When a cocky mercenary pilot’s wife is kidnapped by a shadowy oligarch in a turbulent dystopia, he takes on 3 high-risk missions to get her back.

Think: Top Gun meets Iron Eagle in the world of Bladerunner 

SYNOPSIS:

Scott “Raptor” Mitchell has a good spot in the wild world of 2099: he’s the leader of an elite air unit in an affluent megalopolis city state. He flies with his wife, Raven, and two others — Kestrel & Condor — who differ on Raptor’s cocky antics. Kestrel seems ok, but Condor isn’t having it and quits. The next day, Jotham Judge, a powerful oligarch with grand plans, has Raptor and Raven kidnapped. He then forces Raptor into 3 missions that he must undertake alone to get his wife back. Raptor also finds out he’s been injected with a tracker, so for now, he plays along.

Due to the kidnapping, Raptor was absent from a patrol mission and so has been replaced by Kestrel as the air unit’s leader after. But his challenges are only beginning. There’s a war brewing between two nearby states and Raptor must execute a surgical airstrike into one of them as his 1st mission. Being a top pilot with a high-tech jet, he flies a successful penetration mission and hits his target, resulting in a state leadership change.

Kestrel accosts Raptor for “playing with fire” but he tells her that since his mission didn’t trigger a war, “something else is going on.” After seeing the 2nd mission brief, Raptor reluctantly asks Kestrel for help and convinces Judge that he needs a trusted wingmate for this 2nd high-risk strike. Judge agrees and has Kestrel injected with a tracker. This mission — a series of wild air battles and a space launch interdiction — also results in a state leadership change.

Raptor and Kestrel deduce that Judge wants to redefine world trade corridors to put his huge corporation, TerraCorps, on the top. Judge proudly admits he now has 2 paid for heads of state with armies to launch a war, that is unless Raptor and Kestrel conduct the 3rd mission cleanly. Raven has secretly communicated via morse code blinks that she can escape captivity on Judge’s flying mega-yacht. Also, Raptor and Kestrel mistrust Judge and realize they need help.

So Raptor humbles himself and apologizes to Condor and wishes he’d shown him a greater respect. Even if Condor doesn’t buy it, he can join the mission for a huge payday and then go his own way. Condor agrees for the payday and his secret crush on Kestrel. With the help of his tech savvy arms merchant, Wayland, Raptor had his tracker removed and now fakes its location in a thermos given to Condor who dons Raptor’s flight suit, thus tricking Judge’s goons. Raptor flies to the 3rd target, Ernest Montana, an industrial tycoon, and warns him of Judge’s plan. Montana tests Raptor, but ultimately believes him, seeing Raptor risked telling him. They fake Montana’s death Judge has no bribed loyalists like in the other states, but launches his war assuming there’s confusion in Montana’s forces.

However, the 3 pilots with a newfound friendship save the day in a spectacular series of air battles from canyon chases and going way up to the stratosphere where Raptor nails Judge’s escaping mega-yacht just as Raven ejects in an escape pod, the culmination of her cunning since capture.

Raptor and Raven reunite. Kestrel and Condor kiss. Montana offers to fix their jets as a sign of thanks.

The couples then enjoy a New Year’s double date in their favorite club. Weeks later, with their newly fixed jets, all four of them fly their first mission as the “Firebirds.”