Where to watch Air America online

Storyline

Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.

Released

1990-08-10
Revenue

$57,661,269
Budget

$35,000,000
Runtime

1hr 52m
Genre

Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Status

Released
Language

English
5.8
Production

IndieProd Company Productions, Carolco Pictures

Crew

Roger Spottiswoode

Director

Christopher Robbins

Novel

Daniel Melnick

Producer

Keywords:

vietnam war central intelligence agency (cia) airplane drug smuggling refugee camp pilot laos drugs 1960s

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Cast

Mel Gibson

Gene Ryack

Robert Downey Jr.

Billy Covington

Nancy Travis

Corinne Landreaux

Ken Jenkins

Major Donald Lemond

David Marshall Grant

Rob Diehl

Lane Smith

Senator Davenport

Art LaFleur

Jack Neely

Ned Eisenberg

Pirelli

Marshall Bell

O.V.

David Bowe

Saunders

Burt Kwouk

General Lu Soong

Tim Thomerson

Babo

Harvey Jason

Nino

Natta Nantatanti

Gene's Daughter

Purin Panichpan

Gene's Son

Yanee Tramoth

Gene's Brother-in-law

Ernie Lively

Truck Driver

Burke Byrnes

Recruiter

Michael Dudikoff

General Lee (uncredited)

Sinjai Plengpanich

May Ling

Wasan Uttamayothin

Nightclub Singer

Videos and Photos

Movie Reviews

Reviews for Air America

A Review by Geronimo1967 6

Written by Geronimo1967 on 2022-11-14

When "Billy" (Robert Downey Jr.) loses his pilot's licence after a lively misdemeanour, he finds himself working in war-torn Laos with the t... read more

A Review by GenerationofSwine 10

Written by GenerationofSwine on 2023-01-12

I have a special love for this film, if for no other reason that the bulk of my college experience was spent on the cold war, the alphabet s... read more

I have a special love for this film, if for no other reason that the bulk of my college experience was spent on the cold war, the alphabet soup of PBSUCCESS, MKULTRA, JMWAVE, PAPERCLIP, COLDFEET, MKOFTEN, The Phoenix Program, ARTICHOKE, and my favorite (just because of how bad it sounds) Midnight Climax. So a comedy about Air America was absolutely priceless. And, given that I am not one of those history nuts that cares about historical accuracy I can still sit back and enjoy something like this. I mean, honestly, so long as it's not a complete and total re-write... Hollywood can take it's liberties and edit what happened for drama, because, really, it just means that now people have heard of Air America. And, honestly, when you choose to study the Cold War, people tend to think you're a conspiracy nut when you mention things like this, PBSUCCESS, Russians assassinating people with radiation poisoning and umbrella guns... ... So when something like this comes along, it's like yes... now people won't think I'm as crazy as Alex Jones. And, you know, it features a song from the Seeds (and any real punk fan is going to drool over that) along with one of the better, if down played, soundtracks from the Vietnam Era. So it certainly has the music win. And it's Gibson kind of hamming it up and doing a slightly saner version of his Lethal Weapon self... if oddly pacifistic. And RDJR, fresh out of rehab, proving to the world that he is actually capable of being a great actor when he is sober. What you have is kind of an action movie without a lot of violence, set in the middle of a war zone, and based off of one of our intelligence black eyes in a way that doesn't take it too seriously, isn't heavy-handed or pretentious, masks any preachiness in a fun story, and really gets the point across without having to be Alan Alda at his worst. Plus, it's a movie about skullduggery that doesn't resort to the Mission:Impossible/James Bond high action tropes. So, in a way, it's kind of a spy movie done right and... turned into a comedy.

Read Full Review (The thoughts and opinions expressed here are solely those of the reviewer.)

A Review by CinemaSerf

When "Billy" (Robert Downey Jr.) loses his pilot's licence after a lively misdemeanour, he finds himself working in war-torn Laos with the team at "Air America". This is a CIA-backed operation consisting of a disparate bunch of pilots whose...