Behind Enemy Lines – A Synopsis
The movie was set in the war torn Yugoslavia of Eastern Europe during the late 1990s. A young navigator pilot on board a military aircraft carrier was bored of the unexciting routine flights and planned for an early retirement from the US Navy.What was meant to be another routine flight over a demilitarized zone at the borders of Yugoslavia suddenly turned into a dreadful experience when his plane was shot down and his pilot friend murdered by a mercenary sniper attached to the Serbian army. The “downed” navigator soon became a victim trapped in a web of war and suffocating politics, relentlessly pursued by the mercenary sniper as well as the Serbian army under the command of a merciless Serbian general. The general was determined to cover-up the perpetrated genocide of the Bosnian population by recovering the digital photographs of the mass graves taken from their fighter jet plane during their failed reconnaissance mission.
I especially liked the scene where the jet plane was pursued by 2 heat seeking missiles. When the man was about to fire the missiles, the camera focused on the man’s face as he looked into the sky purposefully and confidently. Then instantly the camera switched to his hands pushing the button to fire the missiles with “techno” music playing in the background. The next clip was of the missiles shot from the tank. The release of the missiles started with a loud and solid blast to a shrieking sound as it gained speed. The scene got more exciting as another missile pursued the jet fighter through the forest, brushing the snow off the tree tops at speeds past the sound barrier caused by the jets loud sonic boom. Unable to “shake off” the last missile, the pilot then decided for an almost suicidal “head on pass” maneuver to confuse the missile’s targeting system. The pass was almost successful except that the missile had “clipped” the right wing of the jet. The right wing was split into 2 rendering the plane uncontrollable. As the “smart” missile made a return path and approached its target, the camera then focused on the missile releasing its deadly payload in stages onto the jet. The navigator’s eyes were wide in shock as his face turned to look at the exploding missile amidst the heavy sounds of triggered alarms, highly charged and emotional background orchestra and opera music. The scene paused during shots and that created a more dramatic overall situation. The exploding missile triggered a fire that engulfed and cut the plane in half.
The same “pause” technique was used during the ejection scene and throughout the film to capture the similar intense moments. Such a combination of computer graphics and fantastic camera angles and video techniques in the sky made the scene successful in the sense that I felt as excited and intense just like being one of the pilots themselves.
Thereafter, unsuccessful rescue attempts to save the surviving navigator, the Navy Admiral of the aircraft carrier battle fleet began to feel responsible for the unfortunate events that had come upon the surviving navigator and the murdered pilot. The US Navy Admiral felt frustrated by the political hindrance set upon him because his counterpart from the allied forces unjustly opposed his actions for the sake of maintaining the realistically non-existing peace treaty in the Balkan Regions.
After receiving news that the surviving navigator had been found dead by the Serb forces, the US Navy Admiral was notified of a radio signal that could have only be activated by the downed pilot previously thought dead. Consequently US Navy Admiral decided to lead a final rescue mission to extract the surviving navigator pilot from behind enemy lines regardless the consequences to his safety and to his own career.