Blue Thunder (1983)

 

Those of you who also grew up in the 80s might remember that it was a decade where helicopter-related series and films were pretty abundant. Heck, most people will still remember 'Airwolf' fondly to this day (that opening theme alone!). This of course bled through in films, and we got some who are fun to watch, like 'Blue Thunder'. 

Roy Scheider plays a helicopter pilot who is tasked not only with training the new guy (Daniel Stern!), but who is also asked to test out a brand new military model that has been modified for urban pacification. But this helicopter called Blue Thunder is perhaps a bit much. It has massive machine guns, cameras, microphones, state-of-the-art computer systems: the works. Scheider has a rival in Malcolm McDowell, another ace pilot who - of course - is a total douche. 

Things start to pick up when a member of the City Council is attacked and dies. This at first doesn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story, but Scheider discovers that some powers that be want to deliberately incite violence in the barrios in order to use the helicopter with extreme prejudice and didn't you know it? McDowell is in on the play. It gets even worse when Scheider and Stern discover this and record a very damning conversation, after which Stern gets killed.

Oh, it's on now.

Scheider steals Blue Thunder and eventually it all comes to blows in the skies between McDowell and Scheider.

No, I can't even remember the character's names. That's how important they are. Just Stern's character, because his last name 'Lymangood' is so odd. 

So as you might have gathered: this film treads no new ground and you could have switched actors and replaced helicopters with cars or something of the sort and you would get pretty much the exact same thing. But it's helicopters and they're always cool. This is just an entertaining if a little brainless action film, with some minor thriller elements thrown in. The final helicopter battle is entertaining as hell, even if in the lead up to this the compositing work with the F-16's is dodgy at best (you can tell the models were badly superimposed on shots of the sky). 

The best reasons to watch this are the performances by Scheider and McDowell. Roy Scheider is always wonderful and McDowell is one of those villains you love to hate in an instant. I have no idea how he pulls that off so effortlessly but that's skill, I presume. 

Fun fact: Malcolm McDowell hated flying in helicopters, as he is deathly afraid of heights and in some shots, you can actually see him freezing up in fear. But he still did it anyway: that's dedication.