Behind Enemy Lines

is a 2001 movie starring Owen Wilson as Lt. Chris Burnett, a Flight Navigator who gets shot down over Bosnia and has to survive while trapped behind enemy lines. It was directed by John Moore and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Burnett and his pilot are shot down while investigating some unusual activity in a demilitarized area. The Serbian force that is after him, and which summarily executed the pilot, is especially tenacious because the mission photographed mass graves, a result of a secret genocide. Burnett goes on the run, initially having to abandon the photographs with his ejector seat.

Burnett's commanding officer is warned not to send a rescue mission into the demilitarized zone, as it would endanger ongoing peace talks. Between that, the Serbian pursuit and a pretty convincing report that he's already dead, the chances of retrieving either him or the photographs look decidedly slim.

Tropes used in Behind Enemy Lines include:
  • Big No: The protagonist lets one out when he sees his pilot executed. It almost becomes his last word as it alerts the bad guys to his existence.
  • Covered in Mud: Happens to the protagonist when he is forced to hide among the bodies in a mass grave.
  • Fake Nationality: All of the Serbian characters were portrayed by Croatian actors, probably because no Westerner can tell the difference and no self-respecting Serbian actor would play the stereotypical role of the bad guy terrorist.
    • To be honest, no Serbian or Croatian person could tell the difference, either. Not even by accent, since accents depend on where the person is from, rather than what ethnicity they are - a person born in Belgrade is going to have a different accent from a person born in Bosnia or Croatia, but people from a certain part of Croatia or Bosnia will have the same accents regardless of their ethnicity.
  • Guy in Back: The hero is a Weapons Systems Officer, not a pilot.
  • High-Speed Missile Dodge: Subverted in that it doesn't work.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: At the end, Burnett is fleeing through open ground in the snow but isn't hit once by the fire from dozens of Serbian paramilitary troops, mobile anti-aircraft batteries, snipers, and even a tank. Instead only one poor U.S. Red Shirt in a helicopter is hit by the salvo of destruction.
  • Keep It Foreign: Invoked by Roger Ebert in his review of this movie, also provides the page quote.
  • Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: The film starts with Burnett handing in his notice because his tour is too routine.
Sir, I signed up to be a fighter pilot. I didn't want to be a cop. And I certainly didn't want to go walking a beat on a neighborhood nobody cares about.
—Chris Burnett
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