Blue Thunder

Plot synopsis:
In the Metropolitan Police Astro Division of Los Angeles, which controls all police helicopters, the night shift is about to begin. After checking off the list, Captain Braddock (Warren Oates) is looking for the senior pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Schneider). He orders the rookie observer Lymangood (Daniel Stern) to find Murphy. Lymangood finds Murphy in the ready room, playing with his digital wristwatch. In a few seconds, Murphy goes to talk to Braddock, only to find that his regular observer, Montoya, has been transferred to day shift. Instead, he gets the rookie Lymangood.The pair takes off in one of the helicopters, and Murphy is able to spot things on the ground, pointing out things even before the rookie can even get his binoculars on it. They respond to a store robbery call, shine the "midnight sun" searchlight onto one of the perps, and get shot at for their effort. However, a squad car arrives and officers quickly bring the suspect down. As the helicopter circles overhead, Murphy and Lymangood spot someone creeping up on the officers. They try to give directions, but it's too dark, and Murphy takes the helicopter down, only 10 feet off the ground, and "dust" the suspect, drowning him in dust, which gives the officers enough time to subdue the other suspect.Later that night, they spot an apparently abandoned vehicle, no plates, in the Brentwood neighborhood, pretty upscale. They call it in, and Murphy decides to show Lymangood something interesting. They fly over to nearby Encino, which is outside their patrol area. At 9:30PM, Lymangood is able to observe a very flexible young woman doing some amazing yoga moves in the nude. Unfortunately, they are interrupted. That "abandoned car" they spotted earlier was not abandoned. The character inside watches as a black woman drives her Lincoln by, opens her gate, and enters. He quickly follows and places a brick to block the gate so it can't close, and another car roars into the courtyard, smashing into the back of the black woman's car. Then two men emerge from the car and rush forward, one yelling "get the briefcase!" as the other tries to subdue the black woman.The patrol cars arrive on the scene just as the suspects try to escape, and run back into the yard, and Murphy's air unit arrives overhead, as they observe the ensuing gun battle. The two suspects only have light revolvers, while police are armed with revolvers and shotguns. One suspect is hit and falls face down into the swimming pool. The other tries to climb the fence with the briefcase, but he is spotlighted by the helicopter and police hit him twice. The briefcase falls and splits open, papers fly everywhere in the helicopter's downwash. The black woman is pleading, "Just let them go! Please!" as she staggers toward the gunfight. The suspect on the fence returns fire at the police, hitting the black woman instead in the neck. Then three policemen fire, hitting the suspect multiple times, who falls from the fence.Murphy, watching from above, suddenly has a Vietnam flashback, about being a pilot in a U.S. Army helicopter and about a man in North Vietnamese Army uniform falling after being pushed out of the helicopter by an unseen U.S. serviceman... and the helicopter loses several hundred feet in altitude before he regains control.A little later, Murphy's unit lands back at the base, and is summoned for a session with an angry Captain Braddock, who grounds both Murphy and Lymangood for that "stunt" over Encino, practically hovering right off someone's balcony, instead of patrolling over their assigned area, and may have prevented the assault on City Councilwoman McNealy (the black woman previously shot). McNealy is now in critical condition in hospital. McNealy had always criticized police tactics and this does not make the police look good.Murphy goes home, checks his phone messages on his anwsering machine, and is about to relax when he hears someone at the door fumbling with the lock. He pulls out his .38 pistol, only to find his girlfriend Kate (Candy Clark) and her son. They have a bit of discussion about their future, and she eventually leaves.The following evening, Murphy decides to check out Councilwoman McNealy's residence, now a crime scene, having heard that McNealy has died in the hospital, and the Watts district is in an uproar as racial tentions are starting to escalate. Detectives have already gone through it, retrieving most evidence they can find. However, Murphy is able to find a piece of paper lodged in a tree. Just when he gets back to his car, his pager goes off. He finds a public phone and call back to base... Captain Braddock wants him back at the base ASAP.Murphy returns to base, only to find Captain Braddock with two strangers dressed in black business suits, who introduce themselves as Mr. Fletcher (David Sheiner) and Mr. Icelan (Paul Roebling). The two 'men in black' announce that Metro is going be the testing ground for a new $5 million goverment built helicopter, and Murphy has been selected as the senior test pilot, and will be observing the demonstration. They get into a van and drive off outside the city. Murphy asks what is this about, Icelan replies that soon, it'll be 1984 Summer Olympics, which will attract all sorts of rabblerousers... terrorists, and what-not. Thus, some contingencies must be planned, such as this thing they're about to see.The van drives out into the desert, and approximately at sunrise, they arrive at the test range, along with various other observers: officers from various other law enforcement and military agencies, and many civilian contractors. The demonstration is for this new helicopter nicknamed "Blue Thunder", fully armored, and has a chain-gun in the nose capable to dealing out precise firepower. The chopper is also a full surveillance platform, with video, infra-red, and audio capabilities, as well as a "whisper mode" which cancels a lot of the noise from the rotor blades, and turbine boost for the two turbines for extra amount of power. It also has access to almost any computer database in the world.The chopper makes a impressive demonstration, eradicating red targets (for terrorists) quickly and efficiently, but it does take out a few white targets (civilians) as well. Murphy remarks to Braddock, who replies that one civilian dead for every 10 terrorists is an acceptable ration. Murphy replies sarcastically. When "Blue Thunder" lands, Murphy is surprised to recongize the pilot whom is old nemesis: Colonel Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell), the commander of his unit in Vietnam. Cochrane is surprised as well to run into Murphy. It is clear that both men do not like each other very much as Cochrane makes some sarcastic quirks to Murphy who quietly bushes it off. In private, Fletcher and Icelan talk with Cochrane about that they didn't know that he knew Murphy. Cochrane quickly dismisses Murphy as "no threat" to the program to Fletcher and Icelan. To make sure of this, Cochrane orders Fletcher and Icelan to have Murphy on a "check flight" the next day.Back at Metro Headquarters, Murphy finds Montoya (Joe Santos) and asks him about that "note" he found in McNealy's place which is in Spanish and to translate it for him.Next day, Cochrane is out first... and sabotages Murphy's helicopter for some reason by tampering with a wire in the engine. During the day, Cochrane pilots Blue Thunder, with Murphy and Lymangood piloting the faulty chopper. Before the flight, Lymangood tells Murphy that he heard that Murphy had actually did a 360 vertical loop in a helicopter. Cochrane walks by and remarks that the move is physically impossible.After a series of maneuvers, Murphy's chopper loses control of the engine and has to auto-rotate to a landing. After failing to land on top of a passing yellow school bus, Murphy crash lands his helicopter on a construction shack instead in the Watts neighhood. The construction workers help Murphy and Lymangood out while keeping a crowd of angry and racist black and Latino citizens at bay.Later that day, Montoya meets with Murphy for he has translateted the note which tells something about some weird people in the barrio making trouble, and something about "THOR". Both Murphy and Montoya have no idea what it stands for.The next morning, Murphy confronts Cochrane in a parking garage about his suspicions that he may have sabatoged his helicopter in trying to kill him for some irrational grudge against him steming from their service in Vietnam. Cochrane (clearly revealed as a charming sociopath at this point to the viewers) calmly denies any wrongdoing and tells Murphy that HE is the one who has a problem with him over being too soft-hearted.A little later, Braddock approaches Murphy claiming that Cochrane had just told him that Murphy threatened him with physical harm in the parking garage (with Cochrane naturally playing-acting as the "poor, innocent victim"). Murphy tells Braddock that Cochrane is lying and he has an agenda. Braddock wants to belive Murphy, but tells him to stay away from Cochrane to avoid any further hassles.That evening, Cochrane's attempt to kill Murphy apparently didn't prevent both Murphy and Lymangood from flying the Blue Thunder for a test flight at night. Lymangood has previously learns that everything recorded onboard the Blue Thunder goes into a special tape deck below. Murphy and Lymangood take off to test the Blue Thunder.The first thing Murphy and Lymangood do is take out the fuse for the cockpit voice recorder, so they can have a private conversation. They agree on where to stash the fuse for later use.They find plenty of harmless targets to test the various capabilities. Just as they are returning, they spot Cochrane and Fletcher leaving the Metro building. Instead of returning to base and landing, they decide to follow Cochrane to see what he is up to, and they end up in the Federal Building downtown. Lymangood starts playing with the computer, looking up his own information, and it's amazingly complete. Murphy tries to look up his own info, but gets: "FILE UNDER REPAIR". He tries to search Cochrane, and gets a long military service history, as well as "currently assigned to Project THOR". An inquiry about Project THOR shows that T.H.O.R. stands for Tactical Helicopter Offensive Response. Murphy orders the whisper mode activated, thermal vision activated, and audio surveillance activated, as they search the Federal Building for Cochrane, and they find him, along with other people in the project, discussing the killing of McNealy, about how McNealy realized that they're stirring up trouble so she HAD to go, and how Murphy is becoming a problem and will be taken care of soon. Cochrane eagerly offers to kill Murphy himself and claims that he wished he had done it in Vietnam. The group agrees and permits Cochrane to kill Murphy whenever he feels the time will be right. It is right then when Cochrane looks out the window... only to see Blue Thunder looking back at him! Blue Thunder quickly returns to base.At the base, Lymangood quickly "borrows" the code cards to remove the videotape, before any one else can get to it, while Murphy goes to find Braddock to tell him what he heard, only to find Icelan standing beside Braddock in Braddock's office, thus leaving Murphy with no choice but to keep silent. Murphy sees Lymangood removing the videotape from the helicopter, but plenty of people also see him do it.Later that night, Lymangood returns home, only to find his place burglarized, and a stranger sitting in his chair. Before he can utter a sound, he gets hit from behind and tied up, and his mouth taped up. The same perp who was at the NcNealy attack and a part of the Cochrane conspiracy meeting at the Federal building is outside in his car waiting for them. The two thugs tell Lymangood that they want the videotape, and they are willing to torture Lymangood to get it. They start by breaking one of Lymangood's fingers. Lymangood fakes compliance, and is able to disable the two attackers in his house. After subduing both of them, he runs outside, and the third perp chases him in the car. Lymangood almost gets away except when he runs into a bicyclist and falls, and gets run over by the perp and dies at the scene.Murphy, who was on the way to Lymangood's house, happens upon the scene as a paramedic team is putting Lymangood into a body bag. Murphy angrily curses at himself, but he knows that he has to get away, for whoever killed Lymangood will pin the killing on him. Murphy gets away before a squad car arrives on the scene.The next morning at Astro Division HQ., Murphy sneaks into the main hangar and into Blue Thunder. He reinserts the fuse into the cockpit voice recorder and finds Lymangood's last audio message: he hid the videotape in a dumpster out by a drive-in theater's projection shack. Murphy is deciding what to do when a mechanic knocks on the window and shouts: "Hey! You're not supposed to be in there!" Murphy thinks for a second, then pulls his pistol and points it at the mechanic, who quickly flees. Murphy quickly dons the helmet and starts the engines, and takes off. While Cochrane and others are deciding what to do next, they see Murphy take off in Blue Thunder.Murphy quickly uses the mobile operator on board the helicopter to place two phone calls, one to Alf Hewitt (James Murtaugh), a Channel 8 investigative reporter, and one to Kate asking her to go find the tape at the dumpster and deliver it to the Channel 8 studio. Cochrane and the members of the conspracy overhear Murphy's two phone calls and decide to kill him before he goes public with what he knows.Kate arrives at the drive-in theater. Seeing no one, she crashes through the front gate. The cleaner sees this and quickly calls the police. After some frantic searching, Kate finds the videotape, but only by jumping into the dumpster herself. She pulls it out just as a police car arrives. Murphy returns to escort Kate to the Channel 8 news building. Kate, being a pretty crazy driver, is able to evade pursuit by several police cars.Meanwhile, a SWAT team armed with heavy machine guns have boarded two helicopters, and have appeared on either side of Murphy. However, Murphy does not react at first. When one helicopter opens fire, Murphy responds by knocking the front searchlight off the shooter, then puts just a few bullets into the engine to force the helicopter down. The other chopper opens fire, but with little effect since most of the bullets bounce off harmlessly at Blue Thunder's thick armor. Murphy flies down into the L.A. reservoir channels, and in a series of tight turns, the police chopper, heavily laden, is unable to make a turn and crashes into a pillar, fortunately suffering no casualties.Back on the ground at police headquarters, Cochrane and his team are portraying Murphy to reporters and everyone else as a madman who killed his partner and is now in the sky doing terrorist acts (having fabricated Murphy's personnel file to include a vast list of false crimes). They convince Braddock and the local mayor (Jason Bernard) to ask the Air Force for help. Two F-16 fighter jets are scrambled.Elsewhere, Kate is driving calmly when another police car recognizes her after being contacted by Cochrane to detain her. She tries to evade, but her small car cannot outrun a police car. She is stopped on a bridge when cornered by two police cars. The officers, with pistols drawn, order her out of her car when Murphy shows up in Blue Thunder. When the officers are distracted, she drives away. Murphy activates the cannon and fires a quick burst, cutting a police car in half and forcing the rest of the police cars to flee, but again causing no police casualties.Kate makes it to Channel 8 news station. She has the tape still in the "eraser" container, which can be remotely activated to erase the contents of the tape. She enters and finds the lobby in chaos from the people asking about what is going on. She looks for Alf Hewitt, but she is told by the lobby receptionist that he's busy on a story. Just then, Fletcher arrives and pretends to be Hewitt's producer, and tries to charm the supicious Kate to give him the tape. Hewitt appears and is ready to take Kate away, and claims that has never saw Fletcher in his life. Fletcher tries to fight them for the tape, and pulls out a gun. The lobby security guard strikes Fletcher behind the ear with his gun knocking him out. Fletcher still has the grip on the cover, and as he falls, he pulls the cover off the tape. Just then, Cochrane and his boss (unable to find the code to the video cover to erase the tape) orders the "eraser" activated for all the videotapes, but it's too late for the tape is no longer in the cover.Meanwhile, the two Air Force fighters are approaching downtown L.A. Murphy sees them, then slows to a hover... right above the smokestack of a barbeque shack in nearby Chinatown. When one of the F-16 fighters opens fire with a Sidewinder missile, it goes astray and blows up the BBQ restaurant to bits, raining chicken all over the area. The two jet fighters fly off to regroup. The other fighter decides to take a shot. This time, Murphy hovers between the Arco towers over downtown, just as a SWAT team arrives to order everyone out of the area. The Sidewinder missile, delfected by the reflection of the sun onto the building, hits the Arco Tower instead, raining debris down below.The two fighters circle, but Murphy's not done. He activates the cannon, and with a long-range burst, catches one of the F-16's in the wing. The pilot ejects while the second F-16 retreats.At Astro Division HQ, a Hughes MD5 Defender chopper has arrived, armed with two powerful 20mm guns with armor-piercing bullets. Cochrane suddenly orders the existing pilot out as he'll fly the thing... wanting to kill Murphy himself. Cochrane requests permission to take off. The mayor, having lost two police helicopters, a BBQ shack, one F-16, AND a part of a skyscraper, has had enough, and denies permission to take off. Cochrane takes off anyway, with steel-like determination to kill Murphy.Meanwhile, Alf Hewitt and Kate are watching the tape in his office, and Hewitt was amazed at the content: it's a Federal government conspiracy to stir up trouble in the barrio, so that they can get funding for this armed helicopter program! Thus, Murphy is not only NOT insane, he could be "the hottest thing since Horatius at the bridge", according to Hewitt. He makes a call to someone.Back up in the air, Murphy is watching the F-16 pilot drifting back down to earth under his parachute when the evil Cochrane attacks from his blind-side. The heavy cannons punch through the cockpit and wound Murphy, causing damage to the Blue Thunder chopper, as well as jam the nose turret into a "straight-ahead" position. Murphy quickly goes into evasive maneuvers, as the two adversaries dogfight among the skyscrapers and landmarks of the city in a climatic aerial battle. Murphy tries to set an ambush by turning around and hovering behind a building and opens fire, but Cochrane gets away, as his lighter armored chopper is faster and more maneuverable. And with a bit more maneuvering, he's right back behind Blue Thunder and Murphy, who's busy dodging bullets among abandoned factories.In another flashback to Vietnam, it is revealed that Cochrane was the soldier who pushed the North Vietnamese soldier out of the hovering helicopter that Murphy was flying, and thus tried to court-marial Murphy for insubordination to cover up the killing.Back in the present, with Blue Thunder now the hunted, a desperate Murphy decides on a gamble to end it all. He enables the helicopter's turbine boost on both engines, and goes for the 360 vertical loop. Cochrane tries to follow. The Blue Thunder completes the loop, and the cannon is heading up, as Cochrane's chopper is stuck in the sky, trying to loop but can't. Murphy opens fire with the cannon... and Cochrane's chopper explodes, killing the psychopath at last.As it begins to get dark, Murphy spots a freight train traveling at a moderate speed. He lands ahead of the train, and tries to get out before the train hits. The train, unable to stop in time, smashes the chopper into pieces in a final big explosion. The final shot shows an exhausted Murphy walking away from the remains of Blue Thunder.Freeze frame. In a final voiceover by Alf Hewitt, he reports that Murphy ran out of fuel and destroyed the prototype helicopter and he begins to talk more about a goverment conspiracy behind the construction of Blue Thunder.

Tags: cult, action, murder

Review:
His portrayal of Murphy with its wry humour & very human lapses shares more than a little with a certain Chief Brody, but the use of an aging rebel with little cause as the main character in a technological thriller is still refreshing now.Malcolm McDowell gives the sort of OTT villainous performance that only he can (why has no-one ever cast him as a Bond villain?) and special mention must go to Warren Oates as Scheider's long-suffering boss.The helicopter looks awesome with cool gadgets aplenty but it isn't the star here, Scheider is.
(The scene where we first see Blue Thunder with the sun rising behind it is sheer class.) I've got the DVD and always enjoy watching this film, I love Roy Scheider in most films he's in and he's excellent in this one.
The plot is quite thin and there are a couple of scenes that are a bit far fetched but if you're looking for a film with good helicopter chase sequences in it, they don't come much better than this.
Great action sequences and rather good photography during the climactic chase scene.I still have fond memories of this film which I saw in the drive in as a kid and I think it's what films of this genre should be...a couple of hours of wild fun!..."Follow My Leader".
'Roy Scheider' Plays Frank Murphy,A former Vietnam Veteran,who is a helicopter pilot,for the Los Angeles police department,who becomes handpicked to pilot the eponymous 'blue thunder' which is a state of the art chopper designed for supreme law enforcement, Unfortunately for Murphy the test pilot behind this superb flying machine is Malcolm Mc Dowell,who also was on duty in Nam with Scheider, and serves as the film's all too English baddie!
The morals of a `big brother' helicopter, able to pry everywhere isn't examined as well as could have been but it's still interesting.Scheider is always good to watch and does well, as do Warren Oates and a young Daniel Stern.
Tense and suspenseful aerial action film with an exciting final chase starred by superbly crafted high-tech helicopters and F16 on the L.A. skies among its big city skyscrapers .
Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a Vietnam vet and police pilot who forms a helicopter surveillance team along with his younger partner (Daniel Stern) , when they spontaneously catch a secret conversation .
Then they take to the skies against a nasty army colonel (Malcolm McDowell) who will defend his accomplices at whatever cost.Gripping , original action movie that deal with Roy Scheider trying to find the means avoid a video disk to be taken by corrupt government agents .
Malcolm McDowell makes an excellent villain, though his "real" relationship with Scheider doesn't pay off).HOWEVER, when "Blue Thunder" works, it really rocks.
Badham's late 1990s Hitchcockian type thriller, Nick of Time(1996) used many of the same ideas on action and suspense as his earlier film, Blue Thunder(1983).
Ya gotta love Roy Scheider; he made a great leading man, and this is definitely one to look out for if you feel he didn't quite catch the wave he should've done, after "Jaws"...It's a little bottom-heavy, with most of the action being shoehorned into the last segment, but if you garnered some enjoyment from Badham's other crowd-pleasing fare of the decade like "War Games" and "Short Circuit", then you should also be able to derive some form of pleasure from this..
Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, the late Warren Oates, Daniel Stern, and Candy Clark give excellent performances in the characters they play, but the real star of the picture is the hi-tech attack helicopter itself, Blue Thunder.
Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, Daniel Stern, Warren Oates and the lovely Candy Clark all earn their pay cheques and John Badham is unfussy in his direction.
"Blue Thunder" is a 5 Million helicopter proto-type that is to be tested in Los Angeles by the L.A.P.D. Astro Division & Officer Frank Murphy & his observer Richard Lymengood are assigned to test fly it over L.A.
A few years before Top Gun set new standards for fighter plane action movies, John Badham directed Blue Thunder, an action movie about a combat helicopter of the same name.
Roy Scheider plays Frank Murphy, yet another cop, who is selected to pilot the revolutionary helicopter Blue Thunder.
Oates has little to do but does it well as Scheider's boss.The story, though, is a mishmash of techno-babble, intrigue, the latest surveillance techniques (of 1983), tough guy talk and the freedom of the press, with helicopter dogfights in downtown LA thrown in for good measure.All in all, "Blue Thunder" makes its point but fails to follow through, except maybe if you count the last scene.
Definitely throws out the possibility for a sequel, if you know what I mean.Six stars.TIDBIT - McDowell admitted during filming that he got very airsick and many shots had to be re-taken, since he was throwing up in just about every in-flight scene he was in.Now THERE'S a sequel - "Blue Thunder 2: The Dramamine Patrol"..
Also impressive is the use of actual helicopters flying amongst the buildings and over the aqueducts instead CGI f/x and such like.In this day and age of WACO Texas and Ruby Ridge it's interesting how some film critics dismissed the film's prospect of the Police Department using military hardware in civilian settings.On another note, it would've been interesting if the film makers decided to film the original storyline in which the Frank Murphy character was a paranoid schizophrenic who was to go on a murderous rampage over L.A. once in the cockpit of BT..
I was caught up in the whole thing; the car chases, the dofight through downtown L.A. It all works somehow, both as police procedural and conspiracy flick.Scheider lends a great presence to validate the whole thing, Malcolm McDowell is a real slime of the first order, but neither one of these guys has a thing on the real star of the movie: ol' Blue, herself.
This film will have you checking the sky to see if anything like Blue Thunder the helicopter is looking at you (and listening, too).Warren Oates provides almost comic relief as a boss who hears the immediate complaints and doesn't understand what Murphy is trying to tell him.
Soon Scheider discovers the super copter has a sinister purpose.Directed by John Badham with a script by Dan O'Bannon, Blue Thunder is a solid entertaining '80s action flick.
Thirty years later, the technology may need revisiting but the film still grabs you as a riveting thrill ride with a solid human-interest angle.Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a seasoned helicopter pilot who patrols Los Angeles for the local police.
Whether he's breaking in a rookie partner played by Daniel Stern ("Stop calling me 'sir,' you sound like David Copperfield") or having a confrontation with his spiky but caring boss (Warren Oates, in his last film role), Scheider has a way of making you care about his character without getting in the way of the story.The story, like I said, has problems, but it's also quite exciting and full of impressive moments that stick.
Despite what some others (including Leonard Maltin) have said, McDowell plays his character not as openly menacing but more of a smoothie, which makes him a fascinating foil for the not-completely-collected Murphy.I want to second Woodyanders' observation in his August 2010 IMDb review, about "a totally preposterous, but witty and engrossing script by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jacoby." For all the rote car chase scenes, and buildings blowing up, I still find myself enjoying Murphy's wry exchanges with his long-suffering girlfriend (a winningly doughty Candy Clark), or the moment when she's confronted by a man who tells her: "The most dangerous thing in the world is a little man afraid for his job," which is a bit of irony if you like that kind of thing given who the speaker and what his situation is at that moment of the film.The film's serious but not mortal weakness is watching Murphy aid and abet a lot of mayhem that would carry a high death toll if it weren't an '80s popcorn picture that expected us to merely enjoy the pyrotechnics and not ask questions.
It was then I realized the TRUE premise of the film: what would you do if you were a teenager and could play with this helicopter?This leads to that and the evil military guy, inexplicably played by a British Malcolm McDowell, and with whom Scheider has some unresolved issues from Viet Nam, starts chasing our hero about the skies of LA.
Ultimately disappointing movie about airborne cops, and their new toy, Blue Thunder.Somewhat poorly made, although the helicopter was pretty cool.Roy Scheider seemed distracted, and his character was poorly developed.There were hints that he was a troubled cop, but you're never quite sure of the extent of it.
Admittedly, "Blue Thunder" (the series) wasn't as good as other contemporary action shows like "Airwolf" or "The A-Team", but I still liked it and the pilot film was even better.
Probably I didn't understand a lot about the content and politically themed story lines back then, but I mostly remember loving the extended images of a heavily armored helicopter circulating over the city and watching how Roy Scheider simply rocked as the ultra-cool pilot.
Roy Scheider is magnificent, as stated above, but he also receives excellent support from Warren Oates (in one of his last roles), Candy Clark, Daniel Stern and particularly Malcolm McDowell.
It's makers want to show what it will do, but have to train a Los Angeles Police pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider), to fly and use it in order to allow it to operate in the city.
IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I SAW A MOVIE IN DOLBY AND BLUE THUNDER WAS PERFECT GREAT SOUND TRACK COMBINED WITH CLASIC MUSIC AND I THINK THE BEST SCENE IS THE CHASE UNDER THE BRIDGE
I paid my belated  and, unfortunately, measly  tribute to Roy Scheider (a very fine and underrated actor who passed away recently) via this hi-tech actioner, which I recall catching on Italian TV back in the mid-80s in a weekly run of Hollywood blockbusters that included everything from STAR WARS (1977) to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) and STAYING ALIVE (1983); besides BLUE THUNDER, I was supposed to re-acquaint myself with 2010 (1984) as well, but couldn't quite fit it in my tight schedule!
Still, as often happens, Scheider is depicted as being troubled by conscience  which has to do with his experiences in Vietnam; equally predictable is the fact that the irresponsible officer who was involved in that past incident (Malcolm McDowell) turns up again now  actually, he's part of the conspiracy revolving around the chopper.Aiding Scheider is rookie sidekick Daniel Stern (who eventually pays with his life, naturally) and the protagonist's kooky girlfriend Candy Clark (who even gets in on the action via a car chase by police on the busy L.A. streets); Scheider's tough but world-weary, and outwardly compliant, superior is played by Warren Oates in his farewell performance (the film, in fact, is dedicated to him).
If you distrust you government today, you can always go back to the eighties and see that they have been doing this stuff for a long time.Roy Scheider (All That Jazz, The French Connection) is the perfect police helicopter pilot that is so suspicious that everything seems a conspiracy.
This time he is right.Malcolm McDowell (Time After Time, A Clockwork Orange) is just the bad guy you want to see getting it in the end - and you know he will.Super helicopter action, and a great supporting performance by Candy Clark (Zodiac, American Graffiti) in the Oscar-nominated action thriller..
BLUE THUNDER (1983) *** Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, Warren Oates.
John Badham directed this helicopter adventure yarn that stars Roy Scheider as L.A. officer and police pilot Frank Murphy, who is assigned a new partner(played by Daniel Stern) and a new assignment: to test pilot a new stealth experimental helicopter to be used to combat civilian crime, but Frank becomes suspicious when the project manager turns out to be an old nemesis from his Vietnam war days, a Col. Cochrane(played by Malcolm McDowell) who does indeed have nefarious plans for the "Blue Thunder", and Murphy becomes determined to not only expose the program, but destroy it...
Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell are Good-Bad Guys and Their Characters are Just This Side of Stereotype.The Film Holds Up Pretty Well and is Worth a Watch for What it Does Best, and Despite its Reluctance to Go Deep in the Weeds of the Troubling Scenario, the Movie Manages to be Quite Unsettling, Albeit in its Near Subliminal Story of What Was to Come and It Did Come in a Multitude of Ways.
Officer Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a helicopter pilot for the L.A.P.D. He is haunted by an incident during the Vietnam war.
Murphy is taken to a test of a new helicopter codename Blue Thunder flown by Col. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell).
i remember watching this movie years ago and not being all that impressed,but this time i really liked it.it's basically about an experimental helicopter which a certain group of people have a nefarious purpose for.the test pilot founds out about this and decides to try and stop their plans for it.the movie is never boring.in fact it's quite exciting at times and fast paced.there's some intrigue thrown in for good measure,but mostly it about the action specifically aerial chase sequences,which are pretty well done.Roy Scheider plays the test pilot while Daniel Stern plays his co-pilot.for me,Blue Thunder is an 8/10.
LAPD helicopter pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider), despite being a maverick, is selected to be a test pilot for the new helicopter prototype Blue Thunder.
Scrappy and traumatized, yet still sharp and capable Vietnam veteran and ace helicopter pilot Frank Murphy (an excellent performance by Roy Scheider) is assigned to try out a new hi-tech helicopter called Blue Thunder.
This film further benefits from sturdy acting from a bang-up cast: Scheider effortlessly carries the picture with his natural charisma and makes for a totally likable hero (this movie earns extra points for not depicting a 'Nam vet as one of your standard crazed bloodthirsty psychos), Daniel Stern provides funny and engaging comic relief as Murphy's goofball partner Richard Lymangood, Candy Clark contributes an appealing turn as Murphy's sweet girlfriend Kate, and the always fantastic Warren Oates almost steals the whole show in one of his very last roles as Murphy's crusty no-nonsense superior Captain Jack Braddock.
"Blue Thunder" is certainly my kind of movie as it achieves in casting actors I enjoy watching and has a military helicopter with state of the art weaponry and exceptional flying capability.
When you such names as Roy Scheider, Warren Oates(aka God), Daniel Stern, Candy Clark(who I have never liked more than in this movie), and Malcolm McDowell, I'd be hard pressed to imagine how it could go wrong.
How McDowell is involved and how Scheider is out to shake him(and those others who are participants in this covert incident)is the meat of the film's storyline which accompanies the helicopter action that is the bread and butter of "Blue Thunder".
25 years after the Columbia Pictures release, Blue Thunder still has a message to send out to its audience on the political and social levels.Not only is the commentary by director John Badham, editor Frank Morriss, and actor Roy Scheider really good, the various documentaries on the DVD are really excellent and informative.
Those behind the Blue Thunder are planning to suspend the US Constitution and Bill of Rights and create a police state and fascist dictatorship.Knowing that their marked men the two LAPD helicopter pilots tape a conversation of these secret government-types that includes Murphy's former partner and co-pilot in Vietnam Col. Cochrane, Malcolm McDowell.
P.S "Blue Thunder" was also 54 year old actor Warren Oates, who played Murphy and Lymangoods boss Capt.
Awesome Action/Thriller, with lots Of exciting Action, and an amazing performance from Roy Scheider!.The helicopter scenes are breathtaking, and it had, awesome characters, plus Malcolm McDowell is very menacing as the main villain.
BLUE THUNDER is an outstanding action thriller from the 80s that, on many different levels, holds up even better today.(spoiler warnings)The futuristic premise concerns the ominous prospect of the L.A. police experimenting with military hardware in anticipation of possible terrorism during the 84 olympics.The hero, played by veteran actor Roy Scheider of Jaws fame, is an L.A. police pilot disturbed by an apparent departmental cover-up over an incident involving an outspoken public figure.
Roy Scheider stars as Frank Murphy, a helicopter pilot with the Los Angeles Police Department.
One of the famous action director John Badham's lesser films, "Blue Thunder" is the story of a hi-tech helicopter and the dark conspiracy behind it.The real let down of this film is the plot, which is not only poorly developed but very vague.
Blue Thunder is set in Los Angeles where Officer Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) works as a helicopter pilot, while out one night flying the police chopper he witnesses a shoot-out between some thugs & a politician named Diane McNeely (Robin Braxton) in which McNeely is shot & killed.
Apparently the first draft of the script was about a police helicopter pilot going mad & terrorising Los Angeles using his chopper, the studio men didn't like it though & made the main character a hero & Blue Thunder was born.This has good production values & is well made, the majority of the action scenes are real with a few model shots & a bit of rear projection & it still looks better than most modern CGI effect heavy films.
The acting is good from a decent cast, Roy Scheider never really made it big as a star but he's good here, Malcolm McDowell is wasted although Warren Oates in his last film is great as the bad tempered police Captain.Blue Thunder is a decent enough action thriller that doesn't quite deliver in either regard but it's alright for what it is, the action scenes are good & the helicopter looks cool so 80's action fans should like it.