Bat 21

Bat 21 is a 1988 American film, based on the novel of the same name by William C. Anderson and directed by Peter Markle, starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover in the main roles.

Plot

During the Vietnam War, an EB-66 observation plane is shot down. The only survivor is Lieutenant Colonel Hambleton (Gene Hackman), who is also a missile expert. As Hambleton is a soldier of great interest to the US army, he sets out on a rescue mission, despite being very dangerous. Hambleton communicates with the rescue team using a portable radio. The problem is that the Vietcong are listening to him, and Hambleton knows it. Monitoring the rescue operation is assigned to a forward air controller (Danny Glover) who flies in a Cessna O-2 Skymaster. Since rescue in the demolition zone is impossible, Lieutenant Colonel Hambleton himself devises a plan to reach another, safer rescue zone: a system based on the shape of different golf course holes he knows, with which he transmits their movements to the rescue team without the enemies, who listen to their transmissions, being able to decipher it (in theory, golf being an unknown sport to them).

The film is based on true events: the pilot and electronic countermeasures expert (codenamed Bat 21, which gives the film its name, for intelligence reasons and to avoid enemy tracking or use of the shot down for other purposes) is tried to rescue, but the mission is very difficult because the Vietcong is launching the biggest ground offensive of the war, during the Tet celebrations (an analogy could be made with Christian Christmas), moment in which the Americans were not going to attack out of respect for the local faith and to retain the sympathy of South Vietnam, which held those beliefs.

Cast

• Gene Hackman as Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton (Key Name Bat 21)
• Danny Glover as Captain Bartholomew Clark (key name Birddog)
• Jerry Reed as Colonel George Walker
• David Marshall Grant as Lieutenant Ross Carver, Jolly Green pilot
• Clayton Rohner as Sergeant Harley Rumbaugh
• Erich Anderson as Major Jake Scott
• Joe Dorsey as Colonel Douglass
• Reverend Michael Ng as a Vietnamese
• Theodore Chan Woei-Shyong as the child on the bridge
• Don Ruffin as a helicopter crewman
• Scott A. Howell as a helicopter crew member
• Michael Raden as a helicopter crewman
• Timothy Fitzgerald as an EB-66 officer
• Stuart Hagen as an EB-66 officer
• Jeff Baxter as a helicopter gunner
• Alan King as a helicopter gunner