Movies with good Jet Air Combat?

[Jack Johnson]

Hey im looking for a good movie featuring Jetfighter Air Combat, from the Korean War to fictional although more or less realistic conflicts.

Oh and please not Topgun....


To start the list, i got "THE HUNTERS" from 1958, very nice air combat scenes for its time.




Btw.: Sorry if wrong forum, I was looking for an off-topic section but didnt found on.

 

[Juramentado]

Hey im looking for a good movie featuring Jetfighter Air Combat, from the Korean War to fictional although more or less realistic conflicts.

Oh and please not Topgun....


To start the list, i got "THE HUNTERS" from 1958, very nice air combat scenes for its time.




Btw.: Sorry if wrong forum, I was looking for an off-topic section but didnt found on.

Not too many I'm afraid.

Matching your era of interest but it's more air-to-mud - no one mentions the classic - The Bridges at Toko-Ri! William Holden, Grace Kelly (oh la la) and where else can you see Mickey Rooney as an SAR pilot? Yes!

Strategic Air Command has some great heavy-iron scenes, but it's a Jimmy Stewart movie. You either love him or hate him.

This is a rarity - but I caught it on late night many moons ago - Jet Pilot starring John Wayne. Real a/c, real maneuvers and a very young Janet Leigh in an eye-popping couple of scenes. Paper-thin plot at times, but you didn't ask for Emmy Award winners. :rosie

Other than that - no real good ones. I loved the film version of Flight of the Intruder, but I disagreed with the casting of Willem Dafoe as Tiger Cole. Just didn't seem to click. Excellent Skyraider footage though!

And the few scenes in Air Force One. Yeah - it's either hit or miss. But the ACM talk is okay - and a six-on-six engagement between Eagles and Fulcrums. Cold War dreams baby...

On the subject of ACM slang - catch the few scenes with the Tomcat drivers in Executive Decision.

Edited to add: and last but not least, well, you asked for movies - but this is more of a clip since it's real footage - look for the '89 shootdown of a pair of Mig-23s by VF-32 Tomcats. It's also one of the rare modern footage (post Korea and Vietnam) that's made it into the public domain.

 

[Jack Johnson]

Not too many I'm afraid.

Matching your era of interest but it's more air-to-mud - no one mentions the classic - The Bridges at Toko-Ri! William Holden, Grace Kelly (oh la la) and where else can you see Mickey Rooney as an SAR pilot? Yes!

Strategic Air Command has some great heavy-iron scenes, but it's a Jimmy Stewart movie. You either love him or hate him.

This is a rarity - but I caught it on late night many moons ago - Jet Pilot starring John Wayne. Real a/c, real maneuvers and a very young Janet Leigh in an eye-popping couple of scenes. Paper-thin plot at times, but you didn't ask for Emmy Award winners. :rosie

Other than that - no real good ones. I loved the film version of Flight of the Intruder, but I disagreed with the casting of Willem Dafoe as Tiger Cole. Just didn't seem to click. Excellent Skyraider footage though!

And the few scenes in Air Force One. Yeah - it's either hit or miss. But the ACM talk is okay - and a six-on-six engagement between Eagles and Fulcrums. Cold War dreams baby...

On the subject of ACM slang - catch the few scenes with the Tomcat drivers in Executive Decision.

Edited to add: and last but not least, well, you asked for movies - but this is more of a clip since it's real footage - look for the '89 shootdown of a pair of Mig-23s by VF-32 Tomcats. It's also one of the rare modern footage (post Korea and Vietnam) that's made it into the public domain.

Thank you very much. I got another one, "Stealth" from 2005. Its simple, unrealistic (close range dogfighting between jetfighters...) action, and the american fighters are all sci-fi, but the air combat scenes are unmatched to date. Especially the scene Su-37 versus the Talons.

And while the featured UCAV is completly SciFi, the FA-37 Talon was realistic enough that some military aircraft magazine confused them with new Navy Carrier Fighters while they were on deck... http://www.stiftungleostrauss.com/fa-37_talon1.jpg

 

[GermanHerman]

ok this one is a cheesie, but anyway it has quite some air to air:

Pearl Harbor with ben afflec.

Any one knows good ww2? I love the planes from that tiem *love*

 

[Kilo 2-3]

how about the Iron eagle movies?

I'm going somewhere to hide now...

:hitwall

On a more productive note..."Flyboys" had some remarkably impressive WWI biplane sequences. However, I highly recommend History Channel's "Dogfights." For a neophyte like myself, the show was an excellent introduction into the history of air-to-air combat and the fundamentals used by combat pilots. It's also quite entertaining.

 

[Kilo 2-3]

Was my suggestion that bad kilo 2-3?

Iron Eagle is legendarily (and hilariously) bad. I'd willingly watch it; but the genre would definitely be "comedy."

 

[Jack Johnson]

Iron Eagle is legendarily (and hilariously) bad. I'd willingly watch it; but the genre would definitely be "comedy."

I only know the third one; "Aces: Iron Eagle III". With the Messerschmitts against jets, and firing a rocket launcher from an openend cockpit.

 

[GermanHerman]

I only know the third one; "Aces: Iron Eagle III". With the Messerschmitts against jets, and firing a rocket launcher from an openend cockpit.

Omg this sounds like some legendary awsome trash!

So a few more:

Battle of Britain.

...and a real classic : Tora Tora Tora!

 

[Jack Johnson]

How about "SKY FIGHTERS" French film they used Mirage 2000 Jets

Indeed. Most awesome scenes with planes, even bordering on beating "Stealth", and without any CGI.

BUT: While the Story is cool in theory, the stroyTELLING sucks big time. Dialoge is just plain stupid, actors appear wooden etc.

 

[STURM]

The Heinz Knoke videos on Youtube IMO has the best ever WW2 CGI, better even than the History Channel's Dogfights.

[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRWPsf9-y3I[/nomedia]


Then there's also 'A Dark Blue World' which has excellent dogfight scenes.

 

[Kilo 2-3]

If you count the fiasco that was the recent Transformers film series, then yes, the F-22 has had some screen time.

Be interesting to see what happens when more and more UCAVs start coming online. It's possible the fighter-jock genre which started with 1920s-1930s with films like "The Dawn Patrol" and more recently with "Top Gun" could die out entirely or end up making film about the good old days when pilots still rode in the pit.

Obviously it will be several more decades before this problem will come up; but I'm curious nonetheless as to how Hollywood will react.

 

[YellowFever]

"The Final Countdown"

A movie made in 1980 about the USS Nimitz traveling back in time to December 6,1941.

Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen starring.

The movie had horrible acting, mainly because I think they used real navy personnel for alot of the scenes and the premises was laughable, but some of the flight scenes of the Tomcats were very nice. Also the scene where two Tomcats shot down two Zeros were fun.

 

[dprijadi]

aside from the fictional MIG28 and cheesy characters, TOPGUN actually got the best aerial footage depicting dogfigting /WVR combat and carrier operations.. The cinematograpy is excellent (IMHO).

Iron Eagle is bad (not the story but the aerial shots)..

One of the best movie is Flight of the Intruder , although it is an A6 Intruder on combat in Vietnam (they got a quicky dogfight with a mig17 , well actually running away from a mig). The special effect is not top notch but it is still considered a classic..

Bridge of Toko-Ri also good (for its time) and also classic..

 

[wormhole]

they should make a movie with f-22 pretty soon. maybe get it's popularity up.

It will be a pretty boring movie if the Raptor just keeps popping bandits with BVR missiles.. just like real life exercises with legacy pilots insisting on some WVR action or else they won't come out to play.

 

[moahunter]

^I was thinking the same thing, lol. It would have to be another top gun type movie I guess, with F22's against each other in training with the BVR switched off. Then, they go out and smoke everything BVR (maybe a plane gets engine troubles, and someone dies when they bail out).

 

[dprijadi]

^I was thinking the same thing, lol. It would have to be another top gun type movie I guess, with F22's against each other in training with the BVR switched off. Then, they go out and smoke everything BVR (maybe a plane gets engine troubles, and someone dies when they bail out).

sadly if theres anotehr topgun remake, it will be a full cgi planes.. like it or hate it the originao topgun uses no cgi in aerial shot, only real planes and model planes.

 

[Jhom]

I personally like "Memphis Belle" , I know it is a bomber and not a fighter but it has some good scenes of aerial combat... and "Independence Day" of course, one of the few movies featuring F/A-18s honouring the "F" on their names!

 

[Haavarla]

The best aviation move as far as realism goes, is a English war drama series about spitfire, called 'Piece of cake' if im not mistaken. It evolved over 6 or 8 episodes.
From the outbreak of the world war II to the the end.
The plot was a Spitfire Sq and how the pilots dealt with the daily life events.
There was many short airial combat scenes, which was spectacular, realistic and bloddy brutal!
And some very good actors performance as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piece_of_Cake_(TV_series)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Piece-Cake-LWT-Spitfire-War-Drama-2-DVD-New-Sealed-/350428980282

They used old fottage from real events, with some real new footage from various flying oldies, like both BF-109 and spitfire.

I have yet to see anything like this with some new modern jets..

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Iron Eagle is legendarily (and hilariously) bad. I'd willingly watch it; but the genre would definitely be "comedy."

Its just a movie for little kids.....:lol2

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

How about "SKY FIGHTERS" French film they used Mirage 2000 Jets

I never have seen this movie, but i've seen an Italian film, forgotten the tittle, but it was about the F-104 Starfighter and the 'new' Tornado of the Italian airforce, some nice shots of these fighters....

"The Final Countdown"

A movie made in 1980 about the USS Nimitz traveling back in time to December 6,1941.

Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen starring.

The movie had horrible acting, mainly because I think they used real navy personnel for alot of the scenes and the premises was laughable, but some of the flight scenes of the Tomcats were very nice. Also the scene where two Tomcats shot down two Zeros were fun.

This was the first movie i saw with military airplanes when i was a kid.....i instantly fell inlove with the F-14....
So for me this is a legendary movie.