Iron Eagle IV
Encyclopedia
Iron Eagle on the Attack, also known as Iron Eagle IV, is a 1995 direct-to-video
action film directed by Sidney J. Furie
and is the fourth installment in the Iron Eagle
series. It stars Louis Gossett, Jr.
reprising his role once again as retired Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair. Doug Masters, the main protagonist of the first film, returns, but is played by Jason Cadieux instead of Jason Gedrick
. The film's opening scene is an alternate take on that of Iron Eagle II
, wherein Doug survived after being shot down.
The film was shot in Oshawa
, Ontario
, Canada
.
airspace west of Alaska
, Doug Masters and his wingman test the g-force
s of their F-16C planes. Their antics get them carried away, as they stray over Soviet
airspace. As they are being escorted back into U.S. airspace, one of the Soviet planes has Doug on missile-lock. Doug requests to break formation and engage the Soviet aircraft, but is denied by flight control. He is immediately shot down, but safely ejects and lands on Soviet land, where he is promptly captured by nearby soldiers.
Several years have passed since that incident and Doug is still haunted by his days as a prisoner. He works as a crop duster, but is shortly recruited by retired Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair to be an instructor at his flight school. Chappy needs Doug's help, as his school is overrun by juvenile delinquents who fly his T-6 Texans
with no regard for safety. These students were taken in by Chappy as a means of rehabilitating them. Doug is not happy to be an instructor to the delinquents, but Chappy assures him that he will see results from them in a week. Still, he shows no interest in training them.
During an exhibition show where the delinquents face off children from the Air Force, Wheeler, one of the female delinquents, cons a drug dealer out of $2,000 by handing him a bag of sugar disguised as cocaine. She attempts to take her training plane and fly out to Mexico, but Doug pursues her and tells her to land on an abandoned Air Force base and stay there until further orders. Upon landing the plane, Wheeler and her co-pilot Rudy Marlowe encounter a platoon that is ordered to kill them. Doug intervenes, allowing the teens to leave the air base. Chappy is told of the incident, and he and Maj. Gen. Brad Kettle head to the base that night to investigate on that platoon's activity on a storage bunker. After they are escorted out of the base by Air Force Intelligence, Doug describes to Chappy his eyewitness account of the soldiers carrying marked canisters, which are revealed to be chemical weapons.
Doug leaves the school, frustrated that his life came apart when he was imprisoned and Chappy was not there to save him that time. Chappy is given a notice by the State Patrol that his flight program is terminated immediately and his students are returned to juvenile hall
. Wheeler, however, avoids capture and steals a trainer plane, creating a diversion that allows the students to hijack the bus and head back to the school. Chappy and the students relocate their planes to Doug's former job site; Doug meets up with them afterward. Chappy then organizes the students to infiltrate the airbase and acquire enough resources for their operation to stop the convoy carrying the chemical weapons. Upon entering the airbase, Kitty Shaw uses her computer hacking skills to gain access to classified data. She and Chappy discover Operation Pandora, in which the chemical weapons are to be used on countries with regimes deemed hostile. They print out the data before leaving the premises and handing it to Kettle. Meanwhile, Dana Osborne and Rudy attempt to stop the convoy, but are shot down. As they attempt to escape on foot, Rudy is shot, but Doug and the others arrive at the scene and capture one of the soldiers. Chappy and his team accompany Kettle to Craig Air Force Base, only to realize that Kettle is part of the entire operation.
Using a swarm of wasps as a means of psychological interrogation, Doug gets the captured soldier to reveal the location of the convoy. He then phones Chappy, but discovers that his team has been apprehended by Kettle. At one of the chemical weapon chambers, Chappy is told by Kettle that the first target of Operation Pandora is Cuba. After Kettle leaves the chamber, Kitty hacks the computer to set off the fire extinguishing units, giving Chappy's team time to escape. A stray shot from one of the soldiers ruptures the canister, contaminating the chamber and killing Dr. Francis Gully and everyone inside. As Kitty and Peter sneak into the cargo plane carrying the chemical weapon, Chappy sends a radio message, warning everyone of a hostile aircraft heading to Cuba. Shortly after recapturing Chappy, Kettle orders his fighter squadron to shoot down the trainer planes. The squadron of two fighters attacks the trainers, only to be confronted by Doug, who has commandeered a fighter plane. Doug and the students shoot down the attackers promptly. He then plays the cassette tape Chappy recorded for him before killing ace pilot Maj. Miles Pierce in a dogfight.
The students approach the cargo plane and attack it. Inside, Peter creates a diversion by opening the cargo door, causing the soldiers aboard to fall out. This leads to a fist fight between Peter and the plane's captain, who is ejected when Kitty assumes the controls. Peter then jettisons all of the canisters into the ocean. Seeing his mission as a failure, Kettle prepares to kill Chappy when Doug suddenly attacks the airbase, giving Chappy time to escape. As police arrive at the scene, Kettle enters the contaminated chamber - his fate unknown.
Days later, Wheeler tells Doug she is heading to Mexico for a new start, but he convinces her to stay. The Iron Eagle Flight School then prepares for a new batch of students fresh out of juvenile hall.
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
action film directed by Sidney J. Furie
Sidney J. Furie
Sidney J. Furie is a Canadian film director. Furie is perhaps best known for directing American Soldiers, The IPCRESS File, The Entity, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Lady Sings the Blues, The Boys, Gable and Lombard, Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York and the Iron Eagle films.Also...
and is the fourth installment in the Iron Eagle
Iron Eagle
Iron Eagle is a 1986 action film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Jason Gedrick and Louis Gossett, Jr. While it received mixed reviews, the film earned US$24,159,872 at the U.S. box office. Iron Eagle was followed by three sequels: Iron Eagle II, Aces: Iron Eagle III and Iron Eagle on the...
series. It stars Louis Gossett, Jr.
Louis Gossett, Jr.
Louis Cameron Gossett, Jr. is an American actor best known for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman and Fiddler in the 1970s television miniseries Roots...
reprising his role once again as retired Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair. Doug Masters, the main protagonist of the first film, returns, but is played by Jason Cadieux instead of Jason Gedrick
Jason Gedrick
Jason Gedrick is an American actor best known for his work on the television series Murder One and Boomtown and the motion picture Iron Eagle....
. The film's opening scene is an alternate take on that of Iron Eagle II
Iron Eagle II
Iron Eagle II is a 1988 action film directed by Sidney J. Furie. It is the first sequel to the 1986 film Iron Eagle, with Louis Gossett, Jr. reprising his role as Charles "Chappy" Sinclair. An uncredited Jason Gedrick also returns as ace pilot Doug Masters in the film's opening scene.Like its...
, wherein Doug survived after being shot down.
The film was shot in Oshawa
Oshawa
Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Plot
While on a routine patrol on United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
airspace west of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, Doug Masters and his wingman test the g-force
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...
s of their F-16C planes. Their antics get them carried away, as they stray over Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
airspace. As they are being escorted back into U.S. airspace, one of the Soviet planes has Doug on missile-lock. Doug requests to break formation and engage the Soviet aircraft, but is denied by flight control. He is immediately shot down, but safely ejects and lands on Soviet land, where he is promptly captured by nearby soldiers.
Several years have passed since that incident and Doug is still haunted by his days as a prisoner. He works as a crop duster, but is shortly recruited by retired Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair to be an instructor at his flight school. Chappy needs Doug's help, as his school is overrun by juvenile delinquents who fly his T-6 Texans
North American T-6 Texan
The North American Aviation T-6 Texan was a single-engine advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces, United States Navy, Royal Air Force and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1950s...
with no regard for safety. These students were taken in by Chappy as a means of rehabilitating them. Doug is not happy to be an instructor to the delinquents, but Chappy assures him that he will see results from them in a week. Still, he shows no interest in training them.
During an exhibition show where the delinquents face off children from the Air Force, Wheeler, one of the female delinquents, cons a drug dealer out of $2,000 by handing him a bag of sugar disguised as cocaine. She attempts to take her training plane and fly out to Mexico, but Doug pursues her and tells her to land on an abandoned Air Force base and stay there until further orders. Upon landing the plane, Wheeler and her co-pilot Rudy Marlowe encounter a platoon that is ordered to kill them. Doug intervenes, allowing the teens to leave the air base. Chappy is told of the incident, and he and Maj. Gen. Brad Kettle head to the base that night to investigate on that platoon's activity on a storage bunker. After they are escorted out of the base by Air Force Intelligence, Doug describes to Chappy his eyewitness account of the soldiers carrying marked canisters, which are revealed to be chemical weapons.
Doug leaves the school, frustrated that his life came apart when he was imprisoned and Chappy was not there to save him that time. Chappy is given a notice by the State Patrol that his flight program is terminated immediately and his students are returned to juvenile hall
Youth detention center
A youth detention center, also known as a juvenile detention center , juvenile hall or, more colloquially as juvie, is a secure residential facility for young people, often termed juvenile delinquents, awaiting court hearings and/or placement in long-term care facilities and programs...
. Wheeler, however, avoids capture and steals a trainer plane, creating a diversion that allows the students to hijack the bus and head back to the school. Chappy and the students relocate their planes to Doug's former job site; Doug meets up with them afterward. Chappy then organizes the students to infiltrate the airbase and acquire enough resources for their operation to stop the convoy carrying the chemical weapons. Upon entering the airbase, Kitty Shaw uses her computer hacking skills to gain access to classified data. She and Chappy discover Operation Pandora, in which the chemical weapons are to be used on countries with regimes deemed hostile. They print out the data before leaving the premises and handing it to Kettle. Meanwhile, Dana Osborne and Rudy attempt to stop the convoy, but are shot down. As they attempt to escape on foot, Rudy is shot, but Doug and the others arrive at the scene and capture one of the soldiers. Chappy and his team accompany Kettle to Craig Air Force Base, only to realize that Kettle is part of the entire operation.
Using a swarm of wasps as a means of psychological interrogation, Doug gets the captured soldier to reveal the location of the convoy. He then phones Chappy, but discovers that his team has been apprehended by Kettle. At one of the chemical weapon chambers, Chappy is told by Kettle that the first target of Operation Pandora is Cuba. After Kettle leaves the chamber, Kitty hacks the computer to set off the fire extinguishing units, giving Chappy's team time to escape. A stray shot from one of the soldiers ruptures the canister, contaminating the chamber and killing Dr. Francis Gully and everyone inside. As Kitty and Peter sneak into the cargo plane carrying the chemical weapon, Chappy sends a radio message, warning everyone of a hostile aircraft heading to Cuba. Shortly after recapturing Chappy, Kettle orders his fighter squadron to shoot down the trainer planes. The squadron of two fighters attacks the trainers, only to be confronted by Doug, who has commandeered a fighter plane. Doug and the students shoot down the attackers promptly. He then plays the cassette tape Chappy recorded for him before killing ace pilot Maj. Miles Pierce in a dogfight.
The students approach the cargo plane and attack it. Inside, Peter creates a diversion by opening the cargo door, causing the soldiers aboard to fall out. This leads to a fist fight between Peter and the plane's captain, who is ejected when Kitty assumes the controls. Peter then jettisons all of the canisters into the ocean. Seeing his mission as a failure, Kettle prepares to kill Chappy when Doug suddenly attacks the airbase, giving Chappy time to escape. As police arrive at the scene, Kettle enters the contaminated chamber - his fate unknown.
Days later, Wheeler tells Doug she is heading to Mexico for a new start, but he convinces her to stay. The Iron Eagle Flight School then prepares for a new batch of students fresh out of juvenile hall.
Cast
- Louis Gossett, Jr.Louis Gossett, Jr.Louis Cameron Gossett, Jr. is an American actor best known for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman and Fiddler in the 1970s television miniseries Roots...
as Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair (Ret.) - Jason Cadieux as Capt. Doug Masters
- Al WaxmanAl WaxmanAlbert Samuel Waxman, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian actor and director of over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage...
as Maj. Gen. Brad Kettle - Joanne VannicolaJoanne VannicolaJoanne Vannicola is a Canadian actress, born in Montreal, Quebec. She is most notable for her role as Dr. Mia Stone in PSI Factor and as the voice of Willy Zilla in Gene Simmons' animated television show My Dad the Rock Star....
as Wheeler - Chas LawtherChas LawtherCharles "Chas" Lawther is a British-born Canadian actor, comedian and writer.Lawther came to local prominence in Toronto when in the 1980s he created the character of Chuck The Security Guard for CFMT-TV's The All-Night Show, on the ostensible premise that as the station's night security he would...
as Col. Birkett - Marilyn Lightstone as Dr. Francis Gully
- Victoria Snow as Amanda Kirke
- Dean McDermottDean McDermottDean McDermott is a Canadian-American actor best known in the United States for having married Victoria Davey "Tori" Spelling, with whom he appeared in the observational documentary shows Tori & Dean: Inn Love and Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, and for having acted out the role of Constable...
as Maj. Miles Pierce - Aidan DevineAidan DevineAidan Devine is a Canadian film actor. He was born in England and immigrated with his family to Canada at the age of 15. He studied at Dawson College's Dome Theatre in Montreal, Quebec and began his acting career in Montreal. He would later relocate to Toronto. His 1993 breakout role came in...
as Corporal Fincher - Jeff Pustil as Amn. Cameron
- Max Piersig as Peter Kane
- Karen Gayle as Dana Osborne
- Ross HullRoss HullRoss Hull is a Canadian actor and television personality perhaps best known for his role as Gary, the leader of the Midnight Society, on the television series Are You Afraid of the Dark?....
as Malcolm Porter - Rachel BlanchardRachel BlanchardRachel Elise Blanchard is a Canadian actress.-Early life:Blanchard was born in Toronto, Ontario, and graduated from Havergal College in Toronto, going on to Queen's University.-Career:...
as Kitty Shaw - Dominic ZamprognaDominic ZamprognaDominic Zamprogna is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles on television series Edgemont and General Hospital.-Early life:...
as Rudy Marlowe - Sean McCannSean McCann (actor)Sean McCann is one of Canada's most successful character actors and has been in the business for over 40 years. Winner of the prestigious Earle Grey Award for his lifetime achievement in television, Sean McCann has appeared in over 150 movies, television shows and plays.- Notable roles and awards...
as Wilcox - Jason BlickerJason BlickerJason Blicker is a Canadian film and television actor. He has had several small roles in television series including recurring roles on Robocop, F/X: The Series, State of Grace, NYPD Blue, Boston Legal as well as roles films such as Half Baked , The Day After Tomorrow and Hidden 3D .-External links:...
as Sgt. Osgood - J. D. Nicholsen as Luther Penrose
- Matt Cooke as Capt. McQuade