Helicopter movie cliches from
rotaryaction.com :
- Apparently out of control or damaged, a helicopter flies over a hill, or behind a landmark. Once it's out of view, there's a huge explosion to suggest the aircraft has crashed. Few movies have the budget to afford model effects, or write-off even a mock-up helicopter.
- The escaping hero and sidekick or partner climb aboard an unattended helicopter. One asks the other "Can you fly this thing?"
"No... but hang on!" comes the reply, and then the machine performs a decidedly wobbly takeoff.
- In pursuit of a road vehicle, the hero - or his stuntman, at least - jumps down from a low-flying helicopter onto or into the wildly swerving vehicle as it races along a conveniently deserted highway.
- A helicopter is forced to make an emergency landing on the roof of a building and it promptly crashes through the ceiling into a crowded room.
- At night time, helicopters flying in the distance (especially military machines) are often mistaken for UFOs.
- In the movies, a stolen helicopter only ever carries two minutes of aviation fuel. In such incidents, the hero has to perform a dangerous emergency landing - a survivable technique called autorotation - while any machine piloted by a villain invariably blows up (see item number one)... The moral of this is, of course - never get into a helicopter with an action movie bad guy!
- By far the most used and/ or abused rotorcraft cliché in movies and TV is the sound effect of a helicopter passing 'overhead', without a chopper ever being visible on-screen. In stereo, it 'travels' from one side/ speaker(s) to the other, accentuating the Doppler effect. This particular audio trick is notable in the Dolby advert featuring a computer-animated helicopter.