10 Things You Didn’t Know About Blue Thunder
In today’s world, a movie like Blue Thunder could be easily made thanks to CGI. But CGI was not a luxury in the early 80’s and things had to be done the old fashioned way. Looking back at Blue Thunder and you realize that it was a once in a lifetime production.
Part of this is because the movie was made prior to the tragic helicopter accident that killed Vic Morrow on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie. There is no way a studio would have green lit a movie like Blue Thunder after that tragedy and even if they did, it would have relied heavily on special effects and much less on practical effects.
The challenges of making Blue Thunder including their own on set mishap (that fortunately saw no one hurt) when a helicopter engine exploded are among the many interesting topics discussed by Director John Badham and Editor Frank Morriss on the commentary track included on the Blue Thunder special edition release. The commentary was easily one of the most informative commentaries I have ever listened to and it was the source material for this post.
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Blue Thunder
1. The Piper Technical Center building was used as the headquarters for the LAPD air support division in the movie (although they weren’t able to actually identify themselves as LAPD). At the time of filming, the Piper Technical Center was not operational yet. The control room/offices was actually a set built on the roof of the building and had to be torn down after filming as the structure was not up to code.
2. All of the cockpit scenes where Roy Scheider’s Frank Murphy and Daniel Stern’s Richard Lymangood are flying at night were shot on a soundstage using rear projection.
3. The spotlight on the bottom of the police helicopters is nicknamed “The Midnight Sun”.
4. The role of Col. Cochrane was originally supposed to be played by Bryan Brown of F/X fame, but due to a scheduling conflict Malcolm McDowell was brought in as a last minute replacement. There was one issue, McDowell was terrified of flying and after his first scene in the helicopter he rushed out of the helicopter and threw up over the side of the building.
5. The city council woman’s house in the film, was not an actual house in a residential area, it is one of the exterior sets located on the Warner Brothers Ranch. The house would later be used as Roger Murtaugh’s house in Lethal Weapon.
6. The Blue Thunder helicopter was a modified version of the French built Aérospatiale SA-341G Gazelle helicopter.
7. The scene where a BBQ restaurant in Little Tokyo is blown up by an F-16 and barbecue chickens end up falling from the sky, featured actual barbeque chickens. Real chickens were used for budgetary reasons as they were considerably cheaper than the rubber chicken option. This decision was well received by the homeless population in the area.
8. Editor Frank Morriss played the F-16 pilot. Director John Badham could be seen on camera briefly as the TV news director. Badham’s Casio watch (with the cool countdown feature) could also be seen as the watch worn by Frank Murphy.
9. Filming lasted nearly 80 days and when it was all said and done there was over 450,000 feet of film.
10. Roy Scheider learned that his co-star Candy Clark was a great kisser while working with her on Blue Thunder. John Badham, on the other hand, learned that Candy was a crazy driver.
Another interesting thing about Blue Thunder was that Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell became very good and life long friends during the filming of Blue Thunder. They enjoyed working together on the film so much that they could not leave each other alone.
That’s pretty awesome, since they played enemies in the film.
Watching “Blue Thunder” right now. It’s amazing to me that this film has withstood the rest of time so well. I would think that any film that featured “high tech” tools, weaponry, surveillance equipment, etc. from so long ago would have ended up falling flat by now. At the very least, it ought to seem dated, and / or strangely anachronistic by way of detailing a potentially dastardly use of law enforcement surveillance equipment that while possible never actually happened in the technological past. Some of the other ideas from this movie *have* come to pass, though. The idea that the government might engage in fueling discontent and stirring up crime “in the barrios” in order to justify larger budgets and purchases of “Urban Tactical Warfare” equipment is occurring right now, and unsuspecting citizens who normally do not belong to already-oppressed minority groups or neighborhoods are finding it hard to believe that the level of crime which created the inflated ‘need’ for the additional budgets containing the urban tactical (and very scary) equipment _was_ in fact stirred up by, and otherwise faked by those police departments who most benefitted from it. Because we were raised to believe police are our friends and protect us from the bad guys. But when we really get to look back on this from far enough in the future, our descendants will feel about us much the way everyone is feeling about the Confederate Statues and the honoring of Americans who fought for the Confederacy. I’m a direct descendant of a well-loved Confederate Commander, too. But I sure don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.
Just watched this for the first time. The climactic helicopter chase holds up very well and is all the more impressive considering the lack of CG. But the unsettling aspect was how Murphy seemed to have no regard for the lives of civilians as lured missiles to be shot into occupied buildings. He then downs an f16 over a populated area, and at one point he even fires his guns directly into a building. He was supposed to be a renegade, but presumably somewhat still sane. (Although the raining chickens was pretty funny.)
Speaking of sane, I read that the original script was more specifically focused on themes of the surveillance state and the use of militarized weaponry in law enforcement and that Murphy goes insane and starts attacking the city. That would be an awesome remake. Sort of like “Falling Down” in the sky.
Seems like a lot of people have been discovering Blue Thunder recently.