Question: Can anyone explain what happened to Stackhouse when he ejected? I understand that he injured his leg. How did that happen? Is it actually possible?
Answer: It is possible that he has done of one two things. Banged his leg on something inside the cockpit causing it to break, or landed too hard on his way down. It is common for people to break limbs when parachuting/sky diving. It is possible that his bones were just not up to withstanding the force which he incurred.
Or a piece of shrapnel from the jet breaking apart cut his leg.
Question: Rather than leaving Stackhouse behind in the area where the Serbians could find him, wouldn't it have made more sense for Burnette to pick Stackhouse up, and help him get up the hill?
Answer: Because in escape and evasion, as opposed to combat, you are taught to get away from where you have landed as fast as possible. And Stackhouse probably believed his pilot would be treated humanely under the Geneva Convention.
Answer: Stackhouse is badly hurt. Burnett would have known better than to move him. Plus, with the way he speaks to Stackhouse it's clear they weren't expecting company so quickly.
So what if Stackhouse has an injured leg, why not just help in him walk? Soldiers in combat help their follow soldiers walk when they have injured legs.
Question: The SAM missiles continuously chases the fighter jet for a few minutes. In reality, don't SAM missiles only contain enough fuel to fly for about 5 to 10 seconds?
Answer: Surface-to-air missiles come in 3 ranges (long range, medium, and short). Long range missile have a range of 100-150 km (there are some very long ranged missiles that can go up to 400 km). Short range missiles go about 3 km. SAM's are faster than Air-to-Air missiles and can travel around Mach 3 and up to Mach 8, with some that can go faster (so about 1 - 2.7 km/s) I don't know what kind of SAM was used, but long range SAM's are fired from a fixed or semi-movable position and medium ranged SAM's can be fired from vehicle mounted systems.
A behind enemy lines goof from IMDb, says that no missile is capable of chasing the F/A-18 as it is portrayed in the movie. A missiles rocket motor only holds enough fuel for one pass at a target. I don't know if you agree with it or not.
I would disagree with the statement that it wouldn't have enough fuel. However, even after a missile runs out of fuel it can still glide to its target at supersonic speeds for a time. I do think the portrayal of the chase scene is overly dramatic in Hollywood fashion though, particularly for the first SAM fired.
According to the trivia of the film the missile used was a 9m37m missile.
In that case the scene is completely Hollywood and unrealistic. The 9m37m is a short range missile, even though it's vehicle mounted, and has a max range of 5 km and doesn't even reach Mach 2. When the 2nd missile is fired we hear one of the pilots say "3 miles and closing", meaning the SAM shouldn't have been able to catch up to them or chase them down. The film makers probably wanted something cool looking without considering (or caring) what they had or may not have access to a midrange SAM system and pretended it was one.
But don't long range missiles lack the ability to turn fast enough to follow and chase a jet due to the weight of the amount of fuel they carry?
Question: Why did heat seeking missiles go after the fireball created by fuel instead of the fighter jet? I thought heat seeking missiles went after specific infrared frequencies, and specific temperatures.
Answer: Modern heat seekers are indeed designed to go after certain frequencies in order to better bypass countermeasures. It is still a pretty common Hollywood convention that heat seekers go after the hottest heat source in the area. Part of this is due to audience expectation, as the average viewer might not be aware of modern missile technology and would wonder the opposite of your question: why a heat seeker wouldn't go after a huge explosion that is hotter than a jet. It must also be noted that no system is perfect and in real world situations heat seeking missiles are still prone to be pulled off course by countermeasures, so it isn't entirely unrealistic.
Question: Who was the real commander of the Serbian army when O'Grady was stranded behind enemy lines?
Answer: "Lokar" might be based on real-life Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, commander of Serb Volunteer Guard.
Answer: The two seats collided in midair before their chutes opened and Stackhouse yelled, "ow!" Not realistic because in the 5 seconds it took for the second pilot to eject they would have been far apart.
But you see his leg get injured before his leaves the jet. I think the original question refers to how did that happen.
Ssiscool ★
The injury to Stackhouse's leg was from a pen attached to his knee pad. When watched in slow motion, you see it disintegrate and somehow throw shrapnel into his leg. It makes little sense, I believe it was merely a plot point to make Stackhouse unable to travel out of harm's way. This prompted Burnett to leave him unattended for the bad guys to find him as he went to higher ground to get better reception on the PRC-90.