Here's some alt-1986 movies and novels I iamgined for my space TL.
Fireghost, the absolute weapon.
Clint Eastwood, 1986.
The success of Honkytonk man in 1982 was a landmark for Clint Eastwood.
By 1986 Eastwood scrapped a tentative project with the name of Heartbreak Ridge and instead adapted Craig Thomas novel Fireghost - the absolute weapon. It was a sequel to the 1977 smashing hit Firefox, a novel Eastwood had enjoyed and wanted to turn into a movie, but couldn't. Eastwood later told reporters that in 1982 he had been forced to chose between Honkytonk and Firefox, and had prefered the former as a personal project. The move was probably a wise one considering the dismal failure of Fireghost five years later. Honkytonk man, by contrast, was critically acclaimed.
The early plot was largely changed after the landmark Reykjavik summit. "We had to change the villains" Eastwood said "since we felt Cold War was ending, with Islamist terrorism the new, major threat. Plus we thought it might be fun to get (Iranian) Tomcats as the story villains, in these days of Top Gun. Finally, we liked the idea of the F-4 Phantom, an aircraft that suffered so much losses over Vietnam, to be able to out-run all those shiny new fighters – Tomcats, Eagles, and Mig-25s. It is a kind of metaphor for Gant himself, who equally suffered in Vietnam and is now returning."
...
During the Vietnam war US Air Force pilot Mitchell Gant is flying a RF-4C Phantom near Hanoi when he is shot down. He is nearly captured by Viet Cong, an ordeal exacerbated when the enemy guerrillas are wiped out almost immediately by napalm from an American air strike, killing many children and women in the process.
Some years later in 1979 Gant experience with the RF-4C has the CIA contacts him. They have created a Super Phantom able to fly above Mach 3 through the use of a revolutionary propulsion system. Also onboard is an advanced camera system with very impressive resolution. A handful of aircrafts have been used to spy the Soviet Union, entering USSR airspace through the Iranian border – with agreement from Iran and , more surprisingly, help from Israel.
Alas, the Iranian revolution has broke out and the Islamists have sized two Super Phantoms. The revolution also took Israel by surprise: it is revealed that country had loaned a couple of nuclear weapons to Iran before the Shah was swept away. Israel wanted to scare Saddam Iraq, but the plan backfired.
Iranian islamist leadership is show examining varied terror attack scenarios. They discuss painting the RF-4X in American or Israel markings to drop a nuke on the Soviets, a move that may start World War Three. Also considered is the RF-4X air dropping a nuke on Saudia Arabia oil terminals, threatening a worlwide oil shock. Another frightening option has the Iranian dropping a nuke on Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
With the help of a network of Jewish dissidents and sympathizers, Gant reaches the Iranian air base where the two prototype aircraft are being stored. Israeli scientists are hold as hostages and forced to work on the project - they help Gant penetrate the base, then start a fire to destroy the second prototype and nuclear weapons, and also to distract security troops while Gant steals one of the planes. The nuclear weapons do not explodes but are consumed by fire, poisoning the entire area around the Iranian air base. Gant barely escape in time but now faces major hardships. His escape threatens to start an enormous, vicious air battle across the entire Middle East – and beyond.
To Gant shock, the Iranian air force is able to send some Tomcats in chase. Everybody was assuming Iranian F-14s had been grounded per lack of spare parts, or at least sabotaged in 1979. Gant starts the RF-4X revolutionary engine drive and successfully outrun the Tomcats and their lethal AIM-54 Phoenix. Undaunted, using aerial tankers the Iranian send more Tomcats to set a trap near the Saudi border and the Gulf or Ormuz.
Meanwhile Israel is worried about their nuclear weapon blunder and willing to stop the menace. Hence they place their Air Force on alert, a move which triggers panick across the Middle East, including Iraq, currently at war with Iran. Iraq send its own MiG-25s and also Mirage F-1s over Iran, resulting in a major air battle with severe losses on both sides.
Saudia Arabia is fearing an Iranian strike on its oil facilities. Soon Israel, in a secret move with Saudia Arabia, send F-15s in chase of Gant.
Meanwhile the Soviets, which were depply angered by border penetrations and willing to steal RF-4X revolutionary propulsion system, are sending two squadrons of MiG-25s across Iran airspace to shoot Gant down.
Gant face no other choice than to fly above 80 000 ft and Mach 3. The RF-4X is quickly picked up by Iranian radars and, as Gant escape is at the extreme range of the aircraft, the pilot had no option but to fly a virtually straight track. Throughout the mission, Gant is faced with the unnerving spectacle of a never-ending stream of fighters attempting to bring down the RF-4X by firing a variety of machine-guns, cannons and missiles at the aircraft. To compound Gant problems, his heavy fuel load allows only very limited evasive manoeuvring. Gant ends with virtually empty tanks and having kept the aircraft in continuous afterburner for over half an hour as he shot past some extremely agitated Arabian peninsula– as the RF-4X is officially limited to just a few minutes of afterburner, this effectively threaten to destroy the entire aft fuselage.
As he gets near the Saudi border – entering the United Arab Emirates airspace - and is nearly out of fuel, a final, major air battle breaks out. It involves Saudi and Israeli F-15s; Iranian Tomcats setting an ambush; Soviet and Iraqis MiG-25s and Mirage F-1s; and UAE Mirage 2000s.
The shooting allows Gant to narrowly escape thanks to a USN A-5 "Vigilante" tanker aircraft providing supersonic aerial refueling. Hornets and Phantoms provides air cover as they escape, since US Navy Tomcats might be mistaken for Iranian aircrafts.
Gant finally land its RF-4X on an aircraft carrier cruising in the Persian Gulf, but the aircraft is ruined.
(note 1: the RA-5C Vigilante was never a tanker, that was the older A-3 Skywarrior. But the movie prefered the Vigilante as it flew higher and faster, to rescue Gant).
(note 2: UAE Mirages as shown were actually Kfir – more exactly, F-21A agressor aircrafts.)
---
Space ranger
In 1999 Clint Eastwood renewed its cooperation with Craig Thomas. Winter Hawk was the third book in the Firefox series. The movie is a straight adaptation of the novel without much change to the plotline. The plot is no longer related to aircrafts, but to the space program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Hawk
The events of Winter Hawk transpire over a few days in which the Soviet Union will launch into orbit the first in a series of laser battle stations, the existence of which they have kept a closely guarded secret.
The launch is meant to coincide with the signing of a new and apparently groundbreaking treaty dramatically reducing nuclear weapons to be kept by both sides, but excluding space based weapons such as the one the Soviets will be launching, mostly because none are known to exist. The Americans know of the weapon because a Soviet technician named Philip Kedrov has been supplying them information, operating under the code-name “Cactus Plant”.
The Soviet space weapon places the Americans in a painful dilemma: they can neither sign a treaty that will dramatically cede the balance of power to the Soviet Union, nor can they back out of the treaty lacking proof of the Soviet weapon.
The only alternative is a deep cover extraction mission of Kedrov and his evidence from the Soviet’s space launch complex, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission, involving two stolen Soviet Mil Mi-24 helicopters to be flown by CIA pilots — one of whom is CIA pilot Mitchell Gant — is codenamed “Winter Hawk”.
The story, which then shifts to Baikonur, reveals competing agendas within the Soviet camp. The Soviet civilian leadership has allowed development of the laser weapon, whose launch is codenamed “Linchpin”, to placate a military antagonized by military spending cuts. The laser weapon is to be docked to the civilian space station MKBS-1.
Unbeknownst to Soviet leaders, the Soviet military has its own plans for the weapon, including a live fire test, codenamed “Lightning”, against the American Space Station Liberty. The novel suggests “Lightning” as a prelude to an army-backed coup to seize control over the Soviet Union, even as the laser weapon will make the Soviet Union the world’s leading super power.
KGB Colonel Dmitri Priabin, introduced as a minor character in Firefox, elevated to a more central role in Firefox Down and now the ranking KGB officer in Baikonur, nurses a painful grudge against Mitchell Gant due to the tragic events of Fireghost (his career was ruined by the giant air battles over the middle east, plus many of his friends wereshot down and killed flying MiG-25s).
Like the reader, Priabin quickly learns of the existence of “Lightning” but not the details. The military has kept its plans secret by arranging fatal “accidents” for any civilians they suspect have learned of “Lightning”. He has also learned of Kedrov's treachery, and keeps him under surveillance.
Priabin investigates the murders as a pretext to learn details of “Lightning” itself, which he correctly concludes is an illegal military mission. He also surveils Kedrov, suspecting that the Americans will try extracting him before the launch of the laser weapon, although he has no way of knowing that the mission will be flown by Mitchell Gant.
Gant’s mission proves ill-fated from the start. The C-5 cargo plane carrying the helicopters and their crew to their staging point, suffers a fuel-system malfunction requiring the jettisoning of the helicopters on a remote beach — nearly destroying both of them. The helicopters are made flight-ready and the mission commences, only for one of the helicopters to be shot down over Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Gant narrowly avoids destruction over Afghanistan only to be captured once he reaches Baikonur and tries to extract Kedrov, falling into the hands of KGB officers who had been surveilling the turncoat engineer.
Barely keeping himself from killing Gant, Priabin instead takes him into custody, then continues his investigation into “Lightning”. Priabin soon learns the truth, but he is unable to warn Moscow because an Army-imposed, pre-launch security lockdown has cut Baikonur off from the rest of the world. Realizing that the army will soon eliminate him as it has other obstacles, Priabin is forced to save Gant in order for the American to fly them both out of Baikonur along with evidence of “Lightning”. Using the KGB’s Mil Mi-2 helicopter, the two of them manage to get evidence of the laser weapon, but not before their helicopter is severely damaged by fire from a group of the army’s Mil Mi-24 helicopters. Gant barely escapes the Army patrols before he crash lands outside of Baikonur.
With evidence of the weapon, Gant escapes on foot. Priabin, weighing his hatred for Gant against the implications for "Lightning", chooses to be captured by the army. Gant steals an Antonov An-2 biplane used for crop dusting at a nearby collective farm. He narrowly escapes army helicopters sent to capture him, but not before the Soviets have successfully launched their N-11 carrying the laser weapon.
General Rodin, the army’s ranking officer, decides against immediately killing Priabin. It was Rodin’s son who revealed to Priabin the details of “Lightning” before being killed by subordinate officers acting against the general’s orders. Led to believe that the KGB drove his son to suicide, but suspecting his other officers nonetheless, Rodin keeps Priabin in his own custody, even as he orders a massive hunt for Gant. Emotionally unhinged by his son’s death, and his wife’s suicide immediately following it, Rodin is unable to keep Priabin from escaping before the laser weapon has been successfully placed in orbit.
With the help of Kedrov, Priabin finds the covert tracking station the army will use to control the laser satellite, and sabotages its orbital uplink.
With his plane shot down by Soviet fighters near the Turkish border, Gant is forced to make the journey on foot while being chased by Soviet troops. Having sent his special code over the air before bailing out, Gant’s presence is now known to the Americans as well, who send their own helicopters across the border to save him.
The novel closes with the signing of the new arms reduction treaty, which the Soviets have graciously amended to include space-based weapons. In space, the two space stations – Liberty and MKBS-1 – are brought close from each other for mutual support in case of emergency.
...
So that was the plot of "Winter Hawk" Craig Thomas said in an interview in 2003. "It seems I guessed some real life events pretty well, but got them in the wrong order." Craig Thomas chuckles. "I mean, once again, reality bet fiction, hands down. Here are some examples of that.
"In my novel the Soviet civilian leadership has allowed development of the laser weapon to placate a military antagonized by military spending cuts – read, nuclear disarmement. Forget nuclear bombs and MAD, we have far better toys for you.
Well, that's how I imagined it. Real-life was far more weird.
First, with perfect hindsight it seems I made my Gorbachev much more evil than his real-life counterpart. I had an excuse: my early novels explicitely mentionned Yuri Andropov, and that man was really machiavellian. Hey, as of 1983 when I wrote the Firefox sequels I couldn't guess his reign would be so short, and that he would let someone like Gorbachev at the head of USSR someday. Well, as we saw in 1988, the dark shadow of Andropov was still there, through conservatives in Kremlin and of course, the KGB.
Then, Gorbachev recently revealed that the Soviet military actually build a laser battlestation and he wasn't told about it. Somewhat ironically, he discovered the spacecraft on February 20, 1986, alerted by rumours about dual purpose MKBS – civilian and military missions. Instead of using the project to piss-off Reagan (as happening in my novel) Gorbachev made sure the laser battlestation was starved of funding enough it wouldn't fly for a long time.
He also chose not to tell the West about it, although he changed his mind in Reykjavik, with the completely unpredictible results we all know about."
"Reykjavik, let's talk about it."
"Well, all I can say is that the agreement went far beyond my wildest fantasies. Having discussed the matter with Tom Clancy, I can tell you he was equally shocked, even more since a good part of Red Storm Rising happens not too far from Hofdi House, in Iceland. What's even more amazing, just like myself Clancy tried his hand at a Soviet coup. I respectfully acknowledge he did a better job than me – last year Clancy told me half-jockingly that in 1988, watching the coup unfold on TV he had had that uneasy feeling the Soviet plotters had studied Red Storm Rising finale before striking.
Now this. The Soviet space weapon places the Americans in a painful dilemma: they can neither sign a treaty that will dramatically cede the balance of power to the Soviet Union, nor can they back out of the treaty lacking proof of the Soviet weapon. Well... it didn't happened. In Reykjavik Reagan and his advisor George Shultz found a third, different way, leading to a stunning agreement - nuclear disarmement and joint research on laser battlestations. Can you believe that ?
It also helped that, unlike in my novel, the laser battlestation was never launched – you can imagine Reagan horror, shock and anger if it had been.
And finally, what really made my heart warm was last year decision to get the American and Soviet space stations closer from each other - on the same orbit for mutual support. At least I got this right" Craig Thomas laugh "since my novel ends with the two stations sailing close from each other, peacefully, as the nuclear disarmement treaty is signed by the two leaders."
Unlike Fireghost, Space ranger was a major success. Its success got Ridley Scott Reykjavik out of development hell.
---
Superman reborn
The year 1986 was one for the aviation buffs. They got Top Gun and Clint Eastwood Fireghost. A collateral victim however was Sidney J. Furie very own aviation flick, Iron Eagle. Iron Eagle was a complete failure, and this got a direct impact on another fast flying wonder, Superman.
Donner Superman I had been good, Superman II had started to go off the rails, Superman III was a train wreck, Supergirl was a dud. At this point the Salkinds considered that Superman had run his curse... his course, and sold the rights they had bought in 1974. They sold them to B-movie magnates Golan and Globus of Cannon Films. That was a pretty bad idea.
Cannon wanted Sydney Furie to make a Superman IV, but Furie's Iron Eagle F-16 was blown out of the sky by Top Gun. Golan and Globus instead made that God-awful Spiderman 1987 movie that was so bad and flopped so hard, no other Spiderman movie could be made until 2012. Such a colossal failure at least got a positive effect: it sunk Cannon for good, and as such, Superman rights reverted to... the Salkinds, more exactly to Illya. In 1987 he managed to convice Christopher Reeve to done the Superman cape one last time, and together they made Superman Reborn, concluding the first Superman era in film on a high note. After Richard Donner declined Wes Craven accepted the job. The result was a darker, grittier Superman crammed with pain and suffering and nightmares as the Man of Steel has to heal and retrieve his superpowers.
...
The movie starts with a titanic battle between Superman and Brainiac. They lay into each other with everything they have. They strike each other with so much force that the shockwaves from their punches shatter windows. Superman gradually lose his edge, until the unthinkable happens: he is increasingly exhausted and injured from the fight that he is on a verge to collapse.
At the struggle's culminating moment in front of the Daily Planet building, each fighter lands a massive blow upon his opponent. Except Brainiac is not affected, while Superman is knocked out.
Brainiac then beats Superman mercilessly before breaking Superman back over his knee, impaling him with kryptonite, and throwing his body in a river. Lex Luthor triumphantly claim this is the beginning of a new era.
It is revealed that Brainiac powers were augmented by Luthor and what's more, the two archvillains have had a long-running alliance. Since 1957 Lex has used Brainiac to triggers regular “broken arrow” nuclear alerts between USA and USSR, as a way to ensure Cold War tensions last forever, since Lex is happily selling weapons to both sides (it is strongly hinted that Goldsborough, Palomares and Thulé B-52 mishaps were a work of Brainiac, among many others).
It is revealed that, much like the rest of the World, Lex has been stunned by the Reykjavik summit nuclear disarmement breakthrough. When Superman discovered the truth, Lex boosted Brainiac powers to silence the man of steel, which was on the brink to reveal Lex machination to the Daily Planet (sending Lois Lane career into orbit at the same time).
Another, more pressing issue is that Lex has lost control over Brainiac. Lex goal was to keep Cold War boiling up; but Brainiac don't gives a rat about it, and nows wants to anihilate mankind with a simple trick. Brainiac plans to trigger a computer glitch in both NORAD and PVO to trigger WWIII.
Meanwhile Superman isn't dead, but has been very seriously crippled. He must regain most of his powers. The healing process works, but very slowly. Lex somewhat felt Superman isn't dead, and intends to kill him for good, now that he is stripped of his superpowers. Hence Superman hides in Smallville where Martha and Johnathan help with his recovery. In the process, Clark meet Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) again. He ponders about living a simple life with her as a farmboy, but soon reminds the threat against the world. Lana told him she has some uneasy feeling about their relationship, as if they were more like a brother and sister.
Meanwhile Brainiac corrupts a Minuteman missile silo near Smallville and launch the rocket. Clark unexpectedly regain his power to flight, and kick the missile away, but it is too late: WWIII has already started, with all missiles launched.
Superman however has by this time regained most of his powers and superspeed around Earth, kicking all the missiles in the direction of the Sun, until no threat is left. Last scene of the movie has a nuclear disarmement summit between all the major powers, with Superman adressing the United Nations. "There will be peace when the people of the world want it so much that their leaders will have no choice but to give it to them."
Fireghost, the absolute weapon.
Clint Eastwood, 1986.
The success of Honkytonk man in 1982 was a landmark for Clint Eastwood.
By 1986 Eastwood scrapped a tentative project with the name of Heartbreak Ridge and instead adapted Craig Thomas novel Fireghost - the absolute weapon. It was a sequel to the 1977 smashing hit Firefox, a novel Eastwood had enjoyed and wanted to turn into a movie, but couldn't. Eastwood later told reporters that in 1982 he had been forced to chose between Honkytonk and Firefox, and had prefered the former as a personal project. The move was probably a wise one considering the dismal failure of Fireghost five years later. Honkytonk man, by contrast, was critically acclaimed.
The early plot was largely changed after the landmark Reykjavik summit. "We had to change the villains" Eastwood said "since we felt Cold War was ending, with Islamist terrorism the new, major threat. Plus we thought it might be fun to get (Iranian) Tomcats as the story villains, in these days of Top Gun. Finally, we liked the idea of the F-4 Phantom, an aircraft that suffered so much losses over Vietnam, to be able to out-run all those shiny new fighters – Tomcats, Eagles, and Mig-25s. It is a kind of metaphor for Gant himself, who equally suffered in Vietnam and is now returning."
...
During the Vietnam war US Air Force pilot Mitchell Gant is flying a RF-4C Phantom near Hanoi when he is shot down. He is nearly captured by Viet Cong, an ordeal exacerbated when the enemy guerrillas are wiped out almost immediately by napalm from an American air strike, killing many children and women in the process.
Some years later in 1979 Gant experience with the RF-4C has the CIA contacts him. They have created a Super Phantom able to fly above Mach 3 through the use of a revolutionary propulsion system. Also onboard is an advanced camera system with very impressive resolution. A handful of aircrafts have been used to spy the Soviet Union, entering USSR airspace through the Iranian border – with agreement from Iran and , more surprisingly, help from Israel.
Alas, the Iranian revolution has broke out and the Islamists have sized two Super Phantoms. The revolution also took Israel by surprise: it is revealed that country had loaned a couple of nuclear weapons to Iran before the Shah was swept away. Israel wanted to scare Saddam Iraq, but the plan backfired.
Iranian islamist leadership is show examining varied terror attack scenarios. They discuss painting the RF-4X in American or Israel markings to drop a nuke on the Soviets, a move that may start World War Three. Also considered is the RF-4X air dropping a nuke on Saudia Arabia oil terminals, threatening a worlwide oil shock. Another frightening option has the Iranian dropping a nuke on Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
With the help of a network of Jewish dissidents and sympathizers, Gant reaches the Iranian air base where the two prototype aircraft are being stored. Israeli scientists are hold as hostages and forced to work on the project - they help Gant penetrate the base, then start a fire to destroy the second prototype and nuclear weapons, and also to distract security troops while Gant steals one of the planes. The nuclear weapons do not explodes but are consumed by fire, poisoning the entire area around the Iranian air base. Gant barely escape in time but now faces major hardships. His escape threatens to start an enormous, vicious air battle across the entire Middle East – and beyond.
To Gant shock, the Iranian air force is able to send some Tomcats in chase. Everybody was assuming Iranian F-14s had been grounded per lack of spare parts, or at least sabotaged in 1979. Gant starts the RF-4X revolutionary engine drive and successfully outrun the Tomcats and their lethal AIM-54 Phoenix. Undaunted, using aerial tankers the Iranian send more Tomcats to set a trap near the Saudi border and the Gulf or Ormuz.
Meanwhile Israel is worried about their nuclear weapon blunder and willing to stop the menace. Hence they place their Air Force on alert, a move which triggers panick across the Middle East, including Iraq, currently at war with Iran. Iraq send its own MiG-25s and also Mirage F-1s over Iran, resulting in a major air battle with severe losses on both sides.
Saudia Arabia is fearing an Iranian strike on its oil facilities. Soon Israel, in a secret move with Saudia Arabia, send F-15s in chase of Gant.
Meanwhile the Soviets, which were depply angered by border penetrations and willing to steal RF-4X revolutionary propulsion system, are sending two squadrons of MiG-25s across Iran airspace to shoot Gant down.
Gant face no other choice than to fly above 80 000 ft and Mach 3. The RF-4X is quickly picked up by Iranian radars and, as Gant escape is at the extreme range of the aircraft, the pilot had no option but to fly a virtually straight track. Throughout the mission, Gant is faced with the unnerving spectacle of a never-ending stream of fighters attempting to bring down the RF-4X by firing a variety of machine-guns, cannons and missiles at the aircraft. To compound Gant problems, his heavy fuel load allows only very limited evasive manoeuvring. Gant ends with virtually empty tanks and having kept the aircraft in continuous afterburner for over half an hour as he shot past some extremely agitated Arabian peninsula– as the RF-4X is officially limited to just a few minutes of afterburner, this effectively threaten to destroy the entire aft fuselage.
As he gets near the Saudi border – entering the United Arab Emirates airspace - and is nearly out of fuel, a final, major air battle breaks out. It involves Saudi and Israeli F-15s; Iranian Tomcats setting an ambush; Soviet and Iraqis MiG-25s and Mirage F-1s; and UAE Mirage 2000s.
The shooting allows Gant to narrowly escape thanks to a USN A-5 "Vigilante" tanker aircraft providing supersonic aerial refueling. Hornets and Phantoms provides air cover as they escape, since US Navy Tomcats might be mistaken for Iranian aircrafts.
Gant finally land its RF-4X on an aircraft carrier cruising in the Persian Gulf, but the aircraft is ruined.
(note 1: the RA-5C Vigilante was never a tanker, that was the older A-3 Skywarrior. But the movie prefered the Vigilante as it flew higher and faster, to rescue Gant).
(note 2: UAE Mirages as shown were actually Kfir – more exactly, F-21A agressor aircrafts.)
---
Space ranger
In 1999 Clint Eastwood renewed its cooperation with Craig Thomas. Winter Hawk was the third book in the Firefox series. The movie is a straight adaptation of the novel without much change to the plotline. The plot is no longer related to aircrafts, but to the space program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Hawk
The events of Winter Hawk transpire over a few days in which the Soviet Union will launch into orbit the first in a series of laser battle stations, the existence of which they have kept a closely guarded secret.
The launch is meant to coincide with the signing of a new and apparently groundbreaking treaty dramatically reducing nuclear weapons to be kept by both sides, but excluding space based weapons such as the one the Soviets will be launching, mostly because none are known to exist. The Americans know of the weapon because a Soviet technician named Philip Kedrov has been supplying them information, operating under the code-name “Cactus Plant”.
The Soviet space weapon places the Americans in a painful dilemma: they can neither sign a treaty that will dramatically cede the balance of power to the Soviet Union, nor can they back out of the treaty lacking proof of the Soviet weapon.
The only alternative is a deep cover extraction mission of Kedrov and his evidence from the Soviet’s space launch complex, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission, involving two stolen Soviet Mil Mi-24 helicopters to be flown by CIA pilots — one of whom is CIA pilot Mitchell Gant — is codenamed “Winter Hawk”.
The story, which then shifts to Baikonur, reveals competing agendas within the Soviet camp. The Soviet civilian leadership has allowed development of the laser weapon, whose launch is codenamed “Linchpin”, to placate a military antagonized by military spending cuts. The laser weapon is to be docked to the civilian space station MKBS-1.
Unbeknownst to Soviet leaders, the Soviet military has its own plans for the weapon, including a live fire test, codenamed “Lightning”, against the American Space Station Liberty. The novel suggests “Lightning” as a prelude to an army-backed coup to seize control over the Soviet Union, even as the laser weapon will make the Soviet Union the world’s leading super power.
KGB Colonel Dmitri Priabin, introduced as a minor character in Firefox, elevated to a more central role in Firefox Down and now the ranking KGB officer in Baikonur, nurses a painful grudge against Mitchell Gant due to the tragic events of Fireghost (his career was ruined by the giant air battles over the middle east, plus many of his friends wereshot down and killed flying MiG-25s).
Like the reader, Priabin quickly learns of the existence of “Lightning” but not the details. The military has kept its plans secret by arranging fatal “accidents” for any civilians they suspect have learned of “Lightning”. He has also learned of Kedrov's treachery, and keeps him under surveillance.
Priabin investigates the murders as a pretext to learn details of “Lightning” itself, which he correctly concludes is an illegal military mission. He also surveils Kedrov, suspecting that the Americans will try extracting him before the launch of the laser weapon, although he has no way of knowing that the mission will be flown by Mitchell Gant.
Gant’s mission proves ill-fated from the start. The C-5 cargo plane carrying the helicopters and their crew to their staging point, suffers a fuel-system malfunction requiring the jettisoning of the helicopters on a remote beach — nearly destroying both of them. The helicopters are made flight-ready and the mission commences, only for one of the helicopters to be shot down over Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Gant narrowly avoids destruction over Afghanistan only to be captured once he reaches Baikonur and tries to extract Kedrov, falling into the hands of KGB officers who had been surveilling the turncoat engineer.
Barely keeping himself from killing Gant, Priabin instead takes him into custody, then continues his investigation into “Lightning”. Priabin soon learns the truth, but he is unable to warn Moscow because an Army-imposed, pre-launch security lockdown has cut Baikonur off from the rest of the world. Realizing that the army will soon eliminate him as it has other obstacles, Priabin is forced to save Gant in order for the American to fly them both out of Baikonur along with evidence of “Lightning”. Using the KGB’s Mil Mi-2 helicopter, the two of them manage to get evidence of the laser weapon, but not before their helicopter is severely damaged by fire from a group of the army’s Mil Mi-24 helicopters. Gant barely escapes the Army patrols before he crash lands outside of Baikonur.
With evidence of the weapon, Gant escapes on foot. Priabin, weighing his hatred for Gant against the implications for "Lightning", chooses to be captured by the army. Gant steals an Antonov An-2 biplane used for crop dusting at a nearby collective farm. He narrowly escapes army helicopters sent to capture him, but not before the Soviets have successfully launched their N-11 carrying the laser weapon.
General Rodin, the army’s ranking officer, decides against immediately killing Priabin. It was Rodin’s son who revealed to Priabin the details of “Lightning” before being killed by subordinate officers acting against the general’s orders. Led to believe that the KGB drove his son to suicide, but suspecting his other officers nonetheless, Rodin keeps Priabin in his own custody, even as he orders a massive hunt for Gant. Emotionally unhinged by his son’s death, and his wife’s suicide immediately following it, Rodin is unable to keep Priabin from escaping before the laser weapon has been successfully placed in orbit.
With the help of Kedrov, Priabin finds the covert tracking station the army will use to control the laser satellite, and sabotages its orbital uplink.
With his plane shot down by Soviet fighters near the Turkish border, Gant is forced to make the journey on foot while being chased by Soviet troops. Having sent his special code over the air before bailing out, Gant’s presence is now known to the Americans as well, who send their own helicopters across the border to save him.
The novel closes with the signing of the new arms reduction treaty, which the Soviets have graciously amended to include space-based weapons. In space, the two space stations – Liberty and MKBS-1 – are brought close from each other for mutual support in case of emergency.
...
So that was the plot of "Winter Hawk" Craig Thomas said in an interview in 2003. "It seems I guessed some real life events pretty well, but got them in the wrong order." Craig Thomas chuckles. "I mean, once again, reality bet fiction, hands down. Here are some examples of that.
"In my novel the Soviet civilian leadership has allowed development of the laser weapon to placate a military antagonized by military spending cuts – read, nuclear disarmement. Forget nuclear bombs and MAD, we have far better toys for you.
Well, that's how I imagined it. Real-life was far more weird.
First, with perfect hindsight it seems I made my Gorbachev much more evil than his real-life counterpart. I had an excuse: my early novels explicitely mentionned Yuri Andropov, and that man was really machiavellian. Hey, as of 1983 when I wrote the Firefox sequels I couldn't guess his reign would be so short, and that he would let someone like Gorbachev at the head of USSR someday. Well, as we saw in 1988, the dark shadow of Andropov was still there, through conservatives in Kremlin and of course, the KGB.
Then, Gorbachev recently revealed that the Soviet military actually build a laser battlestation and he wasn't told about it. Somewhat ironically, he discovered the spacecraft on February 20, 1986, alerted by rumours about dual purpose MKBS – civilian and military missions. Instead of using the project to piss-off Reagan (as happening in my novel) Gorbachev made sure the laser battlestation was starved of funding enough it wouldn't fly for a long time.
He also chose not to tell the West about it, although he changed his mind in Reykjavik, with the completely unpredictible results we all know about."
"Reykjavik, let's talk about it."
"Well, all I can say is that the agreement went far beyond my wildest fantasies. Having discussed the matter with Tom Clancy, I can tell you he was equally shocked, even more since a good part of Red Storm Rising happens not too far from Hofdi House, in Iceland. What's even more amazing, just like myself Clancy tried his hand at a Soviet coup. I respectfully acknowledge he did a better job than me – last year Clancy told me half-jockingly that in 1988, watching the coup unfold on TV he had had that uneasy feeling the Soviet plotters had studied Red Storm Rising finale before striking.
Now this. The Soviet space weapon places the Americans in a painful dilemma: they can neither sign a treaty that will dramatically cede the balance of power to the Soviet Union, nor can they back out of the treaty lacking proof of the Soviet weapon. Well... it didn't happened. In Reykjavik Reagan and his advisor George Shultz found a third, different way, leading to a stunning agreement - nuclear disarmement and joint research on laser battlestations. Can you believe that ?
It also helped that, unlike in my novel, the laser battlestation was never launched – you can imagine Reagan horror, shock and anger if it had been.
And finally, what really made my heart warm was last year decision to get the American and Soviet space stations closer from each other - on the same orbit for mutual support. At least I got this right" Craig Thomas laugh "since my novel ends with the two stations sailing close from each other, peacefully, as the nuclear disarmement treaty is signed by the two leaders."
Unlike Fireghost, Space ranger was a major success. Its success got Ridley Scott Reykjavik out of development hell.
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Superman reborn
The year 1986 was one for the aviation buffs. They got Top Gun and Clint Eastwood Fireghost. A collateral victim however was Sidney J. Furie very own aviation flick, Iron Eagle. Iron Eagle was a complete failure, and this got a direct impact on another fast flying wonder, Superman.
Donner Superman I had been good, Superman II had started to go off the rails, Superman III was a train wreck, Supergirl was a dud. At this point the Salkinds considered that Superman had run his curse... his course, and sold the rights they had bought in 1974. They sold them to B-movie magnates Golan and Globus of Cannon Films. That was a pretty bad idea.
Cannon wanted Sydney Furie to make a Superman IV, but Furie's Iron Eagle F-16 was blown out of the sky by Top Gun. Golan and Globus instead made that God-awful Spiderman 1987 movie that was so bad and flopped so hard, no other Spiderman movie could be made until 2012. Such a colossal failure at least got a positive effect: it sunk Cannon for good, and as such, Superman rights reverted to... the Salkinds, more exactly to Illya. In 1987 he managed to convice Christopher Reeve to done the Superman cape one last time, and together they made Superman Reborn, concluding the first Superman era in film on a high note. After Richard Donner declined Wes Craven accepted the job. The result was a darker, grittier Superman crammed with pain and suffering and nightmares as the Man of Steel has to heal and retrieve his superpowers.
...
The movie starts with a titanic battle between Superman and Brainiac. They lay into each other with everything they have. They strike each other with so much force that the shockwaves from their punches shatter windows. Superman gradually lose his edge, until the unthinkable happens: he is increasingly exhausted and injured from the fight that he is on a verge to collapse.
At the struggle's culminating moment in front of the Daily Planet building, each fighter lands a massive blow upon his opponent. Except Brainiac is not affected, while Superman is knocked out.
Brainiac then beats Superman mercilessly before breaking Superman back over his knee, impaling him with kryptonite, and throwing his body in a river. Lex Luthor triumphantly claim this is the beginning of a new era.
It is revealed that Brainiac powers were augmented by Luthor and what's more, the two archvillains have had a long-running alliance. Since 1957 Lex has used Brainiac to triggers regular “broken arrow” nuclear alerts between USA and USSR, as a way to ensure Cold War tensions last forever, since Lex is happily selling weapons to both sides (it is strongly hinted that Goldsborough, Palomares and Thulé B-52 mishaps were a work of Brainiac, among many others).
It is revealed that, much like the rest of the World, Lex has been stunned by the Reykjavik summit nuclear disarmement breakthrough. When Superman discovered the truth, Lex boosted Brainiac powers to silence the man of steel, which was on the brink to reveal Lex machination to the Daily Planet (sending Lois Lane career into orbit at the same time).
Another, more pressing issue is that Lex has lost control over Brainiac. Lex goal was to keep Cold War boiling up; but Brainiac don't gives a rat about it, and nows wants to anihilate mankind with a simple trick. Brainiac plans to trigger a computer glitch in both NORAD and PVO to trigger WWIII.
Meanwhile Superman isn't dead, but has been very seriously crippled. He must regain most of his powers. The healing process works, but very slowly. Lex somewhat felt Superman isn't dead, and intends to kill him for good, now that he is stripped of his superpowers. Hence Superman hides in Smallville where Martha and Johnathan help with his recovery. In the process, Clark meet Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) again. He ponders about living a simple life with her as a farmboy, but soon reminds the threat against the world. Lana told him she has some uneasy feeling about their relationship, as if they were more like a brother and sister.
Meanwhile Brainiac corrupts a Minuteman missile silo near Smallville and launch the rocket. Clark unexpectedly regain his power to flight, and kick the missile away, but it is too late: WWIII has already started, with all missiles launched.
Superman however has by this time regained most of his powers and superspeed around Earth, kicking all the missiles in the direction of the Sun, until no threat is left. Last scene of the movie has a nuclear disarmement summit between all the major powers, with Superman adressing the United Nations. "There will be peace when the people of the world want it so much that their leaders will have no choice but to give it to them."