Original subtitles

Whoa! Look at that.

They saw me.

Get that film.

This vehicle was hit by rocket fire.

We don't know that.

We are about to divide up the United States.

Get him. Get him.

Piece of cake.

Collective! Collective! You're over-torquing. You're over-torquing.

Pull in some collective. Not that much.

Okay.

Not bad, huh?

Okay, okay. So, I'm learn’n.

You know, you've got to admit, this isn't your ordinary powered puddle jumper.

No, you're doing fine.

- Really? - Really.

- Great. Well, then, when can I fly… - No.

Come on, Mr. Santini.

Caitlin, you will not crew Airwolf. Not yet.

Then why am I being checked out?

'Cause we need a backup, in case something happens to me or String.

Oh, I get it.

I'm good enough to fly Airwolf if something happens to one of you,

but if nothing happens, I'm not good enough.

Caitlin, you write this down.

You will not become a 3rd pilot in this cockpit.

And that's the last word on this subject.

What qualifies for "something happening to you or String?"

Oh, my!

Made my gas money today, haven't I?

Oh, would you look at that?

Stop it.

Get that jeep. Move!

- Now let me understand this. - You don't like the plan.

- I didn't say that. - I did.

I'm just trying to get it all straight.

- Now, let me explain it again… - Let me explain.

One, you got that desert film job by underbidding us.

Two, you want us to fill your contract

for less than what you're getting.

Man, I'm losing money the moment I rev my engine. Hawke,

oh pal, buddy, come on.

So why do you have to make it on our buns?

- Makes sense. - What?

It's all gassed up, the camera's loaded, it's ready to go.

It'll take you 3 hours, tops.

Here's the coordinates, right here.

Sam, you are a disaster looking for a place to happen.

But you're not gonna happen on us.

Come on, String.

String.

Hi, Sam.

A fellow needs some recreation, huh?

Be ready in a second, hon.

I can't pass up a relationship like this, now can I, man?

String.

Please, please, please.

- No! - Sure.

Why?

Well, the fellow does need some recreation.

Listen, when you guys are done,

take the desert footage over to the Harcourt Lab for processing.

I promised the job for Thursday afternoon.

So have ‘em deliver it back, okay?

You want 8x10’s or wallet size?

Funny. Real funny, guys.

- How soon will the others arrive? - 72 hours.

I said 36, at the outside.

Well, the arrangements were more difficult than I expected.

What arrangements? To kill me or see me?

Look, they're all coming. Sloane from Miami,

Barlucci, Marcus from Detroit.

All friends and supporters.

How secure am I here?

We're completely isolated.

The girls had no idea where they were going.

We're in an oasis in the middle of the desert.

In fact, no one enters this compound unless I say so. No one leaves.

These next few days don't exist.

You don't exist.

One might even say you're dead.

What irks me is our bid on this job would have let me pay a few bills

and hire somebody to overhaul the Stearman.

What are you saying, Sam stuck it to us?

Well, he does it with pretty good style.

Boy, and the dolls he gets. I'd just like to have his rejects.

Okay, start filming now.

What did Sam say he wanted?

Just some general stock footage?

There's the train tracks.

There's a train on it.

So, he gets a train.

Got it.

Well, that should be enough. What's next on the list?

Open ground, some shacks, cars on a desert road. Stuff like that.

Right.

Whoa! Look at that.

What that? I'll run a few feet up to show you.

Oh, you pretty thing.

Oh, String, eat your heart out.

Hey, you better give us another run by.

Just so we get full coverage for Sam.

A helicopter? What the hell are they doing up there?

There's a camera mounted to that damn thing.

No, relax. They're around here all the time for the oil companies.

- They saw me. - No, no, no.

Get that film.

Kowal Air Service.

Good night, sweetheart.

I'll call you in the morning, okay?

- That sounds great. - See you tomorrow.

Take care.

There isn't a whole lot, but you're welcome to whatever you want.

What were you doing out there?

Where?

- Let's see the film. - What film?

What the hell did you do?

I hit him.

You broke his neck. Now if we don't find that film, we're dead, too.

Hey, hey, you can't go in there.

Oh, we’re friends of his.

We just did a job for Sam yesterday.

We wanted to find out what happened. Come on.

Yeah, you still can't go in there.

Well, who do we talk to?

Detective Sergeant Brannen.

Thanks.

Excuse me. Which one of you fellows is Detective Sergeant Brannen?

I am.

Do you have an interest here?

Well, we worked with this guy or we did work with him.

You were his employees?

Not exactly, we just kind of filled in.

We flew for him.

Like, you know, shuttle passengers, do film survey work.

Well, I got the same kind of operation right down the runway here.

And you are?

Dominic Santini.

S-A-N-T-I-N-I.

Thank you.

Stringfellow Hawke.

Do either of you have any idea who might want to do something like this to him?

Nobody that we know of. Sam had no enemies.

Great.

Listen, do you got a hunch?

No, I don't.

Will you try?

Junkies, looking for bread for another pop.

Somebody came by. They got scared.

Are you just saying that Sam was a random target?

There's an awful lot of that going around these days.

Well, that doesn't make any sense.

I mean, look at this place.

Hell, what would they think he had in there?

Have you ever seen a rational junkie?

Sam Kowal, victim of a sick society.

Write it off, huh, Detective?

You were the ones who said he didn't have any enemies, not me.

Well, he was divorced 3 times.

And he went bankrupt and his partners got hurt.

And he did play the ponies.

So, he wasn't exactly a candidate for sainthood.

Well, at least it gives us something to work on.

I am sorry about your friend.

But from the looks of this,

anybody could have done it.

And that usually means we may never know.

If you come up with anything else, give me a call.

- Did you kill her, too? - No, she's still breathing.

Shall I finish her off?

Forget it, we got what we came here for.

We know what lab the film is at. Now, let's go.

Now, that's a nice leg.

Yeah, not bad for an ex-cop from Texas.

Can you remember anything?

Like the shape of a head or skin color,

an item of clothing or smell?

Smell?

Well, like cologne or tobacco or garlic or oil on their clothes.

It all happened so fast, I really don't recall much of anything about it.

I've had better victims.

Oh, no, I heard someone mention pictures. No, no, no, no, no, film.

- You sure? - Yes, I heard one mention film.

Film?

Don't take the film, take the film,

can we peddle this film, look at all this damn film, what?

I don't know.

All I remember thinking is I'm not gonna buy it in a helicopter crash

like my Mom always said I would.

I was gonna die right now.

Then I passed out.

Well, I'll get back to you.

Yeah sure, the check's in the mail, too.

Given the facts that I don't have in this case,

I'm afraid I can't exactly tell you

that it's a top priority assignment.

Listen.

One friend is dead, the other is in the hospital.

What do we have to do to keep you on this case?

Look, Mr. Hawke, last night in this precinct alone,

there were 10 break-ins,

3 assaults, a murder and a suicide.

Now, I'm keeping on all of those cases, so you get off of mine.

Get some help.

Tell the Mayor.

Cool lady.

Yeah, just what we need.

I like her style.

I said the wrong thing?

Oh, no, no, no, no.

It's just that Sam wanted to sell out

a couple of months ago and drift.

And String, like the good friend,

sat him down and told him to shape up.

And that's why he stayed, to work it out.

I said the wrong thing.

So, what are we doin’ here?

Visiting, I suppose.

You know, somebody's gonna come along

and haul this junk away someday.

And that's

the last you're ever gonna hear of Sam Kowal.

I never could figure you and Sam as friends.

He was such a slob about his life.

And, you know, he was like a gypsy.

He was all over the map, may he rest in peace.

But you, you're so much the other way.

Maybe I thought he'd teach me something.

Yeah well, look, what's done is done.

Come on, let's go.

The cops have been over this place a dozen times.

You know, that lady cop's theory about the junkie thieves,

that didn't wash.

There's $10,000 worth of camera equipment.

They didn't paint up or graffiti the walls.

They didn't cut up the furniture, they just…

Hello, is anybody there?

Get the light.

What do you want?

To deliver this.

Hey, it's the film we made for Sam.

There's been a lot of break-ins led by street gangs.

Are you guys kidding? My Mom wouldn't let me join a book club.

You took long enough to get that film here.

Hey, you're lucky that that wasn't burned in the fire.

What fire?

The lab, it was torched tonight.

The cops said it was arson.

Here.

This doesn't deserve a funny remark.

You just made one, scram.

And don't slam the door.

Our place gets ripped off and then that lab burns.

One thing ties all that together.

This film.

Hey, and Caitlin said that the guys that hit her talked about film.

What happened?

I must have conked out on about the 33rd run through.

Well, the good guys got the girl.

Oh yeah, sure.

Oh, look at the time. You've been doing this all night.

Run it through again.

Oh, come on, String.

What do you expect to see?

A neon sign saying, "The killers went that way"?

I'd a lot rather see an oil company

or industrial espionage, something.

I mean what? That makes Brannen right.

Well, if you're asking me what,

how will you know when you've found it?

I'll know.

Oh sure, you'll know.

I'm off shift and I'm on my own time.

I don't like working at nights

because I usually run into the same kind of people

that I don't like meeting in the daytime.

So, you guys better have a pretty good reason for calling me.

How about, we have a film as the key to Sam Kowal's death.

You don't go in for big surprises, do you?

It's not easy to get your attention.

Is he always this charming?

Only when he tries.

Okay, I'm all eyes. What's this film show?

The desert.

Look,

Sam was killed

because somebody thought that he was in the chopper

that was taking this film of a certain area.

But it wasn't Sam.

What do you mean, "It wasn't Sam"?

It was us. We shot that film.

This is where I came in.

Enjoy the popcorn. Good night.

I'll turn out the lights.

So far, all I see is a lot of desert.

Pay attention.

We're get’n to the good part.

Girls in bathing suits?

Well, spent worse nights with men. Don't ask me when, though.

I still think that film's important.

For sentimental reasons.

Look, you and I got along just fine for the last couple of hours.

I kind of liked it that way.

Well, then maybe you can see what I see.

I do see what you see.

Don't you understand? That's the point.

I see a lot of desert, I see rocks, I see sand.

I see girls in bathing suits.

Sam's killer is out there somewhere.

I wish he was. For your sake, I wish he was.

Hey.

I thought if I watched it 3 dozen times

you might buy me breakfast.

We can provide cover for vehicles here, in the woods.

Some are coming by car.

How many by air?

All the Chicago people.

Shaughnessey, Lucas, most of the Western crowd.

I want them treated like royalty.

I want them…

Thank you.

I want them to know it's more than money.

But let's not kid each other. They're not all friends.

Well, I think those helicopters of yours will keep them honest.

It's going to be a sweet reunion after all these years.

You know the old joke.

We were so poor we had to go upstairs

to answer the phone in the hall.

Then my Father got hurt on a part-time job and we didn't even have that.

So, we came west.

We lived in a tin shack right on the edge of the desert.

You could fry eggs on our roof most of the year.

That was when we had eggs.

And then at night, we just froze.

You can't believe how cold it gets out there.

Do you know my Father was still insisting on his deathbed

that he could get back up on his feet without anybody else's help.

How old were you?

When Daddy died?

14 years old.

You still have your people?

No. They were lost in a boating accident when I was about 10.

Well, Dominic raised me like a Father.

Are you angry, too?

At who?

At your parents

for leaving you so soon.

Listen to us.

It beats scrapping at each other.

Well, how do you do, Stringfellow Hawke?

It's nice to finally meet you.

At last.

Can you wait a minute for breakfast?

I really think I should stop up here.

Go ahead.

Hey Charlie, need a good cop?

Yeah, better take a look.

The old man's dog was looking around after a jackrabbit.

Who was it?

Harmless old lady.

Looked for rocks. Lived in her own world.

What is it?

Pot-heads, huh? You think junkies did this?

Hawke, the old lady's car crashed and burned.

Now you can't make anything out of that.

This vehicle was hit by rocket fire.

Don't you think that's a slight overkill?

Well, I've seen enough of it to know.

Charlie, are there any next of kin?

Sorry, none that we know of.

Well, will you keep trying to locate some, see if she has any family?

Sure will.

Are you okay?

Sam was killed 'cause they thought he was in that chopper

when we flew over this area.

They thought he took pictures

of something he wasn't supposed to see in this desert.

We don't know that.

Well, then what did this old lady bump into that cost her her life?

Oh, come on, Hawke. That's a pretty big stretch

to try and connect 2 completely isolated incidents.

Come on, let's go.

A little service here. A little service.

Hey, Dom, how's it goin’?

Yeah, it's goin’. You?

Can't complain. You wanna menu?

No, I don't wanna menu. I wanna sandwich.

What kind?

Salami cotto and provolone.

Italian bread?

What else? And throw in a few French fries, will you?

Willis, what's that smoke over at Santini's?

Call in a fire.

Here you go. Salami and cheese.

No plate.

Hey Dom, your hanger's on fire.

No mustard.

Dominic, no, no, no. You can't go in there.

My helicopters!

Well, they got the film.

You don't give up, do you?

What, you think this fire's a coincidence?

Mr. Santini, what did the investigator say?

They don't know what started it. Maybe it was me.

Oh come on, Dom.

Oh, I tell you, I don't remember.

See, I was making coffee. And then I…

I was usin’ solvent on machine parts, maybe that did it.

That's not what happened.

All right.

Look, the department investigated Sam Kowal.

They got nothing but dead ends

with his ex-wives, his ex-partners and his ex-bookies.

Why are you so convinced…

Somebody wanted it bad enough.

To kill?

Twice.

Okay, who are our suspects here?

How many people knew about the film?

Well, me and String knew.

And me, that's 3.

And Caitlin, oh, and the lab people.

And the delivery boy.

- That's it. - There are always more.

I told Everett and a couple of guys over at the coffee wagon.

I told them.

And more and more and more.

Don't worry Hawke, we'll keep trying.

We'll stay on it.

Thanks for breakfast.

Come on, let's go for a drive.

String?

What makes you think that whatever is down there

will be so accommodating as to let us photograph it, twice?

Just a hunch.

Well, what do you see?

Noth’n.

Hold it.

Right there at the intersection.

I don't know.

Several men.

Big, expensive cars. Looks like some kind of

a big-time gathering of people for some reason.

Let's make another hard print.

This time plus 8 magnifications of that area.

Well, use the magnifying glass.

Well, I'll be damned.

What? What?

That's it.

What? What?

Detective Brannen.

Yeah, this is Hawke, we got him.

Well, hello to you, too.

Does the name Kenneth Langhorn mean anything to you?

He disappeared.

Yeah, we found him.

What are you talking about?

Well, we've got film proof.

Kenneth Langhorn in living color.

Where are you right now?

I'm at my cabin, but I'll meet you back at the airfield.

I think I better talk to my Captain.

Keep a tight lid on this until I get back to you, okay?

You got it.

You must be a millionaire by now.

No objections. When I get good service, I'm happy to pay the tab.

And you have been a lot of help from time to time.

Where does it go, Swiss bank account?

Or do they make safe deposit boxes big enough to hold it all?

You're a fascinating woman, I must tell you.

That's not for sale.

And you Kenneth, it's like you're back from the dead.

Kenneth, it's been a long time.

It's good to be back.

Gentlemen, we are about to divide up the United States.

This far enough out for ya?

I know, I'm sorry.

Captain wanted to meet you away from the station and this is…

This is away, I can tell.

Well, the syndicate has a very long reach, you know.

Even into our little department.

Yeah, I read the papers.

Okay, fine. How about better too careful than not careful enough?

You sure are nervous.

This is a major situation.

Your hands are awful cold, too.

Just like my heart.

I'm a tough cookie, just like you are.

Yeah, I was a little tough on ya

when I first met ya, I apologize.

That's okay, it was my fault.

I didn't realize that Sam Kowal and you were such good friends.

Guess that'd be your Captain.

What's the matter?

It's just that I had an awful lot of things I really wanted to say to you.

Why?

I'm sorry.

Why would you sell your soul to an animal like Langhorn?

Because once you've been cold, you don't ever get warm.

God help me.

We'll take over from here.

No, that's not the plan.

You take the film.

I'll keep him here until it's too late for him to stop that meeting.

Langhorn changed his mind.

Come on, let's go. Get in the car.

Let's go. Let's get him.

Dominic, come in. Come in, Dom.

Get out here as fast as you can. We were right.

We're on our way, String.

Turbos.

Turbos.

You knew, knew all along.

And I was praying I was wrong.

How?

That fire, those hoods hitting Santini Air

when I showed you the film, everything just pointed to you.

I just didn't wanna believe it.

Give me guns and rockets.

Brannen!

Langhorn is leaving.

The hell with Langhorn.

He's leaving the country today.

In the salt flats airstrip.

I don't care. I'm gonna get you to a doctor. You hang on.

No.

I'm sorry.

Oh God, I'm sorry.

It all could've been so different.

I thought we had an agreement.

We did. Only we're gonna make it better.

Fellas, I came back into the country

so I could repay you for covering my disappearance

and so we could cement a new deal.

Well, we don't think you can handle it without us.

What do you want?

All of it.

We own it all,

every state, every racket.

You run it for us.

I work for you?

Like that.

Okay.

You're not upset?

Leon, this meeting is in the spirit of cooperation.

I can't say it was unexpected.

Where are you going?

We need something to write an agreement on.

Hey, don't you trust us?

Now, I trust everybody.

My God.

It's the St. Valentines Day massacre all over again.

Hey, I got some bogies on the screen, maybe 3 miles out.

Maybe? Hit the ID button.

Yes sir, identify.

Well they're helicopters, but they're more like gunships.

These guys are armed to the teeth.

Covering Langhorn's exit. Turbos.

Turbos.

Radio one of our ships to knock it down

and get me to the airstrip, fast!

Get him. Get him.

Hawke, listen, I didn't want to bring this up before, but

what did you end up telling those investigators?

Well, I just said that Detective Sergeant Brannen was out there with

Langhorn under surveillance. She did it by the book.

And I let it go at that.

You're a good guy, Stringfellow Hawke.

Well, don't let it let around, huh?