Behind Enemy Lines (2001 Film) - Plot

Plot

During a reconnaissance mission over Bosnia in its conflict's final stages, U.S. Navy flight officer Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and pilot Lieutenant Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) spot suspicious activity and Burnett persuades Stackhouse to fly their F/A-18 Hornet off-course to get a close look at the target and photograph it. However, they're unaware that they photographed mass graves, and that Serbs in the area have seen the jet. The local Bosnian Serb Army commander, General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa), is conducting a secret genocidal campaign against the local Muslim population. Not wanting the mass graves to be discovered, Lokar orders the jet to 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 (Vladimir Mashkov), a tracker and one of Lokar's right-hand men. Burnett, who was observing the Serbs' interrogation of Stackhouse from a hill, exposes the Serbs to his location. Wanting Burnett dead as well, Lokar orders both his deputy, Colonel Bazda (Marko Igonda), and Sasha to find him. Admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman) orders Burnett to move to a certain location in order to be extracted. However, after Admiral Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida) warns Reigart of the political ramifications of rescuing Burnett in the no-fly zone, Reigart informs Burnett 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, that is looking for him. As Burnett escapes, he falls into the very mass graves that he and Stackhouse had photographed and hides under a dead body. When the Serbs are out of sight, Burnett continues to run. On his way to the new extraction point, Burnett has a near-encounter with Sasha, but he encounters Muslim guerrillas aboard a pickup truck who offer him a ride. The guerrillas inform Burnett that they are heading to Hač, which is located within a safe area, but turns out to be a war zone. During the battle, Serb troops believe that they've found Burnett's body, but Burnett switched uniforms with a dead Serb soldier and escaped Hač.

Although Sasha and Lokar recognize that Burnett escaped, they 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 as Burnett views the helicopter sent to pick him up. Burnett, disappointed, then notices an angel statue that he parachuted down nearby as this is where his ejection seat landed. Burnett, whose radio was destroyed, wants to return to the site in order to prove to his carrier group that he's still alive. He also wants to obtain the evidence, located on a hard drive attached to the seat, of Lokar's crimes. Burnett returns to his seat and reactivates the rescue beacon. Even though the carrier group notices his signal, Burnett also alerts the Serbs to his location.

Although knowing that doing so could have him relieved of command, Reigart prepares a task force aimed at rescuing Burnett. Bazda and Sasha are ordered to find Burnett and kill him, but Bazda is killed by a landmine on their way. After Sasha walks up to the ejection seat, Burnett jumps out of a snowdrift behind Sasha and the two men engage in hand-to-hand combat until Burnett stabs Sasha in the chest with a flare, killing him. Immediately after Sasha's death, Lokar arrives with armored personnel carriers and infantry who begin to fire upon Burnett as he runs to the angel statue. Led by Reigart, three U.S. Marine Corps "Huey" helicopters finally arrive and fire on the Serbs. After retrieving the hard drive containing the graves' photos, Burnett escapes with the task force, which successfully withdraws back to the aircraft carrier. Lokar's war crimes eventually put him on trial, while Reigart's actions result in him being relieved of command.