Best aviation film / sequence

The two best sequences I’ve ever seen both come from the Battle of Britain;

First one is right at the start, when Chiefy is about to dispose of ‘the lame ducks’… and looks up to see a flight of 109’s scorching in at nought feet. Okay, a couple of the gunshot lines aren’t quite co-ordinated, but thirty six years after it was made, that sequence still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Second one is at the other end of the film; it’s that aerial battle which is set to music. That swirling musical score is the perfect accompaniment to the endless images of random Spitfires, Hurricanes, 109’s and Heinkels, all wheeling about the sky, the film clips tagged together in an almost random and confusing way. It’s difficult to follow what’s going on, but for me that’s why it’s so special – the film makers have somehow managed to capture the essence of aerial combat in 1940. Fast, disjointed, confusing. As well as being fabulous to watch, it makes me sit, think, and thank. And that’s no bad thing.

I think the aerial views (and especially sequences) of Top Gun and The Final Countdown (Forgget the Mig-28 thing of course 😉 )

Also… Flight of he Intruder.

Some interesting shots in Jag too (ok the “story” is… er… welll… 😀 )

About the Supercarrrier movies. I vaguely remember having seen parts of it in my childhood. I think in one they landed an F-16N on a carrier ??? I’d really like to see them again.

The worst ?The last James Bond hands down.
The scene with the Antonov falling apart and still flying was just pathetic.

A totally lame one: the freezing RAF helicopter (ment to be a Sea King, but someone should have told the CGI dudes the Brits don’t have HH-3Fs… the thing looked more like a mix between a Merlin and a Sea King) in the Day Beyond Tomorrow. Absolutely horrible.

Good stuff:
as Sean said, the Backfires pumping Kh-22s in the carrier in SOAF.
Everything in the Bridges at Toko-Ri (lovely early 1950s stuff: Banshees, ADs, the lot).

That Jimmy Stewart film about the ‘Peacemaker’ unit, what was it called again ?

Strategic Air Command

Opening scene from “Where Eagles Dare” with that winter camouflaged Junkers J52 rumbling through the Alps.

The attack sequence in “Pearl Harbor”, brilliant CGI stuff.

That Jimmy Stewart film about the ‘Peacemaker’ unit, what was it called again ?

The Final Countdown, featuring a dogfight between Zeros and F-14s. It was OK for the warbird stuff….!!

See, i never even thought of Always. Not the best film but some good sequences.

And i have to put my hand up and say i own all the Iron Eagle films. When the first one came out i was only young and thought it was good. But now older and wiser, even Top Gun looks pants to me. And having watched it over and over i don’t think i ever will again.

Did anyone ever see the Supercarrier series of films. I think there were three of them, might try and get hold of those again.
And whats that film wher a carrier goes through some kind of time warp and averts Pearl harbour called i can never remember ?

Anything from the Blue Max. Cheers! John.

Does that include Ursula Andress and the gravity-defying towel?

Moggy

Anything from the Blue Max. Cheers! John.

Hmmmm….

The end dogfight in “Aces High” is a personal fave.
The train attack sequence in “Dark Blue World”.
The “Northern raid” sequence in “Battle of Britain”.
The take-off sequence in “Memphis Belle”.

Another personal fave – the Zero strafing scene at the start of the attack in “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, and also the Zero vs. P-40 dogfight near the end (the noise of those Zero/Harvards peeling off is just awesome!)

The Catalina sequence at the start of “Always”.
The opening dogfight sequence in (the very lame!) “Aces: Iron Eagle 3” :p

Not heard of sky Captain or world of tommorow.

Sum of all fears was good, add a few more here ,

Battle of Britain
dambusters
633 SQDN films
Top gun
Aces high

Won’t be seeing that one.

Best aviation sequence in a film? Here’s some good ones that come to mind:

-The BACKFIRE attack in The Sum Of All Fears
-Anything in Firefox
-Some of the aerial scenes in 007 movies have been pretty good

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? 😀