Final Countdown
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
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
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Flight of the Intruder impressed me with the slow mo shots of the Skyraiders at work, it wasn't a bad film either.
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
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
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
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!
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
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
Salute!
Thanks Melch, the helo insertion is exactly as I remember from those days.
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....
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.
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....
Last edited by gums; 19th Apr 2019 at 22:48. Reason: typo/addition
Evertonian
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...
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...
Last edited by gums; 20th Apr 2019 at 14:17. Reason: Typing tuff on my laptop
Loved the film, then read the book and realised the film was rubbish.
Pity then, that the finale departs radically from actuality, detracting from an otherwise close-portrayal of the events. But that's Hollywood for you.
