Bat★21

During the Vietnam War, a US Air Force lieutenant colonel named Iceal Hambleton is shot down over enemy territory. Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures specialist who has spent his career studying war rather than fighting it, and his knowledge makes his rescue a priority. Because a helicopter cannot reach him immediately, he makes radio contact with reconnaissance pilot Bartholomew Clark, and the two work out an escape route together. Aware that enemy forces may be listening in, they devise a coded way of speaking, and Hambleton begins moving through the jungle on his own rather than waiting.

Peter Markle directed the film, which followed his 1986 debut Youngblood in his filmography. Gene Hackman plays Hambleton and Danny Glover plays Clark, with Jerry Reed, David Marshall Grant, Clayton Rohner and Erich Anderson in supporting roles. George Gordon and William C. Anderson wrote the screenplay; Anderson's book drew on a real rescue mission, and the officer involved contributed to the production. Released in July 1988, the film took in about four million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.5 from roughly eleven thousand votes, while on TMDB its rating is 6.3 from a much smaller number of votes.