''Mirror Wars: Reflection One'' () is a

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

crime action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by Vasili Chiginsky, based on a screenplay by Oleg Kapanets, Alex Kustanovich and Nicholas Waller. The film stars both Russian actors Alexander Efimov and Ksenia Alfyorova, along with other international stars:

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is an English actor. He first became known for portraying Mick Travis in Lindsay Anderson's ''if....'' (1968), a role he later reprised in ''O Lucky Man!'' (1973) and ''Britannia Hospital ...

Armand Assante Armand Anthony Assante Jr. (; born October 4, 1949) is an American actor. He played mobster John Gotti in the 1996 HBO television film '' Gotti'', Odysseus in the 1997 miniseries adaptation of Homer's ''The Odyssey'', Nietzsche in '' When Niet ...

and

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor, with a career that spanned over 170 roles across nearly 50 years, beginning in 1969. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. H ...

, as an effort to court an international audience. The enigmatic title refers to the continuation of a mystery revolving around a top-secret Russian

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

Plot

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n company

Sukhoi The JSC Sukhoi Company (, ) is a Russian aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Begovoy District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, that designs both civilian and military aircraft. Sukhoi was founded in the Soviet Union by Pavel Sukhoi ...

has developed a

fifth-generation jet fighter A fifth-generation fighter is a Jet fighter generations, jet fighter aircraft classification which includes major technologies developed during the first part of the 21st century. these are the most advanced fighters in operation. The characteri ...

, the

Su-XX, nicknamed ''Sabretooth'', flown by test pilot Alexei Kedrov (Alexander Efimov), from a remote Russian airbase. Recently suspected of being a traitor due to his love affair with American ecologist Catherine Foley ( Ksenia Alfyorova), Alexei is patriotic and is unaware that Catherine is not who she claims and is working with London-based arms dealer Dick Murdoch (

). A mystery man (

) also appears to control the effort to steal the ''Sabretooth''. Murdoch and his new partner Aziza (Olga Yakovieva), want to steal the Russian jet and employing numerous mercenaries and clandestine agents, puts the entire flight test unit in jeopardy. Worried about his family, pilot Boris Korin ( Valery Nikolaev) helps Murdoch steal ''Sabretooth''. When Catherine is seen to be falling for Alexei, she is eliminated along with other assassinations and an audacious attack on a former Russian outpost. Alexei and other pilots in his team have to contend with not only the Russian FSB, but also agents from the CIA and British special services. When

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control-designated Aviation call signs, call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. The term is commonly used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modifie ...

on the way to Moscow, is threatened, the

McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected McDonnell Douglas's desi ...

escorts try to shoot down ''Sabretooth'' but Alexei uses the extraordinary capability of his top-secret aircraft to outfly the American attack and bring his aircraft home safely. Murdoch, however, with help from the mystery man behind the efforts to steal ''Sabretooth'', is still at large.

Cast

as Dick Murdoch / Mr. Simpson *

as CIA Agent Henry York *

as Mysterious Man * Alexander Efimov as Alexei Kedrov ("Porter") * Ksenia Alfyorova as Catherine Foley * Valery Nikolaev as Boris Korin (credited as Valery Nikolaev) *

Mikhail Gorevoy Mikhail Vitalievich Gorevoy (; born 19 May 1965) is a Russian actor, occasionally credited as Michael Gor in English language productions, best known internationally for playing Vladimir Popov in the James Bond film '' Die Another Day''. He als ...

as Manfred Darban * Ivar Kalninsh as Anton Kedrov (credited as Ivar Kalninsh) * Olga Yakovtseva as Aziza * Anatoly Zhuravliov as Grom * as Agent Orange * Valery Afanasiev as Colonel Svirsky * Alexander Kuznetsov as Agent Sea * Alexander Rapoport as Ralph Trenton of the CIA * Oleg Kapanets as Sobol * Sergei Chonishvili as Igor Chaikin * Justin Ipock as Boris * Anna Vaskova as Wife of Boris * Vladimir Vinogradov as Pavel Sokolov * Alexander Yakovlev as Kalenov

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

for ''Mirror Wars: Reflection One'' took place in Russia, with location shooting in Moscow and Crimea. Other photography took place in Los Angeles and London. Filming also involved several locations with military personnel, equipment and facilities provided. The role of ''Sabretooth'' in ''Mirror Wars: Reflection One'' was played by the sole two-seat Sukhoi Su-35UB fighter as it can be seen in the real life scenes of the movie. A 3D modeler for the movie said a

Sukhoi Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet Multirole combat aircraft, multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautic ...

was used as a base fighter for the ''Sabretooth''. Although the fighter demonstrator was one of the "stars", the film combines aerial closeups of jet fighters in close formation flying. Special effects include the use of pyrotechnical explosions, live-action closeup satellite imagery, and views from inside the flying jets, as well as extensive use of scale and CGI models. The setting of the

MAKS Air Show MAKS (, ) is an international air show held at Zhukovsky International Airport, the home of the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast, Zhukovsky, southeast of Moscow, Russia. The event was organized by the Russian Ministr ...

in Moscow includes footage of contemporary Russian military aircraft and an ancient

Polikarpov I-153 The Polikarpov I-153 ''Chaika'' () is a late 1930s Soviet sesquiplane fighter. Developed from the I-15 with a retractable undercarriage, the I-153 fought in the Soviet-Japanese combats in Mongolia and was one of the major Soviet fighter types ...

. Other aircraft seen in ''Mirror Wars: Reflection One'' include

Mil Mi-24 The Mil Mi-24 (; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity transport helicopter, troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and was introduced ...

and

Mil Mi-17 The Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories in Russia, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russ ...

helicopters along with

Sukhoi Su-25 The Sukhoi Su-25 ''Grach'' ( ('' rook''); NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Sukhoi. It was designed to provide close air support for Soviet Ground Forces. Th ...

Sukhoi Su-35 The Sukhoi Su-35 (-35; NATO reporting name: Flanker-E/M, occasionally nicknamed "Super Flanker") is the designation for two improved derivatives of the Sukhoi Su-27, Su-27 air-defence fighter. They are single-seat, twinjet, twin-engine, super ...

and

Ilyushin Il-78 The Ilyushin Il-78 (; NATO reporting name Midas) is a Soviet/Russian four-engined aerial refueling tanker based on the Il-76 strategic airlifter. Design and development The Soviet Union's first dedicated tanker aircraft were variants of pre ...

aircraft.

Reception

Although a Russian production, ''Mirror Wars: Reflection One'' featured English dialogue with Russian actors either speaking in English or being dubbed. Reputedly costing $10,000,000, the film was not critically received and did not do well at the box office, rating only in 50th place in Russia in 2005.Decker, Nathan
"Review: 'Mirror Wars: Reflection One' (2005)."
''Million Monkey Theater: B Movie reviews''. March 2011. Retrieved: 10 June 2017. After a short theatrical run, ''Mirror Wars: Reflection One'' was released as a DVD for home media by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Gordon, Yefim. ''Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker: Air Superiority Fighter''. London, UK: Airlife Publishing, 2007. .

External links

* (in Russian) * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, mirror_wars 2005 films 2000s crime action films Russian aviation films Russian crime action films Russian crime drama films Russian action drama films English-language Russian films 2000s English-language films 2000s Russian films 2000s Russian-language films English-language crime action films Russian-language crime action films Russian-language crime drama films Russian-language action drama films