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ZZZ recently posted how much he loved the latest movie “ The Martian” (2015) .

I have not seen it…yet. I got to thinking about what top airplane movies I have liked.

I am listing my Top 12 AIRPLANE / AVIATION movies below. I have tried to keep it aviation and not space, so movies like Star Wars I, Dune, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, etc. are not included.

Feel free to add a few, or list your own Top 5,Top 10, or Top 12. With enough people posting, I am sure I’ll be learning about some new Aviation movies I’ve never heard of. I have listed mine below with links where available.

[b]1. The High and the Mighty (1954)

2. The Blue Max (1966)

3. The Aviator (2004)

4. Twelve O’Clock High (1949)

5. Jet Pilot (1957)

6. Flight of the Intruder (1991)

7. Flyboys (2006)

8. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
** Actual Documentary of the stunt plane crash during the Filming of the movie :

9. Battle of Britain (1969)

10. Dive Bomber (1941)

11. Sky Fighters (2005 Les Chevaliers du Ciel - English subtitles)

12. Amelia (2009)
Oh yes.. Maybe not as good as The Martian, but this movie is so bad it is spectacular:

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Whenever I think about possibly kit or scratch building a plane ( never ) I think about the actual fuselage failure of the stunt plane in the old version of the movie Flight of the Phoenix that killed the pilot. Some of those tail flutter incidents on planes like a modified Murphy Moose are also kind of sobering.

My favorite, I could watch at least one or two episode(s) everyday! Seriously one of the best!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_Missions

The Arrow. It's about the Avro Arrow. Good watch.

Regarding the movie The Martian, Andy Weir the author has a really neat one hour discussion taped at California's Lawrence Livermore Labs auditorium. He is a real techno geek, a computer programmer by profession, and really does a delighful job discussing the movie and answering questions from the audience. Worth watching.

The Right Stuff... Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid and Barbara Hershey. Don't get much better.

Have to consider some more of the old movies;
"A Guy Named Joe" with Spencer Tracy
"Island in the Sky" with John Wayne

Alien, the original. A true classic and always enjoyed watching Sigourney Weaver.

"Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines"

To what's been listed already, with which I agree, I'd add "Always" with Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, and a cameo by Audrey Hepburn. It's essentially the "A Guy Named Joe", only fire fighting instead of wartime.

I'd also add "Fate Is The Hunter" with Glenn Ford--a well done "mystery" investigation, by Ernie Gann, also starring Suzanne Pleshette. Don't spill the coffee!

One of my favorites is "Bridges at Toko Ri", with William Holden, Mickey Rooney, Grace Kelly, and including Frederic March, with one of the most memorable lines in any aviation war movie, "Where do we get such men?"

And of course, there's "The Great Waldo Pepper", with Robert Redford--some superb flying scenes.

Cary

Air America. The director stayed with us years ago. It was really fun to talk to him about the filming.

"High Road to China", with Tom Sellek.

All of the above for sure as well as Thunder Ball Run. .I know, stupid movie. But there was a clip about halfway through where they decided to "get a Maule" and landed through the trees on a narrow road to get a six pack at a General Store. The plane shot out of the clearing like a rocket. Never see a Maule without thinking about how impressed I was. We see that repeated each year at HSF.

gbflyer wrote:Air America. The director stayed with us years ago. It was really fun to talk to him about the filming.

You need to contact that director if you can, and see if he will give you a copy of the flying and aviation footage that was edited out. There was one scene in the movie where they land a Porter on a short hillside strip, and it's only a few seconds. But it is absolutely frickin' cool! That's a thousand or two pounds more than a Super Cub doing Super Cub stuff.

BUT, it is my understanding that they found a few old former Air America pilots to go do that flying for the film, and I am sure that they shot a lot of film from all angles of those hilltop jungle landings. I would bet that the rest of the flying footage still exists in a warehouse or a film vault someplace. Having almost nothing to do with the movie, I think that most of us would really like to see the rest of the flying.

Now... on another entirely different level, the 1968 classic "2001: a space odyssey" HAS to be on that list of "best" aviation and space movies.

X2 for Island in the sky. Watched it a lot when I was a kid.
+it's john Wayne.

The Right Stuff inspired me like no other movie ever has. To this day, I still can't watch Sam Sheppard in anything else without thinking of him as a young Yeager.

+1 for Always.

+1 for High Road to China

Also, call me cheesy, but I loved Top Gun then and I still love it now. "Because I was inverted."

Y'all are going to laugh at me but I have to add the Disney Planes movies to the list. They are great kids movies but at the same time they strive for realism in a way that most non-animated films never even attempt. They even make the planes in the air look and move like the real thing. What better way to get the next generation excited about flying than to show them what it really looks and sounds like.

P.S. Im the guy that can't watch a show if I see something blatantly out of place. Like when a 185 starts up sounding like a PT-6. (Im looking at you Discovery channel)

EZFlap wrote:

gbflyer wrote:Air America. The director stayed with us years ago. It was really fun to talk to him about the filming.

You need to contact that director if you can, and see if he will give you a copy of the flying and aviation footage that was edited out. There was one scene in the movie where they land a Porter on a short hillside strip, and it's only a few seconds. But it is absolutely frickin' cool! That's a thousand or two pounds more than a Super Cub doing Super Cub stuff.

BUT, it is my understanding that they found a few old former Air America pilots to go do that flying for the film, and I am sure that they shot a lot of film from all angles of those hilltop jungle landings. I would bet that the rest of the flying footage still exists in a warehouse or a film vault someplace. Having almost nothing to do with the movie, I think that most of us would really like to see the rest of the flying.

Now... on another entirely different level, the 1968 classic "2001: a space odyssey" HAS to be on that list of "best" aviation and space movies.

Wouldn't have a clue as to how to contact Roger these days. It's not like we text each other. [emoji1]. I remember he was really cool and was amazed that people would ask about the filming as most of the time all people want to know about are the stars.

As to the Porter hillside landing scene:

They found the Porter in pieces. The production company hired a guy from the States to put it back together. He said it was a shoe string and bailing wire deal. They found the engine in a bar, it had been used for years as a decoration. Can't remember which SE Asian country they filmed in, but it was a local government pilot who had flown them back in the day.

When they did the hillside landing scene, the deal was to land the airplane and they would be done with it. It was supposed to be disassembled and taken out in pieces. Remember, it was totally cobbled together. Instead of shutting down, the pilot immediately turned around and took off. There was a helicopter overhead filming, and that's the only reason there is a takeoff scene. Apparently this caused quite an uproar that he didn't elaborate on.

The better story was the C123 though. The production company purchased the flying aircraft from the government. It was destroyed for one of the scenes. After it was destroyed, the government decided that it was still theirs and made the production company buy it again out of the parts manual. I think he might have mentioned they had some over budget issues.

Fun stuff. Way better than all the fake CGI they use today, in my opinion.

Don't think anyone mentioned Apollo 13, or Space Cowboys. Both good ones.
Air America's Porter scenes were awesome.

Maybe not quite on par with some of these suggestions, but Bat 21 was a decent movie with some great flying in it. Gene Hackman, Danny Glover and Jerry Reed (Snowman from Smokey and the Bandit).

These days, no way you'd ever see a lead actor in the pilot seat while maneuvering low level over the jungle in an O-2. I watch it today and I still can't believe Danny Glover was able to recite his lines.

Im not a huge O-2 fan, but every time I watch it I feel the urge to scour Trade a Plane for one.