The comic spoof of the Cold War was inspired by a May 1960 incident involving United States Francis Gary Powers, a CIA operative whose Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking an international diplomatic incident. Writer John Blatty's tale concerns John "Wrong-Way" Goldfarb, a former college football star who once ran 95 yards for a touchdown in the wrong direction. Now a U-2 aviator, his plane malfunctions and crashes in the mythical Arab monarchy of Fawzia.