Flight of the Intruder is a 1991 film about Vietnam war Naval Aviators, most notably the pilots and crewmen of the A6E intruder, the electronics warfare plane that help jammed enemy radar during air warfare. The A6E Intruder carried offensive missiles but was not outfitted with defensive guns, like many fighter jets. The film was directed by John Milius, who had previously directed such films as The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn. Despite being a high action film with lots of aerial combat sequences and excellent special effects, Flight of the Intruder was a box office bomb. The film suffered greatly from being released during the height of the real life ground war in Operation Desert Storm (1991).
The following weapons were used in the film Flight of the Intruder:
Near the start of the film where a peasant in a rice paddy takes a pot shot at the A-6 Intruder piloted by Lieutenant Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton (Brad Johnson) and his Bombadier/Navagator Lieutenant Morgan "Morg" McPhearson (Christopher Rich), "Morg" being fatally wounded by the shot, bleeding to death by the time the two return to their carrier.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingMosin Nagant M91/30 - 7.62x54RError creating thumbnail: File missingThe 'well fed' Peasant aims his standard M91/30 rifle at the A6 Intruder aircraft - 7.62x54R. Like many shots in the film, the 'fire' of the weapon is animated afterwards (this was before digital effects).Error creating thumbnail: File missingAn example of the animation of the 'fire' of the rifle. The 'light cast' on the shooter and his cargo was animated into the shot via rotoscope. This was filmed before Digital effects. This is a somewhat bad animation, however it is only for one frame, so it is not noticed by the audience.
Mosin Nagant M91/30 Sniper Rifle
Near the end of the film, an N.V.A. sniper (Dr. Akio Mitamura) can be seen using a sniper version of the Mosin Nagant, chasing after the protagonists as they're trying to flee from the combat zone after being shot down in order to be rescued by helicopter.
Near the end of the film, an HH-3 "Jolly Green" rescue helicopter sent to airlift "Cool Hand" and Commander Fanke "Duke" Camparelli (Danny Glover) can be seen armed with an M60 machine gun for the door gunner, though the choppers rely mostly on the A-1 "Sandy" ground-attack planes to clear out most of the enemy ground fire for them.
An M1911 appears in the film as the sidearm of Lt. Commander Virgil "Tiger" Cole (Willem Dafoe) during the film. He can be seen cleaning it when discussing the "Sam City" mission with "Cool Hand" (Brad Johnson). It is a Government Issued M1911, not the M1911A1, as it has the straight back strap and no relief cuts around the trigger guard on the frame.
Virgil "Tiger" Cole (Willem Dafoe) has a blued Colt MK IV Series 70 pistol when he is shot down over enemy territory. His series 70 pistol has the same diamond grips he had on the M1911 on the ship.
The only instances where an actual M1911A1 appears are in the holsters of the Marines who escort Cole and Grafton for their court martial, however, these pistols are always holstered (so it is only a guess that they are indeed M1911A1 pistols) and later in the hands of Commander Camparelli (has his survival sidearm). Camparelli uses the M1911A1 to kill a Pathet Lao soldier and the gun is later used by Grafton to take out an NVA sniper.
Grafton (Brad Johnson) carries a K-Frame 6 shot Smith & Wesson Model 12 "Airweight" Snub nose revolver. The Model 12 was built between 1953 to 1986 and had an alloy frame, designed for pilots. It is basically an alloy frame Model 10 snub revolver. It is distinguishable from the Model 36 or USAF M-13 because it is a 6 shot revolver as opposed to a 5 shot. The actor Brad Johnson also has large hands, so a J-frame revolver would look much smaller in his grip.
Lieutenant JG Jack 'Razor' Barlow (Jared Chandler) is seen preparing for Operation Linebacker II, and loading his small J-Framed revolver. It appears to be a 5 shot Smith & Wesson Model 36 - .38 Special.
The SKS rifle is seen commonly mixed in with AK47 variants amongst the enemy troops at the end of the film. Being that they all appear to have the Chinese style 'pig sticker' spike bayonet, they should officially be called "Type 56 Carbine" (the name for the Chinese SKS).
Error creating thumbnail: File missingType 56 Carbine (the Chinese version of the Russian SKS rifle) - 7.62x39mmError creating thumbnail: File missingA Pathet Lao soldier (Minh Huu Do) prods at the 'dead body' of Commander Camparelli (Danny Glover) armed with a Type 56 Carbine - 7.62x39mmError creating thumbnail: File missingA Pathet Lao soldier (Minh Huu Do) searches the 'dead bodies' of Camparelli's wrecked A6 Intruder, armed with a Type 56 Carbine, only to be shot by Camparelli who was playing 'dead' - 7.62x39mm. The Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist) soldier can be identified by his Mao hat, which was not worn by the NVA nor Viet Cong.
After being shot down, Virgil Cole (Willem Dafoe) accidentally stumbles upon an NVA soldier (Eddie Badiang) armed with an Type 56 Carbine. The soldier attempts to shoot Virgil but his aim is knocked off as Virgil kicks the muzzle of the weapon just as he fires, though still suffers a mortal wound from the shot, Virgil then using his survival knife to kill the soldier.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingThe NVA Soldier (Eddie Badiang) is caught off guard by Cole, with his Type 56 Carbine - 7.62x39mm. Note that the bolt is completely locked back, indicating that the rifle is empty, however a gun shot sound effect was inserted during editing to indicate that he shoots Virgil with this 'unloaded' rifle.
AK-47
AK-47s were used by NVA soldiers throughout the film. We never see any truly good closeups of the guns, however, they look to be Poly Tech Legends and not Norinco Type 56 rifles.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingMany times we see a mix of AK47 rifles and SKS rifles (or their Chinese counterparts) from a distance. Here a group of NVA soldiers with a mix of the two firearms are lying in wait beneath the injured Cole (Willem Dafoe) - 7.62x39mm.Error creating thumbnail: File missingNVA soldiers fires at the oncoming planes. These actually look to be Poly Tech Legend AKs, thus have the Russian style front sight and have milled lower receivers - 7.62x39mmError creating thumbnail: File missingTwo more NVA soldiers fire at the planes, one on the left has an AK-47, the other has a Type 56 Carbine - 7.62x39mm
Replica AK-47
In some shots, the rifles appear to be the Hudson AK-47 replica (a Japanese metal replica gun) that is commonly used in films for non-firing scenes.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingDuring one of the interior sound stage 'effects' shots on blue screen, we see a long barreled AK variant with a really weird flash hider. Since most of the interior blue screen shots (they still used blue screen for film whereas nowadays, digital compositors prefer green screen) did not employ actual firing guns, this mockup is probably firing acetylene gas to simulate gun fire.
There are several appearances in the film of Browning M2HB heavy machine guns, erroneously shown being used by North Vietnamese forces as anti-aircraft weapons when in reality they'd be using DShK heavy machine guns instead. M2HB's also appear in a quad mount used as the main armament of a faux ZSU-23/4 anti-aircraft vehicle instead of the real vehicle's quad 23mm autocannons.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingBrowning M2HB .50 BMGError creating thumbnail: File missingEarly on in the film, we see a quad gun emplacement that is comprised of four Browning M2HB heavy machine guns, with weird muzzle brakes on the ends, to simulate some sort of Soviet/Chinese AA gun - .50 BMG.Error creating thumbnail: File missingAs with many of the 'night attack shots' these battle scenes were filmed inside a sound stage and the guns were not really firing. Here we see a relatively unadorned Browning M2HB serving as an NVA AA gun (which they did not use) with the 'muzzle flash' rather obviously rotoscoped into the shot. Hand animation, multiple exposures and rotoscoping all became a thing of the past when films had advanced enough to use computer generated effects.Error creating thumbnail: File missingIn the final battle, we see a Browning M2HB mocked up to resemble a DShK machine gun (a similar mockup was used on Rambo III however this film was done four years later and there were improvements to the fake DShK mockup - .50 BMG.Error creating thumbnail: File missingAnother angle of the Browning M2HB mocked up to look like a Soviet DShK machine gun - .50 BMG. All in all this is a pretty good mockup of the Soviet gun.
RPG-7
Seen briefly, an NVA soldier carries an RPG-7 while riding in a troop truck. Though the RPG-2 was much more commonly used by the NVA (known as the B-40 rocket), the RPG-7 is not impossible, considering that the events occur in 1972.
We see an excellent mocked up ZSU-23 Mobile AA gun. This is probably the same ZSU-23 that was mocked up for the film Red Dawn, however, it makes one wonder what the cost was of shipping it from Newhall, California to the island of Kauai, HI. This ZSU is armed with quad Browning M2HB heavy machine guns for its main armament (note the guns in the Red Dawn ZSU were different as they were mockups that never fired. This ZSU does fire its Browning M2HB machine guns at the oncoming American planes. It should also be noted the ZSU-23 is an anachronism as the system did not enter into Vietnamese service until 1975, well after the period in which the movie takes place.
In the studio sound stage shots, we see a lot of excellent, but obvious miniature models. One of the models seen firing "acetylene flashes" to simulate AA fire is a miniature model of the ZSU-23.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingA turret of the miniature ZSU-23 fires puffs of flame from it's working acetylene 'cannons'.Error creating thumbnail: File missingIn this composite scene, live actors are (rather obviously) blue screened into a miniature set, where we see the model guns 'firing' their acetylene gas flames to simulate gun fire. The live actors are obviously put into the shot later, however these shots are very quick and the audience never notices.Error creating thumbnail: File missingIn some of the frames, the lighting on the actors playing NVA soldiers doesn't match the miniature set, however, these shots are quick, thankfully enough.
Miniature Fake AA gun
Error creating thumbnail: File missingAnother AA gun miniature (not a full scale weapon) is seen firing 'acetylene gas' flame flashes to simulate gunfire. There were many excellent miniatures on this film, mostly limited to the special effects technology that existed at the time the movie was filmed.