Falcon Down, directed by Philip J. Roth, is about the Falcon, a supersonic airplane equipped with a microwave weapon that totally obliterates objects, presumably derived from alien technology. After Hank Thomas (played by David Midkiff) is court-martialed for his role in accidentally shooting down a commercial airplane, Major Robert Carson (played by William Shatner), the head of the court-martial panel, approaches him to steal the Falcon. Carson and his comrades claim to be part of the CIA. They also claim that Rockwood, the company that developed the airplane, plans to sell the Falcon to China, so national security demands that the Falcon must be stolen from Rockwood and flown to an American air force base. Thomas falls for the scam, but only discovers the doublecross when the Falcon is aloft, soon pursued by an Air Force squadron of three planes. Carson plans to sell the Falcon to China for $20 billion, and he has selected Thomas as the only one who might have the technical capability to fly the plane. With guns pointed at his head, Thomas lands the plane on the ice near the Bering Strait, while Carson is aboard a Chinese submarine that plans to tow the heavy Falcon to China under water, so the suspense in the film is about whether the theft is successful. In addition to the ridiculous plot, the handheld video footage gratuitously provided in the film provides an absurd Blair Witch Project (1999) angle, especially when a title at the end says that the video was discovered in a safe deposit box at a bank in Palmdale. MH
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