Backdraft is a 1991 action thriller film directed by Ron Howard and written by Gregory Widen. The film stars Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rebecca De Mornay, Donald Sutherland, and Robert De Niro. Jason Gedrick and J. T. Walsh co-star in the film. The story is about firefighters in Chicago on the trail of a serial arsonist who sets fires with a fictional chemical substance, trychtichlorate.

The film grossed $77,868,585 in its domestic run and $74,500,000 from foreign markets, making it the highest grossing film ever made about firefighters. Its total worldwide gross is $152,368,585. The film was also a success at the Academy Awards, receiving a full three nominations.

The film tells the story of a group of Chicago firefighters at Engine 17, two of whom are brothers. Lt. Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey (Kurt Russell), the elder, is experienced and obsessed with beating the fires that he fights, being always at the most dangerous part of a conflagration. Brian McCaffrey (William Baldwin), Stephen's brother, has labored under his brother's shadow all his life. He returns to firefighting after a number of other career attempts falter, though Stephen has doubts that Brian is fit to be a firefighter. As a child in 1971, Brian witnessed the death of their father, Dennis (also played by Kurt Russell), firsthand when a gas pipe ruptured and burned him alive.

A backdraft is an explosive event at a fire resulting from rapid re-introduction of oxygen to combustion in an oxygen-starved environment, for example, the breaking of a window or opening of a door to an enclosed space. Backdrafts present a serious threat to firefighters, even those with a high level of experience. There is some controversy surrounding the question of whether backdrafts should be considered a type of flashover (see below).

A backdraft is a situation which can occur when a fire's product-gases are starved of oxygen; consequently combustion slows (due to the lack of oxygen) but the combustible fuel gases (primarily carbon monoxide) and smoke (primarily hydrocarbon free radicals and particulate matter) remain at a temperature above the ignition-point of the fuel gases. If oxygen is re-introduced to the fire, e.g. by opening a door (or window) to a closed room, combustion will restart, often resulting in an explosive effect as the gases are heated by the combustion and expand rapidly because of the rapidly increasing temperature.

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.