Final Countdown

[Eyes In]

on SyFY HD now - the Final Countdown. Preposterous plot but some great flying scenes!l

[spitfirek5054]

I have it on DVD.

[Tankertrashnav]

Link? Description? What is SyFY?

More information required!

[MPN11]

Link? Description? What is SyFY?

More information required!
Science Fiction channel, old chap. Something for the young ones rather than for us, I suspect! ;)

[Just This Once...]

HD - High Definition: For those with eyes that still work.

[Chris Kebab]

Guess it's this: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/

Probably not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

[wub]

Tomcats vs Zeros if I recall

[Kiltrash]

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1333x1000/final_countdown_2_19983750f76899e7ce1f67020d718cd6f3892442.j pg

[5aday]

The music reminds me of the Queens Castle in Pat Pong , Bangkok at the end of the show. Time for a last stagger along Silom Road to the Dusi Thani.

[spitfirek5054]

Saw it for the 1st in the Corporals Club at RAF Sek Kong 1982

[Tankertrashnav]

Ah right, got it. A bit like "The Philadelphia Experiment" it seems. That was a load of old tosh as well!

[Wensleydale]

Shortly after the film was released, a Shackleton squadron possibly caused a Final Countdown moment on another of the USN's finest. The said Squadron was on a deployment to St Mawgan to take part in the two week JMC off the SW Approaches, and was to give continuous AEW cover to the blue task group (yes - that Sqn). One of the crews decided that they would play the "War" properly, and the captain insisted that the transit out was as covert as possible - two hours at 150 feet, radar off. Also at the brief, the crew was told to look out for a Kresta II which was following one of the task groups. An hour into the transit, the captain, who fancied himself as a bit of a recognition expert, suddenly declared that he had visual on the Kresta II.."Lets go and take a photograph". The Navigator, who was an ex-AEOp and did know about ship recognition wandered up to the flight deck for a look...."Doesn't look lie a Kresta to me". Meanwhile, the Shackleton accelerated towards the ship which grew bigger - very slowly. More ships appeared and suddenly the sky was filled with two F14s followed by a Prowler as they tried to fly at the Shackleton's speed but stayed well above! The penny dropped with the Captain. "Oops its a Carrier Battle Group - never mind let's still go for a look". "Not a good idea skip - its a carrier and they are flying - not good to burst the circuit". Meanwhile, the F14s continued to circle above as the Prowler decided to drop down to try to formate on the Shackleton - now slowed down again. The mission crew flicked through a few radio frequencies to try to contact the shadowing aircraft to hear a surreal transmission back to the ship "I don't know Sir... I think its a Liberator". Discretion took over, and a 90 right slowly began to open the range again at 160 kts. Low level transits to the Fleet didn't happen again that exercise.

[melmothtw]

They nearly lost a Tomcat during the filming of the dogfight with the Zeros. The Tomcat lost too much speed and plummeted towards the ocean, with the pilot recovering just in time. The filmakers said afterwards there was a sharp intake of breath and some mutterings from the navy top brass when they watched an advance screening.

[Duchess_Driver]

They nearly lost a Tomcat during the filming of the dogfight with the Zeros. The Tomcat lost too much speed and plummeted towards the ocean,

Did he fly right through his jet wash? Was he in a flat spin? Was he heading out to sea?

Hat, coat....

[Mil-26Man]

At 2m 47s for anyone who hasn't seen the near crash yet https://youtu.be/f3XNEWtJF0o

I read they actually knocked it off for the day immeditaly after that. The F-14A was fitted with the engine intended for the F-111B, which was a bomber engine essentially. While it had a lot of power, it took a while to spool up. The aircraft was new when this was filmed, and the pilot had come from another type and was very nearly caught out.

[MightyGem]

Loved the high tech piece of drift string on the Tomcat windscreen. :)

[Martin the Martian]

"Splash the Zeros. I say again, splash the Zeros... This has got to be a dream."

Great film, with some superb flying sequences, a terrific soundtrack, wonderful visual effects from the late Maurice Binder (he of so many Bond titles sequences) and the posing of an interesting and intriguing moral dilemma. What would YOU do with that power, in that situation?

[NutLoose]

They nearly lost a Tomcat during the filming of the dogfight with the Zeros. The Tomcat lost too much speed and plummeted towards the ocean,

Ahhh, that'll be Zero airspeed then. :}

[gums]

Salute!

Yeah, one of my best fantasy flicks.

RE" close call
The low encounter with the waves was after a poor lag roll to get more nose-tail position and he "dished out" a tad low for my taste. Needed to get nose higher initially, then a quick roll to the Zeke's six.
Five years later, the USN also helped the Top Gun movie and there was one low altitude roll and recovery that scared me.
Both of those, with their good aerial segments and basic launch/recovery aboard the boat, had a good effect on enlistment here in the colonies.
New Top Gun could be a nice one.
Gums sends...

[MAINJAFAD]

Love the film and won a Monogram combined kit of a VF-84 Tomcat and the USS Nimtiz long before I saw the film, however if you look closely you will note that all of the in cockpit shots of the F-14 in the clip above are actually in an A-6!!!!

[melmothtw]

I've watched this film hundreds of times, and I've never noticed the A-6 cockpit shots - it makes perfect sense. Another 'fun' fact is that, though set in the Pacific off Hawaii the film was actually shot in the Atlantic.

[Duchess_Driver]

Out of interest, did any US F14s pass into private hands when they went OOS?

Apparently the Iranians still have some airworthy, but I doubt I will be anywhere to see one of them in the air. Always had ‘an affinity’ with the F14 but can’t actually remember seeing one airborne!

[melmothtw]

Out of interest, did any US F14s pass into private hands when they went OOS?

Apparently the Iranians still have some airworthy, but I doubt I will be anywhere to see one of them in the air. Always had ‘an affinity’ with the F14 but can’t actually remember seeing one airborne!

Not in a flyable condition. The US government was very concerned about the aircraft and/or their parts finding their way to Iran, and so all that were sent to museums etc were first cut in half and then welded back together.

[newt]

The music reminds me of the Queens Castle in Pat Pong , Bangkok at the end of the show. Time for a last stagger along Silom Road to the Dusi Thani.

So true 5aday! Happy days!

[stilton]

A great flick, with an interesting plot and superb air to air action


Another film from that era with some fun flying scenes was ‘ Capricorn one’


The plot revolves around a fake moon landing filmed in a studio (standard millennial
stuff)


Somehow there’s a risk of the farce being uncovered and the three, apparently real astronauts have to run for their lives, NASA wants them eliminated to keep the story under wraps as they’ve announced them deceased in a tragic accident, it would be embarrassing if they showed up


A Learjet is stolen to escape in and later there’s an excellent air to air chase in the Grand Canyon involving armed MD500s
pursuing a Stearman


Great stuff, one of the astronauts was OJ Simpson, before he started murdering people !

[melmothtw]

The plot revolves around a fake moon landing filmed in a studio (standard millennial
stuff)

A fake Mars landing, but yes a very good movie and the Little Bird flying sequence is worth the price of admission alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqL6rLktocA

[Feathers McGraw]

Out of interest, did any US F14s pass into private hands when they went OOS?

Apparently the Iranians still have some airworthy, but I doubt I will be anywhere to see one of them in the air. Always had ‘an affinity’ with the F14 but can’t actually remember seeing one airborne!

Have seen a few, including one at a Mildenhall Air Fête (remember those?) that is possibly the loudest display I've ever heard, I think it was a re-engined Tom. A very fun display too, amazing manoeuvrability for such a large aircraft.

[chopper2004]

Yep I’ve got it on iTunes ....filmed like the Bruce Willis flick Tears Of the Sun...filmed in Hawaii (J-B Pearl- Hickam when Industrialist turns up in limo) off the Atlantic Coast (NAS Key West for opening for Final Countdown and flying scenes done in Atlantic while and for Tears Of the Sun ...somewhere off Norfolk / Atlantic Coast in opening scenes) .

interesting the hangars at Key West meant to be at Barbers Point are painted with Naval Station Pearl Harbour not Barners Point for the movie (with RA-5C being towed out).

Filming on board USS Nimitz was kinda cut short as Iranian hostage situation kick off on so Nimitz had to rush to the Med then Arabian Gulf for Eagle Claw.

cheers

[lightbluefootprint]

A brilliantly trashy film that I remember going to see at the cinema on release. It was almost thirty years later I got hold of the DVD.

[Dr Jekyll]

on SyFY HD now - the Final Countdown. Preposterous plot but some great flying scenes!l

Strictly speaking it's the premise that's preposterous. Once you've got past that the plot isn't too bad, certainly better than Top Gun IMHO.

[NutLoose]

Birds of Prey 73
Heli traffic reporter chases bank robbers in a Heli, even both of them flying a Heli around inside a hangar shooting at each other!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHw2UT5uNTo

[Mil-26Man]

Birds of Prey is a classic, as is Deadly Encounter with Larry Hagman. Little Birds were quite the movie star back in the day..

Full movie here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njuaxuSs-Kk&t=133s

[chopper2004]

IIRC, this is the first Hollywood movie or tv series that one sees F-14 appear so from ones memory on screen, in chronological order...

Raise The Titanic : Dirk Pitt (played by the late Richard Jordan) calls on the 'surprise package' when Prevlov and his KGB entourage threaten the NUMA / Navy crew if they dont hand over the Titanic. Package is a
pair of F-14A plus one SSN.

Airwolf Season 1 Episode 1: Shadow Of The Hawke: Film footage of (laughingly Jolyl Rogers) taking off from a CVN off the Libyan coast when Archangel and Faye are on board monitoring Hawke's mission o recover
'The Lady'
Top Gun :)

The Hunt For The Red October: F-14A action on baord carrier when Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin turns up in SH-3H)

Navy SEALS:: opening scene of CVN and F-14 on deck

The Finest Hour: CNN footage of F-14A/D taking off during Desert Shield/Storm

Clear And Present Danger: When the F/A-18A (CAG bird with LGB) comes up on the elevator , can see the rest of the CVW on deck including the F-14.

JAG: see various footage of F-14 taken from Top Gun and other archive footage throughout series.

Executive Decision: Once again the Jolly Rogers come to the rescue lol in escorting ready to shoot down the hijacked 747.

Robin Cook's Invasion: (medical thriller albeit with ET/Sueprnatural element apart from usual autopsy tables, hospital sysnonymous with his books and film) film foorage of F-14 intercepting UFO

Behind Enemy Lines: Blink and you will miss it when Burnett's F/A18 is launched, they change different views of the flight deck ....see F-14 launched.

NCIS: various footage again some from Top Gun and other news stories, documentaries.

Cheers

[57mm]

Chopper2004, that's seriously impressive, but maybe you need to get out more.....

[Martin the Martian]

Not that impressive. He forgot Supercarrier.

Mind you, I wish I could.

[tdracer]

Strictly speaking it's the premise that's preposterous. Once you've got past that the plot isn't too bad, certainly better than Top Gun IMHO.

The only 'preposterous' issue would be time travel - which could be applied to pretty much any movie that incorporates time travel. Once you postulate that time travel is possible, the rest flows fairly well - in fact I'd rate it as one of the better (best?) time travel movies.
Although I suspect that time travel truly is impossible - to many unresolvable issues with 'changing history'.

[ex-fast-jets]

Back to Thread.............

For those unfamiliar with cinemas in the USA, the audience tends to be more interactive than the reserved audiences in UK cinemas.

I was on exchange with the USN in California when this movie was released, and went to see it in a cinema in San Diego.

San Diego was (still is??) a Navy town, and the audience was mostly USN matelots, wearing "Nimitz" baseball caps.

When Kirk Douglas said "Splash the Zeros" the place erupted in cheers and Yahoos and other expletives.

It was brilliant!.

I still love watching the flying scenes, and I still think the F-14 was a magnificent beast. I even still like watching Top Gun, SOT that I am!

I only got to fly in an F-14 once - but it was from NIMITZ in the Gulf - and it was all I could have hoped for!

[diginagain]

Back to Thread.............

For those unfamiliar with cinemas in the USA, the audience tends to be more interactive than the reserved audiences in UK cinemas.


Quite the opposite when watching Monty Python's 'The Meaning Of Life'....

[chopper2004]

Back to Thread.............

For those unfamiliar with cinemas in the USA, the audience tends to be more interactive than the reserved audiences in UK cinemas.

I was on exchange with the USN in California when this movie was released, and went to see it in a cinema in San Diego.

San Diego was (still is??) a Navy town, and the audience was mostly USN matelots, wearing "Nimitz" baseball caps.

When Kirk Douglas said "Splash the Zeros" the place erupted in cheers and Yahoos and other expletives.

It was brilliant!.

I still love watching the flying scenes, and I still think the F-14 was a magnificent beast. I even still like watching Top Gun, SOT that I am!

I only got to fly in an F-14 once - but it was from NIMITZ in the Gulf - and it was all I could have hoped for!

Cool I bet it like its successor Top Gun, FC helped towards recruiting more enthusiasts wanting to fly in the USN?

What did you fly on exchange?

Cheers

[chopper2004]

Chopper2004, that's seriously impressive, but maybe you need to get out more.....

Lol I was sat in pub garden typing away earlier :)

Cheers

[chopper2004]

Chopper2004, that's seriously impressive, but maybe you need to get out more.....

Lol I was sat in pub garden typing away earlier :)

Cheers

[stilton]

A fake Mars landing, but yes a very good movie and the Little Bird flying sequence is worth the price of admission alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqL6rLktocA


Thats right, forgot it was supposed to be a Mars landing


great stuff and thanks for the link

[NutLoose]

Flight of the Intruder impressed me with the slow mo shots of the Skyraiders at work, it wasn't a bad film either.

[chopper2004]

Flight of the Intruder impressed me with the slow mo shots of the Skyraiders at work, it wasn't a bad film either.

Hell yes ( have the book and film on iTunes) like aforementioned films Final Countdown and Tears Of The Sun , filmed in Hawaii around Pearl Harbour (standing in for Subic Bay) and Barbers Point (standing in for NAS Cubi Point)..

Unlike Top Gun, Flight Of The Intruder shows how a naval aviator behaves as an officer and leader. The Example being an CPo McRae brings to Jakes attention an issue regarding Hardesty (Aviation boatswain) marrying a Filipino and Jake deals with it like any divisional officer would.

I do like the music score by Basil Pouledris ...at the beginning and throughout the movie especially when they flying to target.

i wish they made the sequel to the book, Final Flight into a movie. It’s all about intrigue set in the late 80s state back (it’s assumed to be Libya) terrorists taking Nimitz class carrier hostage in the Med, with our hero Jake Grafton now as CAG.

Cheers

[MAINJAFAD]

Hell yes ( have the book and film on iTunes) like aforementioned films Final Countdown and Tears Of The Sun , filmed in Hawaii around Pearl Harbour (standing in for Subic Bay) and Barbers Point (standing in for NAS Cubi Point)..

Unlike Top Gun, Flight Of The Intruder shows how a naval aviator behaves as an officer and leader. The Example being an CPo McRae brings to Jakes attention an issue regarding Hardesty (Aviation boatswain) marrying a Filipino and Jake deals with it like any divisional officer would.

I do like the music score by Basil Pouledris ...at the beginning and throughout the movie especially when they flying to target.

i wish they made the sequel to the book, Final Flight into a movie. It’s all about intrigue set in the late 80s state back (it’s assumed to be Libya) terrorists taking Nimitz class carrier hostage in the Med, with our hero Jake Grafton now as CAG.

Cheers

They did make a film based on Final Flight, except the carrier became a battleship and Grafton became Steven Seagal....They even named the film after a Coonts book as well!!! (CH-46, AH-1 and F/A-18's being only aviation content).

[chopper2004]

They did make a film based on Final Flight, except the carrier became a battleship and Grafton became Steven Seagal....They even named the film after a Coonts book as well!!! (CH-46, AH-1 and F/A-18's being only aviation content).

Not quite ....

Under Siege movie was not based anything like Final Flight (bar take over of UsN warship and use nukes) ..no writing credits to Stephen Coonts

The appearance and subsequent destruction lol of CH-46 Sea Knight ( actually civilian Columbia Helicopters KV-107) , and there was no AH-1 but a CHI of an Ah-64A escorting another Sea Knight (which Captain Garza says it’s a CH-53E lifting off with SEAL reinforcements).

Thr F/A-18 pilot laughingly doesn’t appear to wear an LCJ lol!

Under Siege novel is good reminds me of Tom Clancys Clear And Present Danger about the drugs war. Jake is still a Captain and battling narco terrorists on the streets of the capitol. Interesting enough there’s an character in the book , an undercover narcotics cop called Harrison Ronald Ford a.k.a Zizzy.

cheers

[Melchett01]

Not quite ....

Under Siege movie was not based anything like Final Flight (bar take over of UsN warship and use nukes) ..no writing credits to Stephen Coonts

The appearance and subsequent destruction lol of CH-46 Sea Knight ( actually civilian Columbia Helicopters KV-107) , and there was no AH-1 but a CHI of an Ah-64A escorting another Sea Knight (which Captain Garza says it’s a CH-53E lifting off with SEAL reinforcements).

Thr F/A-18 pilot laughingly doesn’t appear to wear an LCJ lol!

Under Siege novel is good reminds me of Tom Clancys Clear And Present Danger about the drugs war. Jake is still a Captain and battling narco terrorists on the streets of the capitol. Interesting enough there’s an character in the book , an undercover narcotics cop called Harrison Ronald Ford a.k.a Zizzy.

cheers


I've always rather enjoyed Tom Clancy's work - more so his own earlier stuff than the more recent work that he either co-authored or was written by someone else under the Clancy 'brandname'. That said, if you want to talk Clancy and aviation then it has to be Red Storm Rising which has an early guest appearance by the F-117, albeit not named as such. He was always ahead of his time, and his graps of detail was both enjoyable to read and in some instances wonderous as to where he picked it up from. Hunt for Red October, for example, was reportedly on the end of an attempt to get it banned by the USN as the level of detail made them think they had a leak somewhere (they did, just not in Clancy - see 'Walker class sub and it comes up with Akula Class which Walker helped equip thanks to his personal efforts at building relations with the Soviet Union!) but it was Reagan's comments about how much he enjoyed reading Red October than convinced the USN to drop it. Incidentally, Red October was based in part on real life events, but about the defection of a Baltic Fleet (if memory serves) Krivak ASW frigate.

But getting back to the general theme - yes the Final Countdown is an enjoyable bit of nonsense with some fun flying scenes, but if you want more recent more impressive flying then I heartily recommend We Were Soldiers which has more flying in it than you can shake a stick at from the initial air assault in the the Ia Drang valley through to napalm laden CAS and JTAC action later on as they are pinned down and in danger of being overrun. And it's definitely a little more graphic and less family friendly than the Final Countdown before you settle down to some family Easter viewing!

[MAINJAFAD]

Not quite ....

Under Siege movie was not based anything like Final Flight (bar take over of UsN warship and use nukes) ..no writing credits to Stephen Coonts

The appearance and subsequent destruction lol of CH-46 Sea Knight ( actually civilian Columbia Helicopters KV-107) , and there was no AH-1 but a CHI of an Ah-64A escorting another Sea Knight (which Captain Garza says it’s a CH-53E lifting off with SEAL reinforcements).

Thr F/A-18 pilot laughingly doesn’t appear to wear an LCJ lol!

Under Siege novel is good reminds me of Tom Clancys Clear And Present Danger about the drugs war. Jake is still a Captain and battling narco terrorists on the streets of the capitol. Interesting enough there’s an character in the book , an undercover narcotics cop called Harrison Ronald Ford a.k.a Zizzy.

cheers




I couldn't remember if it was Cobras or Apaches and I wasn't going to dig out the VHS recorder to watch the tape. True, that it didn't have anything to do with Final Flight, bar the basic plot premise of a bunch of Terrorists / Crooks taking over a large US Navy warship and trying to steal nuclear weapons on board. Of course it killed any chance of Final Flight being made, but the Flight of the Intruder film had already done that anyway as it bombed at the box office massive. Loved the book didn't think much of the film bar the casting of Defoe as Cole. But Defoe is normally very good in any role he plays anyway. The special effects were dire as well. A couple of Richard Hermam's books would have made good films. the Warbirds and Force of Eagles. However like a lot of other books based around that 1980-90 period, massively overtaken by events. Red Storm could only be done as a mini series and special effects required to do it justice would have been very much cost prohibitive.

[Dr Jekyll]

Another missed opportunity was 'Air America'. Plenty of interesting stories to be told about CIA aeronautical activities in South East Asia but the film, though apparently inspired by the non fiction book of the same name, was pure fiction

[gums]

Salute!

Thanks Melch, the helo insertion is exactly as I remember from those days.
if you want more recent more impressive flying then I heartily recommend We Were Soldiers which has more flying in it than you can shake a stick at from the initial air assault in the the Ia Drang valley through to napalm laden CAS and JTAC action later on as they are pinned down and in danger of being overrun.

Born To Be Wild We Were Soldiers - YouTube

Those guys were the first to use the "air mobile" concept versus trucks and APC's and such. I arrived on-scene about two years later and covered many of an assault, and a few covert team insertions/extractions in Laos when we were not there, heh heh. They also did not have assigned airborne FAC's from USAF and the Aussies ( Aussies were mainly down south and not in the Central Highlands - Sidewinder callsign)..

Whoever did the screen play segment for the video I posted and the helo pilots involved did the thing perfectly. Gave me flashbacks.

We would normally arrive beforehand and drop a few bombs around the perimeter if there was any indication of enema. Then hold above to meet exactly the scenario that you see in the video. Remember, at the time of the story they had not perfected the process/tactic.

They called our missions "LZ prep". And most of the time we would drop ahead of time, but that depended on the grunt assessment of how "risky" the insertion was gonna be. If initial resistence was light, we would then drop on likely concentrations or whatever the grunts wanted.

Gums recalls....

[gileraguy]

Under Siege had an absolutely unforgettable cake scene.... The most magnificent cakes ever.

[stilton]

Did anyone mention ‘Blue Thunder’ ?


Outstanding helicopter action, Roy Schneider was one of the pilots


Great, corny stuff

[Buster Hyman]

We would normally arrive beforehand and drop a few bombs around the perimeter if there was any indication of enema.
Hard to spot in the jungle I imagine... :}

[gums]

Salute!

Not all that bad, Buster

As in the movie, they would pick a large clearing, and when possible, the high ground. Not all of the two VietNams or Laos was thickjungle that you had to hack thru. Most of the floor beneath the triple canopy was fairly open and resembled a forest. Down south, starting maybe 70 or 80 miles north of Saigon the terrain was very flat except for some solitary hills by the Cambodian border. As you went north you had a classic mountain range with rolling hills toward the sea and west to the Plain of Jars.

I did most of my work in III and IV Corps, where it looked like you see in most movies - rice fields and a few rubber tree plantations. So LZ prep was fairly strightforward.

Gums recalls...

[teeteringhead]

Did anyone mention ‘Blue Thunder’

But Airwolf had tastier co-pilots..........


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/300x168/co_pilot_4ac0550f6db04ca8b00ca527731d7ab040385487.jpg

[Melchett01]

But Airwolf had tastier co-pilots..........



Ernest Borgnine? Oh well, each to their own:}

[Mil-26Man]

Another missed opportunity was 'Air America'. Plenty of interesting stories to be told about CIA aeronautical activities in South East Asia but the film, though apparently inspired by the non fiction book of the same name, was pure fiction

Loved the film, then read the book and realised the film was rubbish.

[diginagain]

... I heartily recommend We Were Soldiers which has more flying in it than you can shake a stick at from the initial air assault in the the Ia Drang valley through to napalm laden CAS and JTAC action later on as they are pinned down and in danger of being overrun.
Pity then, that the finale departs radically from actuality, detracting from an otherwise close-portrayal of the events. But that's Hollywood for you.