Ladder 49 (2004) - Jay Russell's drama about Baltimore's
fire brigade includes a Eurocopter TwinStar and a Bell 206 JetRanger that circle a burning tower block during the opening and climactic scenes, where
a night-sun is used to spotlight the rescue of a man trapped in the building. Later, a Maryland state police helicopter (an Aerospatiale SA 365N-1
Dauphin 2 - see photo by Mark Carlisle) is used for medevac duty when
one of the fire-fighters is injured.
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La Dolce Vita (1960) - in the rather bizarre opening
sequence of Fellini's tragicomedy, a giant statue of Christ is suspended beneath a Bell 47 helicopter and flown across Rome!
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La Femme Nikita (1997 - 2001) Canadian TV series about
a female secret agent (played by Peta Wilson), based on the 1990 film by Luc Besson. In 4th season episode View Of The Garden (2000), the
spymaster's Eurocopter AS-350 is destroyed by a terrorist's rocket.
Lake Placid
 (1999) - Steve Miner's monster movie sees a crocodile hunter flying his
helicopter to a lake in Maine. The chopper floats safely on the water until it's attacked by a giant creature. In a grimly humorous scene, the heroes
dangle a cow as live bait beneath the hovering chopper, in an effort to catch the monster. The amusing climax has the killer croc trapped in wreckage
of the crashed helicopter, which it wears like a scarf, while thrashing wildly around, before the heroes manage to kill it.
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The Land Unknown (1957) - this monster movie has a Sikorsky H-5G 'Dragonfly' helicopter crash landing in Antarctica, where the survivors
discover a hidden valley of dinosaurs. The special effects are comparatively awful - but the film is good fun, anyway.
CLICK ON LINK ABOVE FOR DETAILS
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Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) - the feisty heroine (Angelina Jolie) teams
up with her enemies for a Siberian trip using two Chinook helicopters. Watch for the obvious cut from their drop-off site (filmed on Salisbury Plain,
with real RAF choppers) to the Icelandic location shoot - with only the sound effect of overhead rotor noise to link these different shots together...
"However, they foleyed in a much different and softer sound, as a Chinook sounds like a force-five
tornado whup-whupping in your ears." - NATHAN DECKER
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Lara Croft - Tomb Raider:
The Cradle Of Life (2003) - in best rotary action of Jan de Bont's sequel
adventure, the villains are hovering in a chopper above a Chinese pagoda in Shanghai, ready to trade (a suitcase of money for an ancient artifact)
with gangsters, when heroine (Angelina Jolie) pole vaults from a nearby rooftop to plant a tracking bug on the baddies' helicopter so that she can
follow the flight to Hong Kong. There's also MI6 agents' Agusta-Westland A-109E Power landing at Croft Manor, a heavily modified Eurocopter AS350
was used for the water crash scene, and two helicopters (AS-350 Squirrel and EC-155 B1) appear in the finale's jungle scenes.
Largo Winch (aka: Largo Winch - Deadly Revenge,
2008) - this European actioner features an EC-135 air-taxi flying above Hong Kong, and there's an AS-350 flown by the gun-toting bad guys to attack
the hero on his private island retreat.
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Last Action Hero (1993) - John McTiernan's adventure vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger, features a Hughes 500D gunship that shoots a
glass elevator into swiss cheese, and then lands (off-screen) on top of the hero's car.
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The Last Boy Scout (1991) -
private detective Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) fights with main assassin Milo on scaffolding, to
prevent him from killing a senator. At one point, a police JetRanger intervenes but is forced to veer away when Milo shoots at them. When Willis
finally defeats Milo and throws him off the scaffold, he falls down into the spinning blades of the police chopper and is shredded. -
BILL HIERS
The Last Castle
(2001)
- in this drama of a jailbreak from the military prison of the title, a convicted general (Robert Redford) leads the desperate inmates' revolt
against the armed guards of a corrupt warden. A chopper responds to the riot alarm, and an Apache pilot among the prisoners hijacks it to wreck
the sniper's watchtower. However, the helicopter loses its tail rotor and there's a spectacular crash 'n' burn sequence that combines good stunt
work with quality visual effects.
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The Last Dragon (2004) - this ponderously slow TV mini-series mixes fantasy quest with natural history documentary (in the manner of the
BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs), and tells of an obsessive British zoologist's discovery of a dragon's nest in Romania. For the scientists'
arrival in the Carpathian Mountains, they reach the high altitude scene in a Eurocopter AS 350, supplied by the local police.
The Last Sentinel (2007) - this sci-fi actioner of
apocalyptic warfare between humans and robots, features brief CGI shots of a sky full of military helicopters (mostly Chinooks and Apaches).
Law Abiding Citizen (2009) - this crime drama about
a vigilante terrorist bomber features a Bell 206-L4 LongRanger used by Philadelphia police detectives as air support for a convoy sent to arrest
the antihero vigilante, and later in a flight from the prison to save a victim.
Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace
(1996) - in the run up to this SF adventure's climax, a helicopter is
remotely flown by the virtual reality villain Jobe (Matt Frewer), and used like a cyber-guided missile to destroy the hacker hero's hideaway shack.
Then, burning wreckage pursues the fleeing good guys across rugged terrain until a final crash and big explosion.
Lethal Weapon
(1987) - Richard Donner's successful action thriller has two helicopter sequences: an airborne sniper fires at a hilltop mansion to kill the occupant,
and there's a weird mirage-like appearance of a chopper during the cops' hostage exchange meeting with the villains out in desert. The same Bell 206B
JetRanger III is featured in both scenes.
Lethal Weapon 2
(1990) - this sequel features a spectacular night-time air strike - on the hero cop's beach house - by two gunships (Aerospatiale AS350 A-Star
helicopters) crewed by the main villain's henchmen, which completely destroys the entire property! Cop hero Riggs (Mel Gibson) escapes in his
pick-up truck, which is chased by a helicopter.
"At the beginning of the film, a Bell 206 JetRanger appears out of nowhere, and rescues two
South African drug dealers that cops are chasing." - BILL HIERS
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Lethal Weapon 3 (1993) - with more comedy adventure than action thriller, this sequel has a Bell 412 that medevacs our heroes after the
climactic shootout.
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Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - features a police Bell 206 JetRanger hovering over the arsonist, and a Eurocopter AS355 used as L.A.P.D. air support
going after the gangsters attempting to murder the hero's family. (Trivia: LAPD helicopter division actually uses the single-engine AS350-B3 A-Star.)
The film also features an Aerospatiale HH-65A Dolphin for the harbour sequence.
Leverage (2008-10) - a US TV action series about reformed crooks turned vigilantes for hire. There's a Bell 206B JetRanger used by the heroes'
team as a getaway helicopter from the dockside climax of season two's final episode.
CLICK ON LINK ABOVE FOR DETAILS
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Lie To Me (2009) - this crime-solving TV series, stars
Tim Roth playing a deception detection expert. Season one finale Sacrifice has a SWAT helicopter (AS-350B A-star) flying over the scene of
a terrorist bombing.
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
- "in this comedy adventure, Bill Murray plays a marine biologist modelled on Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
On top of his boat is a helicopter that looks like a 'baby Bell' (an experimental aircraft like a Bell 47). During a pleasure flight, the chopper
suffers a power loss and the pilot is forced to try autorotation for a risky landing." - JUSTIN TRAVIS
Lifeforce (1985) - Tobe Hooper revisits Quatermass And The Pit in this horror film about possession by aliens. In one gory scene,
Patrick Stewart's body explodes while aboard a helicopter that's flying over London street riots.
Lightning Force (1991-2)
- "a syndicated TV series from Canada, this show was about an elite strike team of four (American,
Canadian, French, Egyptian) who went on various covert missions. The sole female (played by Guylaine St-Onge) was their French pilot, and she usually
flew an Aerospatiale AS350 / AS355 Ecureuil. It had one heavy machinegun or cannon mounted under the fuselage. I have a few episodes on tape, nothing
on DVD yet." - WES CARR
Lightspeed (2006) - this TV movie, about a fast-running
superhero (Jason Connery), features a Robinson R44 'Raven II' helicopter, used by the villain for his getaway vehicle after kidnapping the heroine.
Lions For Lambs (2007) - Robert Redford's political drama about college students going to war features a brief shot of an Apache gunship over
Afghanistan. Later scenes of military action involve a Chinook transport from Bagram airbase carrying US Rangers to a mountain peak, where the flight
is hit and damaged by enemy snipers. One soldier falls out of the helicopter's rear landing ramp, and his friend jumps down to save him.
Live And Let Die (1973)
- "as James Bond (Roger Moore) and Solitaire (Jane Seymour) sneak through the poppy fields,
a Bell 206 JetRanger strafes them for a bit." - NATHAN DECKER
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The Living Daylights (1987)
-
"in this James Bond movie starring Timothy Dalton as 007, we see a 1970s' vintage Bell UH-1H 'medical' Huey, operated by bad guys, snatching
a Russian defector away from a Secret Service safe-house... This helicopter was tagged G-Huey, captured from Argentinian forces in the Falklands
War, and shipped to the UK. Sadly the chopper is now in a museum." - NATHAN DECKER / IAN VINCENT FRAIN
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Logan's War: Bound By Honor (2001) - US Army Rangers on a rescue mission in South America return fire from the air when enemies on the ground
shoot at their helicopter.
Lonely Are The Brave (1962) - modern day western about a rebel cowboy (Kirk Douglas) on the run through mountain wilds from a sheriff's posse
(led by Walter Matthau), that use a Jeep, a radio, and a US Air Force Bell 47G-2 helicopter to track the wily fugitive.
"The harassed Douglas uses his Winchester rifle to shoot down the helicopter by hitting its
tail rotor." - NATHAN DECKER
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The Long Kiss Goodnight
(1996) - this action thriller by Renny Harlin sees an airborne sniper
shoot at the heroine (Geena Davis) during the farmland scenes where she gets back her lost memories of life as spy... Another chopper signals a
change of locale when it flies over Niagara Falls at the Canadian border. In the following sequence, the helicopter's gunman is shot by the heroine
so he falls out and gets tangled in the cable lights of a road bridge. Then, the top villain is picked up with a rope ladder so he can return fire
from the low-flying helicopter, but our heroine kills him too, completes a daring rescue, and then flees the scene just before a timebomb destroys
the chopper, numerous road vehicles, and the middle section of the bridge in a huge explosion!
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The Losers (2010) - this action movie based on a comicbook
features an Aerospatiale AS-332C Super Puma (on loan from the Electric Power Authority in Puerto Rico), with US Marines camouflage paint-job, used
for heroes' extraction from a Bolivian raid. This helicopter, with kids onboard, is blown up in midair by an anti-aircraft missile from the USAF
jet fighter sent to bomb a drug baron's jungle camp, and there's some convincing special effects work in the crash 'n' burn sequence. Top bad guy
uses a Robinson R44 as air taxi for island hopping in Puerto Rico after watching his global terrorism's weaponry test, which alters local geography.
Exactly the same Super Puma, but this time with US Army markings and white finish, is on a medevac rescue, appearing during the ambush scene, which
has the military chopper hijacked by rogue heroes. One of the team is seen re-spraying the stolen helicopter in his gang's warehouse hideout, and
then it's used as a bogus Miami police chopper for airlift kidnapping and heist, via electromagnet skyhook on bad guys' armoured van plucked from
traffic siege on a city street. During this urban operation, the van swings beneath the helicopter and hits a billboard sign. The bad guy's R44
shows up during a dockside showdown, but our luckless heroes' leader shoots at it with his machine-gun, forcing the pilot to turn away, flying out
of range, leaving the lone villain stranded on a port structure.
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Lost Command (1966) -
"a Bell 47G helicopter participated in this war movie by Mark Robson about guerilla actions
in Algeria." - NATHAN DECKER
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