Aviation movies

[Whirlwind]

Originally posted by Typhoon1244 I'm surprised nobody mentioned Die Hard II.

Remember when the where the evil villains "reset the ground level" on the ILS, causing the British DC-8-73 to crash on the overrun.

Hey, when I first saw that movie, I really thought you could do that! Wasn't a pilot at the time however.

Oh, and how did you like the way the same DC-8, carrying almost no gas, burned like a blowtorch?

Now THAT I did question. I wrote it off to the "Hollywood Factor".

How about the fact that all the pilots had to do was talk to center and go somewhere else...and the whole movie would never have happened?

Hmm, never thought of that either. Again, not a pilot back then. I suppose I did wonder why they couldn't just fly somewhere else, but then again, the "Hollywood Factor" takes care of that stuff.

 

[want to be xcop]

What about, "the Great Waldo Pepper"?

 

[LearLove]

Fandango - the best paint job on a 172 I've ever seen. I think thats where South West got their idea for their paint jobs. I love the scene where they lasho (sp) the car to the passing train.

 

[starvingcfi]

two words baby. AIR AMERICA

 

[skidbuggy]

God Bless Paul Mantz.


For those who don't remember him, he flew the Beech 18 through the billboard in 'Its a Mad Mad Mad World'.

Sadly he was killed during the filming of 'The Flight of the Phoenix'

 

[Brother Francis]

Capricorn 1- the Lear really hit the car. The left main was really knocked off.

Dr. Strangelove- loved the BUFF's shadow.

 

[bobbysamd]

Movies

I agree with Typhoon1244's choices, above. A Gathering of Eagles was good. I got a little sick of Top Gun after a while. Don't forget about Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.

Catch-.22 may not have that many specific aviation-related scenes but it was an interesting story. Tora! Tora! Tora! was exciting to watch. Air America had those great clandestine C-123s.

Finally, Twelve O'Clock High. I sure wish the 1960s TV show that was based on the movie could be brought back in reruns.

 

[Flight_Line]

You folks missed "Ground Control" with Keefer (sp?) Sutherland. Now there is a bad movie. It sounds like it is close to "On a Wing and a Prayer" as far as the plot goes. The high point of the movie occurs when fictional ARTCC looses radar one last airliner is still out there in the big storm gets struck by lightning (didn't see that one coming at all) and now can only turn left a-la UA232 and now must maneuver with differential thrust only the crew doesn't know what a compass is and therefore center must TIME the differential thrust for the pilots sort of just like in "Apollo 13". Oh and I almost forgot, the ILS goes out when a goose hits a little rotating thingy on the ILS tower which appears to be nowhere near a runway.

My vote for the best pilot movie would have to be "Airplane!"
Rodger, Rodger

 

[RightPedal]

My favorite was Cannonball Run with Bert Renyolds and Dom Deluise. They land a Maule in a small Georgia Town between Traffic Lights, swing into a parking place and grad a six pak. BD Maule did many stunts like this to show what his airplanes could do. You can see it at http://www.mauleairinc.com/____Maule_in_the_Movies/____Cannonball_Run/Cannonball_1/cannonball_1.html

 

[ILS JNKY]

walker texas ranger

They had a scean where these to bad guys do a bank robbery in the middle of the day with an airplane , that was cool.


12 o clock high was on turner tv a few weeks ago, man that show is still good.


Then there was SKYKING flying around in his twin with the girl named penny,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[busdrver]

Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines. Actually a comedy. I believe Paul Mantz (or maybe it was Frank Tallman, his partner) worked on that movie.

 

[pilotyip]

Island in the sky

A great aviaiton movie, starring John Wayne based upon at rue strory written by E. Gann. Airplane froced landing in Cananda and the search and rescue to find them/

 

[Booker]

I might make some people laugh with this comment, but I think the most realistically executed "airline disaster" movie was CBS's depiction of the Aloha flight which suffered an in-flight breakup of the fuselage (Miracle Landing).

And in case anybody missed it, this is the movie Chunk was referring to as being on Lifetime. I agree that is fairly accurate. I even have a picture of the real FO standing at the top of the 1L escape slide as the pax were de-planing.

 

[bozz66]

I remember seeing a TV movie about the DC-10 that lost all it's hydraulic systems and crashed in Sioux City. It starred Charleton Heston as the captain. I don't think I was a pilot yet when it came out so I can't really remember if it was very realistic. Anyone remember seeing it?

 

[RunUp]

Twelve O'clock High

and of course......

The Stewardesses in 3-D

 

[dmspilot00]

I remember seeing a TV movie about the DC-10 that lost all it's hydraulic systems and crashed in Sioux City. It starred Charleton Heston as the captain. I don't think I was a pilot yet when it came out so I can't really remember if it was very realistic. Anyone remember seeing it?

Yes, that was the United 232 movie I mentioned. I believe they followed actual ATC tapes pretty closely. They also used actual news footage of the crash. However the movie itself just wasn't that good. The actual flight only covered maybe 20 minutes of the movie, before that was a long boring introduction which took place at the airport while they were having emergency practice drills, and the rest focused on rescuing the survivors, I think.

 

[SIGman]

Its a mad mad mad mad world

Great airplane scenes - flying through the bilboard and under that hanger.

--

Flight of the Intruder. (plenty of cheeze, but fun)

 

[Typhoon1244]

I remember seeing a TV movie about the DC-10 that lost all it's hydraulic systems and crashed in Sioux City. It starred Charleton Heston as the captain.

Captain Al Haines, the real-life captain of United 232, has got to be the most humble, unassuming man I've ever come across. I wonder how he felt having "Moses" portray him in the movie...?

Somebody mentioned Capticorn One...one of my all-time favorites, even though it has O.J. playing an astronaut. This movie has at its end the greatest aerial chase scene ever filmed, a pair of OH-6's versus a biplane crop-duster. Really exciting!

One other cool thing about Capricorn...: the periodic voice-overs by "Paul Cunningham, Capricorn control." These are basically summaries of what's going on throughout the mission for the benefit of the press. At the beginning of the movie, Cunningham even describes what the astronauts had for breakfast. It lends a lot of credibility and realism to a movie that would otherwise have problems.

Here's another one. I was recently re-watching 2001, probably the most realistic movie ever made about space travel. Anyway, I got thinking about the Pan Am Orion III shuttle that's depicted in this movie. In a time where orbital and lunar airline travel become routine, what kinds of things would pilots be bitching about? Is there anything to do while you're on a layover on the Moon? Are there any decent restaurants on that "wagon-wheel" space station? (We know it has a Hilton, so there's probably a restaurant that has 8-oz. steaks for $65.) Is Chataqua flying 777's by now? Do the approach controllers in the Sea of Tranquility always take two or three calls to answer?

Of course, 2001 was two years ago...my, what progress we've made.

 

[Low & Slow]

Memphis Belle, The Tuskegee Airmen and I've heard High Road to China is good but I haven't been able to find it.

 

[Low & Slow]

Also, Empire of the Sun. Spielberg camera work of the P-51 Mustang "Cadillac of the Sky".