Stealth

Stealth Information

Stealth is a 2005 American science fiction action film starring Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Sam Shepard, Joe Morton and Richard Roxburgh. The film was directed by Rob Cohen, director of The Fast and the Furious and xXx.

The film follows three top fighter pilots as they join a project to develop an automated robotic stealth aircraft.

Released on 29 July 2005 by Columbia Pictures, the film cost $135 million to make, but was panned by critics, and was a colossal box office bomb making only $76,932,872 worldwide, one of the biggest losses in cinematic history.

Plot

In 2016, the United States Navy develops an aviation program to deal with international terrorists and other enemies of the state quickly and quietly; in addition, project controller Captain George Cummings (Sam Shepard) is authorized to develop new technology that will achieve these objectives. The project's first brainchild are "F/A-37 Talon" single-seat fighters with impressive payload, speed, and stealth capabilities. Over 400 pilots apply to participate, but only three are chosen: smart hotshot Lieutenant Ben Gannon (Josh Lucas), tomboyish Lieutenant Kara Wade (Jessica Biel), and street-wise, philosophical Lieutenant Henry Purcell (Jamie Foxx). Their first test mission scores 100/100, based on maximum inflicted casualties with minimum collateral damage.

In addition, Cummings hires Dr. Keith Orbit (Richard Roxburgh) to develop an artificial intelligence, the "EDI," which will fly an unmanned combat air vehicle. This autonomous fighter jet is placed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Philippine Sea to learn combat maneuvers from the pilots. This sparks a conflict between two schools of thought: The first argues that human pilots are superior to machines in that they possess both creativity and moral judgment, whereas a machine cannot fully appreciate the ugliness of war; additionally, if robots take humans' places on the front line and no one ever died in war, then war would no longer be terrible and could end up as a sort of sport. In contrast, a machine pilot is not subject to the physical limitations of a human pilot, can calculate alternatives to achieving objectives faster and more accurately, and is (theoretically) not subject to ego.

The team are training EDI in air combat maneuvers when they are suddenly reassigned to take out the heads of three terrorist cells at a summit in downtown Rangoon. EDI calculates that mission success can only be achieved through a vertical strike, which could cause the pilot to black out and result in collateral damage. Command orders EDI to take the shot, but Gannon ignores the order and attacks in his own plane, successfully carrying out the strike.

As the planes return to the Lincoln, EDI is hit by lightning. Aboardship, the already-sophisticated AI is discovered to be learning exponentially, developinging a rudimentary ethical code and an ego. However, Cummings refuse to take it offline. During the next strike, to neutralize several stolen nuclear warheads in Tajikistan, Wade calculates that nuclear debris cause serious civilian casualties. The three human pilots decide to abort, but EDI disobeys orders and fires missiles at the nuclear warheads, causing the predicted radioactive fallout. Cummings orders the UCAV brought back to base, and Purcell attempts to reason with EDI, but the AI refuses to stand down. Gannon is given permission to shoot EDI down, and Purcell opens fire, but misses and, blinded by the explosion, crashes against a mountainside. Wade's plane is hit by debris from the explosion, resulting in loss of hydraulics of her left wing and canard; this triggers the plane's auto-destruct, forcing her to eject over North Korea. Gannon, now the only pilot airborne, must alone stop the EDI from executing a twenty year-old war scenario called "Caviar Sweep".

Gannon chases EDI into Russian territory over the Buryat Republic, and after several attacks from Russian aircraft causing damage to both planes, he calls a truce with the UCAV in order to both keep it from falling into enemy territory as well as rescue Wade from North Korea. He is ordered to make an emergency landing with EDI in Alaska by Cummings. Cummings is being held responsible for EDI's rampant behavior by the brass and is threatened with a court-martial and possible discharge from the military; he attempts to eliminate all witnesses by leaving Wade stranded in North Korea and assigning men to eliminate Gannon in Alaska. He also sends Orbit there to erase EDI's data. Suspecting Cummings of treachery, Gannon makes a crash landing in Alaska, surviving with minor injuries. When EDI is placed into an interface by Orbit, the device expresses sadness and regret for his transgressions. Orbit realizes that the artificial intelligence he created has developed its own sentience, to the point of being alive. With this discovery, Orbit becomes disinclined to carry out his order to erase EDI's memory. Gannon narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by a doctor, who tries to inject him with a sedative which turns out to be poison. The doctor is killed when he is scratched by the needle in a struggle with Gannon, who then meets Orbit in the hangar where EDI is kept. After ensuring Dr Orbit's escape, Gannon flies off to North Korea with EDI, contacting the Lincoln's skipper, Captain Dick Marshfield (Joe Morton) to inform him about Cummings' deceit. Marshfield confronts Cummings and places him under arrest, but Cummings commits suicide instead.

Gannon later finds an exhausted and injured Wade on the border between North and South Korea, and leaves EDI to help her fend off North Korean soldiers. The two pilots make a run for the border, but are chased by a Korean People's Army Mil Mi-8 helicopter. Out of ammunition and taking damage from the Mi-8, the EDI sacrifices itself doing a Kamikaze-like final attack, flying into the helicopter, allowing Gannon and Wade to escape into South Korea, and are found by US military forces soon afterward. After attending Purcell's funeral aboard the Abraham Lincoln, Gannon confesses his feelings of love to Wade.

After the credits, the camera pans over debris-strewn scene on the border between the Koreas. EDI's "brain" turns back on, implying it is still functional.

Cast

Josh Lucas as Lt. Ben Gannon (BIG)
Jessica Biel as Lt. Kara Wade (GUNS)
Jamie Foxx as Lt. Henry Purcell (E-Z)
Sam Shepard as Captain George Cummings
Joe Morton as Captain Dick Marshfield
Richard Roxburgh as Dr. Keith Orbit
Ian Bliss as Lieutenant Aaron Shaftsbury
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Tim
David Andrews as Ray
Wentworth Miller as EDI
Nicholas Hammond as Executive officer
Megan Gale (cameo) as Dr. Orbit's secretary
Sara Saliba As Korean Girl

Production

Stealth features several shots of action on aircraft carriers. Scenes featuring the cast were shot on board the US Navy Fleet Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, while additional scenes were shot on board the USS Nimitz and USS Carl Vinson.

The film was shot in Australia (Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales and Flinders Ranges in South Australia) and New Zealand.

Featured technologies

Stealth featured many presently used, futuristic, or theoretical technologies at the time of release. These include:

Computer technology (all wildly mixed)
- quantum computer
- Artificial neural network
- artificial intelligence
Airplanes
- pulse detonation engine
- scramjet
- VTOL
- aeroelastic control surfaces
- EDI UCAV (Extreme Deep Invader UCAV)
- Sukhoi Su-37 Terminator. The aircraft featured in the film are shown as having two crew members, although the current prototype Su-37 is a single-seat aircraft. , however, there are only two prototype Su-37 aircraft in existence, never having been bought as a production aircraft.
- The fictional F/A-37 Talon. The aircraft mock ups for the Talon were so realistic that photos of them on the deck of an aircraft carrier were circulated online, claiming they displayed an actual experimental aircraft. The aircraft itself has a similar configuration to the unbuilt Northrop Switchblade.
- Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
- F/A-18 Hornet
- High-altitude airships (Camelhumps) used for aerial refueling
Weapons
- Firearms in the movie Stealth
Warships
- The aircraft supercarrier featured in the film, USS Abraham Lincoln, is shown to have three different Naval Registry numbers during angles from different scenes.

Litigation

In March 2005, Leo Stoller, who claims to own trademark rights to the word "stealth", served Columbia Pictures with a "cease and desist" letter threatening litigation if they did not rename the film to something "non infringing". Columbia responded with a lawsuit (which is not registered in any category remotely similar to motion pictures).

The Environmental Defender's Office, a community legal centre specialising in environmental law, successfully represented the Blue Mountains Conservation Society Inc. in its attempts to prevent filming of Stealth in the Grose Wilderness area of the Blue Mountains National Park, NSW, Australia, in May 2004. Justice Lloyd of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court ruled that the proposed commercial filming of scenes in the area was unlawful, in a significant statement on the value of wilderness areas and the protection that should be afforded to them. The Society claimed that the authority and consent for the commercial filming activities were in breach of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and the Wilderness Act 1987. Justice Lloyd accepted the Society's arguments that the proposed commercial filming in a wilderness area was completely against the intended use of the land, concluding his judgment with the words, "wilderness is sacrosanct".

Soundtrack

"Make a Move" - Incubus (3:12)
"Admiration" - Incubus (4:13)
"Neither of Us Can See" - Incubus (4:04)
"(She Can) Do That" - BT & David Bowie (3:15)
"Dance to the Music" - will.i.am & Sly & The Family Stone (4:06)
"Bullet-Proof Skin" - Institute (4:24)
"L.S.F." - Kasabian (3:18)
"Bug Eyes" - Dredg (4:16)
"Over My Head (Cable Car)" - The Fray (3:56)
"One Day" - Trading Yesterday (4:21)
"Different" - Acceptance (4:09)
"Nights in White Satin" - Glenn Hughes, Chad Smith & John Frusciante (4:56)
"Aqueous Transmission" - Incubus (7:48)

Release

Box office

The film cost $135 million to produce (which does not include advertising costs) and was released in an ultrawide 3,495 theaters, but had an opening weekend of only $13,251,545 for an average of only $3,792 per theater, and good enough for only 4th place. It then lost 55 percent of its audience in its second weekend dropping to 7th place to $5,923,794, while remaining at 3,495 theaters and averaging just $1,695 per theater. In its third weekend, it lost 1,455 theaters, and a further 64 percent of its audience, dropping to 11th, with just $2,151,768, for an average of just $1,055 from 2,040 theaters. It ended up making $32,116,746 in the United States and Canada, and $44,816,126 internationally for a total worldwide gross of $76,932,872, making it the biggest money loser in a series of financial failures released by Columbia in 2005.

Critical response

Stealth was panned by critics; Rotten Tomatoes gave it 13%, with an average score of 3.8/10 and only 18 out of 136 reviews being positive. In Metacritic, the film has a rating of 35% based on 31 reviews, which indicates "generally negative reviews". Stealth holds a rating of a D+ on Yahoo Movies.

Roger Ebert commented that the film was "a dumbed-down Top Gun crossed with the HAL 9000 plot from 2001."

The film was criticized for its poor background research including things such as contradictory technology ("turbo scramjets"), the statement that one is a prime number, and the fact that, by definition, the De-Militarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea is free from military hardware and forces. It was also criticized for depicting a Su-37, which is a single seat aircraft, with two pilots. A geographical error occurs when Gannon tells Dr Orbit to drive west to escape the 'secret' Alaskan airbase: the only road into the Brooks Range is north-south (the Dalton Highway aka Haul Road).