If you like airliners in movies, Turbulence (1997) is worth a watch. This is a great fun movie, with Ray Liotta clearly having an absolute ball playing the bad guy in it, hamming it up just enough to be entertaining but still managing to make himself appear quite creepy and menacing.

But what is interesting for plane buffs, is that the movie actually features a genuine airline in it, which is very rare for a 'disaster movie' for obvious reasons. Granted, the stricken airliner is depicted as flying for the fictional TCA, using a repainted Japan Air Lines 747-246B, but another airliner which provides assistance over the radio in the climax of the movie, explaining how to set up the FMC for an autoland, is a genuine Tower Air 747-212B. not only this, the procedures talked through to set up the FMC are actually fairly accurate, especially for a movie such as this, where such detail is never normally gone into. Earlier in the movie where the take off is depicted, this too is reasonably accurate in comparison to most movies.

There are some mistakes and some fictionalised aspects of the 747, for example at one point the 747 does a roll in a thunderstorm to add to the drama, which would probably have broken up a real 747, and it does appear to have a magic avionics bay with a remarkable ability to use back up systems, but on the whole it is better than most movies with regard to conveying how an airliner is flown.

Another fun movie with a 747, is one made the year before Turbulence, that being Executive Decision (1996). This is a great bit of fun too, featuring a genuine Boeing 747-269B, which was painted up in the fictional Oceanic Airlines livery for the movie. The astute will note that this was also the fictional airline used in the TV series Lost too, albeit with a different logo.

Executive Decision does stretch credibility somewhat with a rescue mission using a modified F117A Nighthawk 'docking' with the stricken 747 in flight in order to transfer a spec ops team on board, but it is nevertheless good fun. On a slightly sour note, the plot of Executive Decision, like MS Flight Simulator, had accusations of being in part responsible in aiding the 9/11 attacks, with suggestions that it gave the terrorists the idea to use an airliner as a weapon, which seems a little unlikely to me, since it is not as if Kamikaze tactics were something new at the time given that the Japanese made extensive use of them throughout most of WW2.

On a more cheerful note, Steven Seagal, playing Colonel Austin Travers in this movie, was nominated for a Razzie Award for the Worst Supporting Actor, however, he was beaten to the actual award by Marlon Brando's performance in the truly terrible 1996 remake of The Island of Doctor Moreau, which was a worthy winner of the dubious accolade, however, it was a close thing, if you watch Executive Decision, be on the lookout for (right near the start of the movie) Steven Seagal running across the lawn of a safe house his spec ops team is assaulting. If you've ever seen anyone with a more girly, hilarious way of running, I'd be surprised.

Like Turbulence, Executive Decision has good shots of F-14 Tomcats in it, and numerous other interesting aeroplanes too and despite its slightly hokey plot, has very high production values which make it entertaining to watch, and there is an excellent and especially rousing musical score in this movie by Jerry Goldsmith which lifts it above most other aeroplane movies:

 

12 hours ago, n4gix said:

I watched that several years ago. It was an excellent movie, albeit a bit of a nail-biter!

Hi Bill

Yes, it is.

I like watching these 'Films ' - my family have got wise to not interrupting when I'm watching this one, especially the last 30 minutes or so. I reckon that Robert Loggia is a brilliant actor - he is/was underated IMO.

I'm not sure, but I have always wondered whether a captain would descend that far under those stormy conditions in the RW. One can only wonder what you would do under those circumstances. Obviously he trusted his aircraft.

I have watched it many times - probably over a dozen occasions.

Regards

Bill

19 hours ago, Alan_A said:

Well, he was under the influence of Chesterfield at least.  They were his sponsor, and that was a paid advertising placement.

Later on he turned against smoking and broke with them.

The Eastern film is very definitely a period piece.

He did get done some time later for a low flying incident I believe. And I think they found he had alchohol in his blood.

1 hour ago, vololiberista said:

He did get done some time later for a low flying incident I believe. And I think they found he had alchohol in his blood.

Speaking of which, in terms of coolness is there anything to match Denzel Washington leaving his hotel in Flight?

On 12/5/2017 at 2:23 PM, dmarques69 said:

Having some spare time here due a flu that knock me out good, so i thought lets see some good aviation movie, unfortunately there's not so many options in the market and i found my self seeing "Sully" for the second time,

 

"Sully" movie really disappointed me, this confrontation with NTSB was completely fake and not true to actual events. 

On the other hand I am surprised no one mentioned a very recent "America Made" - a lot of flying in Aerostar, super nice aircraft, with great short field landings/takeoffs, well made, fun to watch.

Another recent movie, this with phenomenal aerial-battle cinematography is "Dunkirk", breathtaking to watch.

I watched both movies in an IMAX theater.

3 hours ago, vololiberista said:

He did get done some time later for a low flying incident I believe. And I think they found he had alchohol in his blood.

Here's an account of the low flying incident - which I think may be written by a community member, not sure.  No mention of alcohol in this description, maybe elsewhere.

And here's a working link (it's broken in the link above) to the novelty song he wrote about it afterward.

In all, he wasn't exactly a pleasant character.

Full bio here.

 

1 hour ago, michal said:

"Sully" movie really disappointed me, this confrontation with NTSB was completely fake and not true to actual events. 

Agree completely - for me, that was crude and ruined what was otherwise an excellent film.  Am a big fan of Clint Eastwood as a director, but not that time.

Memphis Belle:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100133/

 

Stephen King's "Night Flier"  :)

 

Flight of the Intruder

Living in the Age of Airplanes

The main thing I'm getting from this thread is that there haven't been many recent movies (circa 2000 something).  'Flight' was good, Sully would be good if you're not an aviation person, but after that there really isn't much in the last decade or so.  I, for one, love watching Air Crash Investigation (or Mayday), but that is documentary style.  

I personally don't really watch older movies (except Top Gun-one of the best flicks of all time) and I know I'm probably in the minority there.  But this thread proves that we need new airplane movies!!  Maybe that new show 'LA to Vegas' will be decent (it won't, but will probably be a guilty pleasure for me)

Has anyone seen American Made with Tom Cruise? Great flying scenes and it will give you a laugh at the same time! I watched it in the theater when it first came out. I am going to see it again when in releases to Netflix 1/3/18.

Also Tuskegee Airman is a good movie.

I've seen most of the movies mentioned here and they're all good!

Enjoy - Rick