Flight of the Intruder is a 1991 war film directed by John Milius, and starring Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, and Brad Johnson. It is based on the novel of the same name by former Grumman A-6 Intruder pilot Stephen Coonts. The film received negative reviews upon release, and was Milius’s final theatrical release as a director.

Lieutenant Jake “Cool Hand” Grafton and his bombardier/navigator and best friend Lieutenant Morgan “Morg” McPherson are flying a Grumman A-6 Intruder during the Vietnam War over the Gulf of Tonkin towards North Vietnam. They hit their target, a ‘suspected truck park’, which actually turns out to be trees. On the return to carrier, Morg is fatally shot in the neck by an armed Vietnamese peasant. Landing on USS Independence with Morg dead, a disturbed Jake, covered in blood, walks into a debriefing with Commander Frank Camparelli and Executive Officer, Commander “Cowboy” Parker. Camparelli tells Jake to put Morgan’s death behind him and to write a letter to Sharon, Morg’s wife. New pilot Jack Barlow, nicknamed “Razor” because of his youthful appearance, is then introduced.

Lieutenant Commander Virgil Cole arrives on board and reports to Camparelli, who later tells Jake’s roommate Sammy Lundeen to take Jake, Bob “Boxman” Walkawitz and “Mad Jack” to fly into Subic Bay the next day and help Jake unwind. Jake goes to see Sharon, but she has already departed. He runs into a woman named Callie Troy, who is packing Sharon’s things, and they have a small, tense encounter. After an altercation with civilian merchant sailors in the Tailhook Bar, Jake runs into Callie again. After they reconcile, dance and spend the night together, she reveals her husband was a Navy pilot himself and was killed on a solo mission over Vietnam.