Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30676 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The early 1980s experienced a wave of technology fever, and it seemed like every machine wanted to be bionic. There was K.I.T.T. the car, Street Hawk the motorbike, Airwolf the helicopter, and Blue Thunder--which looked like the Mechano version of Airwolf. In what seems a moment of Austin Powers humour, it's explained that this super chopper cost "five million dollars"! Its supposed reason for being is aerial crowd control, but as Murphy (Roy Scheider) discovers--when not suffering 'Nam flashbacks--there's a government plot to silence a Senator who's disgruntled with urban pacification standards. Director John Badham obviously loved fiddling about with technology--he directed Wargames after all--and here there are lingering shots of buttons and switches, multiple takes of turns in the air, and any excuse used for a bit of primitive computer imagery. The secondary characters quickly begin to seem like wallpaper: Daniel Stern's spunky co-pilot has but one plot device to execute, and Malcolm McDowell plays the same tired old Brit baddie he's played for years. Ultimately it's the protracted aerial battle finale (which played havoc with LA air traffic control) that stays with you. Oh, and a gratuitous cameo from a nude contortionist!

On the DVD: There are no special features here, except a trailer and filmographies. --Paul Tonks

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Original Theatrical Trailer
Filmographies
Arabic\Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hindi\Hungarian\Icelandic\Italian\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish\Turkish

Synopsis
The air above Los Angeles has become a battle ground in this explosive action thriller. Roy Scheider (JAWS) stars as Frank Murphy, a courageous and honorable Los Angeles police officer who is chosen to test run Blue Thunder, a high-tech experimental attack helicopter that comes complete with listening devices, camera lenses, and computer files. While flying Blue Thunder, Murphy and his partner, Lymangood (Daniel Stern) discover that the government intends on using the helicopter for corrupt crowd control and surveillance. The top-secret operation is being run by a sinister colonel (Malcolm McDowell), who will stop at nothing to keep the devious military conspiracy a secret. In an effort to expose the covert military operation Murphy decides to "borrow" Blue Thunder, flying against military and police aircrafts on a death-defying flight. Superb special effects and daredevil stunts combine with breathtaking cinematography to create a dizzying battle for justice.

Customer Reviews

High-tech, fast-action paranoia and with first-rate performances
Among the stars of this first-rate high tech action thriller is Blue Thunder, a helicopter that, as one character says, can fire 4,000 rounds a minute and peer down blouses at 1,000 feet. At first glance, Blue Thunder is a marvel; it has night vision capability, whisper action engines, high sensitivity mikes, automatic firepower linked to the movements of the pilot's helmet and sophisticated targeting systems. It's heavily armored and heavily armed. When Officer Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) a chopper pilot with the Los Angeles police who has bad memories of Viet Nam, is chosen to test out the helicopter, he and his partner, Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern), find themselves up to their eyes in a secret government conspiracy where people are going to die.

Murphy has nightmares about Viet Nam, has trouble with authority, sticks his neck out, feels he has to test himself. His boss, Jack Braddock (Warren Oates), respects him but gets tired of dealing with Murphy's edginess. For one incident, Braddock takes him off flight status. "But there's a bright side to this, and a moral," Braddock tells Murphy. "I think morals are good things. I love morals. And the moral of this story is, if you're walking on eggs, don't hop." On night patrol in their regular police helicopter, Murphy and Lymangood come across an attack on a woman as she enters her condominium complex. They call it it, police quickly arrive, and in the shootout the woman is seriously wounded. The attack is labeled a suspected rape attempt, but Murphy isn't so sure. Why were there two assailants? Why was her briefcase the object of a theft? What happened to the abandoned car Lymangood had spotted nearby just moments before? The woman turns out to be Diane McNeely, a member of the Los Angeles Mayor's task force on urban violence. Murphy discovers she possessed written information that government agencies were stirring up violence in some of the poorest parts of Los Angeles.

Then the Feds show up with Blue Thunder. The experimental chopper with its high tech gear and armaments is designed to identify potential trouble makers and terrorists, to suppress them and to eliminate any unrest they may cause. Los Angeles, it seems, might be just the candidate for tests to prove more of these choppers will do the job. The helicopter is effective in tests, but not perfectly surgical in it's firepower. "One civilian dead for every ten terrorists. That's an acceptable ratio," says one official. "Not if you're the civilian," says Murphy. One of the people behind Blue Thunder is Col. F. E. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell), an old acquaintance of Murphy's from Viet Nam. Cochrane was an ace pilot, too, who often tossed Viet Nam prisoners out of his chopper. One night in a check-out flight of Blue Thunder, Murphy and Lymangood come across a secret meeting of Cochrane and some Fed officials. Using Blue Thunder's surveillance capabilities, Murphy gets the meeting's discussion recorded on tape. The discussion proves a government conspiracy by a handful of officials to foment insurrection in order to justify Blue Star's use by the government, and to countenance murder, all for the greater good. Just as the meeting closes, Cochrane pulls open the drapes to look outside...and sees Blue Thunder hovering nearby. Murphy and Lymangood are discovered, and a brutal chase begins. The last third of the movie is a race...by the bad guys to get the tape, by Murphy and his girlfriend to get the tape to the news media, to get the Air Force to destroy Blue Thunder and Murphy, and finally to get Blue Thunder and Murphy destroyed in a head-to-head chopper duel between Murphy and Cochrane.

I like this movie a lot. It's a taut, high-paranoia action film where the paranoia is justified. All the actors do fine jobs. Scheider is authoritative and troubled. McDowell is thoroughly unlikable but always watchable. Stern makes Lymangood a goofy, good-natured guy who doesn't deserve what happens to him. Candy Clark as Murphy's girl friend is a sweet, slightly off-centered delight who is brave and determined when she needs to be. Warren Oates plays Murphy's boss in great style. And the city of Los Angeles comes off well, too. The action sequences take us in a fast tour the city from a bird's eye view, from over downtown, past and around sky scrapers, low and fast over freeways and down to the concrete-encased Los Angeles River.

There was a series!!
Not so much as a review - just a reply to "smousins" to say that they did do a Blue Thunder series but it wasn't as successful as Airwolf and ran for only 1 season of 11 Episodes. Its available on DVD in the US and its about time it was out here too!

Slightly biased review.
This film has always been a favourite of mine. The excellent cast, modified helicopter and the flying sequences at the end of the film have always made this one to watch.

Some people don't like the way Roy Scheider's character seems distant and disinterested with everything and everyone, but this is the whole point of the story.

He is haunted with bad memories from Vietnam and it has made him into a burned out cop with very little patience for red-tape, bureaucracy, and devious people who wear cheap suits.