Bat★21 (1988)

63% User Rating

1h 45min

"Trapped behind enemy lines. A whole army after him... And only one man can save him."

Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.

Peter MarkleDirector

Cast

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Gene Hackman

Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton

Danny Glover

Capt. Bartholomew Clark

Jerry Reed

Col. George Walker

David Marshall Grant

Ross Carver

Clayton Rohner

Sgt. Harley Rumbaugh

Erich Anderson

Major Jake Scott

Joe Dorsey

Col. Douglass

Michael Ng

Vietnamese Man (as Rev. Michael Ng)

Theodore Chan Woei-Shyong

Boy on Bridge

Don Ruffin

Helicopter Crew

Scott Howell

Helicopter Crew

Michael Raden

Helicopter Crew

Timothy Fitzgerald

EB-66 Officer

Stuart B. Hagen

EB-66 Officer (as Stuart Hagen)

Jeffrey Baxter

Helicopter Gunner (as Jeff Baxter)

Reviews (1)

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kevin2019

Rating 100%

January 24, 2024

"BAT*21" is above all an exceptionally well made and very worthwhile film based upon a remarkable true story. The action sequences have been brought to the screen with the deliberate intention of not glamourising the necessary depiction of violence (to do otherwise would have been a lethal miscalculation). This film is also able to depict Hambleton's rescue as being a far from easy proposition and you constantly find yourself wondering if the mission will have a successful resolution at all, especially in light of the fact Hambleton is about to find himself caught in an area which is going to be blanket bombed by the Strategic Air Command.