Aviation movies

[Typhoon1244]

Re: URL

Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy

A buddy of mine used to be a cryptographer in the Navy. Secret stuff. One of those guys who can talk to you for an hour about what he did in the service, and at the end of the hour, you still don't know what he did.

Anyway, he tells me that Tailspin was alarming for being a little too accurate. Apparently there are some callsigns and codes in that movie that are still..."sensetive," from an intelligence standpoint.

They must've had a very, very connected technical advisor...

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

Pearl Harbor

I can't believe Pearl Harbor hasn't been mentioned yet. That has to rate at least in the top three. Starring that great American Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Dolittle and Ben Affleck (J'Lo's flavor of the month and Hollywood's most intelligent actor). Hollywood went to great lengths to ensure the movie's accuracy.

 

[Junioriuie]

For anyone that thinks Turbulence was bad, you gotta go rent Turbulence 2....Yes, they made a sequel. I've never laughed so hard in my life. There was a definate reason why it never made it to the theaters.

 

[alimaui]

Am I the only one

I must add, When a man loves woman (Andy Garcia, Meg Ryan) and Bounce (ben affleck, gwyneth paltrow) are two wonderful airplane movies!



ALi

 

[laker inbound]

"The Dawn Patrol" with Errol Flynn and David Niven. A great film about the RAF.

 

[B190Captain]

The best one I have seen was "Airport 1975" when a Beech Baron collides with a 747 on the right side of the flight deck and the First Officer was sucked out and Erik Estrada (hahahah!!) was the Second officer.

The movie itself was kinda cheesy but in the age before "blue screen" special effects the spot plane footage of the 747 was a site to see.

I was 6 when the movie came out but I would watch it again.

Enjoy!!

 

[Typhoon1244]

Re: Pearl Harbor

I can't believe Pearl Harbor hasn't been mentioned yet. That has to rate at least in the top three. Starring that great American Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Dolittle and Ben Affleck (J'Lo's flavor of the month and Hollywood's most intelligent actor). Hollywood went to great lengths to ensure the movie's accuracy.

I get it, this is sarcasm! Right?

Where do I begin?

(1) James Doolittle was a soft-spoken professional who held a couple of Masters degrees. Alec Baldwin played him as a hard-headed regular-Army ignoramus.

(2) Doolittle never commanded a fighter squadron.

(3) Ever seen the inside of a P-40's cockpit? Think you could fly one anywhere near right-side-up with Kate Beckinsale sitting your lap? (Lord knows I'd try...did you see her nude scenes in Haunted?)

(4) Admiral Yamamoto wasn't aboard any aircraft carriers on December 7-8...he was aboard Nagato, a battleship, back in Japan. And he never said anything about awakening "sleeping giants." That was dreamed up by the scriptwriter for Tora! Tora! Tora!

(5) In reality, the ships on Battleship Row were moored "bumper-to-bumper." There was no space for Zeros, Vals, and Kates to go winging in between them. Even if they could, the anti-aircraft gunners trying to engage them would have been spraying rounds into the ships and sailors next door.

(6) Arizona wasn't dealt her fatal blow until well into the battle. The movie shows her being blown apart in the first two minutes.

(7) The portrayal of F.D.R. standing up in front of his military advisors? Garbage. As a matter of fact, the military folks were pushing very hard for some sort of retaliatory raid. They weren't the heartless wimps shown in the movie.

(8) Do you really think Rafe's girlfriend could have just waltzed into a top-secret facility monitoring the Doolittle raid on Japan? And by the way, how was anybody in Hawaii listening to radio transmissions from a battle taking place 3,400 miles away in real time?

(9) Have you read about how competitive Army flight training was during the 1938-1942 period? There is absolutely no f___ing way Rafe would have made it all the way through with dyslexia...even with the help of one friendly nurse.

And as for "Hollywood's most intellignet actor"...Ben Afleck once said on Jay Leno's tonight show that regional airline pilots were "like the guys in high school who couldn't make the varsity team." (He had come into town on Skywest...)

Ben Afleck is a prick.

This movie may have had some cool sequences in it, but as far as accuracy is concerned it's embarassing! And it's particularly insulting to General Doolittle. Many of the B-25 pilots and crewmembers who flew that historic raid that are still living expressed great displeasure with this movie. Go rent Tora! Tora! Tora! and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo instead.

 

[mckpickle]

...............

It was a DC-10...maybe a freak lightnigng strike took off an engine and tore out a bunch of hydraulic lines.

I never figured out why Hanks got thrown aft when they hit the water, a prety glaring error if you ask me.

And as for number two still running after the plane hit the water and broke in half...the technical advisor must've been on his lunch brake. Even if such a thing could happen, the #2 fan is buried deep inside the DC-10's tail-mounted intake. It's not at the front of the nacelle as it's depicted in the movie. Hanks shouldn't have been able to see that big ol' fan coming at him at all.

DC-10??? Didnt that have an awful lot of Glass up front to be a 10?

On a side note, someone mentioned Fate is the Hunter. (required reading imo) Where the hell can I find that movie, I;ve been looking for years.

 

[Typhoon1244]

DC-10??? Didnt that have an awful lot of Glass up front to be a 10?

I was pretty sure it was a '10. I don't remember seeing any winglets.

UPS has glass in their DC-8's...any FedEx guys out there who can shed light on this avionics question?

 

[EagleRJ]

Re: Re: Pearl Harbor

I get it, this is sarcasm! Right?

Where do I begin?

(6) Arizona wasn't dealt her fatal blow until well into the battle. The movie shows her being blown apart in the first two minutes.



This movie may have had some cool sequences in it, but as far as accuracy is concerned it's embarassing! And it's particularly insulting to General Doolittle. Many of the B-25 pilots and crewmembers who flew that historic raid that are still living expressed great displeasure with this movie. Go rent Tora! Tora! Tora! and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo instead.

I agree. I was looking forward to seeing Pearl Harbor in the theater, and in the end, it was just another Top Gun. I should have expected as much from Jerry Bruckheimer/ Michael Bay!

A pilot would have to be either pretty good or pretty unfortunate to serve with the Eagle Squadron, then make it back to Pearl Harbor in time for the attack, and then switch to Army Air Force B-25s for the Doolittle Raid!
And, did you notice the angle-deck aircraft carrier in one of the shots? Whoops.

A minor correction- the Arizona WAS sunk in the opening minutes of the attack. Aikimo Fuchida, who was leading the air strike, had two different battle plans, depending on whether surprise had been achieved or not. His plan fell apart, and all the planes attacked at the same time, with the high-level bombers attacking Battleship Row instead of Hickam Field. One of the bombers scored a lucky hit on the Arizona with an armor-piercing artillery shell that had been modified with fins.

 

[Chunk]

I watched Pearl Harbor in Japan. I thought I'd be particularly happy to see it there, but the movie sucked. Three hour movie about Pearl Harbor and the attack doesn't happen until the third hour?

Okay.

Chunk

 

[Booker]

I was pretty sure it was a '10. I don't remember seeing any winglets.

UPS has glass in their DC-8's...any FedEx guys out there who can shed light on this avionics question?

Probably an MD-10 (no, seriously): a DC-10 that's had an MD-11 cockpit transplant. I'm pretty sure at least some of FDX's 10s have undergone the upgrade.

 

[bigD]

alimaui - of COURSE you're the only one to mention those two! My gf dragged me to When a Man Loves a Woman with the line, "But Andy Garcia plays a commercial pilot in the movie! You'll love it!"

Uh huh.

 

[TXCAP4228]

Airplane, Memphis Belle, Top Gun.

 

[Typhoon1244]

Re: Re: Re: Pearl Harbor

A minor correction- the Arizona WAS sunk in the opening minutes of the attack.

Not according to Gordon Prange's At Dawn We Slept, the most thoroughly researched book I've ever encountered. According to survivors and the logs of other ships, it was almost an hour into the raid when Arizona blew up. In fact, Oklahoma was already keel-up when Arizona bought it.

 

[cessna_driver2]

I don't know if it was mentioned, but how about the old tv show flying tigers or The black sheep sqd . BLk sheep had some decent air to air scenes.

 

[TXCAP4228]

Regardless of the possible timeline inaccuracies in Pearl Harbor, I thought the scenes of the 109's and Spitifires and then the P40s and the Zeros mixing it up were pretty good.

 

[Rook]

There was an HBO movie called 'Afterburn' that came out in the early 90's. A true account of the early wire chafing problems with the F-16 which killed several pilots. Not too cheesy a movie starring Laura Dern (Jurassic Park).

And don't forget An Officer and a Gentleman. Which gave us some memorable lines like...

"Be proud of 'dem wings boy! They're the only ones you're gonna leave here with! MAYO NAISE!"

and...
"CAUSE NAPALM STICKS TO KIDS!!"

and how could we forget the priceless classic...
"Don't you eyeball me boy! I'll rip your eyes out of their sockets and SkullF**K you to death!"

Rook
600' AGL
Autopilot on.
'WHEW!'

 

[B52GUNNER]

How about :

A Gathering of Eagles Rock Hudson
Bombers B-52 Karl Malden
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Midway
Tora Tora Tora
Flying Leathernecks
Hellcats of the Navy
The Final Countdown Martin Sheen
There was another one about Mac McConnell in Korea but can't remember the name.

All I can think of at the moment


C'est La Vie

 

[PA28/C172 Flyer]

2 more

I don't remember seeing these in the thread.

How bout Air Force One? Has that little escape pod ever been confirmed to actually exist on the Prez's Jumbo? I remember when the movie came out that that was a big question.

And what I thought was a great scene, be it Hollywooded, was from Behind Enemy Lines when the F18 was trying to lose the stinger missile. I remember watching that scene with my jaw open and eyes bugging out. Reality aside, it was still intense.

 

[TXCAP4228]

Air Force 1

I don't know about the escape pod bus I suspect that it was 110% Holywood. For sure it doesn't have a cargo ramp like the movie showed, there's only so much modifying you can do to a 747. I have read that Air Force 1 has two surgical operating rooms, which I always thought was interesting.

 

[dmspilot00]

No the escape pod does not exist, according to a TV documentary.

 

[Typhoon1244]

My major problem with Air Force One...well actually, I had two major problems.

(1) After what seemed like a six-mile ground roll, the hijackers did a touch-and-go in a VC-25 with landing flaps extended. Neat trick.

(2) The loss of the KC-10 was ridiculous. If I'm not very much mistaken, "flying booms" are specifically designed so that they'll fail somewhere less threatening (like the receiver's refueling receptacle) before they damage the tanker. I don't think the boom even "locks" into the recpetacle; it should have just pulled free.

Another problem with this movie, and others: I wish Hollywood would realize that even the F-15 doesn't run in afterburner from takeoff to touchdown...unless it's a really short flight!

 

[Lindy]

For those of you who already mentioned the following:

ANY JIMMY STEWART MOVIE!!


No Highway in the Sky
Flight of the Phoenix
Strategic Air Command
The Spirit of St. Louis

I will apologize if I forgot any......my personal favorite is No Highway in the Sky . For those of you who want to watch Jimmy Stewart in all his glory, TMC (and the others) have a monthly list of the movies playing. Here one of the links: http://www.tv-now.com/stars/jstewart.html

AND: This month is showing 3 of the aforementioned movies!!


And, I will hate to admit this, but I did like the DieHard movie.

In another post -- someone inquired where the "AND" began for "check-ins" w/ center/approach/tower......hmmmmm....I think I beginning to believe I might be an offender!!

 

[crash-proof]

Did anyone mention Dr. Strangelove? Good B-52 movie, and best piece of black comedy ever.
Then again I'm a diehard Stanley Kubrick fan...

How bout the part at the end where the dude's ridin the n-bomb like a bull? yeeeeehaaaawww!!!

 

[Toecutter]

I love the scene in "1941" where the P-40 pulls into the gas station.

 

[dwcaviator]

I agree with Furloughedgal---any Jimmy Stewart movie with airplanes.
Pearl Harbor was an embarrassment. They took CGI to new levels of ridiculousness. "Neato, golly I can make zeros handle like bumble bees!"
I saw an excellent contrast shortly after I saw Pearl Harbor. Has anybody seen Deep Blue World? It's about Czech pilots who escape the Nazis and fly for the RAF. The air combat scenes blew me away. I couldn't figure out how they got such great footage of Spitfires on a 3 million dollar budget. Then at the end I saw the credits for the RC model guys. Those nitwits responsible for Pearl Harbor should be forced to watch.

Also, Fandango kicks ass.

 

[Typhoon1244]

Did anyone mention Dr. Strangelove?

It's my understanding that the B-52 flight deck set was created based on one small, incomplete picture of a B-52 cockpit that was printed in a British magazine. Now I never flew a '52, obviously, but I feel like the cockpit scenes in this movie are the most credible that've ever been filmed. The callouts being made by the crew after the SAM near-miss sounded like they came right out of a Boeing manual. It just "felt" right.

"You should see it, it's a sensation--a big plane like a '52--vvvvvrrrrooooommmmm! With jet exhaust cookin' up chickens in the barnyard, heh, heh!" --General "Buck" Turgidson

 

[MsFan]

Worst Ever

Did anyone else see the movie (I think on HBO) about terrorists trying to steal two F-117 Stealth fighters out of the back of a C-5? And while in flight? You know, they hijacked a KC-10 tanker, then crawled thru the boom into the C-5 air refueling manifold during an actual air refueling. Then the bad guys cut thru the fuel manifold with a blow torch (no problem igniting fumes there) and dropped into the cockpit of the C-5 and overpowered the crew. Then after much heroic action by the crew, they manage to kick the a$$es of the evil terrorists and force them into the cargo compartment. The genius copilot has the great idea to lower the cargo ramp, pull the C-5 up as far as it will go and make the terrorists fall out the back. Except one of the terrorists climbs into a F-117 as it's falling out the back and manages to light the engines before it hits the ground. However, he didn't know about the secret military passenger who jumped in the other F-117 as it was falling out the back. He also managed to fire up the motors before smashing into the earth and then proceeded to defeat the evil terrorist in a dogfight to save the day.

I am not bull$hitting you. This was an actual movie that I couldn't stop watching because it got more and more ridiculous by the second. I think it was called "Stealth Fighter" or some equally stupid name. I think the aviation advisor to the movie was a 7 year old kid who smoked a lot of weed during the writing of the script. This film makes "Iron Eagle" look like a lock for an Academy Award. Somebody else please let me know you've seen this movie too.

 

[vschip]

1941, Belushi has this big map out in front of him, says "God D*mn it, I'm lost", while he's flying in the middle of the Grand Canyon, just thinking about it makes me laugh!