Filmfacts & Trivia
- A total of nine
models of the Firefox were built. Six were used as miniatures
for filming, two remote-controlled versions actually flew, and
one was built to full scale specifications. Several flying shots
were later re-used in Back to the Future Part II (1989).
- The story is loosely based
on an actual event where a Soviet fighter pilot defected to
Japan in the mid 1970s.
- The cockpit section of the
helicopter gunship chasing Gant is adapted from the Aerospatiale
Gazelles used for the filming of the motion picture Blue Thunder
(1983)
- The original plan was to use
a Swedish JA 37 Viggen jetfighter as the Soviet aircraft,
but the Swedish government refused this request.
- Prior to the release of the
movie, the cover art for the novel Firefox showed an aircraft
similar to a MiG-25 Foxbat. After the release of the movie,
the cover art was updated to reflect the design of the movie
version of the aircraft.
- Incidentally, there really is a MiG-31,
and it's a modified version of the MiG-25 called the "Foxhound."
- Because his role in the movie
required him in part to speak Russian, Clint Eastwood prepared
by studying Russian with resources provided by the military's
Defense Language Institute in Presidio of Monterey, California
(which is just north of Carmel, California).
- The fuselage of the full scale
mockup Firefox was built around the framework of an old radio
tower with most of it's exterior panels fabricated out of
plywood. It had a Volkswagen motor mounted internally with
a chain-driven rear wheel for the taxiing sequences (which were filmed at Edwards AFB).
- The footage of the British submarine breaking the icecap is recycled from
Ice Station Zebra (1968).
