Into the Sun[General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon|] is a 1992 action comedy film involving a pilot and actor thrown into a dangerous situation. The film stars Michael Paré and Anthony Michael Hall. Into the Sun is rated R. It includes profanity and sexual innuendoes.
Plot
Paul "Shotgun" Watkins is an American pilot stationed in Sicily who patrols the Middle East. He is taken off his normal duties to orient Tom Slade, a conceited actor about being a pilot in United States Air Force for an upcoming film role. Slade wants to "get the feeling" before he plays the part in a movie about fighter pilots. When shown fighter aircraft, Tom says dismissively: "F-14, F-16, whatever. I'm not good with numbers. I've got accountants for numbers." When Watkins takes Slade for a ride in an F-16 fighter, they are shot down and find themselves stranded behind enemy lines and facing a real life combat situation.
Into the Sun began shooting March 12, 1991 with principal photography completed on April 25, 1991. Most of its aerial footage are taken from Iron Eagle movie stock. The filming in Israel provided the aerial sequences choreographed by Jim Gavin, whose earlier works include Blue Thunder.
Reception
Film historian and reviewer Leonard Maltin noted that Into the Sun was very similar to scenario seen in The Hard Way starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods. The two films, however had a "change of milieu and budget. He summarized his appraisal as "aerial stunts aren't bad considering the threadbare production values, but it's only for those who'll try out anything that pops up on the video store shelves." Janet Maslin in her review for The New York Times, noted that the comedy elements dominated. "Mr. Hall, whose earlier performances have been much goofier, remains coolly funny and graduates to subtler forms of comedy with this role.... Mr. Pare, who looks like a model and sounds like a wrier version of Sylvester Stallone, makes an appropriately staunch straight man. He and Deborah Maria Moore, as the pert major who attracts both Tom and Shotgun, give the film a decorative luster it might otherwise lack. Terry Kiser has some amusing moments as the loudmouth talent manager who, asked if the "star" and "sensation" who is his client can be described as "Tom Slade, the actor," pauses nervously. He thinks that may be going too far."
