In Ron Howard's 1991 action classic Backdraft, Russell stars as the conflicted Chicago firefighter Lt. Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey, who has experienced personal tragedy in his line of work and at home, and he now struggles to make sound decisions on the job. But when a series of arson cases brings his own department under fire, Bull sets to work trying to find out who could cause so much devastation. He eventually discovers that only someone with deep knowledge of firefighting would be able to create such deadly backdrafts — and the investigation ultimately leads him to his longtime mentor, Scott Glenn's John "Axe" Adcox.
In one distinctly gutting scene, Bull confronts Axe at a chemical plant and his worst suspicions are confirmed about the man who helped raise him after his father's untimely death. Despite all the destruction and harm he has caused, though, when a catwalk is destroyed in the ongoing explosion, Bull tries to save Adcox. Their bond is so strong that he refuses to release Adcox's hand even as he loses his own grip on safety and then utters the film's most famous line, "You go, we go."
