Canada built the world's fastest plane, then torched it. Patriotism meets heartbreak.
The story of the Avro Arrow, the world's fastest fighter plane built in 1950's Canada, and how the project was dropped due to political pressure from the United States.
Direction
McBrearty turns budget constraints into intimate tension.
Acting
Aykroyd's best non-comedic performance, genuinely wounded.
Director
Don McBrearty
Dan Aykroyd
Crawford Gordon Jr.
Sara Botsford
Kate O'Hara
Aidan Devine
Jim Chamberlin
Nigel Bennett
James (Jim) Floyd
Jonathan Whittaker
Fred Smye
Ian D. Clark
Edward Critchley
David Lawrence Brown
Joe Paloffski
Catherine Fitch
Ruby Paloffski
Robin Gammell
C.D. Howe
Robert Haley
John George Diefenbaker
Michael Moriarty
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Michael Ironside
CIA Director
Christopher Plummer
George Hees
Mauralea Austin
June Callwood
Colette Stevenson
Claire Connors
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The production built a full-scale Arrow replica because no originals survived—Diefenbaker's government destroyed all prototypes and blueprints in 1959.
This TV movie aired during the 1997 Quebec referendum, deliberately stoking Canadian unity anxieties. The Arrow became shorthand for 'what Ottawa steals from us.'
CA
US
