Backdraft is an American movie released in 1991, directed by Ron Howard. Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro and Scott Glenn star. Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rebecca De Mornay, Jason Gedrick and J.T. Walsh are also featured.

The story is about firefighters in Chicago on the trail of a serial arsonist.

The film received three Academy Award nominations. It also received two nominations at the first annual MTV Movie Awards.

The Japanese cooking TV show Iron Chef made extensive use of the music from this movie.

The film is the basis of an attraction at Universal Studios Theme Parks where visitors can learn how the pyrotechnic effects were created and experience some of them first hand.

While there are not many movies devoted to firefighters, Backdraft has been criticised for some unrealistic elements, especially for depicting fire as kind of sentient. Also, some firefighting tactics employed in the movie are quite far from real life. In terms of realism, the 1970s TV series Emergency! did a much better job.

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