Gene Hackman stars as a colonel whose son is still missing in action a decade after the end of the Vietnam War. Despairing of the impossibly slow-moving official channels, he gathers a group of hardened veterans and sets off on a mission to find him and rescue other American PoWs.

The gung-ho politics behind this exciting and fast-moving film may be questionable, but Hackman gives his character emotional depth and director Ted Kotcheff moves it at a pace that keeps the tension bristling. A young Patrick Swayze co-stars as the team's drill instructor.