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One of the things that really caught my attention about this film was the brief blurb at the beginning which stated something to the effect of "All of the surveillance equipment depicted in this film exists and is in use in the United States." Knowing what I do of technology, I am not surprised that those capabilities existed back then. However, I received a powerful demonstration of the stealth technology called "whisper mode" in the film, a couple of years after seeing it. I live near a major U.S. Army firing range, and our local airport hosts a considerable amount of military traffic. At this particular time, I was renting a house about one kilometer from the airport. I went out for a walk late one Sunday night, and, shortly after leaving the house, I heard a noise I could not identify. It was a loud hissing sound, 'which seemed very close at hand, but I could not locate the source, until I looked up. Passing overhead at about 200 meters was a Chinook helicopter, the type with two rotors, and fuselage that looks kind of like a banana. Normally, the rotor noise on these cargo helicopters will rattle windows, but this baby was tip-toeing out of town very quietly. If I had been indoors, I never would have heard it. This made me completely rethink the sequence where the helicopter was hovering right outside of a building, and the people inside couldn't hear it! I took it for artistic license at the time, but the demonstration I witnessed of "whisper mode" made it seem entirely feasible.

This film appealed to me strongly, for several reasons. I am a techno freak, to begin with, and I love anything that flies. Also, the characters in the movie are amazingly human, kooky, (especially the lead characters wife,) and easy to identify with. And the kind of shenanigans the Feds were trying to pull seem all too realistic to me, in light of some of the things that they have been caught doing! And I loved the response of sending a couple of F-15's armed with missiles after the renegade, when he is stooging around in downtown Los Angeles. Missiles are not known for being highly selective when they are of the heat seeking type, and urban areas are rich with thermal signatures which can confuse the tiny brain packed into an air-to-air missile. The filmmakers actually downplayed the havoc that could result from launching such weapons in a downtown area.

I found the film to be an enjoyable, realistic, thought provoking experience, which I would recommend to most people. The hardware is not the star, thanks to the excellent work of Roy Scheider and his supporting cast, and the dialog is tight and realistic. When informed that one of the suspects in a liquor store robbery is wearing a Hawiian shirt and a cowboy hat, Scheider's character says, "What ever happened to being inconspicuous?"

Very good action yarn made during the same year as the more intellegent and superior Badham film, WarGames(1983). Still an entertaining action thriller with three major set pieces. One, the chase among helicopters in the same area as the chase in Terminator 2(1991). Two, the climatic battlescene while at times seems ruthless is nevertheless cheorgraphed with some impressive effects for its time. Three, the final conflict chase between Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell.

Acting leads includes Peckinpah actor, Warren Oates whose performance is very good in what was one of his final film roles before his death. He is justly at home in his role of the head of his Police department, and gives us his patterned hard edged cynical with a slight humor mannerisms. Blue Thunder(1983) is one of the five best films from a director in John Badham whose career has been full of ups and downs. I feel his output from the early to mid 1980s are his most successful times as a filmmaker. Roy Scheider is professional and tough in his role of the film's protagonist.

Malcolm McDowell gives another demented performance as Scheider's former mentor, and now chief nemisis. When channeling the right key, McDowell can be one convincing menacing villain. Badham's late 1990s Hitchcockian type thriller, Nick of Time(1996) used many of the same ideas on action and suspense as his earlier film, Blue Thunder(1983). That film even has a similarly sinister mentor/student relationship as this film. While not a classic is certainly something that can be watched when one has little to do, or wants to be entertained.

Old movies have it hard on ImDb. They got pushed in this database without all the benefits modern movies have to artificially boost their initial user score. Publicity stunts, media spin, false "user" feedback... They got none of that. How many bad movies have you seen start at 8,5 and end up being turds. To remedy that, Blue Thunder gets a solid 8 from me. It is a typical 80's flick, sprinkled with sexist and racist bits nobody would dare to approach today. Movies reflect their epoch; here we find a pre-olympic L.A. not very far from it's race crisis. More important, we find real helicopters doing real stunts above and inside the city. No production will ever get a permit to do all this anymore and only for that, that movie is worth watching.

A Vietnam vet police helicopter pilot is asked to test a new state-of-the-art helicopter.

If you appreciate Blue Thunder for its action sequences, 80s technology and a decent hit of LA nostalgia there is no reason not to enjoy it.

The plot is a passable excuse to get Roy Schneider and Daniel Stern into the titular chopper doing all kinds of mischievous things and there is plenty of amusement to be taken from this. Imagine a couple of teenage boys let loose with hi-tech surveillance kit in a vehicle that can hover anywhere, seemingly undetected, and that's the mentality on display.

Most of the characters and the dynamics between them are hugely clichéd and not really explored in much depth or with any particular interest to me.

The plot does get vaguely engaging when the main conspiracy starts to unfold. There is one foot chase sequence involving someone bound and gagged that works very well.

All the downtown LA set aerial sequences that carry the movie to its conclusion are very well made, with production values and practical effects that hold up to the modern era. The flight stunts and use of model aircraft are blended seamlessly so that virtually everything feels real, apart from the final stunt, which has been built up so much during the movie that you somehow accept it as something that has to happen.

Schneider has no real acting challenges, but his presence is enough to engage anyone who is a fan of his work. Stern compliments him well in their scenes together. Warren Oates, Malcolm McDowell and supporting cast are all solid.

It's a 6.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

"Blue Thunder" . . . isn't this that movie where Roy Scheider uncovers a government conspiracy and then loops a wicked military chopper? You betcher sweet ass it is! And it's a shame the helicopter didn't talk. I mean, the comic potential of a reckless pilot and his snappy chopper is enough to salivate over. A more cynical person might find all of this silly, but not me. I was caught up in the whole thing; the car chases, the dofight through downtown L.A. It all works somehow, both as police procedural and conspiracy flick.

Scheider lends a great presence to validate the whole thing, Malcolm McDowell is a real slime of the first order, but neither one of these guys has a thing on the real star of the movie: ol' Blue, herself. That is one menacing attack helicopter, loaded for bear and still sleek. I can only imagine what it was like back in the '80s to be a bystander on the ground watching them film this beast in the air.

7/10