Black Thunder - Die Welt am Abgrund

Not too bad for a typical Dudikoff film. Nancy Valen is always a treat but has a terrible "Libyan" accent. Artistic license is taken frequently with basic geography and flight times but if you can ignore that it's a harmless way to waste an hour and a half. Watch for the same guy dodging the same Jeep twice and two soldiers getting blown up twice (actually just recycled footage).

Of course I had never heard about the 1998 movie "Black Thunder", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance here in 2024. And seeing that it was starring Michael Dudikoff, of course I opted to check out what the original "American Ninja" had to offer.

Truth be told, though, I wasn't exactly harboring the biggest of expectations to the movie. But still, it might be possible that I had missed out on a stellar movie experience from writer William C. Martell and director Rick Jacobson.

The storyline in the movie was fair, and it was certainly a watchable movie. Writer William C. Martell put together a script that was okay. It was, sort of, an archetypical late 1990s action movie, with a single man against insurmountable odds and still coming out victorious.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. Nothing outstanding or thrilling, but then again I wasn't really expecting this to be a Shakespearian experience. Aside from Michael Dudikoff, I was only familiar with Richard Norton, Michael Cavanaugh and Nancy Valen.

Visually, then the movie was actually adequate.

Watchable for what it was, but I doubt that I will ever return to watch "Black Thunder" a second time.

My rating of director Rick Jacobson's 1998 movie "Black Thunder" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Most air-action movies are riddled with errors. Very often the aircraft required (ultra-modern, soviet) are unavailable. Of course using other aircraft makes sense (Using a F-100 as stand-in for a Mig-21 in `Skyjacked' for instance). Alternatives are to use models (as was very well done in `Firefox') or use computer graphics. So, F-16s are shown as US fighter jets. Nothing unusual. To depict the `Nova Stealth' a IAI Kfir is used although the intro shows a Mirage 2000. The angular lines of the Kfir do not make a realistic modern fighter. Ok, the choice is limited. Using the F-16 again as the `B-3' bomber (without any external stores) is confusing. It gets even more confusing as the villain pursues our hero using again a F-16 (supposed to be Libyan). The airfield from which the villain started has a line-up of Kfirs. Why the Libyans have several of this modern stealth `Nova' aircraft is not explained. There is supposed to be a single prototype of this aircraft! Maybe the viewer will not recognize the similarity? Ok, using a SR-71 to pursuit a fighter aircraft is ridiculous, but landing this aircraft in the Libyan dessert (not shown) is probably more science fiction than the supposed stealth technology. The `Nova' is completely invisible, except the infrared for some minute.

The acting is really deplorable. The action (non aircraft) is worse than done in the `A-Team' television series.

The aircraft action probably consists entirely of existing footage, making this a very cheap movie to make. Some footage (as the low-pass of the Kfir/Nova) is shown at least three times!

This move is definitely a must-see for aircraft buffs. If only, to have a good laugh.

Lots of action in this Michael Dudikoff thriller. Plot wasn't too bad and the acting wasn't that bad either. Lots of recycled footage but it was still a pretty good movie. 7/10 stars, I'd recommend this movie to everyone.

This movie is a B-action. It´s just made for showing how bad Dudikoff can play sometimes. But still I like action so I gave it a 4/10. It´s almost the same in quality as Aces Iron Eagle 3.