Aviation/aircraft-related movies

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

What aircraft/aviation-related movies does everyone enjoy? Here are some that I enjoy:

Top Gun (especially the intro, and the flying and dogfighting scenes with the F-14 Tomcats, and the tower-buzzing scene)
Firefox
Turbulence
Airport (the original film)

 

[Sabertooth]

D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) features an SR-71 Blackbird.
True Lies (1994) has a Harrier.

 

[Shemjaza]

I remember liking Memphis Belle (1990), but I haven't seen it for 30 years.

 

[St. Helens]

Final Countdown. Features the F-14 Tomcat.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) features an SR-71 Blackbird.
True Lies (1994) has a Harrier.

I remember liking Memphis Belle (1990), but I haven't seen it for 30 years.

Final Countdown. Features the F-14 Tomcat.

I hadn't come across D.A.R.Y.L. or True Lies before; I believe I've heard of Memphis Belle though. I've certainly heard of Final Countdown, although I've never watched it. I've seen the parts with the Tomcats on YouTube, and my favourite is the part with with the Tomcats dogfighting the Zeros:

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

I also enjoy Planes and Planes: Fire & Rescue. My F-14D Tomcat character Aquila, who appears in my avatar, isn't related to those movies though.

 

[Shemjaza]

Ooh, it's only a small part of the film, but Independence Day (1996) has some memorable aliens vs fighter plane scenes.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Jimmy Stewart in "No Highway in the Sky" is a favorite of mine. Stewart plays a geeky engineer who predicts a structural failure of a certain model tail section and then finds himself on a trans Atlantic flight on the very same model and takes drastic action.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

Ooh, it's only a small part of the film, but Independence Day (1996) has some memorable aliens vs fighter plane scenes.

Jimmy Stewart in "No Highway in the Sky" is a favorite of mine. Stewart plays a geeky engineer who predicts a structural failure of a certain model tail section and then finds himself on a trans Atlantic flight on the very same model and takes drastic action.

I've seen Independence Day, and I thoroughly enjoy it! The aliens versus fighter jets scenes are some of my favourites in the movie! I haven't heard of No Highway In The Sky before, but it sounds very interesting.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

I haven't heard of No Highway In The Sky before, but it sounds very interesting.

It is so old it is out of copyright so you can watch it for free on YouTube. I just watched it again before posting. One correction: Stewart plays a geeky scientist, not an engineer with zero social skills. Don't expect great special effects from a black-and-white 1951 film. There is a lot about aviation, but watch it for the story and interpersonal relationships which are complex and well-acted by the stewardess, the film star (played by Marlene Dietrich), Mr. Theodore Honey (played by Jimmy Stewart) and his daughter. I like that everything comes together in the last 90 seconds of the film when three things happen at once that all confirm Mr. Honey's theory of metal fatigue fracture. You will find yourself cheering.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

It is so old it is out of copyright so you can watch it for free on YouTube. I just watched it again before posting. One correction: Stewart plays a geeky scientist, not an engineer with zero social skills. Don't expect great special effects from a black-and-white 1951 film. There is a lot about aviation, but watch it for the story and interpersonal relationships which are complex and well-acted by the stewardess, the film star (played by Marlene Dietrich), Mr. Theodore Honey (played by Jimmy Stewart) and his daughter. I like that everything comes together in the last 90 seconds of the film when three things happen at once that all confirm Mr. Honey's theory of metal fatigue fracture. You will find yourself cheering.

Thanks for the link! I'll seriously consider watching the film when I've got time, but I've got a lot of stuff going on right now; I've got the film bookmarked so that I can get to it from my browser's home page.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

Three more aviation-related films that I enjoy are:

Final Descent (I also have the book, "The Glass Cockpit" that this film was based on):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127557/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Executive Decision: (the are some scenes with VF-84 Jolly Rogers F-14s in this movie):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116253/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Air Force One:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118571/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

I've watched Top Gun: Maverick now, and it's definitely one of my favourite aviation/aircraft-related movies! I was delighted to see that the F-14 Tomcat played a central role in the film!

 

[St. Helens]

I saw that movie too and enjoyed it.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

I saw that movie too and enjoyed it.

The flying scenes were my favourite parts, and I really loved the sequence with the Tomcat dogfighting the Felons and winning.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

This is an odd one, because it is animated, but I will just put it out there:. Porco Rosso, a film from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki about seaplane pilots in the Mediterranean just before World War II. One theme is the rise of Fascism in Italy. But there are a lot of realistically rendered flying scenes.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

This is an odd one, because it is animated, but I will just put it out there:. Porco Rosso, a film from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki about seaplane pilots in the Mediterranean just before World War II. One theme is the rise of Fascism in Italy. But there are a lot of realistically rendered flying scenes.

I've never heard of Porco Rosso; is it an old movie, and would it be possible to find it on YouTube?

 

[LeafByNiggle]

I've never heard of Porco Rosso; is it an old movie, and would it be possible to find it on YouTube?

You can buy it for $12 on YouTube or you can rent it for $4. It is not available anywhere for free, as the owner, Studio Ghibli, is very strict about policing YouTube for infringement against their copyright. What you can find for free is lots of commentary and reviews on YouTube and elsewhere. It was made in 1992. It was originally going to short in-flight film for Japan Airlines, but as writing progressed, Hayao Miyazaki changed his mind and decided to make it a full-length feature film and did not sell it Japan Airlines but released it under his own studio's label.

 

[Aquila Super Tomcat]

You can buy it for $12 on YouTube or you can rent it for $4. It is not available anywhere for free, as the owner, Studio Ghibli, is very strict about policing YouTube for infringement against their copyright. What you can find for free is lots of commentary and reviews on YouTube and elsewhere. It was made in 1992. It was originally going to short in-flight film for Japan Airlines, but as writing progressed, Hayao Miyazaki changed his mind and decided to make it a full-length feature film and did not sell it Japan Airlines but released it under his own studio's label.

Thanks for the info! I didn't know that it's possible to buy content on YouTube; I assume one has to have a YouTube/Google account to do that. Since Hayao Miyazaki released Porco Rosso under Studio Ghibli's label, has it been shown on any airlines (I'm thinking of how airlines usually offer a large selection of feature films on their international flights)?

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Thanks for the info! I didn't know that it's possible to buy content on YouTube; I assume one has to have a YouTube/Google account to do that.

Well, yes, you do. But it is no big deal to sign up. You don't have to give any personal information until you decide to buy or rent content. By the way, renting is fairly good deal if you don't intend to have the movie forever. After you start watching a rental movie, you have access to it for 48 hours. During that time you can watch it as many times as you want. Some movies I first watched by renting it, and then if I really liked it, I might actually go back and buy it. The SD (Standard Definition) is plenty good enough for movies like this, so I never pay the premium for the HD (High Definition) version.

Since Hayao Miyazaki released Porco Rosso under Studio Ghibli's label, has it been shown on any airlines (I'm thinking of how airlines usually offer a large selection of feature films on their international flights)?

I doubt it. But I have no way of knowing. The link with Japan Airlines was only the impetus to start work on the film. They never actually got any money from the airlines and there is no on-going relationship with them. By the way, Miyazaki put elements of flight in almost all of his films, including (and I don't know why I didn't think of this first) "The Wind Rises" which is based on the true story of the Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Japanese fighter aircraft used in WWII, including the A6M Zero. That's another aviation-related film I like. The reason for Miyazaki's interest in flight may be that his father was director of Miyazaki Airplane, a company that made rudders for fighter planes in WWII. You can see fantastical flying machines in other Miyazaki films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Howl's Moving Castle.