A Definitive Audit Of How Many Weapons Doug Masters Launched From His F-16 In Iron Eagle

Updated Apr 2, 2018 1:12 PM EDT

The ’80s air combat yarn Iron Eagle holds a unique place in military themed movie history. It was totally overshadowed by Top Gun , which came out five months after Iron Eagle. At the same time it introduced the world to the F-16, which was still a fresh and innovative face on the fighter scene.

Although filled with some striking aerial footage and set to a pumping rock soundtrack, the movie was about as cliche filled as possible. It followed the popular ‘super kids’ movie trope of the era and was laughably far fetched. But even above the corny dialogue and cheesy premise, the movie maybe best known for its chaotic editing and representation that the relatively svelte F-16A/B carried seemingly unlimited firepower.

Among defense and aviation enthusiasts, the ‘bottomless’ Fighting Falcon seems to be the biggest thing that stands out from the movie—that and the fact that Israeli F-16s stood in for USAF models, and the MiGs were Israeli Kfirs.

The backstory there is that the USAF would not support a film that featured a kid stealing an F-16 and using it to bomb another country. As such the IAF was willing to take on the job but on the condition that its involvement remained unpublicized, which in itself was a whole other seemingly pointless saga.

In the end the movie’s aerial and ground sequences involving the F-16 were shot in Israel, with Ramat David Air Base being the prime filming location. The majority of the footage of the fictional “Beech AFB” was captured at Camarillo Airport in California. The mix of locations actually worked out surprisingly well.

Iron Eagle screencap via IMDB

Back to Iron Eagle’s notorious depiction of F-16s with unlimited magazine depth, although this issue seems to have grated many viewers the most, along with a seemingly endless number of easily avoidable editing goofs, some would argue that it’s a fictional movie and that none of these issues impact the plot anyway. That may be true, but conversely, making it more believable and accurate would not impact the plot negatively either, so why not just try and make it as accurate as possible? Doing so wouldn’t even have cost anything extra.

Yes, Doug Masters’ girlfriend was Jan Levinson from The Office. , Iron Eagle screencap via IMDB

But then again, does Iron Eagle really deserve its reputation for an outlandish portrayal of the F-16’s capabilities? We decided to find out by tallying up all the different weapons used during the various combat sequences depicted in the film.

The movie is filled with all types of conflicting statements and footage regarding the F-16’s weapons fit, but here is a basic breakdown of the munitions involved:

Four primary weapons are featured in the film. A 30mm cannon is mentioned and shown on the aircraft’s stores management display. This seems to be confused with the jet’s actual 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon and the GEpod30 30mm cannon system that was being marketed at the time for the F-16 at the time.

In the movie this pod isn’t seen but it is briefly mentioned. During all the firing sequences it shows the jet’s internal 20mm firing, but all the displays read 30mm. Regardless, let’s assume they just meant the jet’s internal cannon.

Iron Eagle screencap

The AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile is featured heavily and is portrayed basically in an accurate manner superficially speaking.

When it comes to bombs, things get more confusing. The bombs carried are clearly Mk82 500lb ‘slicks,’ but they are referred to as ‘clusters’ and ‘Mark 82s’ verbally. At the same time, the jet’s fictional stores display calls them ‘weasils’ which seems like a cool name they assigned the bombs in production, but did they did not follow through with using the moniker during filming.

The stores screen on Doug’s F-16B during the mission to rescue his dad., Iron Eagle Screencap

The jet’s only air-to-air missile is the AIM-9 Sidewinder, which is used correctly in the movie, aside from in one scene. At the time, the F-16’s only air-to-air missile was indeed the Sidewinder, so this is accurate. It wasn’t till three years later that the first F-16A/B Block 15 ADF was introduced, which gave the F-16 AIM-7 Sparrow capability.

Finally we have the ‘Hades Bomb,’ a fictional wide-area fire bomb of sorts used to create a set-piece during the movie’s climactic action sequence.

Doug’s training mission

During the single training mission Doug flew with Chappy before the veteran colonel decided to commit a whole series of high crimes and potentially start a war with another country in order to execute a laughably poor plan to save Doug’s dad from execution, here’s what was fired off the F-16B:

Then Chappy says to try again with a “mark 82.” The weapons stores display then shows two Sidewinders coming off the jet and impacting the ground—so stupid editing error, but still two more weapons fired.

2X Sidewinders (supposed to be mk82s/Weasils)

Then a defiant Doug—the 18 year old Cessna pilot that has been secretly flying F-16s with his Air Force officer dad—says he is doing it his way. He kicks on his knee-board mounted tape player and makes another run with the tunes blaring.

2X bombs/weasils come off the jet

Many more explosions are shown than weapons we see being fired, at one time two bombs cause five huge explosions on the ground for instance, but we are sticking with what we see physically fired.

So total for the practice run is six weapons, but probably about 10 explosions. Still, nothing here is totally absurd believability wise.

On the mission before Chappy goes down

The jets are shown being launched with three Mk82s, two AGM-65 Mavericks, two AIM-9 Sidewinders, and one jet has the fictional red-cased Hades bomb on its centerline as well.

Now the mission to save Doug’s dad, with the help of extended montage sequences showing the “Eagles” club of super kids ripping off the Air Force and stealing all types of classified information from their officer parents, is underway. On their way into enemy country (after flying thousands from the United States?) and after Doug aerial refuels for the first time, this is what his stores management screen looks like:

The numbers on the stores screen don’t reflect what we see being carried, and it shows a fuel state of 6,972lbs—the F-16B actually holds 5,700lbs internally—and 500 rounds of ammunition. In reality the F-16 holds 511 rounds, so pretty close there.

Before the first battle begins, Chappy tells Doug he has “four clusters” and to use “foil packs” to confuse “French radar.” Then, once the first battle kicks off, here is what is launched off both F-16s:

An estimated 8-10 seconds of cannon fire.

The M61 cannon fires at 6,000 rounds per minute, meaning about 100 rounds per second. So the entire 500 round load would be spent in about five to six seconds (70rpm for first second as gun spools up).

Between two F-16s this engagement is believable stores-wise. Once again, we aren’t counting explosions here as weapons dropped.

Once Chappy gets hit and heads out to the Mediterranean (where there is always an Egyptian Trawler nearby as per ’80s military action movie conventions) Doug is left on his own to continue the rescue mission. During which he listens to a tape from Chappy where the colonel tells him to keep an eye on his stores screen—good but unheeded advice for the Iron Eagle production team as well!

The final action sequence includes the following weapons being fired from Doug’s jet alone:

Roughly 15 seconds of 20mm gun fire.

This is the sequence that most cite as so horribly outlandish, but aside from the gratuitous explosions and unrealistic use of the jet’s cannon, it’s not as crazy as it seems. We are talking about roughly 6,000lbs of ordnance here, which the F-16 could easily carry into battle, albeit it wouldn’t be that nimble doing so until after it was released.

Still, Doug has used basically three times the amount of ammunition his jet carries for its 20mm cannon in this part of the mission alone, but this isn’t really an Iron Eagle problem. Virtually every action movie of the era featured seemingly endless magazines for all types of small arms and machine guns. Just take a second and try to remember how the 9mm Uzi alone was portrayed in ’80s movies—ridiculously powerful and of unlimited ammunition.

As Masters fights his way towards the Mediterranean with his dad now onboard and his low fuel state and weapons situation becoming a factor, he tells his dad he has 3,015lbs of fuel, two Sidewinders, and 244 rounds of ammo left. Here is his weapons status screen at this point, note that it also shows two bombs/weasils left:

A largely accurate stores screen, although according to this Doug still has two bombs left too. , Iron Eagle Screencap

He then goes onto expend the following during air-to-air combat:

Five seconds of gun firing

Then in the nick of time, a flight of USAF F-16s approaches from the north and scares off the remaining two enemy jets. Doug then asks to lead the ‘missing man formation’ in remembrance of Chappy (who is alive, remember Egyptian trawlers are everywhere in the ’80s) as they head to the tanker. It’s maybe the cheesiest scene in the whole movie, and that’s saying something.

Tristar Pictures via IMDB

But when you break it all down, Iron Eagle’s magically armed F-16s really aren’t all that magical at all. Sure their capabilities are embellished a bit, but not much more than any other movie of the era. So Iron Eagle really isn’t as deserving of criticism it has received in this unique regard.

What makes the portrayal of the F-16’s capabilities feel so much more unbelievable than they actually are are the conflicting claims and editing mistakes that infest the movie. That paired with a laughably stupid plot and super cheesy dialogue, along with a rich helping of popular movie tropes of the decade, makes the viewer want to actively pick apart the film’s technical stumbles.

The “Eagles Club” of teenage Air Force brats that fly planes and have seemingly total access to the USAF’s most critical data, fill the ’80s movie trope of ‘super kids’ to an almost satirical degree in the movie. But Iron Eagle is all about being over-the-top. How can’t it be with such a ludicrous plot?, Iron Eagle screencap via IMDB

But even with these issues, and after being enormously overshadowed by Top Gun , the Iron Eagle became a cult classic and led to no less than three progressively more outlandish and lower budget sequels.

After watching the movie again, now in HD, it was a lot of fun even though I have seen it probably 30 times before. In fact, the whole ‘super kids’ element and relatively awesome ’80s soundtrack really works better now than it had in past two decades as ’80s nostalgia-focused entertainment is very hot right now. See Stranger Things for proof.

Iron Eagle movie cover via Letterboxd.com

In essence, now the whole movie actually plays out like a satire of itself, with its melodrama seemingly totally comedic. And although HD shows even more flaws and low-budget production choices, the aerial sequences look great.

So yeah, the movie is still stupid, but the whole unlimited weapons gripe is actually far less severe than it is has been made out to be. And I for one still love this movie. It, along with Airwolf and Top Gun and so many other shows and films from the period, were a huge influence on me growing up, so it’s fun to revisit them and reminisce.

With that all said, thank you for reading probably the stupidest post I have ever written!

Contact the article: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2018年4月2日下午1:12

80年代的空战题材电影《铁鹰》在军事题材电影史上占有独特的地位。它完全被五个月后上映的《壮志凌云》的光芒所掩盖。与此同时，《铁鹰》也向世界介绍了F-16战斗机，这款战机在当时的战斗机领域仍是一款崭新而富有创新性的机型。

尽管影片中不乏一些引人注目的航拍镜头，配以劲爆的摇滚乐，但其情节却俗套得不能再俗套了。它沿用了当时流行的“超级英雄”电影套路，剧情荒诞可笑。但即便抛开老套的对白和俗气的设定，这部电影最令人印象深刻的或许还是其混乱的剪辑以及对相对轻巧的F-16A/B战斗机火力近乎无限的刻画。

在国防和航空爱好者中，“无底洞”的F-16战斗机似乎是这部电影中最引人注目的地方——此外，以色列的F-16战斗机代替了美国空军的型号，而米格战斗机则是以色列的幼狮战斗机。

事情的起因是，美国空军不愿支持一部讲述一个孩子偷走F-16战斗机并用它轰炸他国的电影。因此，印度空军愿意接手这项工作，但条件是其参与必须保密，而这本身又是另一个看似毫无意义的故事。

最终，影片中涉及F-16战斗机的空中和地面场景均在以色列拍摄，拉马特大卫空军基地是主要拍摄地点。而虚构的“比奇空军基地”的大部分镜头则是在加利福尼亚州的卡马里奥机场拍摄的。这种多地取景的组合效果出乎意料地好。

《铁鹰战士》截图来自IMDb

回到《铁鹰战士》中对F-16战斗机弹匣容量无限大的刻画，虽然这个问题似乎最令许多观众感到不满，再加上数不胜数的剪辑错误（这些错误本可以轻松避免），但有人会辩称，这是一部虚构的电影，这些问题对剧情没有任何影响。这或许没错，但反过来说，让它更可信、更准确也不会对剧情产生负面影响，所以为什么不尽可能地做到准确呢？这样做甚至不需要额外花费任何成本。

是的，道格·马斯特斯的女朋友是《办公室》里的简·莱文森。（图片来自IMDb，《铁鹰战士》剧照）

但是，《铁鹰》真的像人们所说的那样，对F-16的性能进行了夸张的描绘吗？我们决定通过统计影片中各个战斗场景中使用的所有武器来找出答案。

这部电影充斥着各种关于F-16武器配置的相互矛盾的说法和镜头，但以下是所涉及的弹药的基本分类：

影片中出现了四种主要武器。飞机武器管理系统显示屏上提到并展示了一门30毫米机炮。这似乎与该战机实际配备的20毫米M61“火神”机炮以及当时正在为F-16战机推销的GEpod30 30毫米机炮系统混淆了。

电影里虽然没看到这个吊舱，但有简短的提及。所有射击场景都显示喷气式飞机内部的20毫米炮在射击，但显示屏上却显示30毫米。不管怎样，我们姑且认为他们指的是喷气式飞机的内部机炮。

《铁鹰战士》截图

AGM-65“小牛”空地导弹是影片的重点，从表面上看，其刻画基本准确。

说到炸弹，情况就更复杂了。飞机上携带的炸弹显然是Mk82型500磅“光头弹”，但口头上却称之为“集束炸弹”或“Mk 82”。与此同时，飞机上的虚构武器挂载系统称它们为“黄鼠狼”（weasils），这似乎是制作团队给炸弹起的一个很酷的名字，但他们在拍摄过程中并没有采用这个名称。

在营救父亲的任务中，道格的F-16B战斗机上的商店屏幕。（铁鹰行动截图）

这架战机的唯一空空导弹是AIM-9“响尾蛇”，电影中除了一个场景外，其他部分都正确使用了这种导弹。当时，F-16的唯一空空导弹确实是“响尾蛇”，所以这一点是准确的。直到三年后，第一架F-16A/B Block 15 ADF才投入使用，使F-16具备了发射AIM-7“麻雀”导弹的能力。

最后是“冥王哈迪斯炸弹”，这是一种虚构的大范围燃烧炸弹，用于在电影的高潮动作场景中制造场面。

道格的训练任务

在道格与查皮一起执行的那次训练任务中，这位老兵上校决定犯下一系列重罪，并有可能为了执行一个可笑的拙劣计划——拯救道格的父亲免于处决——而与另一个国家开战。以下是F-16B发射的导弹：

然后查皮说要用“82型”再试一次。武器库的画面随即显示两枚响尾蛇导弹从飞机上射出并击中地面——真是个愚蠢的剪辑错误，不过确实又发射了两枚导弹。

2X Sidewinder（应该是mk82s/Weasil）

这时，桀骜不驯的道格——这位18岁的塞斯纳飞机飞行员，一直偷偷跟着身为空军军官的父亲驾驶F-16战斗机——说他要按自己的方式来。他踢开膝上安装的录音机，伴着震耳欲聋的音乐再次起飞。

2X炸弹/武器从喷气式飞机上脱落

影片中展现的爆炸场面远比我们看到的武器发射场面多得多，例如，有一次两枚炸弹在地面上引发了五次巨大的爆炸，但我们只关注我们看到的实际发射的武器。

所以这次试演总共用了六种武器，但可能引发了十次爆炸。不过，从可信度来看，这里没有什么完全不合情理的地方。

在 Chappy 坠落之前执行的任务

视频显示，这些喷气式飞机携带三枚 Mk82 导弹、两枚 AGM-65 小牛导弹、两枚 AIM-9 响尾蛇导弹起飞，其中一架飞机还在机身中心线上挂载了一枚虚构的红色外壳的哈迪斯炸弹。

现在，营救道格父亲的任务正在进行中，期间穿插着大量蒙太奇片段，展现了“雄鹰”超级少年俱乐部如何从空军窃取各种机密信息，尤其是他们身为军官的父母。在他们飞往敌国途中（此前他们已从美国运送了数千架飞机？），道格第一次进行空中加油后，他的仓库管理界面变成了这样：

弹药库屏幕上的数字与实际携带量不符，它显示燃油量为6972磅（F-16B实际内部燃油容量为5700磅），弹药量为500发。但实际上F-16的弹药容量为511发，所以两者非常接近。

在第一场战斗开始前，查皮告诉道格他有“四组导弹”，要用“箔片包”来迷惑“法国雷达”。然后，第一场战斗开始后，两架F-16战斗机发射了以下导弹：

预计炮击时间为 8-10 秒。

M61型火炮的射速为每分钟6000发，也就是每秒约100发。因此，500发炮弹大约会在五到六秒内射完（第一秒由于火炮需要预热，射速为每分钟70发）。

两架F-16战机之间的交战，就武器投放而言，是可信的。再次强调，这里我们不把爆炸算作武器投放。

查皮中弹后驶向地中海（按照80年代军事动作片的惯例，附近总会有一艘埃及拖网渔船），道格只能独自继续救援任务。期间，他听到查皮留下的录音带，上校叮嘱他密切关注物资储备——这条建议对《铁鹰战士》的制作团队来说也是个好建议，可惜他们没听进去！

最后的动作场面包括道格的喷气式飞机单独发射以下武器：

大约持续15秒的20毫米炮射击。

这段情节被大多数人认为极其离谱，但抛开那些毫无必要的爆炸和不切实际的机炮使用不谈，它其实并没有看起来那么疯狂。我们这里说的是大约6000磅的弹药，F-16完全可以携带这些弹药投入战斗，尽管在弹药投放之前，它的机动性会比较差。

尽管如此，道格仅在这次任务中就用掉了他那架喷气式飞机20毫米机炮弹药量的近三倍，但这并非“铁鹰”计划独有的问题。那个年代几乎所有动作片都充斥着各种小型武器和机枪似乎无穷无尽的弹匣。不妨想想80年代电影里是如何描绘9毫米乌兹冲锋枪的——威力惊人，弹药无限。

随着马斯特斯驾驶着战机艰难地向地中海进发，他的父亲也加入了他的行列。由于燃料和武器状况都十分紧张，他告诉父亲，他只剩下3015磅燃料、两枚响尾蛇导弹和244发子弹。以下是此时他的武器状态屏幕，请注意，屏幕上还显示他还有两枚炸弹/武器：

一张基本准确的商店截图，不过根据这张图来看，道格好像还剩两颗炸弹。《铁鹰战士》截图

随后，他在空战中消耗了以下资源：

枪声持续五秒钟

千钧一发之际，一队美国空军的F-16战斗机从北方飞来，吓跑了剩下的两架敌机。道格随后请求带领“失踪者队形”向加油船行进，以此纪念查皮（他仍然活着，别忘了80年代埃及拖网渔船随处可见）。这或许是整部电影中最俗套的场景，这可不是随便说说。

三星影业（图片来自IMDb）

但仔细分析一下就会发现，《铁鹰》中那些装备精良的F-16战机其实并没有那么神奇。诚然，它们的性能被夸大了一些，但与其他同时期的电影相比，夸张程度也相差无几。因此，《铁鹰》在这方面所受到的批评其实并不像它所表现的那样严重。

影片中对F-16性能的刻画之所以显得远比实际情况更不可信，是因为其中充斥着自相矛盾的说法和剪辑错误。再加上荒谬可笑的剧情、俗套老套的对白，以及大量运用了那个年代流行的电影桥段，这一切都让观众忍不住想要挑剔影片的技术缺陷。

电影《铁鹰》中，一群十几岁的空军子弟组成的“鹰俱乐部”驾驶着飞机，似乎拥有美国空军最关键数据的完全访问权限，他们完美地诠释了80年代电影中“超级少年”的经典形象，甚至带有一丝讽刺意味。但《铁鹰》的精髓就在于它的夸张。如此荒诞的剧情，怎能不夸张呢？（《铁鹰》剧照来自IMDb）

但即便存在这些问题，并且在被《壮志凌云》的光芒完全掩盖之后，《铁鹰战士》仍然成为了一部邪典经典，并催生了不少于三部越来越古怪、预算越来越低的续集。

再次观看这部电影，这次是高清版，虽然我已经看过大概30遍了，但仍然觉得非常有趣。事实上，整部电影的“超级少年”元素和相对来说很棒的80年代配乐，现在看来比过去二十年更有吸引力，因为以80年代怀旧为主题的娱乐作品现在非常流行。看看《怪奇物语》就知道了。

《铁鹰战士》电影封面来自 Letterboxd.com

从本质上讲，整部电影现在就像是在讽刺自己，原本的狗血剧情看起来完全是喜剧。虽然高清版本暴露出更多瑕疵和低成本制作的痕迹，但航拍镜头看起来很棒。

没错，这部电影依然很蠢，但关于武器数量无限的争议其实远没有人们渲染得那么严重。而且我个人仍然很喜欢这部电影。它和《飞狼》、《壮志凌云》以及那个时期的许多其他影视作品一起，对我的成长影响巨大，所以重温这些经典之作，回忆往事，真的很有意思。

说了这么多，感谢你阅读这篇可能是我写过的最愚蠢的帖子！

联系文章作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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