Why Hollywood why?

[Bell_ringer]

I have long since wondered why a helo can't survive 30 seconds in a movie?
When one appears, rest assured those onboard will soon be limited to a small acknowledgement in the credits.
No fixed wing has the same Hollywood shelf life.
Just asking :8

[whoknows idont]

Hollywood is all about satisfying people's expectations. The villain dies, the good guy saves the day and gets the pretty girl, the monster eats everything but gets killed eventually, the nerds builds the day-saving-device, the FWD car drifts through every corner. And the helicopter explodes with actors hanging on both skids, usually shortly after tail rotor malfunction accompanied with heavy smoke from the MGB area.
Upside of the movie helicopter: During it's extremely limited life cycle it is far superior to the real thing in pretty much every aspect.

[Reely340]

You're not watching the correct movies! I recommend San Andreas, or the best helo movie of all time: Deadly Encounter.
HU500 vs. Gazelles and Lamas, definitely the crest of helicopter movies,
and no CGI, all scenes done in real world by ral stunt pilots!
Full movie online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njuaxuSs-Kk

[LRP]

"Birds of Prey". Hughes 500 & Lama dueling in a hangar. Good flyin'.

[chopjock]

"Birds of Prey". Hughes 500 & Lama dueling in a hangar. Good flyin'.

Good flying yes, but a pilot with no headset, no feet on pedals, wrong / no hand on the stick and holding a mic in his left hand?

[PDR1]

When Cameron cast Michelle Rodriguez as the pilot in Avatar he wanted her to play a credible pilot so he sent her to spend a month doing a PPL(H) course with a friend of his, who then gave her about 10 hours "under instruction" stick time in a modern twin-turbine helicopter.

Personally I felt it showed in the movie - she looked at home in the cockpit and her movements & use of controls looked "real". This is something that usually grates with me in movies (how many times do you see a movie airline pilot initial a gentle altitude change by pulling the yoke back 10-12 inches!) so I was impressed.

PDR

[LRP]

Good flying yes, but a pilot with no headset, no feet on pedals, wrong / no hand on the stick and holding a mic in his left hand?

He wasn't really flying :)

[Tickle]

Thanks, ODR1. I didn't know that about Avatar, but I remember thinking she looked more convincing than I expected.

Check out the Dodge Charger and Bell JetRanger chase on the second half of the film Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974). Jim Gavin (of Blue Thunder fame) did the great flying and did some acting, too.

[boratron]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25928112/Studio_20160509_200615.png

[boratron]

well i should have read the post first before repeating the same image, but hell it's funny enough to appear twice!

[Nervous SLF]

Thanks, ODR1. I didn't know that about Avatar, but I remember thinking she looked more convincing than I expected.

Check out the Dodge Charger and Bell JetRanger chase on the second half of the film Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974). Jim Gavin (of Blue Thunder fame) did the great flying and did some acting, too.


Ah ...Susan George :ok::D:)

[Bell_ringer]

The most recent bond film had some pretty decent helo action in it. If I remember correctly not all of them exploded. :cool:

I watched a recent episode of The Blacklist, where an AS350 was being "piloted" a shot of the panel "in flight" showed all the instruments at 0 with the usual cautions lit for a machine that's standing on the ground.
The clever FBI then hacked into the machine and "turned off the rotors" - you can't make this stuff up (I guess you can) - after which the pilot wrestled with the cyclic (with both hands) and seemed to manage an out of ground hover before falling vertically and then exploding.
What utter drivel.
No wonder so many people have phobias of flying :eek:

Why is it we never see a Robbie treated this way onscreen? It's about the only place they don't explode ;)

[blakmax]

Don't know why the helicopter people are upset. Have you seen the way cars blow up AT THE START of a post collision rollover. Why aren't the automotive industry complaining? Also our fixed wing compatriots have to suffer the stupidity of an Uzi being fired in the pressure hull of an aircraft and the bullets only producing sparks from the plastic hull lining (see Air Force 1).

I gave up watching "action" movies years ago when the bovine excrement became too thick. Maybe things will get better now we have a "reality" "star" as the US President? Arrrgh, maybe not!!!

[Thracian]

Well, at least in some movies, helis don´t explode:
- Red October, where the heli drops "Jack Ryan" near the USSS "Dallas"
- Sister Act, when about 20 nuns enter a Jet Ranger to get to Vegas
- The Guardian, with the JayHawks (if I remember correctly) showing off pretty cool


But I admit: It´s hard to find a movie with some heli flying, where the bird doesn´t explode ;-)


Thracian

[Madbob]

Try "Sky Heist".


There is some epic RW flying, notably with star Larry Hagman (I don't know who did the actual flying) flying under an Interstate under-pass in a Hughes 500 with the skids scraping the road and many similar stunts.


Plenty of action and no exploding helicopters until the baddies get their just deserts in their Alouette II at the film's climax.


MB

[ukv1145]

Hey Airwolf never blew up!

[Thracian]

And neither did the heli in Magnum, I guess (didn´t see the complete series) ;-)

[Bell_ringer]

And neither did the heli in Magnum, I guess (didn´t see the complete series) ;-)

Back then it was too expensive to blow anything up and CGI didn't exist!

Airwolf did crash eventually in its new life as a German air ambulance.
The chopper in magnum also crashed twice during filming but never on screen.

[FakePilot]

Helicopter? What about the PILOT? He always dies even if he's initially fine after the crash.

[noflynomore]

have to suffer the stupidity of an Uzi being fired in the pressure hull of an aircraft and the bullets only producing sparks from the plastic hull lining

Not sure what the point is? It would be less spectacular if the "plastic" lining didn't make sparks. Who cares if the lining shouldn't spark?

[Tickle]

Ninja vs. AS350, skip to 2:50 full of cops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txkIiKRO2hU

txkIiKRO2hU

[heli1]

Ahhhh....MASH and those H-13s.......

[belly tank]

I recommend San Andreas

Yea goto love this movie:{...."I'm gunna tip the hat!")

[Paul Cantrell]

Just watched "True Memoirs of an international assassin" on Netflix. Helicopter (UH1 variety) didn't immediately explode... sure was stable in the air without a pilot, even after smacking tailboom into trees, etc. I also laughed at the idea that it's safer to jump out of the helicopter at altitude than crash in it. Maybe... don't really plan on doing either!

Got to see the Airwolf helicopter at '86 HeliExpo, shake Ernest Borgnine's hand... That was pretty cool, even though the helicopter was pretty stripped on the inside.

I've always thought that the helicopter industry (maybe HAI?) should sue Hollywood for slander / defamation in that they make the general public think that flying in a helicopter is an invitation to exploding (or spinning out of control?) in mid air and therefore cost us in lost business. I'm sure a lawyer would shake his head at my ignorance of the law, just like we do of the way Hollywood portrays us.

Unfortunately we had a very bad fatal crash here in Boston many years ago involving one of the State Police Flying Club's Eurocopters. Generally, when I'm talking to the public I'll stress how safe helicopters really are, and how they don't really fall out of the sky like in movies. For about a decade after that accident people would always ask me, "Well, then what happened to that State Police helicopter?" and I would have to say that yeah, they sometimes fall out of the sky :(

[Dropthegear]

Back then it was too expensive to blow anything up and CGI didn't exist!

Airwolf did crash eventually in its new life as a German air ambulance.
The chopper in magnum also crashed twice during filming but never on screen.
The Magnum PI helicopter did crash and was destroyed about a year ago. I forget the details.

DC

[aa777888]

Skip to 00:40...

UxAEST9Bg3I

[bgdfly]

What I always enjoy is the fact that every movie helicopter is always so badly off-course ! Every time the shot pulls back from the helicopters, the pilots realize they are 90 degrees off-course and have to do a big wing-over away from the camera to head to the actual destination. If only I was allowed to be that sloppy in my flight planning...:O

[Three Lima Charlie]

Go find a movie "Black Sunday", 1977. I flew a Bell 212 and 206 in this movie that was made in Miami at the Orange Bowl. The blimp blows up, and the helicopter saves the hero.

[knarcElv3]

CGI-ness not withstanding, I was really quite pleased with the lack of exploding helicopters in Arrival this weekend. A nice change!