Iron Eagle: The Definitive Audit Of How Many Weapons Doug Masters Launched From His F-16

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This has been a really heavy week for all of us, so we decided to lighten things up a bit by adapting one of our dumbest but most popular TWZ articles of all time into video form. And yes, we dive even deeper into this questionably important topic than we did before!

While heavily overshadowed by Top Gun, which was released in theaters just a few months later, Iron Eagle has become something of a cult classic. Its aerial sequences, far-fetched ‘80s action movie plot, fantastic soundtrack, and the fact that it’s stuffed full of movie tropes from that decade have kept it alive in popular culture. Louis Gosset Jr.’s dramatic motivational monologue that takes place in the middle of the film even got Iron Eagle a major cameo on the hit Netflix show Cobra Kai. However, the movie also draws the ire of some for its portrayal of its starring F-16s having what appears to be a never-ending supply of weapons. While it’s totally true that a lot of stuff gets blown up in Iron Eagle, is this bad reputation really earned? And if not, how did it become a thing in the first place?

Hop in the cockpit, strap your tape player to your thigh and crank up the Queen as we jet back to the ‘80s for a definitive audit of all the weapons Doug Masters launched off his F-16 in this totally stupid but absolutely necessary video that should settle Iron Eagle’s ‘bottomless F-16’ issue once and for all.

Check out the video by clicking play at the top of this post.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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Tyler Rogoway

Editor-in-Chief

Tyler’s passion is the study of military technology, strategy, and foreign policy and he has fostered a dominant voice on those topics in the defense media space. He was the creator of the hugely popular defense site Foxtrot Alpha before developing The War Zone.