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A GUIDE TO HELICOPTERS IN CINEMA & TELEVISION |
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Narrow Escape (aka: A Thousand Men And A Baby, 1997) - Marcus Cole's TV movie, about the crew of a US warship 'adopting' a Korean
orphan, features Boeing CH-46 Sea Knights used for ship-to-shore transport duty. Other helicopters appear on screen for scenes on the ship's main
deck.
National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) - in a scene copied from Lethal Weapon 2, gunfire from a helicopter destroys a beach trailer residence, but the killers have attacked the wrong address - so Bruce Willis (in an uncredited cameo), not the film's hero (Emilio Estevez), surrenders unhappily. National Treasure (2005) - with Jerry Bruckheimer producing a Disney film starring Nicolas Cage, you can reasonably expect a slick actioner with a sympathetic, larger-than-life hero. The film's main aerial sequence (the credited pilot is Alan Purwin) occurs around the USS Intrepid in New York harbour, where a Bell 206B JetRanger sightseeing-chopper creates a diversion for the protagonist to escape from FBI custody. The feds are using a blue Eurocopter EC120B (making it's first big screen appearance) as the spotter aircraft of their surveillance operation. National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets (2007) - in this history-riddled sequel, the hero's sidekick uses a radio-controlled model helicopter with video-camera attached, to get a closer look at a statue of liberty in Paris.
The Negotiator (1998) - Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey are both good value in this hostage thriller, which makes commendable use of helicopters when cops to peek in through tower block windows and see what's happening inside the building before their SWAT teams storm the scene. The Nest (aka: Nid de guêpes, 2002) - directed by Florent Emilio Siri (who went on to make Hostage, starring Bruce Willis) this is basically a French-made rip-off of Assault On Precinct 13. It features a police Eurocopter AS 550 that over flies a warehouse siege when the cops lose contact with a security transport in which a Euro mafia godfather is being delivered for trial. The Net (1998-9) - this TV spin-off, based on Irwin Winkler's 1995 movie, has a trio of bogus NSA agents on the heroine's trail in a fake US marshal's Bell 206 JetRanger.
Never Give Up (1978) - this Japanese action drama from director Junya Sato features a team of special forces' commandos in training to use 'rapid ropes' for their descent from a Bell Twin Huey. In the film's climactic mock-battle sequence, a couple of Boeing CH-47 Chinook transports and three UH-1 Hueys are involved in an army field exercise, providing airborne support for tanks and infantry. During these manoeuvres, another special forces' squad are deployed from Hueys to hunt down a renegade commando. In the final shootout, a Bell 206 JetRanger tracks down escaping hero Ajisawa (Ken Takakura), and a soldier uses the chopper's side-mounted machinegun to open fire on him. However, with assault-rifle sharp shooting, the hero causes the attacking JetRanger to crash into a hillside, where it explodes on impact. Never Say Never Again (1983) - this enjoyable remake of Thunderball finds 007 (Sean Connery) repeating his mistakes with villains and women, but only features one brief helicopter scene. In the final reel, after his underground mission, Bond returns to the Bahamas island, but he does not quite travel in style when he's transported by a Eurocopter (MBB) BO-105, as he's suspended in a harness on cables dangling beneath the chopper, ready for a quick landing.
The New York Ripper (1982) - this Italian slasher movie directed by Lucio Fulci features a police helicopter (apparently an Aerospatiale AS-350) flying over the city skyline, while helping cops track down the serial killer.
Niagara (1953) - "in a great piece of flying and filming, a large US Coast Guard Sikorsky S-55 plucks a damsel in distress from the brink of Niagara Falls." - NATHAN DECKER Nighthawks (1981) - in this drama about terrorism, the hero (Stallone) faces a ruthless killer (Rutger Hauer), when the villains hijack a cable car and the cops recon the hostage scene in a police helicopter. Nightmare At Noon (1988) - "Nico Mastorakis' movie has an interesting gunship conversion of a JetRanger helicopter with stub wings and the following weaponry: two gatling guns (stub wing tips), two 19-shot rocket pods (inner stub wing pylons) and two WWII vintage 4.5-inch triple bazooka rocket tubes (outer stub wing pylons). Rocky Mountain Helicopters (of Utah) operated this modified chopper." - COSTAS TSAGANAS Night Of The Comet (1984) - in this post-holocaust comedy-horror, a helicopter carries a pair of young female survivors to a secret US military underground bunker.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968) - in the closing chapter of George A. Romero's seminal horror, the hunters of the undead are seemingly aided by aerial reconnaissance, when a Brantley B-2 ultra light helicopter flies over the countryside.
Nikita (2010) - this TV action series is a remake about a rogue female spy. Season two, episode nine - Fair Trade, sees the heroine using an A-Star helicopter for the getaway, to escape from the bad guys, while she's on a rescue mission. Nim's Island (2008) - a Bell 47 is used to transport Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) to cruise liner ship 'The Buccaneer'. The scene stands out because the pilot manages to make a vertical landing onto a helipad atop a cruise ship during a tropical storm without any difficulty. The engine noise has also been edited out and replaced with a turbine sound. - JOEL NELSEN 1984 (1984!) - Michael Radford's timely screen adaptation of George Orwell's nightmare future has a curiously old-fashioned whirlybird used as the spy-in-the-sky. This footage appears, repeatedly, in the promo-video for Sex Crime by the Eurythmics. 1990: The Bronx Warriors (aka: 1990: I guerrieri del Bronx, 1982) - this Italian sci-fi actioner features an NYPD Bell 206 JetRanger flying over the Bronx, and also an AS-350 used for the air-taxi job. The finale has another JetRanger hovering over the back-streets while bad cops with flame-throwers arrive on horseback. 9th Company (aka: 9 Rota, 2005) - this Russian war film about Afghanistan features Mil Mi-24 Hind assault helicopters in key scenes. A pair of Hinds fly above mountainous terrain during the opening credits. Hinds and a Mil Mi-17 Hip gunship appear in the CGI-enhanced airfield sequence where a transport plane is shot down and crashes spectacularly. Hinds are seen flying above the armoured column but fail to provide air support when the military vehicles get attacked. Finally, the Hinds have one big shoot-up in a battle for the heights, during this drama's somewhat lacklustre climax.
No Way Back (1996) - this uneven crime thriller sees a three-way shootout, between FBI, yakuza, and mafia henchmen, during which a Bell 206B JetRanger with a gunman aboard is shot down by a machine-gun blast. The helicopter crashes and explodes in an unconvincing special effects sequence.
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(1990) - Peter Hyams' remake of the 1952 thriller
about organised crime has an air strike on the heroine's isolated mountain cabin, during which the bad-guys shoot down a police helicopter (a Bell
JetRanger) so it nosedives into the ground, before the film's action switches to a train as the hero (Gene Hackman) transports an endangered witness
(Anne Archer) to safety.
