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A GUIDE TO HELICOPTERS IN CINEMA & TELEVISION |
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Half Past Dead (2002) - Steven Seagal plays an undercover cop inside Alcatraz (footage used from Michael Bay's The Rock, 1998) in
this action movie shot on locations in Berlin - where a no-fly zone after 4.30 pm (due to 11th September attacks), caused problems for night scenes
with helicopters. A Bell LongRanger brings a US Judge (Linda Thorson) to witness the execution of gold robber, Lester (Bruce Weitz); a Bell UH-1
Huey, airborne during a stormy whiteout, crashes into a skylight roof of the prison (mostly CGI visuals) and remains stuck in the rafters, from
where the hero (Seagal) uses its radio to call for Special Forces backup, until the Huey wreckage finally drops to the floor - during a climactic
gun battle - and explodes on impact inside the main cellblock. Later, some kidnappers (led by Morris Chestnut) holding the Judge as hostage escape
from custody in a Bell 412 chopper. They throw the Judge out over San Francisco Bay in an effort to evade FBI pursuit, but the villains run out of
luck when freed convict Lester accepts his fate (as a condemned man), and becomes a suicide bomber to destroy their helicopter in midair with yet
another spectacular CGI display. Halloween II (2009) - this sequel to a remake directed by Rob Zombie has one police helicopter circling above a hostage-scenario location during the film's climactic scenes. Hamburger Hill (1987) - "Vietnam War movie where a US Army Huey comes along and shoots at American troops on the hill of the title." - WINNIE LEUNG
Hands Of Steel (aka: Mani di Pietra, 1985) - Sergino Martino's lumbering sci-fi actioner, about a bionic agent on the run from his creators, features two helicopters used by the bad guys to chase the cyborg hero (Daniel Greene) across Arizona, and attack him from the air. In the extended finale, the hero shoots the gunman in the Hughes 500 chopper, and the low-flying Bell JetRanger pursues the wounded heroine (Janet Agren) when a truck driver rescues her. Shortly after, the villains' boss (John Saxon) uses the JetRanger to follow the escaping hero down a canyon river to a factory, where their predictable shootout occurs.
Hard Target (1993) - in director John Woo's first American cinema production, the bad guys (led by Lance Henriksen) use a helicopter to bring a team of four killers into the heart of the New Orleans bayou, to join their manhunt for the hero (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Hardwired (2009) - this SF techno-chiller has a police JetRanger on patrol over a city at night, and there are helicopter silhouettes above a CGI city-scape in the final scenes. Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man (1991) - "in this action movie by Simon Wincer, there is a scene of a Bell 222UB painted black, with a small chain-gun shooting at a building. (I am not sure if it is the same Bell that was used in the Redwolf episode of Airwolf and Judgment Day episode of The A-Team.)" - COREY MUGAAS Harper Valley P.T.A. (1978) - "a late-model Bell 47G helicopter is seen carrying a banner as the end credits roll." - NATHAN DECKER Harsh Realm (1999) - in the first episode of this TV sci-fi action series created by Chris Carter, the hero's unnerving entry to a US Army virtual reality war zone simulator features an Aerospatiale (Eurocopter) SA341 Gazelle in ground attack mode (fitted with fake TOW missile tubes), where it strafes enemy soldiers on the battlefield. Unfortunately, Harsh Realm was not a success, and the show was cancelled after only nine episodes. Hawaii Five-0 (1968-80) - on this popular TV cop show, created by Leonard Freeman, the featured helicopters include a Bell 47, first seen in season one's Full Fathom Five, and the Hughes 369. There are two 369s in season eight episode Death's Name Is Sam, for which guest star George Takei played a pilot for the Honolulu police department. A Sikorsky S-62 (HH-52 Seaguard) also appears in the series.
HeliCops (aka: Einsatz über Berlin, 1998-2000) - this German TV series was about the exploits of special police unit, Astro-Kommando - AK1, whose primary hardware was a hi-tech armoured helicopter (Eurocopter EC-135). Reportedly, the series ran for 30 hour-long episodes, and its mix of criminal, paramilitary and espionage plots attracted a cult audience. "I saw this for a laugh when still living in Germany, the chopper was CGI in most action sequences, performing impossibly slick moves sometimes." - BERND BIEGE Helicopter (1993) - this sports drama is about a young basketball player nicknamed "helicopter"!
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) - this superhero fantasy sequel features a TV news JetRanger destroyed when the wreckage of a crushed car is thrown into the air by a gigantic forest-elemental creature. Hellfighters (1968) - "in this classic John Wayne picture about oil-well firefighters, a Bell 47J-2 helicopter is seen at the beginning of the film, and several Bell 47Gs are seen near the climax, as the heroes venture into the jungles of Venezuela. There is also a rare Kaman K-225 'synchoropter' in one shot." - NATHAN DECKER Highlander (1986) - in Russell Mulcahy's action fantasy, a swordfight on the streets of New York is observed by a blue police helicopter (an MBB Bo-105) using its 'night sun' searchlight. Highlander 2 (1991) - has choppers on the scene during a world-spanning operation to erect an anti-radiation shield around the Earth. High School Of The Dead (2010) - this Japanese animated TV series has several military helicopters of various types (gunships and transports), all flying over Tokyo during early stages of the zombie outbreak.
The Highwayman (1987) - Sam (Flash Gordon) Jones tackles a gang of villains as a vigilante crime-fighter using hi-tech transport (a customised 18-wheeler truck), which has a detachable cab that converts into an emergency helicopter. The Hitcher (1986) - in Robert Harmon's stylish road movie, the young hero (C. Thomas Howell) in a stolen cop car is chased by airborne police, but the serial killer (Rutger Hauer) shoots down their low-flying helicopter with a pistol aimed from another moving vehicle, so the chopper drops out of the sky to explode in the path of a highway patrol car, which then crashes into the burning wreckage.
Home Fries (2000) - "this light comedy features a deranged National Guard pilot chasing his brother (Luke Wilson) in a commandeered Bell AH-1 Cobra, and a philandering husband scared into a heart attack by a Cobra hovering above his station wagon." - NATHAN DECKER Homeland Security (2004) - this pilot movie for an unmade TV series, has a Bell 212 Twin Huey used for medevac duty in the Afghan battle scenes. Honey, I Blew Up The Kid (1992) - Disney's sequel to Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1989) is another comedy fantasy about geeky inventor (Rick Moranis) who creates a 'magic ray' machine that changes the mass of his children. Here, there's a monstrous toddler stomping around Las Vegas, and mad scientist (John Shea) takes to the air in a Bell UH-1 Huey, aiming to shoot tranquiliser darts at the oversized kid. Thankfully, the kid's mom (Marcia Strassman) is also turned into a giant, just in time to stop the bad guy's heinous plan by snatching the helicopter out of the sky and slamming it down on the ground, where the flight crew emerge shaken but uninjured from the wreckage.
Hostage (2005) - routine 'home invasion' drama turns into a derivative yet highly watchable thriller, when car thieves hold a man and two children at gunpoint... unaware, at first, that house-owner (typecast Kevin Pollack) is a wealthy accountant with a stash of cash and incriminating evidence against his mafioso employers. The heroic cop (Bruce Willis, on good form here, despite playing a stereotype with clichéd dialogue) can save the day, of course - but he does not want the local Sheriff's helicopter (a Eurocopter AS 350-B2 A-Star) buzzing around the hillside crime scene throughout the night siege. In the film's most tense sequence, the gang demand a getaway helicopter (a Bell 206B JetRanger with a 'night sun' light, is used by the filmmakers), which is guided by Willis to land in the driveway just outside the house's main gates. The 'A-Star' was also used for aerial filming. [Thanks to Cliff Fleming, of South Coast Helicopters, for supplying behind-the-scenes pictures above.] Hostage Dallas (1986) - Dwight H. Little's terrorism drama has good helicopter stunts during attempts to thwart the urban disaster of a city being poisoned with nerve gas.
Hot Shots! (1991) - this comedy about US navy fighter pilots is basically a parody of Top Gun. In one scene aboard the aircraft carrier, there's a (stock footage) shot of a Huey landing on the main deck, supposedly flying the farce prone admiral onto the ship so he can oversee a combat mission.
How Earth Made Us (aka: How The Earth Changed History, 2010) - this science tourism documentary is a TV series follow-up to Earth: The Power Of The Planet. In the second episode, Deep Earth, presenter/ geologist Iain Stewart flies in a Hughes 269C over the San Andreas fault-line in California. For last episode, Human Planet, he flies in another helicopter (possibly a Bell 206) to see the boiling mud volcano of a disaster area in Indonesia. The prof. gets airborne again with a Eurocopter AS350-B2 (operated by Phoenix Heli-Flight) to see oilfields on the tar sands in Alberta, Canada.
The Hunted (2003) - William Friedkin's action thriller features a Bell 206L-3 Long Ranger that flies the hero (Tommy Lee Jones) to a crime scene in the forest. After the bridge chase, a police Aérospatiale AS 350B, circles the area. During the river search, a Bell 205A-1 with sharpshooter onboard joins the Long Ranger helicopter providing air cover for the cops. Hunter (1984-91) - a US TV series about an LAPG rogue cop and his female partner. In first season episode, Flight On A Dead Pigeon, detectives use a Bell 206B to help track down heroin smugglers. In 2nd season episode, Revenge (1985), our heroes escape in an old Bell 47G from a South American country, flying safely back across border to USA, despite local soldiers shooting at the helicopter. The Hunt For Eagle One (2005) - utterly dismal actioner, shot on HD-video, in the Philippines by Brian Clyde, features US Army helicopters (one is shot down, two rescue choppers blown up by terrorists' missiles) but stupidly mistakes a pair of Sikorsky S-61 machines for Bell UH-1 Hueys in its obvious misuse of stock footage.
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