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For the 2006 direct-to-video sequel see Behind Enemy Lines II (film)

Behind Enemy Lines
Directed by	John Moore
Produced by	John Davis
Written by	Jim Thomas John Thomas (story) David Velos Zak Penn (screenplay)
Starring	Owen Wilson Gene Hackman Vladimir Mashkov Joaquim de Almeida David Keith Olek Krupa
Music by	Ryan Adams Don Davis
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 30, 2001
Running time	106 min.
Language	English
Budget	$40,000,000
IMDb profile

Behind Enemy Lines is a 2001 film starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson. The film is loosely based on the Mrkonjić Grad incident.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Historical inspiration 3 Production 4 See also 5 External links

The film's fictional plot is centered on a story of uncovering a massacre in the Bosnian War of 1992-1995 by an American naval aviator.

Admiral Leslie Reigart's (Gene Hackman) carrier battle group is in the final stages of a NATO peace keeping deployment when the F/A-18F Super Hornet of Chris Burnett, the aircraft's Weapons System Officer (Owen Wilson) and his pilot Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht), launched from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is shot down by a SA-13 SAM controlled by renegade Serbian forces led by General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa) and his second in command Colonel Viktor Bazda. Lokar is committing a secret genocidal campaign against the Bosniak people in a no-fly zone that the NATO plane violates and photographs; wanting to avoid being discovered, Lokar has the plane shot down and executes Stackhouse while Burnett escapes to the countryside.

From then on Burnett is on the run, narrowly escaping from the Serb attack time after time. A Serb sniper and right hand man of Lokar, Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov) is sent to get rid of Burnett. Bazda steps on a mine and his ally Sasha leaves him to die. Burnett is chased by Sasha and escapes death after he slides off a dam while being shot at by Sasha. He makes his way to Hac, a small town in Bosnia on the back of a pickup with a group of fighters. The entire town is at an all out war. When Serbian forces attack the mall he and the fighters are hiding in, he manages to flee by disguising himself in a Serb militant outfit after dressing up a dead Serb militant with his pilot suit. He loses his radio in the attack. All the while he maintains contact with his Admiral, to lead him to a safe point for a rescue attempt. The resulting attempt to rescue the downed aviator are complicated by political considerations which are enforced on Reigart by his NATO commanding officer Admiral Juan Miguel Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida). The situation intensifies when Serbs claim that the downed aviator was shot dead by Bosnian guerrillas, after they find their dead soldier in the pilot suit.

Finally, he manages to contact the carrier via a locater in his ejection seat. The Serbian sniper tracks Burnett and waits for him to move when he hears the noise of a helicopter and he moves in for the kill. But Burnett emerges from the snow shooting and later stabbing him with a flare. Serbian M-84 tanks, BMP-1 armour vehicles and infantry surround Burnett. Then U.S Marines UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, led by Reigart who pilots the lead chopper, appear and fire on the Serbs, these choppers were replaced by the SH-60 Seahawk in 1990. Near the helicopter Burnett turns back for the photographs of the massacre. Under a hail of bullets he retrieves the disk and is rescued. After the rescue he hands over the disc containing the photographic evidence to Reigart.

The movie is loosely inspired by the experiences of former USAF Captain Scott O'Grady, who was shot down on June 2, 1995, over Bosnia. He managed to survive for six days before being rescued. He reportedly filed suit against the producers of this film for defamation of character and making a film about his ordeal without his permission. The characters and events the film portrays are, however, almost entirely fictional. O'Grady never entered populated areas, interacted with civilians, or was pursued by Serb forces.

In fact, the experiences of the character in the film would seem to be based more on those of the British pilot, Lieutenant Nick Richardson, a Sea Harrier FRS Mk.1 pilot of the British Royal Navy, who was shot down over Bosnia in 1994. Some scenes also bear a striking similarity to those from the fictional book Point of Impact by ex-RAF pilot John Nichol who was a prisoner of war during the 1991 Gulf War. Most notable of these is the execution by Serbs of an injured second crewman in a two seat fighter jet in Bosnia, an act which is observed by the main character.

The film, released by News Corporation division 20th Century Fox, features fictional news reports from Sky News, a sister company to Fox.

None of the actors playing Serbians were actually Serbians; the producers said that they hired Croats to instruct the actors in the Serbian language since they could not find any Serbs willing to work on the film.^{[citation needed]} Vladimir Mashkov, the actor who played the Serbian sniper, is Russian.

The movie was filmed in Slovakia, not Bosnia. During the shooting of the lakeside scene near the end, the countryside was unexpectedly devoid of snow. To recreate a snowy lake, the film's crew cleared part of a mountain of trees, used molten wax to create the appearance of a lake, and used paper snow to imitate real snow.

The 2000 film Cast Away (another 20th Century Fox film) is referenced near the beginning of the movie. Owen Wilson's character, Chris Burnett, loses a football out to sea, and consequently yells "Wilson!" However, the film is set five years prior to the release of Cast Away.

A Dolly zoom is used at one point in the film to represent the feeling of vertigo.

Scripting and costuming place Stackhouse and Burnett in the squadron VFA-163 Ark Angels. The real VFA-163 squadron was decommissioned well before the Super Hornet was put into service. The Super Hornet, which did not enter service until 1999, was decorated with VFA-163's 1995 markings on the spine but was in fact on loan from VFA-122.

Most of the footage for the Super Hornet's launch off the carrier were those of standard Hornets. An F-14 Tomcat provided the "going-to-afterburners" footage.

• Behind Enemy Lines II
• Bat*21 a film where Gene Hackman plays a soldier behind enemy lines

• Behind Enemy Lines at the Internet Movie Database
• Behind Enemy Lines at Rotten Tomatoes
• Behind Enemy Lines at Metacritic

• Behind Enemy Lines at Box Office Mojo

v • d • e Films starring Gene Hackman

Hawaii (1966) • Bonnie & Clyde (1967) • The Gypsy Moths (1969) • Downhill Racer (1969) • Marooned (1969) • I Never Sang for My Father (1970) • The Hunting Party (1971) • The French Connection (1971) • Prime Cut (1972) • The Poseidon Adventure (1972) • Scarecrow (1973) • The Conversation (1974) • French Connection II (1975) • Night Moves (1975) • Bite the Bullet (1975) • The Domino Principle (1977) • A Bridge Too Far (1977) • March or Die (1977) • Superman (1978) • Superman II (1980) • All Night Long (1981) • Reds (1981) • Under Fire (1983) • Uncommon Valor (1983) • Eureka (1984) • Misunderstood (1984) • Twice in a Lifetime (1985) • Target (1985) • Hoosiers (1986) • No Way Out (1987) • Superman IV (1987) • Bat*21 (1988) • Mississippi Burning (1988) • The Package (1989) • Loose Cannons (1990) • Postcards from the Edge (1990) • Narrow Margin (1990) • Class Action (1991) • Company Business (1991) • Unforgiven (1992) • The Firm (1993) • Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) • The Quick and the Dead (1995) • Crimson Tide (1995) • Get Shorty (1995) • The Birdcage (1996) • Extreme Measures (1996) • The Chamber (1996) • Absolute Power (1997) • Twilight (1998) • Enemy of the State (1998) • Antz (1998) • Under Suspicion (2000) • The Replacements (2000) • Heist (2001) • The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) • Behind Enemy Lines (2001) • Runaway Jury (2003) • Welcome to Mooseport (2004)