This was originally conceived as a blackly satirical comedy by The Stunt Man director Richard Rush, but that idea went out the window in favour of a more obviously commercial approach. Roger Spottiswoode took over the directorial reins and the result was an amiable, if somewhat patchy, action comedy. Set in Laos during the Vietnam War, the story follows the adventures of a CIA-organised air freight operation, which is actually smuggling heroin on behalf of the local drug barons. As the amoral head pilot, Mel Gibson reprises his Lethal Weapon role of the ever-so-slightly bonkers tough guy, with Robert Downey Jr as his wild-card sidekick. The flying sequences are neatly staged and Gibson fans will lap it up but, given the source material (it is loosely based on true events), this has got to go down as a missed opportunity.

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.