Synopsis for
Firefox (1982) More at IMDbPro »

The film details a joint Anglo-American plot to steal a highly advanced Soviet fighter aircraft (MiG-31, NATO code name "Firefox") which is capable of Mach 5, is invisible to radar, and carries weapons controlled by thought. Eastwood stars as Maj. Mitchell Gant, a Vietnam veteran who infiltrates the Soviet Union, aided by his ability to speak Russian (due to his Russian mother) and a network of dissidents and sympathizers. His goal is to fly the Firefox back to the United States for analysis.

However, the KGB has gotten wind of the extraction operation and is already hot on Gant's tail. It is only through the hard work of the sympathizer agents that Gant remains (barely) one step ahead of the KGB and reaches the fictional air base of Bilyarsk, where the Firefox prototype is under heavy guard. Gant manages to infiltrate the base with the help of the dissident scientists who had developed the Firefox and even constructed a secondary, air-refuelable prototype. Even though Gant's presence at the air base is revealed and his helpers summarily executed by base security, Gant manages to start the Firefox and escape, just as the First Secretary, who was to witness a test flight of the Firefox, arrives.

Gant attempts to reach the Arctic Circle for refueling. The Soviet military tries its best to bring him down, but the Firefox's technical superiority and Gant's experiences render conventional attempts completely futile. The second Firefox prototype is eventually sent out to finish him and in a hard dogfight Grant uses his ability to think in Russian to communicate with Firefox's thought controlled weapons system. Grant prevails and kills his opposition before taking course to the United States