Afterburn is a 1992 drama film written and produced for television, based on a true story where one woman takes on the United States military and General Dynamics, manufacturer of the F-16 jet fighter aircraft that took her husband's life. The docudrama starred Laura Dern, Robert Loggia, and Vincent Spano. The film's name is derived from the "Afterburner" bar where the central character, who works as a waitress, met her future husband, a setting that forms the focus of the first part of the film.

Gary Basaraba is a Canadian actor. He appeared as Sergeant Richard Santoro on Steven Bochco's Brooklyn South and Officer Ray Hechler on the critically acclaimed but short-lived Boomtown. He has worked for Martin Scorsese three times, first in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and then The Irishman (2019) and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).