Movie · 1983 · Drama, Action, Thriller · 1h 50m · R · English
Curator score: 3.4/10 (39.8K ratings)
He's out there…
Overview
Los Angeles, California. Officer Murphy, a veteran Metropolitan Police helicopter pilot suffering from severe trauma due to his harsh experiences during the Vietnam War, and Lymangood, his resourceful new partner, are tasked with testing an advanced and heavily armed experimental chopper known as Blue Thunder.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.4/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.20/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Metacritic: 66
TMDB: 6.2/10
Director
John Badham
Production
Rastar Productions, Columbia Pictures
Cast
Roy Scheider, Warren Oates, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, Paul Roebling, David Sheiner, Joe Santos, Malcolm McDowell, Ed Bernard, Jason Bernard, Mario Machado, James Murtaugh, Pat McNamara, Jack Murdock, Clifford A. Pellow, Paul Lambert, Phil Feldman, John Garber, Anthony James, Robin Braxton
Where to watch
Netflix, Philo, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, pulpy early-’80s techno-thriller with real helicopter spectacle, paranoid surveillance ideas, and a grizzled Roy Scheider center. It’s uneven and occasionally heavy-handed, but the premise, aerial action, and Los Angeles-nightmare atmosphere make it an easy recommendation for fans of paranoid action cinema.
Best for
fans of 1980s action-thrillers
viewers who like paranoid tech/conspiracy plots
people interested in practical effects and aerial stunt work
fans of grizzled, weary cop protagonists
Skip if
you want a tightly written or subtle thriller
you dislike dated politics and macho 1980s attitudes
you need strong character depth over concept and spectacle
you’re not interested in helicopter-centered action
Overview
Blue Thunder is a very specific kind of early-’80s studio thriller: sleek hardware, urban paranoia, and a lead character who looks permanently exhausted by the world. The movie gets a lot of mileage out of its central gimmick, turning a police helicopter into both a toy and a threat, and the aerial photography still has bite.
Worth noting
The film’s politics are blunt and sometimes contradictory, but that’s part of its time-capsule appeal. It’s more interested in the thrill of surveillance, pursuit, and technological escalation than in nuance, and the result is a brisk, entertaining conspiracy movie with a nasty streak.
Bottom line
Roy Scheider gives it enough gravity to keep the whole thing from floating away on gadget fetish alone. If you like paranoid action movies where the machinery is almost the star, this is one of the better examples.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Will Menaker (4★) · 275 likes
Did I watch this movie because the video game character Francis York Morgan from Deadly Premonition told me to? Yes, but what I found was possibly the best helicopter-based action film I've ever seen.
A very timely plot concerns a burned out LAPD helicopter pilot (Roy Scheider) who falls into a conspiracy where the military is fomenting violence in the inner city in order to justify minting a fleet of state of the art attack helicopters to quell "urban insurrection"… more
matt lynch (3.5★) · 168 likes
opens with the dire warning: "THE HARDWARE, WEAPONRY AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS DEPICTED IN THIS FILM ARE REAL AND IN USE IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY." that's about as heavyhanded as it tends to get though, since most of the runtime is taken up with (a lot of highly illegal) toy fetish over the helicopter, which is fine because it's really cool, and once things get rolling the aerial stunts and miniature work are pretty gnarly. there's an amusingly unpleasant amount… more opens with the dire warning: "THE HARDWARE, WEAPONRY AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS DEPICTED IN THIS FILM ARE REAL AND IN USE IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY." that's about as heavyhanded as it tends to get though, since most of the runtime is taken up with (a lot of highly illegal) toy fetish over the helicopter, which is fine because it's really cool, and once things get rolling the aerial stunts and miniature work are pretty gnarly. there's an amusingly unpleasant amount… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3.5★) · 135 likes
Many stories have been written about detectives and police officers on the field, fighting criminals, and so on. Many of these are among my favorites. But what stands out about this picture, co-written by Dan O'Bannon, directed by the guy who brought us Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, and Short Circuit, and starring ordinary man himself Roy Scheider, Daniel Stern, and Malcolm McDowell among others, is that it focuses on the air support division, which we see frequently in various series… more Many stories have been written about detectives and police officers on the field, fighting criminals, and so on. Many of these are among my favorites. But what stands out about this picture, co-written by Dan O'Bannon, directed by the guy who brought us Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, and Short Circuit, and starring ordinary man himself Roy Scheider, Daniel Stern, and Malcolm McDowell among others, is that it focuses on the air support division, which we see frequently in various series… more
theo (2★) · 112 likes
the fact that roy schneider only did this movie was so that he didn’t have to do jaws 3 is hilarious
nathaxnne [goodbye <3] (3★) · 94 likes
For a while in the early 1980's, John Badham had something of a lock on the half-baked paranoid tech thriller, making War Games, Blue Thunder and Short Circuit within a few years of each other, dealing with AI-directed nuclear war, militarized policing and battlefield robotics respectively. Blue Thunder, in particular, is a strange admixture of the voyeuristically sleazy and the politically naive in that police surveillance of citizenry to satisfy the hungry male gaze is kinda OK, but the same… more For a while in the early 1980's, John Badham had something of a lock on the half-baked paranoid tech thriller, making War Games, Blue Thunder and Short Circuit within a few years of each other, dealing with AI-directed nuclear war, militarized policing and battlefield robotics respectively. Blue Thunder, in particular, is a strange admixture of the voyeuristically sleazy and the politically naive in that police surveillance of citizenry to satisfy the hungry male gaze is kinda OK, but the same… more
1983 · Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller · 1h 54m · PG · Curator 6.0/10 (220.5K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Shares the same early-’80s techno-paranoia and fascination with systems that can spiral out of control.
1998 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 12m · R · Curator 4.8/10 (392.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A modern surveillance thriller that expands the same fear of being watched everywhere.