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MITCHELL GANT

gant_mitchell_bk_firefoxdown aubrey_kenneth_mv_ff gant_mitchell_bk_firefox gant_mitchell_bk_adw gant_mitchell_bk_wh gant_mitchell_gm_atariff gant_mitchell_gm_ff
 
Full Name: Mitchell Gant
Nationality: American
Organization: British Intelligence
Occupation Agent

Creator: Craig Thomas
Time Span: 1977 - 1996

ABOUT THE SERIES

Mitchell Gant is an agent with the CIA.

Was an agent. And then wasn't and then was again but in conjunction with British Intelligence. And then he is back working for the Agency before saying a permanent goodbye and going to work in the private sector before, when we last find him, getting employment with the NTSB investigating suspicious airplane crashes.

Gant was born and raised in a small town of Clarksville in some midwestern state but the less remembered by him of that time the better for him, though we are told "Gant had never escaped from Clarkville. He carried it with him, wherever he went. It had shaped him". The one good thing he took from those early days was a love of flying that came to him when he was a young kid when a small plane landed on the county road and pulled into a service station for fuel.

As soon as he was old enough, Gant joined the U.S. Air Force and worked diligently to earn his wings and become a fighter pilot. The Vietnam War was going on at the time and he was naturally sent there for combat. When the F-4 Phantom he was piloting was shot down in a dogfight, he was nearly captured. His salvation would turn into a cause of PTSD when American planes dropped napalm in the area which provided him an opportunity to escape guerillas after him but he witnessed the horrific incineration of a Vietnamese girl travelling with the group; the nightmares from that would haunt him forever. He would leave the USAF with the rank of Major.

He would later get his first recruitment with the CIA but when that ended, his life did a nosedive and he took strongly to drinking. Sobriety comes when he is again approached by the Agency for the mission that comprises the first recorded adventure. The CIA/British Intelligence team wanted him because of his flying experience and because, thanks to his mother, he had a native's grasp of Russian.

Over the next few adventures, we will find Gant leaving the Agency yet again, trying and failing at marriage, and then finally finding a job that he seemed to actually enjoy.

BOOKS

Number of Books:4
First Appearance:1977
Last Appearance:1996

1 Firefox Firefox
Written by Craig Thomas
Copyright: 1977

Codenamed Firefox, the Soviet MIG-31 is a thought-controlled warbird able to eliminate anything else in the air. Mitchell Gant is a renegade American pilot who is the perfect man to fly it out of Russia, if Aubrey can manage to sneak him in.

2 Firefox Down Firefox Down
Written by Craig Thomas
Copyright: 1983

This book takes place exactly at the end of "Firefox". The Mig has been damaged in the escape and Gant must land it. Choosing a frozen lake in Finland, he is caught by the KGB.

3 Winter Hawk Winter Hawk
Written by Craig Thomas
Copyright: 1987

An American spy gets word out that the Soviets are planning to launch a laser weapon into space. Mitchell Gant is sent to get the spy out so the details can be learned.

4 A Different War A Different War
Written by Craig Thomas
Copyright: 1996

Mitchell Gant is back, a civilian now and working as an airplane crash investigator. The CEO of a major U.S. airplane manufacturer wants help proving a recent crash of a new plane was commercial sabotage. Aubrey lends a hand on the British side of things.

MOVIES

Number of Movies:1
First Appearance:1982
Last Appearance:1982

1 Firefox Firefox
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Alex Lasker, Wendell Wellman, Craig Thomas
Actors: Clint Eastwood as Mitchell Gant, Freddie Jones as Kenneth Aubrey, David Huffman as Captain Buckholz, Warren Clarke as Pavel Upenskoy
Released: 1982

Mitchell Gant is pulled in by Kenneth Aubrey to sneak into the Soviet Union and hijack their last jet fighter, the MIG-31 Firefox, which can use a pilot's thoughts to control it. The trouble is he needs to think in Russian.

GAMES

Number of Games:2
First Appearance:1983
Last Appearance:1983

1 Firefox Firefox
Game Type: Laservideo Arcade
Published by: Atari, Inc.
Copyright: 1983

A shooter kind of game that was found in arcades and stores across North America (US & Canada) that was based on the movie that starred Clint Eastwood.
There were two versions of the game, an upright and a sit down cabinet with a yoke style controller. It was also the only game to use a Video Game Cartridge (Laserdisc).
It was listed as one of the three most popular games back then.

2 Firefox Firefox
Game Type: Video Game
Published by: Atari, Inc.
Copyright: 1983

A video game cartridge for the Atari 2600 VCS (home video game console) making it possible to play a different version at home from the arcade. This was also based on the movie that starred Clint Eastwood.

MY COMMENTS

Though the author had already penned one spy adventure novel, it would be his second that would bring him the most fame of anything he would write. The success of the book came from not only the quality of the writing and the excitement the book contained but also because it was optioned by Clint Eastwood and turned into a highly successful techno-thriller movie.

The author's use of Gant is rather haphazard, IMHO. I do not think he much liked the guy. Certainly he did little to make life the least bit enjoyable for the man and let him spend a lot of time looking at the bottom of a whiskey glass.

But Craig Thomas did know how to pen some pretty impressive and enjoyable spy thrillers, albeit with a ton of aircraft always involved.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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