A retired Air Force colonel and a young man team up to steal an F-16 and fly it on a mission to free the boy’s father, imprisoned in the Middle East.Short of Top Gun, this could be the definitive boys movie of the 1980s. An 18-year-old (Jason Gedrick) gets instruction from an old vet (Louis Gossett Jr.) in how to fly an F-16 jet and kick butt in the Middle East, all while listening to his Walkman and–oh, yeah–saving his father from terrorist clutches. Gossett wears his tough-love face while the kids run rampant. Speaking of kids, young guys must like this comic-book movie, as its success spawned three sequels. But watch out for the Reagan-era jingoism and political reductiveness. –Tom Keogh
Rating: 
(out of 55 reviews)
List Price: $ 9.95
Price: $ 1.95
Related Blogs
- Related Blogs on Eagle
October 5, 2010
#1
Review by cameron bates
Rating:
I watched Iron Eagle when it came out in the theaters in 1986. I was in college, and it was absurd. A teenager and his buddies with an air reservist steal a couple of F-16′s and manage to fly across the atlantic, attack an entire country and recover a single person? Impossible!But if reality is what you are looking for, get a documentary. This is just good old-fashion fun. The plot has holes, but the action is there. The Good guys are truly white hats and the evil, stereo-typed middle-eastern despot/colonel is dripping with evil. gotta love the fun,… expecially the dog fighting scenes.
October 5, 2010
#2
Review by Lee Kyung Hee
Rating:
When I was 6 years old, my father give this movie that recorded from TV in 1989. That time I’m kindergarden boy. but this movie very huge, huge impact in my life. This movie treat war story. So some people may think this stuff feel very cruel. But that’s wrong! this movie treat humanism like father & son. Doug rescue Father in enemy line. So this every scenes that Doug’s try try so hard behave is so moved to me. now I’m 21 years old. and now I’m “South Korea Airforce Academy” Student. In the end dream come true.Like Doug Masters. So I’m very proud about me and this movie. Someday I’ll drive F-16. This movie’s give me a my dream. Change My Life~ Doug & Father’s meet scene is never forget it..thorough all my life.
October 5, 2010
#3
Review by Jason
Rating:
Little Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick) has an Air Force pilot for a father, an incredibly irresponsible father who has been allowing him to fly training missions since, evidently, Doug hit puberty. The kid has more simulator time than anyone on base (wherever that may be). He’s so into flying that he has a club of fellow high school aviators – officers’ kids – who take their personal planes out on the weekends for fun…and to race paint-huffing morons on dirt-bikes through treacherous mountains. He’s a whiz at flying (but not acting). Doug’s happy little world halts when he finds out that not only did his application to the Air Force Academy get denied, but his father was also shot down, captured, and scheduled for a hanging in an undisclosed Middle Eastern country.
Doug enlists the help of his flying buddies (two of which are Styles from Teen Wolf and the gay dude from Revenge of the Nerds) to hatch a rescue plan. Along the way he manages to get the help of a retired Air Force Colonel named Chappy Sinclair (Louis Gossett Jr.) who just happens to have flown with Doug’s father. After the two find out that the U.S. government has their hands tied in red tape, Col. Chappy decides to put a plan into action. He’ll require the considerable talents, connections, and tricks of each member of the flight club. They’ll have to steal maps, get top secret armament information of the enemies, hack into government computers to get F16s with enough ammo (and flight plans) to take on an entire Arab country, and exploit every moron the Air Force could possible assemble on one facility in order to save Doug’s father.
After all the training, the shenanigans, and the ubiquitous 80s montage in which Louis Gossett Jr. shakes it to an old jukebox, the training mission gets the go ahead, and it’s up to Doug and Chappy to rescue Doug’s father from the evil, Arab terrorists (and not face long-term prison when and if they get back).
If that isn’t the most preposterous, far-fetched, Ben-Affleck-in-Armageddon-ridiculous premise for a movie, then someone has to fill me in on what tops it.
This movie is one of the most enjoyably improbable movies of all time. It’s a classic from that period of the 80s when there seemed to be no rules, and movies were made for pure, silly entertainment. Shut your brain off for two hours and just enjoy the good guys getting the better of the bad guys in a movie less believable than James Van Der Beek’s accent in Varsity Blues.
October 5, 2010
#4
Review by
Rating:
“Iron Eagle” is best described as your typical 1980s, feel-good, pro-American, rock and roll action movie. Required viewing material for those of us still on the 80s hype. While completely unrealistic, anyone who ever grew up in the Reagan-era has to love this film and its simple premise. “Iron Eagle” has everything the 80s fanatic could want: a soundtrack including Adrenalin (Road of The Gypsy), Eric Martin (Eyes of The World), Dio (Hide In The Rainbow), Twisted Sister (We’re Not Gonna Take It), and Queen (One Vision); a heavy, pro-American slant; and how could we forget, actors like David Suchet and Louis Gossett. While not up to the same high-budget par as its contemporary, “Top Gun”, this is still a great film. Your plot is simple: imaginary Mediterranean rouge state shoots down one of our pilots, and in return, two American rouge pilots steal F-16Bs and bomb the living daylights out of the enemy. It’s a great movie to watch as a “I remember when” type of film, especially since “Iron Eagle” has all the undertones of the perpetual international crisis faced by the US during the time period.
October 5, 2010
#5
Review by
Rating:
I love Iron Eagle. When I was a kid, this was my favorite move, and it still is. Who cares if the storyline is cheesy…I sure don’t. Louis Gossett, Jr. adds so much to this movie. Chappy Sinclair is one of the baddest mothers to ever walk the face of the earth. And how can you forget the awesome soundtrack? I mean..Dio…come on. And Helix? Just buy this movie…that is all I have to say…