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A GUIDE TO HELICOPTERS IN CINEMA & TELEVISION |
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Sand Trap (1998) - this low-budget thriller has a sheriff's rescue helicopter (Bell 206B-III, flown by pilot David Gene Gibbs) used to search the desert for a murderous woman's missing husband. The same JetRanger was previously used as a 'Santini Air' chopper in TV series Airwolf. The Satan Bug (1965) - "John Sturges' movie features the exact same Bell 47J that Elvis would fly two years later in Paradise, Hawaiian Style. We see a goofy fistfight in the helicopter's cockpit, as the bad guy pilot, the hero, and the chief villain smack each other around a bit." - NATHAN DECKER The Secret War Of Jackie's Girls (1980) - "this TV movie about female combat pilots in WWII features at least four open cockpit helicopters, with a single rotor plus tail rotor, of tubular steel construction covered in fabric or panelling. Extensive flying sequences suggest that they had at least three of these rather primitive looking beasts in airworthy condition, and the film also features a Beechcraft twin-engine monoplane with twin vertical stabilisers as an experimental German radar testbed." - GRAME BRUCE FLETCHER
Seoul Raiders (aka: Han cheng gong lüe, 2004) - Jingle Ma's sequel to Tokyo Raiders is yet another caper movie, with an action-packed climax, featuring two Korean police helicopters (Mil Mi-2 variant, PZL Swidnik W-3) carrying security forces that descend on ropes into Seoul's Olympic stadium, where they arrest the villains. Seven (1997) - this chilling serial killer drama features a Bell 207 Long Ranger police helicopter in its closing scenes. The chopper is unable to follow a cop car into the desert area because of roadside pylons. Sex Files: Alien Erotica (aka: Alien Files, 1998) - this softcore sci-fi video offers porn with a plot (The X-Files meets Invasion Of The Body Snatchers), which includes stock footage of a Grand Canyon air tour during scenes where FBI agents search for the idyllic garden hideaway of extraterrestrial couple Adam and Eve. The female FBI agent (played by redhead Kira Reed) complains that flying always makes her horny, and she gets sexually aroused ("Oh yes! Turbulence!") in the airborne helicopter. Shadow Conspiracy (1997) - is about a plot to assassinate the US President at a children's charity dinner, using a radio-controlled model helicopter armed with tiny machine guns. The killer fails (of course), but a number of staff and security guards are shot, until the hero (Charlie Sheen) strikes back with party balloons to knock toy chopper down!
Showtime (2001) - police helicopters converge with airborne TV news crews on a hostage situation in an L.A. tower block during the splashy climax of this comedy thriller. The Siege 
(1999) - Edward Zwick puts some sterling action thriller sequences into this engrossing
terrorist conspiracy yarn. Police and TV news helicopters appear in several wide shots
(like the bus hijacking) over New York city. There's also full scale rotary action in
the US military strike on a suspected Islamic bomb-makers' hideout.The Sikorsky Helicopter (1943) - archive training film demonstrating the uses and capabilities of the helicopter, both in obviously practical wartime deployment, and in - overly optimistic - possible future use by the average family. It's written and directed by Edward Roberts, narrated by Karl Swenson, and features Igor Sikorsky. The listed run-time is 24 minutes. If you have seen this film, please send us your comments. Silent Trigger (1996) - Russell Mulcahy's action drama about the assassinations of a sniper (played by Dolph Lundgren) features use of a helicopter gunship to attack the hero and his spotter in the church belltower vantage point, and that scene is followed by an excellent crash stunt when the chopper's pilot is shot dead by the hitman's long-range rifle. Silicon Towers (1999) - Serge Rudnunsky's middling technothriller features a Bell 206-B3 JetRanger bringing a cop (Robert Guillaume) to the overblown finale's shootout at Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles. The Silver Streak (1976) - "this comedy adventure (starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor) about a train journey, features a Bell 47G and a Bell 206 Jet Ranger both loaded with police sharpshooters in puruit of the runaway train." - NATHAN DECKER
Slaughter Of The Innocents (1993) - an FBI agent (Scott Glenn) leads a squad of cops that abseil to the ground from two helicopters, on a mission to arrest a lone neo-Nazi at his shack in forest. Smallville (2001 - 2006) - TV drama series, created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, about the young life and times of DC comics' icon Clark Kent, alias Superman (played by the perfectly cast Tom Welling). There's a Bell 206 JetRanger used by billionaire Lionel Luthor (John Glover) as his private air taxi between Metropolis city and Kansas' town Smallville, but its first notable appearance is a slow-motion landing in season one finale Tempest. Smallville: Season 2 - in episode, Nocturne, the super-strong villain Byron stops Luthor's helicopter taking off from the mansion's lawn. With his bare hands, the vengeful Byron tips Luthor's hovering JetRanger over sideways, turning its whirling rotor blades into grass cutters, then pulls the chopper back upright and slams it down on the ground. In Fever, the cops in pursuit of a pickup truck get airborne help from a Eurocopter AS-350, which lands at a police roadblock where the car chase ends. The routine ET style plot of episode Visitor is not helped by the ending's lights-the-night-sky cliché of a helicopter mistaken for a UFO. Smallville: Season 3 - in episode Resurrection, the medevac chopper (Eurocopter AS-350 with fake reg. # N88892) transports a body from Smallville's hospital to Luthor's secret research labs. The helicopter pilot (played by Bruce Harwood of Lone Gunmen fame) later helps Clark by flying our young hero back to the site. Smallville: Season 4 - in the pre-credits sequence of episode Gone, commando types deploy on fast ropes from a black Eurocopter AS 350, and chase nosy reporter Lois (Erica Durance) and Clark away from the ruins of an FBI safe-house. When zapped by Clark's heat vision, the helicopter is forced down in a field (though its crash landing happens off screen). Later, another chopper shows up at the Kents' farm, bringing Lois' dad General Sam Lane (Michael Ironside). Season finale Commencement has Luthor's helicopter (the usual JetRanger) fail to escape from town during a spectacular meteor shower. The chopper zips around the blue sky (courtesy of some wholly unrealistic CGI work) dodging space rocks before one tears off the tail boom, sending the rotorcraft into a dizzying spin and lethal crash. Smallville: Season 5 - opener, Arrival, has a police (Bell 206) helicopter destroyed in midair by a heat-vision blast from the female alien. Exposed has undercover reporter Lois kidnapped by bad guys who plan to leave the city in a Eurocopter AS 350. Clark reaches the rooftop helipad in time for a dramatic rescue; leaping high enough to hook a tether onto the airborne helicopter's skids, and then using his super-strength to pull it safely back down onto the building.
Sniper (1993) - Billy Zane plays an Olympic marksman, teamed with Tom Berenger's tough Marine sergeant for a secret US mission in Panama. In one scene, Zane fails to shoot an armed rebel from a hovering Bell 212 chopper, but takes credit for the kill anyway. Later, there's a getaway via helicopter that's fired upon by the villains.
Solo (1996) - "this is a pretty poor sci-fi film starring Mario Van Peebles as a cyborg who rebels against his programming. The helicopter action basically involves various insertions of people into the jungle, using machines like the Bell 430. Two of the copters that appear are fitted with missile pylons that look as though they were assembled out of scaffolding (I did say it wasn't very good)! I think the most notable thing about this film from a helicopter fan's point of view is that the film is an adaptation of the novel Weapon by Robert Mason - who will be better remembered for the striking memoir of his tour in Vietnam with the Air Cavalry, as told in Chickenhawk." - BRIAN COOPER Something Is Out There (1988) - this science fiction TV movie has a human cop and an alien woman (Maryam D'Abo), using a police helicopter to track down a shape-changing monster (created by Rick Baker) responsible for a series of brutal murders. Good visual effects by John Dykstra. Space Master X-7 (1958) - "in this sci-fi movie, a Los Angeles police department helicopter (a Bell 47G-2) chases a blob of fungus - dubbed 'Blood Rust' - from outer space (really!)." - NATHAN DECKER Species (1995) - choppers lead the hunt for an escaped creature, and carry a team of scientists to Los AngelesA, in Roger Donaldson's SF chase thriller. Later, helicopter gunships join in a car chase, firing their rockets to ensure the wreckage is destroyed when a fleeing vehicle crashes off the road. Species III (2004) - in the opening scenes of this sci-fi horror, a Eurocopter 350 provides air cover for the 'secret' transport via US Army ambulance of a supposedly dead alien, but the helicopter crew lose track of the ground vehicle in some woodland.
Sphere (1998) - Barry Levinson's SF mystery drama sees a jet-lagged Dustin Hoffman wake up aboard a helicopter flying to rendezvous with some ships in the Pacific ocean. In the finale, a UFO bursts from the depths, and almost collides with low-flying chopper, before the weird alien machine of the title heads off into space. Spiders (2000) - when the monster of this big bug movie climbs onto a stadium, the heroine (Lana Parilla) blasts it with rocket propelled grenades of depleted uranium, while hanging on a rope tether from the hovering chopper after her first shot throws her out of its back seat. Spiders 2: Breeding Ground (2001) - after the shipwreck climax of this seagoing monster movie, one final big bug appears in the closing scenes, trying to pull the surviving heroes down from the cable hoist of a rescue helicopter. A very silly ending to an amusingly dumb movie - you must see this to believe it! Spy Game (2001) - in the Vietnam scenes of Tony Scott's espionage drama, a US Army sniper's hilltop vantage point is attacked by an enemy helicopter (a Mil-2 in camoflage greens, changed from its original blue and white, and transported from Poland for location filming in Morocco), but it doesn't prevent the assassination of an NVA officer. After a shootout with the Mil-2, a Bell 205 Huey (repainted from white, and sent to Morocco from Spain) recon flight searches for the heroes. In the finale, the younger hero (Brad Pitt) is rescued from a Chinese prison by an American special ops team, using two Bell 205 Hueys in their commando raid. [Thanks to Jenni Allen at Flying Pictures for supplying the 2 photos below.]
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) - Rodriguez's 2nd sequel wraps up his popular series with a 3D adventure overwhelmed by its digital effects, and a storyline clearly inspired by Disney's Tron, plus numerous videogames. The main plot is derived from The Wizard Of Oz (with Stallone as the schizoid recluse!), but there's very little screen time to admire the dazzling-CGI 'toy' helicopters in this dizzyingly-paced VR adventure. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - in this James Bond movie, glamorous Caroline Munro plays chopper pilot Naomi (flying a Bell 206 JetRanger), who shoots at the hero's hi-tech sports car (driven, and then submerged, by Roger Moore's 007) to force it off the road into a stretch of water. The ultra-ccol Mr Bond, is quite unperturbed, of course, and calmly destroys the pesky helicopter with a guided missile. It's by far the film's best action sequence.
(1984) - John Carpenter's SF road movie about an alien visitor (played by Jeff Bridges)
to Earth, has a sky full of 15 helicopters during its final chase sequence as teams of
scientists and the military converge on a mile-wide meteor crater in the Arizona desert
- the designated landing site of a giant spherical mothership. There are US Army air
cavalry Bell UH-1 Huey gunships, at least a couple of JetRangers, and - as the airborne command
post (for Richard Jaeckel's ruthless baddie) - a big Sikorsky S-61, piloted by Jim Deeth
(who's also the production's aerial co-ordinator). One of the Hueys was actually flown
by director Carpenter - see his brief close-up scene in the film.Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - in Leonard Nimoy's time-travel adventure sequel, starship pilot Sulu (George Takei) steals a military helicopter to carry supplies to the invisble spacecraft which transported Starfleet officers from the future to 20th century Los Angeles.
Steel And Lace (1990) - a rogue female android kills one of her victims by lifting him up, into the path of a helicopter's whirling rotor blades. Stone Cold (1991) - "I happened to work on the film (starring Brian Bosworth) for the time they were shooting in Little Rock, AR, and thought I should point out a couple of scenes... First (and most impressive) is the scene where the helicopter is flown down Capitol Ave toward the Arkansas state capitol building. During rehearsals, the chopper (flown by one of the Tamburo brothers, if memory serves me) flew well above the street, high enough to clear the power lines and such. But when the cameras actually rolled, the pilot swooped down to just above street level, flying under power lines, and actually hitting the whip antenna on the military jeep parked at the end of the street in front of the capitol! Secondly, there's the scene later, where a Harley shoots through a window of the state capitol, striking the same helicopter, which is now hovering outside the building, where both burst into flame." - GREG HARRISON The Stone Killer (1973) - "this Charles Bronson action movie has a Bell 47J-2 helicopter assisting the hero chase the bad guys." - NATHAN DECKER
Stunts (1977) - Robert Forster stars in this terrific low-budget mystery thriller (from director Mark L. Lester) about a killer stalking movie stunt experts. There's a good car chase near the end, with a helicopter thrown in for extra fun. Submerged (2004) - Anthony Hickox's thriller really begins with a Black Hawk dropping a Delta force unit into Uruguay where local troops promptly ambush them and capture the commandos. A second Black Hawk brings another team (led by Steven Seagal) on a rescue mission. The dramatic climax has the villain failing to escape in his Bell 430 helicopter which, seconds after takeoff, gets hit by the hero's speeding car (shearing off the chopper's retractable wheel undercarriage) and then spins - spectacularly - out of control before smashing into a building and ending up as tangled wreckage inside the damaged lobby. Sudden Damage (aka: Cult Of Fury, 2001) - this cheesy actioner, about a mad bomber on the rampage in Las Vegas, features a Bell 206L-3 LongRanger, used by the local cops to land a top detective at the crime scene near a casino-hotel. The helicopter is destroyed the villain when he blows up part of the building. Later in the film, a Hughes 500 briefly appears to track the escaping bad guy and his female hostage, and the hero uses another helicopter to reach the Hoover Dam, where he rescue the heroine but cannot prevent the dam from being demolished. Stock footage (from ABC TV news) of US Army choppers is used to evoke the scale of a citywide evacuation. Sudden Death (1995) - Peter Hyams' Die Hard style action thriller has airborne SWAT cops descend onto the roof of an ice hockey stadium during the terrorist siege, but the villains fire rockets to halt the police assault. Later, after the hero (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has opened the stadium dome, the leader (Powers Boothe) of the bad guys climbs up a rope ladder into the hovering chopper but, when its pilot is shot, the helicopter tilts backwards, standing on its tail for a slow motion fall into the arena that ends with a spectacular crash on the ice rink. The Sum Of All Fears (2002) - Phil Alden Robinson's nuclear terrorism thriller (based on a novel by Tom Clancy) sees the airborne hero's chopper forced down over Maryland (though it does land safely) by a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, when the bad guys' A-bomb explodes inside a crowded Baltimore sports stadium. Later, heavyweight Army helicopters (Sikorsky H-53E Super Sea Stallions) deploy a squad of marines to rescue the US President from his crashed limo.
Supernova (2005) - this amusingly bad sci-fi TV mini-series has a disaster movie scenario, and features a Huey used as transport for some top scientists. An EMP from the solar wind strikes down the helicopter (unconvincingly filmed with miniature effects work) before it reaches a secure location, making it crash-land, and then it tips over sideways into a ravine, conveniently killing most crew and passengers, except for the hero (Luke Perry, the world's least convincing astronomy boffin!) and FBI agent heroine (Tia Carrere). SuperVolcano (2005) - this BBC production mixes science fact and science fiction in a two-part 'disaster movie' scenario about Yellowstone National Park in USA. In the wake of the first eruption, scientists fleeing the scene in a pickup truck and a Eurocopter 350 are endangered by flowing lava and billowing clouds of volcanic ash. The helicopter escapes by reaching a high altitude but the ground vehicle is totally destroyed. Supreme Sanction (1999) - this TV movie about a female assassin (Kristy Swanson), who turns against her CIA boss (Michael Madsen), opens with an aerial combat sequence, featuring army gunships (two Apaches under attack from a MD-500 Defender) using footage culled from Wings Of The Apache. Surface (2005) - this derivative sci-fi TV series only lasted one season. It features several appearances of a Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk, used as transport (including ship to shore flights) by government agents and scientists involved in a top secret research project. Swamp Thing (1982) - in the opening scene, leading lady Adrienne Barbeau flies into the bayou via helicopter, unaware that she will soon face a monster of the title. S.W.A.T. (2003) - Clark Johnson's big screen 'remake' of the 1975 TV series, features several helicopters in the Los Angeles based action scenes, as a team of Special Weapons And Tactics officers descend on ropes from a Bell 212 Twin Huey to land on the roof of a bank during the opening robbery sequence. Later, a mercenary sniper shoots down a police transport chopper (Agusta A-109A) as it arrives to land on a rooftop helipad. A Eurocopter AS-350 A-star is also used in the film. Swept Away (1974) - "Lina Wertmüller directed this controversial, extended sexual-political allegory, which stranded a rich bitch on the same uninhabited island as a proletarian serving man. After finding new roles and love for each other, ultimately she rejoins her husband in a flamboyant gesture of abandonment - retreating aboard his private helicopter, while her recent lover shouts despair on the ground." - RICHARD BOWDEN
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