The Mystery of D.B. Cooper

The Mystery of D.B. Cooper is a Documentary about one of the biggest aeroplane heists in history. It was November 1971 and a man known as DB Cooper hijacked a plane flying out of Portland, Oregon. How did he do it? A stranger boarded a plane and handed a note to a female flight attendant advising that a hijacking was about to occur. The flight attendant quickly learnt that the stranger was not mucking around as his briefcase contained explosives. After demanding a large ransom involving cash, DB Cooper was successful with the heist and parachuted out of the hijacked 727 at 10,000 feet over Washington State. No trace of him was ever found. A massive manhunt was conducted by many people including the military, FBI and even Boy Scouts. In the present day, the case is still the only unsolved act of air piracy in American history. Sure, there are many suspects and theories but not enough to ever bring the case to a full closure.

This documentary rehashes the main event, re-enacted by actors and narrated by the real people who were present during the heist, including flight attendants and even the pilots. The film also includes interviews from various people who feel they know who the real DB Cooper is. There are even interviews with people who have written books about the heist or those who have devoted their lives to looking for clues trying to close the case. Several facts and evidence are also shown and discussed throughout the film.

The pacing of this documentary for the most part was quite pleasing. I did notice the runtime and found it a slight struggle as the documentary attempted to wrap up and deliver a conclusion. Visuals are great and the quality of interviews were also very pleasing. As a true story, I will confess, I had no idea about this heist, so I found watching this documentary from the start to finish extremely fascinating and insightful.

Overall, those who enjoy documentaries about unsolved true stories will certainly find this pleasing. A story of a man who conducted a heist on a large plane and then parachutes out with no trace of him is certainly a story that fascinated me. It is unfortunate that the documentary can't reveal all the details and that the final conclusion will be left up to its viewers. Pacing for the most part is pleasing and the quality of this documentary, including the film's visuals and interviews, are also quite positive. Overall, this documentary comes highly recommended.

7.4/10 - Walkden Entertainment

How do you make such an interesting subject this boring?

The "who" is less interesting when it's something that can never be resolved. The better approach would have been focusing on what drives these people to obsess about the case, and hold onto the theories that they do; something like the documentary on The Shining fan theories (Room 237).

It's presented decently enough, and didn't offend or anger me... it was just dull, really.

There's a 30-minute YouTube video by Lemmino on DB Cooper that's an hour shorter than this and far more interesting.

I watch a lot of documentaries, and lately find that I am enjoying fewer and fewer of them. This one was an exception. It's in the style of some of the Errol Morris films, very fluid, not committing to a narrative, letting the story lead where the story leads. We're in the company of actual participants in the DB Cooper drama (flight attendants, co-pilots, passengers, FBI agents), plus an odd assortment of characters who claim to have known the real DB Cooper and the real story of what happened to DB and the money he parachuted out of the plane with on a rainy night somewhere over Oregon. It all adds up to a fascinating 90 minutes or so of immersive cinema that recalls a world far removed from the one we live in today. Highly recommended despite the fact that a few benighted reviewers just don't seem to get it.

The film is made decently enough, nothing to complain.

However, it features a series of misleading statements (e.g. The stairs story) and omissions (Cooper wasn't the gentleman he's always said to be, and many other things are simply untrue).

Most, if not all, of these suspects have conclusively been ruled out long ago.

Watch it for entertainment but don't take it for gospel. If you want to research the case you are better off on YouTube (I hate to recommend that), and forums dedicated to the case.

Like a lot of movies, they just took whatever they could to tell "a story", not more, not less.

This documentary has some interesting cases. Out of the four suspected DB Cooper suspects two seem very credible, while the other two, especially the sex change operation one...are very laughable. The most credible story with sound evidence is Richard McCoy. He pulled off a stunt identical to DB Coopers months after the heist and even looked just like the FBI description of DB Cooper. They went into good detail on why McCoy would have done a second stunt and explained how he was tied to what little evidence the FBI had on DB Cooper.

The other credible story is the woman from Florida who supposedly was married to DB Cooper. He was on his death bed when he admitted to her he was DB Cooper. He lied to her about his identity and it goes into great detail on events in her life with him that pointed out he very well could have been the real Cooper. She also had a compadre who was interested in the Cooper story who did some serious sleuthing to pin point her details and memory while living with him that really did add up to the Cooper case.

The other two lousy stories consist of a woman who claims her uncle was DB Cooper and the other of a man who had a sex change operation and just claimed he was DB Cooper. The woman who claims her uncle was DB Cooper was going off on memory about her childhood of an event where her uncle showed up bloody and bruised with claims of having hijacked an airplane. Yet, he disappeared and was just forgotten about by the family for some reason? It was all really shoddy information and didn't seem legit. Then she forget about this seemingly very profound event in her life until her father was close to his death when he brought up about the time her uncle hijacked a plane. She also claimed her uncle was her favorite relative and liked spending time with him. So after he shows up bloody and bruised and disappears you just forgot about him? Seems really bizarre and none of it really added up. They did a polygraph test on her and she passed...take that for what you will.

The man with the sex change operation didn't even seem like it should have been included on this documentary. It seemed like a story you'd find in a fan fiction tv forum board versus anything the FBI would have taken seriously. Bobby Dayton was a man who knew airplanes and flew them on a regular basis. Further on in his life he decided to get a sex change operation and became Barbara Dayton. During this transitional period a couple who were into planes as well met Barbara and became friends. During a visit at this couples house she out of the blue says she is DB Cooper. Thats basically it, thats the entire story. Other then the fact he/she was well versed with airplanes nothing else is included for evidence. Other than a diary that Barbara kept but for whatever reason around the time of the Cooper hijacking didn't write much down during that period. If my memory serves me right it was the only one out of the four suspects where it mentioned nothing about the FBI looking into it and for good reason.

Over all use your own judgement on it. It's a documentary with two good cases that kept me entertained.