Paul Watkins (Michael Paré) is an American pilot stationed in the Middle East, who is taken away from his normal duties of protecting the skies to show an actor everything he needs to know about being a pilot in the Air Force. The actor, Tom Slade (Anthony Michael Hall), is about to start filming an Air Force movie and wants to "get the feeling" for the part. When Watkins takes Slade for a ride in an F-16 fighter, some other American jets are attacked and the pair comes to the rescue. However, it does not go according to the plan.