Synopsis

During World War I, a group of young Americans volunteers for France and joins the Lafayette Escadrille, an air unit fighting before the United States enters the conflict. Training, friendship, romance, and repeated aerial battles test the recruits as they confront dangerous German pilots, personal rivalries, and the emotional cost of war in the skies above the Western Front.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was inspired by the real American volunteers who served with the Lafayette Escadrille and the Lafayette Flying Corps. Its principal characters are fictionalized composites rather than exact portraits of individual pilots.

• The production spent five years seeking financing and was made outside the usual major-studio system. The reported budget and marketing expenditure exceeded $60 million.

• Four replica Nieuport 17 aircraft were built in 52 days for the production. One replica rolled during a takeoff sequence, so the surviving aircraft were restricted mainly to ground work afterward.

• A real Nieuport 17 from Kermit Weeks' aviation collection in Florida was brought to Britain for the film. Replicas of other period aircraft, including Fokker Dr.I triplanes and a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter, were also used.

• For aerial closeups, performers were filmed in flight aboard a 1930s Bucker Jungmann biplane. Insurance restrictions prevented most of the actors from personally flying the replica Nieuports.

• James Franco took flying lessons while preparing for the role. David Ellison also had substantial aviation experience and performed as an airshow pilot before appearing in the film.

• The trench sequences were filmed in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, while RAF Halton was transformed into a World War I airfield with hangars, officers' quarters, mess facilities, vehicles, and period-style scenery.

• The Lafayette Escadrille really did keep a lion mascot. The unit had two lions, named Whiskey and Soda.

• The character Eugene Skinner is loosely based on Eugene Bullard, the American-born Black pilot who served with French forces during World War I and was credited with shooting down enemy aircraft.

• The film uses computer-generated imagery extensively for its large aerial battles and Zeppelin sequences. Some of its visual shortcuts, including the use of mostly red Fokker triplanes, were deliberate choices intended to help viewers distinguish opposing aircraft.

• Although the film aimed for aviation realism, historians and aviation enthusiasts criticized several details, including the mixing of different Lafayette units and the use of aircraft types that did not serve together during the period depicted.