The first time I saw this I must have been about 12 or 13 and I thought it was BETTER than Top Gun in some aspects.  The plot was extremely far fetched an 18 year old rescues his father from some un-named "Middle Eastern" country with the help of a retired Air Force Col. and his friends Btw how the hell can one kid have the whole base wired for his own personel needs? The acting wasn't that bad Lou Gossett, Jr was ace as retired AF Col. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair  Jason Gedrick was very good as Doug "I got the whole god dam base wired" Masters (Too bad Doug got blown out of the sky in IE II) and the Minister of Defense played by David Suchet aka Poirot was great as the "bad guy" of the un-named Middle Eastern country.  I liked this the most out of ALL the movies that were made.  I got it dirt cheap so I am going to complain about the lack of any extras it was a good movie in its time and I enjoyed it for what it was even if it was fantasy. Just stay FAR AWAY as possible from the sequels esp II & IV III I don't remember too much about as I haven"t seen it in YEARS. The original Iron Eagle gets 4 and a half stars from me despite its extremely far fetched plot.  The score for this film was excellent I liked it and the music was great too