This remake from Behind Enemy Lines director John Moore adds little to Robert Aldrich's 1965 original, save for some superior special effects, but it's a decent enough adventure yarn for those who haven't seen the first film. The plot remains much the same: the survivors of a plane crash in the desert (here the Gobi; it was the Sahara in the original) seek to escape by building a second craft from the wreckage of the first. Dennis Quaid assumes the role of the pilot originally played by James Stewart, while Giovanni Ribisi steps into Hardy Kruger's shoes to play the aircraft designer who conceives the idea of a new plane to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the old. The production values are good - the opening crash is especially well staged - and the tension builds nicely. Overall, it's a decent retread, though perhaps not a particularly necessary one.

When an oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, an aircraft crew are sent to shut the operation down and fly them out. On the flight out over the desert on the way to Beijing, Capt. Frank Towns and co-pilot A.J. are unable to keep their cargo plane, a C-119 Flying Boxcar, in the air when a violent sandstorm strikes. Crash-landing in a remote uncharted part of the desert, the two pilots and their passengers -- a crew of oil workers and a drifter -- must work together to survive by rebuilding the aircraft. Soon, low supplies and a band of merciless smugglers add even greater urgency to their task.