Flight of Black Angel | |
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Written by | |
Directed by | Jonathan Mostow |
Starring | Peter Strauss |
Theme music composer | Richard Marvin |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
Production | |
Producer(s) | |
Cinematography | Lee Redmond |
Editor(s) | Barry Zetlin |
Running time | 115 minutes |
Production company(s) | |
Distributor | Showtime |
Release | |
Original release |
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Flight of Black Angel is a 1991 TV (Showtime) aviation film directed by Jonathan Mostow, featuring William O'Leary and Peter Strauss.
Captain Eddie Gordon, a top gun pilot of an Air Force academy, is a talented and aggressive pilot who proves too much for his fellow instructees to match. His flight instructor, Matt Ryan (Peter Strauss) tries to encourage him to practice restraint, but with little success.
After his birthday party at his home in Las Vegas, Eddie puts a religiously motivated long-organized plan into action: He kills his brother (Rodney Eastman) and his parents (Ben Rawnsley and K. Callan). He then holds Captain Melissa Gaiter (Patricia Sill) of the Air Force base at gunpoint and forces her to arm his Mirage jet with live ordnance, a radar-jamming pod and a tactical nuclear weapon. Melissa refuses to co-operate further and is murdered.
Later, Colonel Bill Douglas (James O'Sullivan) of the base's flight control is informed of the triple murder at the Gordons' residence while a training exercise involving Eddie is underway. Eddie takes this opportunity to shoot down his fellow instructees. Ryan manages to alert the base and tries to lure Eddie into the firing range of the base's surface-to-air missiles. Eddie however, eludes the missile barrage and destroys Ryan's plane. Before any armed aircraft can take off, Eddie decimates the base's communications, runway, and aircraft.
Eddie lands in Garrison, Utah to hide his jet in a deserted barn, but is accidentally discovered by a family on vacation: Richard (Michael Keys Hall) and Valerie (Michele Pawk) Dwyer and their baby. Before Valerie can raise the police on the CB radio, Eddie takes them hostage.
While Eddie works on defeating the fail-safes on the tactical nuke, he is exposed to lethal radiation, and his health quickly deteriorates. The next day, he and Valerie leave for a hardware store in a nearby city to obtain tools. Valerie uses a traveler's check and writes their hostage location on the back, but the clerk (Scott Menville) does not notice. Valerie then persuades Eddie to go to a drug store to find a cure for his vomiting and nausea. She repeats the same practice; this time, the pharmacist (John D. Brancato) notices Valerie's notes on the check.