Behind Enemy Lines

Behind Enemy Lines is a 2001 action and war film directed by John Moore and starring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman. The film tells the story of an American naval flight officer who is shot down over Bosnia and uncovers genocide during the Bosnian War. The plot is loosely based on the 1995Mrkonjić Grad incident that occurred amid the war. The film was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil andBehind Enemy Lines: Colombia, which was co-produced by WWE Studios. Although it did well commercially, Behind Enemy Lines received generally negative reviews from critics.




In the final stages of the Bosnian War in 1995, U.S. Navy flight officer Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Wilson) and pilot Lieutenant Jeremy Stackhouse (Macht) are assigned a reconnaissance mission. They spot suspicious activity in the demilitarized zone where NATO aircraft and the warring factions are prohibited from engaging in military activity. Burnett persuades Stackhouse to fly their F/A-18 Hornet off-course to get a close look and photograph the target. They are unaware that they have photographed mass graves, and Serb soldiers have seen the jet. The local Bosnian Serb Army commander, General Miroslav Lokar (Krupa), is conducting a secret genocidal campaign against the local Bosniak population. Not wanting the mass graves to be discovered, Lokar orders that the jet be shot down.

Despite trying to outmaneuver the missiles shot at them, their jet is hit and both men are forced to eject. Briefly after touching ground, a Serb patrol finds Stackhouse and interrogates him. Stackhouse is then executed by Sasha (Mashkov), one of Lokar's men. Burnett, who was observing the Serbs' interrogation of Stackhouse from a hill, exposes his location. Wanting Burnett dead as well, Lokar orders both his deputy, Colonel Bazda (Igonda), and Sasha to find him. Admiral Leslie Reigart (Hackman) orders Burnett to move to a certain location in order to be extracted. However, Admiral Piquet (de Almeida) warns Reigart of the political ramifications of rescuing Burnett in the no-fly zone. When Burnett reaches the extraction point, Reigart informs him that he must move to a safer location miles outside of the demilitarized zone in order to be rescued.

Immediately after being informed, Burnett sees a Serb patrol, led by Bazda, looking for him. Running from them, he falls into the mass grave that he and Stackhouse had photographed and hides under a dead body. When the Serbs are out of sight, he continues to run. On his way to the new extraction point, Burnett has a near-encounter with Sasha, but he encounters Bosniak guerrillas in a pickup truck who offer him a ride. The guerrillas inform Burnett that they are heading to Hač, which is supposedly a safe haven but turns out to be a war zone. During the battle, Serb troops believe that they have found Burnett's body, but Burnett had switched uniforms with a dead Serb soldier and escaped Hač.

Although they recognize that Burnett escaped, Sasha and Lokar present the corpse wearing Burnett's uniform to the media saying he was killed. Their ruse works and a mission to rescue Burnett is aborted just when he gets a view of the helicopter. Burnett then notices the angel statue near where his ejection seat had landed. He returns to his seat and activates the rescue beacon. Though the carrier group notices his signal, Burnett has also alerted the Serbs to his location.

Knowing he risks being relieved of command, Reigart prepares a task force to rescue Burnett. Bazda and Sasha are ordered to find Burnett and kill him, but Bazda steps on a landmine and is killed. After Sasha finds the ejection seat, Burnett ambushes him and the two men engage in hand-to-hand combat until Burnett stabs Sasha in the chest with a flare, killing him. Lokar arrives with armored vehicles and infantry who open fire on Burnett. Three U.S. Marine Corps "Huey" helicopters arrive and fire on the Serbs. After retrieving the hard drive containing the photos of the mass graves, Burnett escapes with the task force.

Lokar's war crimes eventually put him on trial in front of the ICTY, while Reigart's actions result in him being relieved of command. Burnett continues his career in the Navy.