High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Fire Birds (also known as Wings of the Apache) is a 1990 action-thriller film directed by David Green and produced by William Badalato, Keith Barish and Arnold Kopelson. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Paul F. Edwards, Nick Thiel and David Taylor. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones and Sean Young. Cage is cast as a helicopter pilot attempting to help dismantle a drug cartel in South America. Jones plays his pilot instructor and senior ranked military officer during his flight training, while Young portrays his love interest.