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.

[1] On November 15, 1982, Janet Harduvel (Laura Dern) is devastated by the news of the death of her husband Ted (Vincent Spano) who flew as a United States Air Force pilot in one of the world's most sophisticated fighter aircraft, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.

With the help of her lawyer, Leo Morrone (Robert Loggia), and her sister Mary (Welker White), Harduvel begins the long process of unraveling the lies and deception that are behind a joint military and General Dynamics cover-up that blames the accident on pilot error.

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[3] Captain Theodore T. Harduvel's widow, Janet, was the focus of the production and her assistance was paramount in presenting an accurate portrait of the struggle to clear her husband's memory and legacy.

[5] In 1987, Janet Harduvel won a $3.1 million jury award against General Dynamics Corporation, alleging a flight instrumentation malfunction due to a short circuit caused by frayed ("chafed") wiring, led to his crash.

Harduvel's final mission, he relied on his faulty instrument reading that showed him close to terrain, but did not indicate that he was upside down and his "pull out" actually propelled him at full power, inverted, into a hillside.

Ken Tucker considered that the film, dedicated to the memory of Ted Harduvel, was successful because of "complex performances of Spano and, especially, Dern—they give 'Afterburn' the emotional weight its real-life subjects deserve.