Worst Aviation Film

[Teroc]

Weve had the Best aviation book, Best Aviation film youve seen etc etc questions.
But whats the worst thing youve seen in a movie about Flying ?
Saw the film "Turbulence" the other night starring Ray Liotta. Oh my God !! So bad it was funny. Especially the bit where the Air Hostess did a go around, dragged the landing gear through a Hotel Bar, a roof and a concrete Carpark where she managed to get a Ford Pickup truck stuck on her nosegear -this was later shot off by a fighter jet using an air to air missile without damaging the tyres....hee hee.
Can Anyone better that ?

Teroc

[AffirmBrest]

Any film where the hero/villain gains access to the wheel wells via a convienient hatch in the cargo hold, or one where the pilot does ANYTHING remotely energetic/physical/dangerous.

Or where the pilots eat less than a full passenger meal every hour.

Oh, and there was one with an inflatable autopilot..

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[dingducky]

think it was called airspeed
brattty 13 yr old girl has to fly daddys private 727
a very very bad B movie!

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Follow your dream! Unless it's the one where you're at work in your underwear during a fire drill!

[Bleater]

Two early 90's ones, Passenger 76 and an Arnie one. Both had them find a way from the cabin to the landing gear, then to junp off after rotate from 100 ft and 140 Kts. Not a scratch!!! But can anyone name a 90's movie where the Pilots actually survive at all?? With all the advanced autopilots it seems the Pilots are redundant and get shot in the first 1/2 hour.

[mik]

I happen to think that the film with the inflatable autopilot is one of the best aviation films - especially the autopilot failure mode and the corrective action by one member of the cabin crew :)

I can see this thread heading off to the wilderness of JB...

Mik

[AffirmBrest]

I believe the Arnie one you mention was 'Commando'...made before he felt the need to 'act'.

You are correct, mik, in labelling 'that' film as one of the best, and one of my personal favorites, too.

It's a completely different kind of flying, altogether...

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[AYLGR]

Last month BA were showing MI2 as their inflight movie, first 6 mins show a 744 (or a film directors version thereof) planting itself into the side of a mountain. It really was the clip out of Airplane with all the pax watching a horrific crash of the same type they were sitting on!
Hosties supposed to make an announcement that those of a sensitive disposition ... but never did. Wonder if they lost many customers?

Bob

[SFly]

They showed one in the states that was a real loser!!! It had the pilots faced with the following dellema: they couldn't stop ascending!!!!! Blimey!!! So in the end to weigh the nose down they had to hold their breath, open a hatch on the roof of the cabin, face the depressurization, have a KC-707 full of H20 squirt it at them with the boom while they grabbed hold of the boom and squirted all the water into the nosewheel well, which in turn made the nose drop so they could land safely. That has to be one of the airliner movie classics.

[mik]

AffirmBrest :

It's a completely different kind of flying.

And surely you can't be serious.....

[and the chap said]

I am serious and stop calling me Shirley. :)

[GJB]

....roger, Rodger.

Give me our vector, Victor.

[BN2A]

We have clearance, Clarence... Over.

[capt_kangeroo]

Best Aviation Film........

"....when I was was shot down over Macho Grande"

"Over Macho Grande?"

"No, I'll never be over Macho Grande!" :)

Worst? Had to be Airport 77.... quick, lets open a window at Mach whatever and fire a flare gun to deflect the oncoming missile! Good idea, chaps!

"Get the hell outta my airport!" :)
[This message has been edited by capt_kangeroo (edited 05 February 2001).]

[This message has been edited by capt_kangeroo (edited 05 February 2001).]

[This message has been edited by capt_kangeroo (edited 05 February 2001).]

[This message has been edited by capt_kangeroo (edited 05 February 2001).]

[scroggs]

Kanga - it was Macho Grande!

[capt_kangeroo]

Sumimasen!

Much consumption of various beverages and little sleep not good for brain.

Why I laugh? D'oh!

[GJB]

Capt Kangeroo - The film to which you refer is Airport' 80 "The Concorde"

Airport '77 is the one where the B747 wing tip strikes the derek of an oil rig and sinks to the bottom of the seabed, before being miracously rescues by the US Navy. Quality.

I make no appologies for being a sad trainspotter of these films, but you just can't help yourself for watching them - or can you? Is there help out there.........????

[taildragger2]

I think it was Steven Segal when an F117A (stealth bomber) seemed to be carrying 4 pax! as if that wasn't enough it then went on to dock with the underside of a 747 straight and level at 40,000 ft! very nice! Or I think I can remember a film showing a 757 in a thunderstorm, after a brief shot in the cockpit comprising of various gauges and dials showing altitude in Km! speed in MPH! and a G counter showing +9 it went to a scene in the cabin that had the worst prop beat (asymetrics) you've ever heard, quite when a 757 developed pistons I don't know but it was all action despite the lack of good research!.............It's all bull****!...........Tailwinds.........TD2

[capt_kangeroo]

The sad thing is I have a really crappy copy of the film. It's a guilty pleasure.....

[capt_kangeroo]

Further to my last post - sorry guys, brain not engaged today - I find that I have both these sad excuses for films.

Airport 77 had the sick child and blind piano player but I'm not sure if the nun was there too.

[GJB]

Capt K - you are partially right.

But the sick child was in Airport 1975 - the one with the singing nun. Here, Charlton Heston is lowered into the cockpit from a helicopter to land the plane after a mid-air causes death/injury to 2 of the crew, while the other is sucked out. OOOwwwww my gaaaaaad! The suspense.

But you are right, the blind piano player is in AP '77.
singing....."Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".....

He can't sing and gets crushed. Furthermore he was wearing ridicolous shades, so I say he got what he deserved.

[capt_kangeroo]

Taildragger

That was Executive Decision. Kurt Russell lands the airliner with only a few hours in a single under his belt!

[008]

Independence Day......
there is no need for the president to jump in a fast jet and save the world. Imagine the world leaders of today doing that, Putin maybe, but Blair and Bush I doubt.

[Bleater]

There was an early 90's shocker where the crew of a 747 are struck by lightning after take off and fried. The thing flies around at random until a computer nerd gets his laptop connected to the FMC- but it has to be seen to appreciate how dreadful it really is.

[taildragger2]

Capt K!
Yeah thats right executive decision, what a load of !$^&£!!! It was bugging me all last night, at least thats my excuse for not remembering anything of chapter 4 Air law! I'm off to the video shop!........Tailwinds.......TD2

[SKYYACHT]

I seem to recall a 1950s/1960s film starring someone like Dean Martin as a Captain with a drink problem,.......DC8, or Covair I seem to remember.......Now that was crappy.

Tailwinds

;)

[no sponsor]

I saw the one about the aircraft which couldn't decend, so they had to fill the forward hold with water from a tanker. And for the flare, well the gear doors would release the water, thereby bringing up the nose. Of course! It was dreadful - still I had to watch.

Executive decision and Air force one were other crackers. Quite clearly 200's but with full 400 instrumentation - and great EFIS messages in big bold letters - "Fuel Dumping" "Terrorist in Hold" etc. Or the touch and go in Air Force one at the German air base - Jeremy Clarkson couldn't have got a better bit of oversteer through and around the field.

My other gripe is when they show a 4 planes which are supposed to be one - i.e. a 73 taxiing , 75 taking off and a 727 landing.

[BN2A]

Air Force One????
Bulletproof fuselage??
B747 with a tailgate?? People jumping out with parachutes, but no oxygen??
Hercules keeping up while people got transferred between the two??
http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif

[no sponsor]

And what about all those quiet aircraft cabins - I wish I could travel in one and get a good nights sleep...

[moggie]

Don't forget that the flare fired from the cockpit window in Airport 80 attracted a RADAR GUIDED missle! And they never did show the captains left arm being sewn back on after it got ripped off at 300kt+.

How about the Burt Lancaster "Raid on Entebee" where the Israeli special cforces guys are able to hold whispered conversations in the back of a Herc? Last time I flew in one of those I couldn't even hear myself shouting!

No one mentioned "Top Gun" - hell, it's even funnier than "Hot Shots".

[JJflyer]

Yaks.. I feel sick when I think about Airforce One...

Then there was Die hard II where Bruce Willis literally destroys an airport. I can remeber the bad guys adjusting GS from tower and 6000 innocent people crashing a DC8 or similar. Ooooh that was pretty bad too.

JJ

[BTB]

Of course on the Airport 77 Concorde did a barrel roll to avoid the missile, and all the pax fell to the ceiling, excellent!

The best has to be the one about the Air Canada 757 running out of gas and deadsticking onto the airstrip (true story) with every cliche in the book, including Captains wife with cancer. I forget the name.
The actors were all americans pretending to be canuks.

[AffirmBrest]

Yeah - Die Hard II - I never got why the Bad guys had to use some computer gizmo to adjust the ILS when all they needed to do was give the wrong QNH over the R/T...

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[moggie]

I forgot Die Hard II - with the ejector seat in the Herc and the fuel leak (kerosene) that was ignited by a Zippo and blew up an airliner (707) that was doing about 100kts!

Mty wife hates it when these films come on as I always sit there and point out the (many) errors!

And they all have "Aviation Consultants" working for them. Makes you wonder how good the medical consultants on Casualty and ER are.

[C. Yeager]

What I loved about Die Hard 2 was how the DC-8, captained by Colm Meaney, exploded into a massive fireball even though it had empty fuel tanks??
A good one, but scary, was the movie made about the Sioux City DC10 crash, including actual footage of the impact. The film really shows you how well the crew managed to land(crash) the plane with little or no elevator, rudder and aileron control. They had to use the throttles to stear the plane!!!
A recent one I saw about a 747 captain who had 3 wives in different cities on his route was quite amusing.
Like "no sponsor" mentioned, movies (usually cheap crap) which have footage of a 737 t/o, a Dc-10 cruising and to top it off a 747 landing when they are supposed to be all the same plane really piss me off!

[dingducky]

BTB
it was a 767 and the movie was freefall. saw it on tv not long ago.
what i really thought was stupid about it was how they showed the guys climbing up an escape slide at the rear door to get back into the aircraft. when they could have just stepped back in at the front door (the nose gear had collasped)like they did in real life!

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Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are
perfect

[Billy the Kid]

I liked the RTO in a film with Ben Aflick and Sandra Bullock. Can't remember the title but it was a comedy about getting home for a wedding or something. The 737 hurtles down the runway the brakes go on, plane crashes through a fence and stops. Captain opens the DV window and removes bits of fence from the windscreen. Had me in stitches :) :) :)

[DeltaTango]

....andf somehow all the "migs" in Iron Eagle and Top-gun are either Tigers or skyhawks...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

[dingducky]

billy the kid
the movie is called forces of nature
and i haven't seen it
maybe i should, ben affleck isn't too bad ;)

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Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are
perfect

[This message has been edited by dingducky (edited 11 February 2001).]

[Golf-Kilo Victor]

Naaaah, for REALLY rubbish aviation films, you cant beatthe one where the kids get in a space shuttle and fly it into space with a robot......well its a kind of aviation. Cant remeber the title http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif

[ACARS]

It's gotta be Airspeed. Check any of the sky movie channels during the day and it will be on. Come on sky, give me something better to watch during my off days......

Flight Deck on Discovery Wings can also be anoying. Interesting programme but the Narrator talks like we are all 5yrs old. Did you know that an Airbus is only like a bus when taxing!! Comeon Discover, ditch this man.

[Ice100]

Don´t forget the "masterpiece" FINAL DESCENT
It has action, drama and the worst of all
LOVE IN THE COCKPIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A very BAD film.

[DeltaTango]

OHHHHHHHHH..

Come on Ice....What's wrong with abit of LOVE in the cockpit....uuups sorry girls- FLIGHTDECK!!!!

[Teroc]

....Or "Pushing Tin"....everyone in the cockpit gooey eyed as the controller and his wife try to patch their relationship up on the approach frequency... hee hee

[Mariner9]

But the best one has to be the Some Mothers Do Ave em when Frank Spencer has his flying lesson....

[thwack11]

The worst.....Die Hard 2. This one confused the pros.....never mind the flying public....

[Speedbird252]

.....back to the Airport 80 - Concorde....

Anyone reckon they could out-manouvre an F4 Phantom?

Nice one........!!!

[moggie]

maybe! Could probably outrun it.

Used to enjoy outrunning Tornado F3s in my VC10!!!!

[moggie]

Golf-Kilo Victor - you are searching for the title "Space Camp". The kids had all "trained" in the shuttle sim so were word perfect on the checks, of course.

I seem to recall that it came out at about the same time as the Challenger disaster -any link? Or is my memory starting to fade?

[Golf-Kilo Victor]

moggie, ive no idea when it came out, ive only seen it once on channel 3 at about 2:15 you know those "action" movies they put out for little kids.
Anyway, everyone seems to be forgetting that bit on "you only live twice" with "little nellie" where it takes on about 6 helicopters and wins!

G-KV

[Golf-Kilo Victor]

Yet another one has sprung to mind-there was a film where the top of a 707 (i think) above the cockpit was torn off, and they had to winch another pilot in from another plane.

AND, were all missing the obvious one-THUNDERBIRDS!!

specifically the one where the hood hijacked the "fireflash"airliner and if the wheel went down the bomb would explode and its dead tense but they all survive in the end.

OR the immortal line(s) spoken by scott (thunderbird 1): "Height 2500, heading 178, speed 150 000 miles per hour" and thats not a typo! he really said that!

G-KV

[Red or green?!]

What really had me hanging over the back of my couch... in that one in which the aircraft couldn't descent (also don't know the name): in the first attempt to stop it from flying into deep space an escorting fighter (or was it a helicopter, hmmm..) shot holes in the elevators! the sparks flew all around the cabin and a fire started, but at least the tail wasn't torn off by the drag.

I do love these kind of movies!

Rog?!

[AffirmBrest]

GKV - can't knock anything flown by Shir Sean Connery, I'm afraid..

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[BTB]

Classic line in Thunderbirds on sunday: "sir, there`s a typhoon in the south pacific, and the hospital at Poonanni has been blown away, and 250 patients are being swept away!" " Ok launch Thunderbird 2. Thank goodness the new oil tanker isn`t in danger!"

[RRAAMJET]

SkyYacht:
The drunk pilot movie, I think, was "The Pilot" ( they must have been up all night thinking that one up.....) with Cliff Robertson. At least he knows a little about a/c in real life...

"Die Hard 2 With A Vagrant"...or whatever...what a vomitous mess. Hopeless, empty-headed movie that should be eaten at Thanksgiving. Cluck cluck gobble gobble....Bruce, how could you?

Try "Jaws 4" for chronic insomnia....particularly the end in which Michael Caine crashes his a/c alongside a boat for no good reason, and then assists the crew in using an "African-American" gentleman as bait tied to the front of the boat so they can ram the shark with the broken bow-sprit. I fell off my chair in the cinema laughing....and found myself throwing popcorn at the screen. The worst 5 minutes in the history of modern Turkeys. The cinematic equivalent of the BAe Advanced TurboProp....

[Flypuppy]

No one has mentioned the Iron Eagle series of films where a group of teenagers fly F-16's (and the Russians fly F-4s).

The worst of the most recent films has to be Turbulence. I didnt know there was a security door on the stairwell of 747's....

[Golf-Kilo Victor]

Air Force 1-Now there's a S**t aviation film. everyone jumping out of a cargo hatch in the back of......wait, im having the strangest sence of Deja Vu.....

G-KV

[low n' slow]

I must say that most films that are supposed to be about sommet other than airliners but still use them as a setting, generally turns out quite bad. Airforce one for example. Shure you can have a taxi rally on the apron with a 747... Perhaps not the worst (Some of you have found the good ones....:-))
N-E way, the best (according to my opinion...) film about flying is the one called "battle of brittain". I dunno who stars in it but it's good. Lots of spits and nice dogfights over idyllic country side... It's really old though so if you see it, try to not focus on the special effects such as the explisions... otherwise it's a really wicked film. It's worth the full three hours of concentration...

[fmgc]

OK How about some good ones, like BAT 52 (?) with Gene Hackman and the guy from Lethal Weopon in the Cessna.

And what was the anme of the filem where a nuke goes off by accident and James (deep voice) Earl Jones is flying around in a 2nd AF1 and ends up crashing into Air Force one to stop the Vice President (Warmonger) launching a retalitory attack on the russkies and the president isn't really dead after a crash in a heliocopter and the B52 pilots are husband and wife and she gets blinded when they let a nuke off to knock out a trailing MIG and he has to make a decision not to launch a nuke at the USSR despite his orders to launch............deep breath.

That was a good one but I haven't seen it for years.

[DodgyFlyer]

fmgc

That one with James Earl Jones was called 'By Dawns Early Light' don't you remember one of the radar techinicans going psycho and ejecting himself out of the plane when he tried to kill the pilots.
When James Earl Jones and the pilots saluted as they collided I had a tear in my eye.

[Golf-Kilo Victor]

I only have to mention one word.....

FIREFOX

bet thats got you all grimacing in pain!

G-KV

[moggie]

GKV

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Note the common thread in most of the "Stinkers"? "GOD BLESS AMERICA". All it takes is an outbreak of patriotism in hollywood, a budget that can't stretch to the lead actors pay AND good special effects and then you have to bring in the obligatory British Baddie to try to save the day.

Thank god the yanks stayed out of the Battle of Britain (film and real life).

[Rusty Cessna]

Being the sad looser that I am, I have to admit to seeing all these second rate films on Sky at about 12 noon!

Worst ones have to be Airspeed, Executive Decision, that stupid one where that girl is flying a private 727, (which gets wripped in half by a fuel boom), the very gay Iron Eagle series, where a 17 year old rescues his dad in a F16, and Con Air.

In Con Air you see a Herc full of nutbar convicts that happens to have a tidy arsenal in the bottom, RPGs, Shotguns, machine guns, jeez it was funny.

Oh the classic "its a mig" (points to F5) and the Top Gun line, "You flew against a Mig 38-INVERTED!!"

HAHAHAA!

just looked back over the thread, hey Scroggs, archive this baby, as a warning of what never to watch!

[This message has been edited by Rusty Cessna (edited 17 February 2001).]

[RRAAMJET]

Moggie:

Stupid, thoughtless comment, bound to upset anyone over here whose relatives flew ( and died ) in one of the Eagle Squadrons. Not to mention all the desperately needed equipment supplied to us. Do some research. Idiot.

I'm ex-RAF, and very humbled by the courtesy my hosts at my employer ( world's largest airline ) treat me with. I always regard myself as a guest in their country.

Guess I'll just have to explain to some of my colleagues tomorrow the display of British yoof kuwlcher you've trumpeted.

I think we've been thru' this on other threads....

Sorry, folks, back to the feature movie....

[Dockjock]

Don't forget the Bond film from a couple years back with Pierce Brosnan where in the opening scene the C185 or some such thing drives off a cliff with no pilot....


....our hero Bond motorcycles off the cliff, skydives down to the plumetting plane, hops in a pulls out of the dive!!! Now that is friggin ACE in my books :)

[Luftwaffle]

True Lies, with Arnie in a Harrier, picking up his daughter from a skyscraper while the bad guy climbs all over the canopy.

[fmgc]

dockjock,

It was a Turbo Porter as featured in "Air America".

"THAT'S NOT A RUNWAY............IT'S A MOUNTAIN!"

Con_Air? No Herc there.

[Approaching_the_minimums]

How about the opening of the bond-movie "License to kill". Where the not very Bondish (he lasted only two movies I think)Timothy Dalton joins the US coastguard in a Dolphin helicopter to chase a druglord in his cessna. Good old 007 ends up jumping on to the cessna and tiying the copters' rescue-cable-thingie around its tail. After this daring operation the helicopter tows the bad guy back to base, while bond and his loyal side-kick felix parachute down to the wedding they were supposed attend. Magnificent.

Wonder if that could........---- N'ah, no way

[moggie]

RRAAMJET

You may wish to know that several of my relatives died in battles that were re-written by the Americans (not the capital A) when Hollywood decided that too many other countries were involved in defeating various tyrants. I think I'm qualified to be p****d off that their memory is sullied in order to make the Americans look good.

I have not forgotten the Eagle squadrons who did a great job but the Americans (as a nation) only came into the war when someone had a go at them directly. They did not seem to want to come in before, leaving us to do the job in Europe and elsewhere with what was left of our depleted, under equipped forces and any we could pull in from the colonies.

My great uncle died on the beach on D-day - but if you believe Hollywood he was never even there. Who needs to do the research? Not me.

And lighten up anyway - I thought this was meant to be a humourous thread.

[Up Up & Away]

Can't forget Airport 75
The one where the GA pilot has a heart attack and crashes into the 747 resulting in the first officer being sucked out of the aircraft. Then "Nancy" our intrepid flight attendant flies the aircraft until some bright spark decides to get a helicopter to fly parallel to the 747 whilst they winch another pilot into the hole that was created by the heart attack victim.
A classic that should not be missed!

[wheels up]

What about the scene in Charlies Angels where our heroes jump out of an airliner in the cruise by opening the rear cabin door. Hmmm - quite an amazing feat considering that they would have to open the door against cabin pressure.

The worst aviation scene of all time has to be in 'Plan Nine from Outer Space' directed by Ed Wood. Ed Wood is widely recognised as being the worst movie director of all time(check out the web site)

One scene shows 2 airline pilots in the 'cockpit' of an airliner. The flightdeck is roughly constructed out of plywood and the pilots are shown stirring the controls like porridge as fake clouds drift past outside. Hilarious stuff.....



[This message has been edited by wheels up (edited 20 February 2001).]

[Roc]

Moogie,

You do your heroic uncle a great disservice by acting and sounding like a total idiot! your grasp of history is poor, and don't take anything made in Hollywood too seriously, they make movies for American audiences and will do anything if they can make a buck. Did you expect America to enter a war not affecting our shores or intersts at the time, and send millions of our sons to die!! if thats the case, why don't you suit up right now and go rescue some third world nation embroiled in a civil war somewhere. Just thank God that when we did show up things happened the way they did, or would you have rathered had others holding Atomic weapons, etc.....now, back to the original thread

[moggie]

ROC -
you folks got involved in Kuwait, Vietnam, Korea etc.- which of your shores were affected then?

I'm not trying to offend anyone and my point at the start was that: Yes- Hollywood do do it for American audiences and Yes - they do tinker with the facts to try to make it look good for those audiences. The problem is, that that tinkering with the facts (generally) spoils the film for aviators (e.g. the rear ramp in the 747) and people with a reasonable grasp of history (and that does include me). This does nothing to make America or Americans look good beyond their own country.

I have nothing against Americans (my next door neighbour is one and is a very nice chap and a friend!) but the clowns in Hollywood seem to want to give out the impression that you are all gun mad, ultra-patriotic psychos - which is complete cr*p of course. Like us you have your share of nutters (well, in fact yuo seem to have more than your fair share - influenced by TV/Movie violence?????) but Hollywood seem to wish to convey the impresion that this is the norm.

If I gave the impression that I am not grateful for american participation in WWII then I am sorry - that was not my intention. I was just saying that the very low key american presence at the start of the war does at least save us from Hollywood rewriting history to give the impression that Alec Baldwin or Kurt Russell won the battle of Britain on his own (with the aid of one old biplane and a swiss army knife - oops, that's the A-team).

I hope this clears up what I was getting at and that we can now return to the main job of taking the p*ss out of awful movies.

PS RRAAMJET - at 36 I don't qualify as a member of Britain's yoof kuwlter but have been around the world enough in my aeroplanes (Oz to Hawaii, North Pole to southern Africa, Highlands to Hong Kong) and done enough interesting, unusual and sometimes dangerous work to qualify as an experienced aviator. At least, I think so!



[This message has been edited by moggie (edited 22 February 2001).]

[Roc]

Moogie,

Please don't ever mix up the left-wing liberal losers that populate hollywood, and the garbage they produce as representitive of most Americans. Unfortunately alot of the rest of the world does. Remember, before WWII, America had the 9th largest army in the world, after #8 Portugal, and we were essentially an isolationists country. From our perspective you Europeans were always fighting, and after helping out in WWI, with resultant American deaths, most Americans wanted nothing to do with anything going on your way, Your right, after we were bombed at Pearl Harbor, we mobilized, and by wars end became an unwitting Super-power, so all the post WWII events, like Vietnam,Kuwait, etc has to be viewed from a different frame of reference vis a vis pre-WWII. Expecting the US to help England out in 1939, is like expecting you to have voluntarily sent your boys over to Vietnam in the 60's...Back to the original thread, a Navy friend of mine who flew F-14's was on the carrier as they filmed "Hunt for Red October" on watching the jets land aboard the carrier, he noticed that Alec Baldwin, the star of the movie, clapped in a most schoolgirlish way as each jet trapped aboard..so much for his tough guy persona on the screen, remember all these tough guy actors were the geeks in Drama Class in high school!!!!!!!

[C. Yeager]

Airwolf (classic series) has to be one of the best. It can travel near to mach 1, pretty good for a chopper!
Its predessesor Blue Thunder was another classic helicopter series. What I loved about Blue Thunder was that it could go on "silent running" and so the bad guys couldn't hear it when it flew over their heads. Must have been top secret technology the producers used in filming! :) lol

[Landing Gear]

And wot about STAR TREK, flight in UIR at warp 9 !!!

[Wrong Stuff]

For me the worst bit of a Bond film has to be the one where Pierce Brosnan is on a BMW motorbike with a girl on the back being chased through the streets by baddies in a helicopter. When they finally corner him in a dead end, they stop him escaping by tilting the main rotor blades to 45 degrees to block the road and just hovering there!!! Aw come on... there's a difference between being far fetched and just blatantly ignoring reality!!!

[moggie]

ROC-
"left-wing liberal losers that populate hollywood" - guess me now know where your colours are nailed.

Do you still not get my point? Whatever the political persuasion of the people involved (don't forget that some are very Right wing) buggering about with the facts of history, science etc. just makes the perpetrators look dumb. And if that movie is meant to be a big patriotic flag waver such as Top Gun or Executive Decision, the whole country gets tarred with the same brush. The mud sticks - plenty of people think that England (few know about Britain) is still living in the age of Pride and Prejudice or worse still, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves).

Unfortunately, it will only get worse as technology (real world and SFX) advances. Directors will do things because they can, not because it makes the movie better.

How about Independence Day as a stinker - when alcoholic cropy sprayer Randy Quaid brings down the baddies after just an hour's classroom time learning how to drive his F15?