Perhaps more than any other actor, Clint Eastwood has a film for almost every genre, even a musical, in a career that has discernible stages. He’s been the cop that doesn’t follow the rules, a bare-knuckle brawling truck driver with a pet orangutan, even a spirit of vengeance in High Plains Drifter, a film that marked a turning point in his career. It stands to reason, then, that Eastwood’s extensive filmography has seen the actor bare everything he has into the multi-faceted characters he’s played. But, like everything else in life, there’s a journey to getting there. For an actor, there has to be a building block, a film that proves you are capable of playing a wider range of characters, like how The Truman Show proved that Jim Carrey was more than catchphrases and physical comedy. For Eastwood, that film is 1982’s Firefox, a role that first showed us a Clint Eastwood we hadn’t ever seen before.
What Is Clint Eastwood’s ‘Firefox’ About?
If you’re unfamiliar with Firefox, it’s understandable. The film is one of Eastwood’s lower lights, one that didn’t even make Collider’s list of the 30 best Clint Eastwood movies, but certainly deserves better. The Cold War thriller centers on a joint plot by Britain and America,one that intends to steal “Firefox,” a Soviet fighter aircraft, MiG-31, that has an impressive list of bells and whistles: it can reach Mach 6, it’s undetectable by radar, and its array of weaponry can be unleashed by the pilot’s thoughts, a clear advantage in battle that shaves seconds off of reaction time.
They bring former United States Air Force Major Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood), a Vietnam War vet and former prisoner of war, on board to infiltrate the Soviet Union — aided by his ability to speak and think in Russian — and a handful of Soviet dissidents. The Soviet allies prove invaluable, keeping Gant ahead of the KGB, who have intel on the operation and are actively looking for him. A series of disguises, a number of close calls, and doctored documents bring Gant to the Bilyarsk air base, where the Firefox is under heavy surveillance.
The Fight Comes to Clint Eastwood in ‘Firefox’
One of the dissidents, a scientist by the name of Pyotr Baranovich (Nigel Hawthorne), briefs Gant on how to operate Firefox. To create a diversion that will allow him to escape with the aircraft unhindered, Baranovich and his fellow dissidents working on the project plan on destroying a second prototype that is also in the hangar. After knocking out the Soviet pilot tasked with Firefox’s maiden flight, Gant assumes his identity and takes his position in the cockpit. An explosion meant to destroy the second Firefox serves its one purpose by allowing Gant the time to fly away, but unfortunately, the second prototype is unharmed. Gant meets up with a U.S. submarine on the Arctic ice pack, with the crew providing a much-needed refuel for the fighter and additional weapons.
With the gas tank full and a complete arsenal, Gant takes off to bring the bird home to the U.S., completing his mission. Only the Soviet pilot he knocked out, Lieutenant Colovel Voskov (Kai Wulff), comes to, and takes control of the second Firefox with orders to intercept Gant in the skies above Norway’s North Cape. Before Gant knows it, Voskov has closed the gap and engages him in a dogfight. The high-intensity battle is troublesome for Gant, forcing him under pressure to not only remember the Russian words for the weaponry on board, but actually convert them to thought. Finally, Gant is able to fire on one of the Firefox’s rearward missiles, laying waste to Voskov and his plane. Satisfied that there are no other Soviet aircraft in the area, Gant flies the Firefox to its new home.
‘Firefox’ Shows a New Side of Clint Eastwood
So, what is it about Firefox that makes it a touchstone moment in Clint Eastwood’s storied career? It marks the first time we see an Eastwood character with weaknesses, ones that cause the audience to question if this is the movie Eastwood doesn’t make it out of alive. Prior to Firefox, Eastwood played characters who were unstoppable, steely, cool heroes and anti-heroes whose survival to the end is known even before the movie starts. Harry Callahan was single-mindedly relentless in his pursuit of Scorpio (Andy Robinson) in Dirty Harry. The quiet, poncho-wearing rōnin of the Man With No Name trilogy. The only man capable of escaping the inescapable fortress of a prison in Escape From Alcatraz. Even 1977’s The Gauntlet, which marked a shift in Eastwood’s image, has Eastwood’s Ben Shockley, a cop escorting a witness to a Las Vegas courthouse, doing an A-Team overhaul on a bus to drive through a barrage of gunfire.
There are no such assurances in Firefox. Gant is crippled at inopportune times by PTSD flashbacks and an overwhelming sense of anxiety that it’s all going to come crashing down around him. We, as an audience, have never seen Harry Callahan rocking back and forth in a corner, or show any doubt in his ability to finish his job. In doing so, Eastwood laid down the building brick that would elevate his performance as the tortured William Munny in Unforgiven, or the Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, haunted by his failure to protect President John F. Kennedy as he fights to thwart an assassination of the current U.S. president in In the Line of Fire. Firefox was the first film to show another side to Eastwood off-screen as well, with the film serving as his debut as a movie producer.