I have had a passion for helicopters for many years now, culminating in actually flying a helicopter for an hour as a birthday present. The feeling of freedom is unsurpassed by any other experience I know. The ability to travel in 3 dimensions rather than the 2 when driving a car is incredible. Their beauty, mobility and sheer 'sexiness' to use a Hollywood term, is why they appear so often on our screens. Sometimes it is merely to add an extra dimension to a fight scene, but often they play crucial parts in a film or tv programme. If there is a helicopter in a film there are 3 things which it is there for.
Here is a list of some famous chopper scenes. (I hope you don't find it too boring!).
Blue
Thunder
LAPD chopper armed to the teeth flown by Roy Scheider. Excellent
stunts involving helicopter chases under bridges and through streets.
A series followed which kept the same format and in some ways was
better than its rival Airwolf.
Airwolf
Another hi-tech chopper but this time working for a CIA style
organisation, but lacks the realism of Blue Thunder. It has to be one
of the coolest helicopters though. They use a modern (then) Bell 222
(I think) which has sleek looks, retractable gear and lots of weapons
and computers.
Chopper
Squad, 240
Robert
These 2 shows depicted Search & Rescue (SAR) air support units
for the police or medical organisations. The stars get into various
scrapes. Although featuring helicopters, they are not the stars.
Chopper Squad was based in Australia around a 'Surf Rescue' unit,
whereas 240 Robert was a USA California based police unit.
Capricorn One
Sci-Fi film about NASA faking a mission to Mars becouse of a fault on
the spaceship. The astronauts escape from the air base they are being
kept prisoner at, and are chased by 2 Hughes helicopters. The
sequences with the two choppers is very well done. When they have to
talk to one another the choppers turn in unison to face one another.
Obviously this is unessasary in real life, but in the film it adds an
element of mystery and horror, becouse you do not see the pilots,
(though they are there), and it makes it look like robots are chasing
after them.
Treasure
Hunt
This is actually a game show which uses helicopters to travel around
the country looking for hidden clues. Contestants in a London studio
guide a runner (originally Anneka Rice, then Annabel Croft) to the
treasure. A second helicopter is used to send radio signals between
the studio and runner. One of their most spectactular events was to
land on a Navy Submarine!
Die Hard Trilogy
Here are perfect examples of choppers added to a film to add a
certain 'excitement' to a film. In DH1 a chopper with FBI agents was
sent to the roof to pick up the hostages and was blown up. (Another
element directors like to add to chopper scenes.) In DH2 McClane
hitches a ride with a TV news chopper to drop him on the wing of a
747 moving down a runway and in DH3 he uses a poice chopper to find
the bad guys and blows the bad guys chopper up.
Matt Houston, Magnum
TV private eyes often travel by helicopter, it adds to the 'sexy'
image I mentioned earlier. Matt Houston is a rich PI and Magnum knows
a chopper pilot who often flies him on his adventures.
Biggles
The WW1 flying ace Biggles said in the film, "If you can fly a
Sopwith Camel you can fly anything", and so the producers had him do
just that. The film has him travelling through time with his time
twin. He arrives in the 90's, steals a helicopter flies it back in
time, and eventually it is blown up. The large round speaker on the
side of the chopper is not a real speaker, they normally use
loudhailers attatched below the chopper. This 'ball speaker' was
purely a prop so that the actor could place a microphone onto the
speaker. Such a large speaker throws the helicopters balance right
off, (notice the counterweight on the opposite side) and so would not
be used in real life. The ball is probably part of an old helicopter
camera housing which is used to steady aerial filming with large
cameras.
The A-Team
In every episode Howlin' Mad Murdoch (my favourite charactor) flies a
plane or helicopter to fight the enemy. A prime example of Hollywoods
obsession with putting a chopper in every episode it can.
Terminator 2
Arnie is back. Here the evil T1000 jumps from a motorbike into the
cockpit of a police helicopter, kicks the pilot out and flies off
after Arnie and co. It is most notable for flying a helicopter under
a road bridge and a most spectacular crash into the back of a
truck.
Last updated 24 July 1998
