Seriously, folks, AVOID THIS FILM AT ALL COSTS. I saw it on the Action Channel, and although it purported to be a thriller, it was bloody funny. Not that it intended to be, mind you. However, with the talents of William Shatner (Does anyone even remember he debuted with Yul Brenner in "The Brothers Karamozov?") and Judd Nelson (the jock in "The Breakfast Club," now playing a computer geek with a gun), a penchant to use every cliché convention in the book (the psycho cowboy who lives only to shoot, the overbearing use of "videotaped" confession segments --often with NO RELATION TO THE DAMN PLOT), and writers who have no conception of the laws of physics or how a bloody airplane works, I can do nothing but laugh or whimper -- "limper," maybe? In the end, all I can say is that it made no sense. It was, to steal from a far superior writer "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

It's long been considered that Government organizations cover up many incidents. Probably the most infamous are the whispers that The Government actually has proof of alien beings and has their DNA, spacecraft and who knows what else hidden in an area in Roswell, New Mexico called Area 51. Then there are some of the 'apparently' factual incidents investigated by TV shows such as "The X Files". As for the military's involvement, there's only speculation - but it's believed they are present in most of these theories in some respect.

In "Falcon Down", it's the Military and the Government that are responsible for such a large scale cover-up. So large scale, that eye witnesses who have claimed to witness something related to the operation have been erased. Many of these people claimed that it was some kind of Alien spacecraft that was being kept quiet by the Government. In the film, we discover that it's something a little more close to home. Or Earth if you will.

Two airforce pilots come face to face with an unforseen terror in the skies. One of them suddenly goes blind and his jet falls to a fiery death. Nearby, a commercial airline also goes down.Wanting answers and bewildered by what has happened, the surviving airforce pilot, Hank Thomas (Dale Midkiff) is discharged from service following a fiery meeting with the rather suspicious, Major Robert Carson (Shatner). Several months later, Hank is bullied into leading a top secret operation, run by his old foe, Carson. The mission involves stealing a super-jet called the 'Falcon' (complete with underneath weapon, hence the blinding of the pilot) and then, as he is ordered, take it to a rendevous point where it will be dismantled so no one else can be harmed by it's terror.

Joined by a group of mercenaries - one a 'trigger-happy' Rambo-type, another an intellectual yet green faced player (Judd Nelson), a straight player and femme fatale (Rubin) - Hank skillfully takes control of the stolen jet and finds himself followed by the U.S airforce and other unforseen threats. With fuel running out, it seems the only option Hank has is to land the plane on Ice. And as we know, Ice eventually melts.

Labelled as a B-Grade film, the most surprising thing about "Falcon Down" is that it is notches above it's direct-to-video companions. The visual effects are well done, the characters are more than the one-dimensional lot we usually see in films like this, and overall, it's an entertaining ride. Just when it looks to let up, it throws in another surprise, or plot twist. It also provokes a talking point..do top-secret cover-ups like this happen?