Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Cant remeber the named but it was a good story about a cripped girl who wanted to fly it had Betty Davis in it and Howard Hessman he was restoring a sterming and she flew a christian Egle just cant rember the named of it ? shawn

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

I know "Speedie" said "only one movie" but geez...

Most every movie I've ever seen that had an airplane in it..

So.. can we do TV series?

How bout Sky King?

Whirlybirds?

Too young to know about them??

I absolutely LOVED whirleybirds! A couple guys and a Bell -47 out to save the world and everyone in it!

Had that series styed on TV to influence me deeper.. geez... I was 18 in '69... Uncle Sam liked nice clean cut young guys who wanted to fly choppers..



Movies: Loved Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner in "The War Lover"...

Started a life long fascination with the Boeing B-17!

One movie moment that stands out though is the opening scene in "Top Gun"..

Nice music, good lighting and real carrier ops captured with Hollywierd's best!

Speedy.... Love this thread!

I also gotta cast a vote for the RB takeoff in the much mysterious TOR trailer!

I'll welcome any of ya who stop by my little beach hut up for a brew and a screening... that's the only way I'll let anyone see it!!

Oh... as for the Hughes racer in "The Aviator".. neat but. I had too much time with the real one (replica) to be really impressed with that scene..

Also.. why, why why.. in every movie :cword: scene do they drag it out sooooooo lonng? They always defy the laws of inertia!

Returning this thread to the sleeping..

zzzzzzzzzzz

[RGRSTNDGBY]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

If Im allowed another, ... the Spitfire flying under the old Country Stone bridge in "Piece of Cake"..Not a "Hollywood" movie, British tv as I recall.. Great "movie" tho.

[sierra fox]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Just about ALL of the sequences of Race 9 in "Clouddancer"

The wing sweeping the field of the B-17 in "1000 Plane Raid"

Strafing run down the beach in "Longest Day"

Mustang's attacking the train in "Hart's War"

[First time Juke]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

If Im allowed another, ... the Spitfire flying under the old Country Stone bridge in "Piece of Cake".

I agree this is the best scene ever. The Dark Blue World tried to get there, but did not quite catch the spirit the way Piece of Cake did.

Best Hollywood aviation scene may be the Leonard DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in the HH-1 speed passes albeit the planes in the scene are a scale model and 1/1 scale nonflying model. Beatfiled landing had a really good final..maybe DiCaprio has been weight lifting.

[silky]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

At the end of Saving P. Ryan when Tom Hanks is shooting at the tank and the P-51's kill it. Very nice....

Silky

[speeddemon]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Aviator. Speed record pass in Hughes Racer!!


Hello?

Kevin. KEVIN. The crash must have knocked your noggin. I said NO CGI.........

[speeddemon]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

No doubt, the best Hollywood scene of all time was in the movie "The Great Waldo Pepper", when Susan Sarandon fell off the wing of Waldo's JN4 Jenny......(too bad it wasn't for real).......

Bad John, BAD JOHN!!!!!

The correct answer was she should have grabbed Tim Robbins on the way down... :

[Leo]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Hasn't anyone ever seen the famous......CLOUD DANCER!!!!

I've worn out 2 copies already... Finally put the last one, well worn, on DVD so it won't get worse!

Wayne, were you ever nice and clean-cut?

If we put everyone on that Jenny that should have fallen off with her it would collapse int a pile of sticks. Hmmmm, maybe a wingwalking scene on a 747?

BOB when the training pilot can't get the attention of the Polish pilots he's working with?
"Repit please"
"Get back here! In Polish!"

Great pre-war stuff in "Dive Bomber" also.

Wayne's right, too many rules Speed!

[Arctic Cat]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Pearl Harbor, when the P40 flyng between the hangers. I had to watch this agian after seeing the still shots a few years back at the slide show in the pits. It slowed the pass down so you could take in how low the pass was.

Derrek

[Propellerhead]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

In "Dark Blue World" there's a Spitfire takeoff scene where you can hear the wheels thumping up into the wells as the gear retracts and it approaches the camera (very low). A nice marriage of sight and sound.

[Propellerhead]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Bad John, BAD JOHN!!!!!

The correct answer was she should have grabbed Tim Robbins on the way down... :

I love you guys!

[speeddemon]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Wayne's right, too many rules Speed!

Well, I was TRYING to be specific. :-) I mean, after a while, people just start shouting out examples just to shout out examples, not necessarily because it's a 'great scene'.

Realistically, I could probably come up with a top 10:

1. Take-off scene in Catch-22. 17 planes, staggered with wings overlapped, 100 feet apart. They did the scene 6 times to get it 'just right' for the cameras. If ONE PLANE had had to abort the takeoff, just imagine the results.

2. P-51 scene in Empire of the Sun. There is one part where one Mustang flies left to right across the screen on a bombing run. And then through the smoke of the explosion, another Mustang comes head on at the camera--the swirling smoke off the wingtip vorticies as it pulls up. It gives me chills everytime I see it. "P-51 Mustang! Cadillac of the Skies!!!"

3. The attack sequence on Battleship Row in Tora! Tora! Tora!. So many planes in one place at one time, flying in and out of real ships (not to mention the full size replica of the 'aft' end of the Arizona they built on a barge)...dropping 'real' torps and bombs from the planes.

4. The attack sequence at Wheeler Field in Tora! Tora! Tora!. Yeah, I know that they were 'wooden' P-40's. And yeah, I know they re-use the same scenes three or four times from different angles...but my god, how breathtaking is it to see those Zeros strafing line after line of P-40's like that. All the pretty explosions.

5. The B-17 landing one wheel up in Tora! Tora! Tora!. That one wasn't planned, by the way. It was a real emergency and they filmed it landing...and THEN went back and re-shot the 'approach' scene of it coming through the smoke. Inspired the CAF/Tora routine with Texas Raiders!

6. The whole sequence (even though it is spread out amongst a couple of scenes) of Buddy Hackett in the Beech 18 in Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Frank Tallman did all the stunts, including flying through the hangar, the billboard, the window, and buzzing the tower. They installed a windscreen from a BT-13 'inside' the regular cockpit of the Beech for him to fly through the billboard. The billboard was only made out of 1" thick styrafoam...but it still shattered both windscreens, bent the props, and completely flattened the leading edges of both wings. Best Cameo of that sequence: the Three Stooges as the 'fire crew' at the airport.

7. The take-off scene from Strategic Air Command. Holy Crap. B-36's EVERYWHERE, IN COLOR. All that noise. All that smoke!!! Makes up for the fact that I can't watch that movie without thinking about Depends Undergarments everytime June Allyson is on screen.

8. The 'duel' at the end of The Great Waldo Pepper where they fly head-on at each other and 'hit'. AND YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT ENDS BECAUSE HE FLIES OFF 'TO FADE' WITH THE WHEEL HANGING IN THE SLIPSTREAM.......

9. The opening scene of "Always" where the PBY comes in to reload on the lake and the two guys are fishing.........

10. The end of Air America when Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. land the C-123 at the airstrip that is being overrun by the Viet Cong as they are trying to evacuate the refugees. Best use of a song, by the way....the Stones "Gimmie Shelter" is PERFECT for this scene.

Honorable mention? The 'bridge' contest in Blue Max (LOVE George Peppard). The outside loop scene in Waldo Pepper (though I had nightmares as a kid when the plane catches fire and Redford has to club his friend to death).

[Propellerhead]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

The outside loop scene in Waldo Pepper (though I had nightmares as a kid when the plane catches fire and Redford has to club his friend to death).

I must have seen Waldo Pepper about 3 or 4 times in the theater as a "yout." I even had my mom arrange a visit to the theater - just one more time - as part of my birthday party.

[mjragan]

Re: Best Hollywood Aviation scene of all time?

Tora Tora Tora, the Skyraider scene from We Were Soldiers, Flight of the Intruder, the hanger scene from MMMW, Apocalypse Now, The Bridges At Toko-Ri (Panther jets), and the auto pilot scene from Airplane!