Steal the Sky is a 1988 HBO film directed by John D. Hancock and starring Mariel Hemingway and Ben Cross. It is based on the true story of Iraqi fighter pilot Munir Redfa, who defected by flying a MiG-21 to Israel in 1966.
In the film, Helen Mason (Hemingway), an American-born Israeli intelligence operative, is sent to Iraq to manipulate a pilot into delivering a Soviet fighter jet for Israeli defense research. She seduces Munir Redfa (Cross) and uses the relationship as leverage—but finds herself genuinely in love with him, which complicates everything. He is caught between her and his loyalty to Iraq. Mariel Hemingway is extraordinarily beautiful, and the film knows it—the camera is half in love with her from the first scene.
Ben Cross, best known for playing Harold Abrahams in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire, died in Vienna in 2020. He was 72.