Given the level of his achievement since, it's hard to remember that in his early career as a director, Clint Eastwood delivered up one or two boring and emotionless films - The Rookie and The Eiger Sanction to name but two - and this violent Cold War affair is hard going for even the most dedicated of fans. Eastwood plays a disillusioned flier who is sent across the Iron Curtain to steal a new Russian jet and bring it back home. The supporting Britpack (Warren Clarke, Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey) hams it up for all it's worth, but, while there are some decent flying sequences, Eastwood's heart doesn't appear to be in it.

The Soviets have developed a revolutionary new jet fighter, called 'Firefox'. Worried that the jet will be used as a first-strike weapon—as there are rumours that it is undetectable by radar—the British send ex-Vietnam War pilot, Mitchell Gant on a covert mission into the Soviet Union to steal the Firefox.