Fire Birds (1990)

Fire Birds (released under the alternative title Wings of the Apache) is a 1990 American military action film directed by David Green and produced by William Badalato, Keith Barish, and Arnold Kopelson. The storyline was conceived by Step Tyner, John K. Swensson, and Dale Dye, and was developed into a screenplay written by Paul F. Edwards, Nick Thiel and David Taylor. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, Sean Young, Bryan Kestner, and Bert Rhine, and follows Jake Preston, a United States Army attack helicopter pilot trained by flight instructor Brad Little to battle a drug cartel in South America.

Production of the film was a co-production between the Walt Disney Studios and Nova International Films. It was commercially released under Disney's Touchstone Pictures label. The movie featured elaborate aerial stunt sequences, involving combat helicopters.

Fire Birds premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on May 25, 1990, grossing a modest $14,760,451 in domestic ticket receipts. The film was met with negative critical reviews before its initial screening in cinemas, generally due to its melancholy dialogue and striking plot similarities to the more popular 1986 action film Top Gun.