Continuity mistake: As Gant is pulling the Firefox out of the hangar, it is still very dark, as in pre-dawn. But as the Russian officers are shown shooting and watching the Firefox take off, it is suddenly much lighter outside as if it is after dawn and the sun can even be seen. But it would have taken 30-60 minutes for the light level to change that much.
Firefox (1982)
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Freddie Jones, David Huffman, Warren Clarke
Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, when Clint Eastwood is flying away from Russia, the Russian cruiser is really either an American Leahy or Belknap class cruiser.
Factual error: When flying towards the Russian missile cruiser, Gant says that "infra-red detection beams" have locked onto the Firefox. There is no such thing - infra-red (heat) sensors are entirely passive, meaning they do not give out any kind of signals and cannot be detected.
Trivia: The movie Firefox is a Soviet built radar-invisible aircraft. In reality, the American F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter was made possible by the work of a Russian physicist, Dr. Pyotr Ufimtsev. (Soviet designers thought his theories worthless!).
Trivia: Through sheer coincidence, the designers of the "Firefox" used flat plates and odd angles on the model. This is the same design technique that makes the actual stealth fighter invisible.
Trivia: To film the scale models of "Firefox" they had to come up with an entirely new method of doing the matt filming, as the model has a reflective skin, unlike the normally-required matt paint finish so the model doesn't reflect the blue screen, which would create "holes" showing the background apparently on top of the image of the model. It was called "Reverse Bluescreen", and involved filming a phosphorescent painted model and photographing it first with strong lighting against a black background, and then with ultraviolet light to create the necessary male and female mattes to separate the foreground model and the background footage. This enabled the shiny black model to be photographed flying against a clear blue sky and gleaming white snow and show reflections.
Maj. Gant: But you want me to fly?
Buckholz: Yes, we want you to fly. We want you to fly the greatest warplane ever built.
Maj. Gant: Aren't you gonna threaten me or something?
First Secretary: I will do so, if that is what you wish. But first I will merely ask you to return what does not belong to you.
Maj. Gant: All right. The bait's been swallowed. Let's head north to the Urals.
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Chosen answer: There was just an explosion in the hangar and in the resulting confusion none of them were sure why it was moving. To get it away from the fire is not unreasonable. Also, the Soviet military is not big on showing initiative. Unless told to disable it, none of the guards would risk severe punishment for damaging a valuable aircraft.
Grumpy Scot