SnoopyStyle Officer Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a helicopter pilot for the L.A.P.D. He is haunted by an incident during the Vietnam war. His partner transfered to the day shift and he's given a newbie in Officer Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern). They're suspended after city councilwoman Diane McNeely gets attacked on their watch. Murphy is suspicious and investigates on his own. Murphy is taken to a test of a new helicopter codename Blue Thunder flown by Col. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell). It's a military weapon modified for civilian use with the upcoming Olympics in mind. Cochrane and Murphy has a combative history and Cochrane sabotages his helicopter. Murphy gets to fly Blue Thunder with all of its high tech gadgets. Using its surveillance capabilities, Murphy uncovers a conspiracy.The story is too convoluted. I don't really understand what the conspiracy is trying to do with Murphy. Cochrane is trying to kill him one minute and then the plan is to set him up for something the next minute. I don't think any of the conspiracy actually makes sense other than killing the councilwoman. The action is still fun. It is a lot of shooting and a lot of explosions. It doesn't take itself too serious especially when the barbecue workshop gets blown up. It is a fun action movie wrapped around some unreal story elements.

temlakos-1 Blue Thunder is a rarity in film. When it first came out, it packed them into theaters with the wry humor of its characters and dialog, and the white-knuckle action for which everything else is a set-up. And once that action starts, it does not stop until the very end.Still, it explored a theme that, to some viewers (including me at the time), seemed far-fetched and typical Hollywood political. But today I watched it again, on the Sony HD Channel. It could have been made today! In short, this film was thirty-one years ahead of its time. And when you watch it, and consider modern headlines and recent history, you find yourself leaping out of your seat and shouting, "They knew then!""Blue Thunder" is, of course, the name of the world's first police SWAT helicopter gunship. The name is slightly ironic, for reasons you will have to watch the film to catch. More to the point: the filmmakers built a truly frightening piece of machinery, and one of the things that makes the lead character such a hero is that he discovers, to his horror, what Blue Thunder is really meant to be. Had the developers of "Blue Thunder" the helicopter simply taken a Cobra helicopter gunship and painted it police blue (or maybe Mountie red), instead of Army green, the results would be no more chilling to anyone who thinks that maybe--just maybe--the government is not his friend. But of course the concept developers didn't do that. They built something that looks far more fearsome than an Army Cobra ever looked.And no one embodies the cynical thrust of the project better than Malcolm MacDowell (Col. F. E. Cochrane USA). He is villainous almost to insanity, as cinematic villains almost have to be. He gets to be as bad as he can be, and clearly enjoys it.Nor can you imagine a better hero than Roy Scheider (Officer Frank Murphy, ASTRO Division). And very early in the film you will know why he is the only one who would want to, and be able to, expose "Blue Thunder" and its underlying project for what they are.For this much I will reveal: Blue Thunder the film exposes the awful over-militarization of municipal police departments in the United States over the last half-century. That's what John Badham (director) and his writers dared expose in 1983. Blue Thunder the project is the logical endpoint of that over-militarization (and you will readily accept that logic before the film is halfway over). That might have seemed far-fetched in 1983. Today, as the Department of Homeland Security (in real life) sells or gives away Army surplus Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs) to police SWAT teams, you can only wonder whether police air-support divisions will soon turn into "Air SWAT" forces. If a killing/snooping machine like Blue Thunder the helicopter was feasible then (and I have confirmed it was, from military sources), imagine what a modern-day Blue Thunder could do! Which means: as you watch this film now, you might forget, except for one temporal reference to a then-upcoming event in Los Angeles history, that you are watching a thirty-one-year-old film set in 1983. This film will have you checking the sky to see if anything like Blue Thunder the helicopter is looking at you (and listening, too).Warren Oates provides almost comic relief as a boss who hears the immediate complaints and doesn't understand what Murphy is trying to tell him. Candy Clark, as Murphy's girlfriend, provides more comic relief--but also sets up her part in the wild adventure of the last act in a way that Anton Chekhov would stand in awe at. The two TV reporters will have you wishing more like them were "in the business" today.One last bit of advice: after you see this film, get active to make sure it stays fiction. Do not, in other words, be a "JAFO." And you'll have to watch the film to get *that* reference, too.

rmlattimore but if that's what you want to see, you'd watch that instead of this. What Blue Thunder is, is a very well-done action movie. The plot is thin, a contrivance in order to pit Roy Scheider against Malcolm McDowell. McDowell, really, only lacks a mustache to twirl and a cape. (As someone else said, really, why WASN'T he ever a Bond villain? He'd have been much better than Jonathan Pryce or Christopher Walken, both fine actors miscast in their Bond bad-guy roles. He could have been a Bond bad-guy with THIS role.) The movie never drags. In the context of suspension of reality necessary for movies, the plot never makes you go, oh come on. You hiss McDowell, you root for Scheider. The ending is fairly predictable but no less satisfying. This movie was roaring good fun back in the 80s and it holds up now.

Paul Andrews Blue Thunder is set in Los Angeles where Officer Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) works as a helicopter pilot, while out one night flying the police chopper he witnesses a shoot-out between some thugs & a politician named Diane McNeely (Robin Braxton) in which McNeely is shot & killed. Put down to an attempted rape Murphy isn't so sure, the US military draft Murphy into an experimental programme called THOR in which they have developed a hi-tech assault helicopter to police the skies & take appropriate force if necessary to prevent crime. While on surveillance Murphy collects evidence that implicates several high ranking military official's in a plot to cause trouble in Los Angeles so the helicopter nicknamed Blue Thunder could be used & it's worth & the monetary investment proved. No-one will believe Murphy so he steals Blue Thunder & uses it against it's creators to prevent a massacre...Directed by John Badham this semi futuristic action thriller is watchable enough in it's own right but while Blue Thunder is a good film it's not a great one in my opinion. The script can't quite decide if it wants to be a political thriller or a straight up lads action film & sort of lies somewhere between the two with ever really completely satisfying on either count. The thriller & standard Government conspiracy plot is too broad & besides having a few guy's in nice suits talk in sinister tones there's virtually no depth to that angle at all, the idea that they plan to ignite trouble through racial tension in Los Angeles so they can demonstrate how good their hi-tech helicopter is does seem to stretch credibility somewhat, why didn't the military just create Blue Thunder for like, you know, military purposes where it would have been perfectly suited? They risk exposing themselves far too often & seem far too open about their plans for my liking too. The action scenes are pretty good, the last half an hour in particular are full of helicopter chases, car chases & explosions but the thriller side of things bog the film down too much & it takes a while to get to the good stuff, at over 100 minutes long Blue Thunder the helicopter isn't even seen for the first half an hour for instance. There's a nice little moment as Murphy spies on a naked woman doing aerobics in the helicopter which raises issues about privacy & the jurisdiction the police have but it's a throwaway scene of little consequence overall. The rest of the plot elements are fairly standard action film clichés, there's the troubled maverick hero, the main villain who has a personal connection to the hero, the annoyed boss of said hero who shouts & swears a lot & not to mention the rookie mismatched partner.The Blue Thunder helicopter does look quite cool with it's sleek lines & gun & missile turrets, the actual helicopter used was a French made Gazelle with various bolt on parts. The action scenes are pretty good with helicopter chases including going under some bridges, a car chase & some explosions during the final thirty odd minutes. There's surprisingly very little violence with a tiny body count compared to most Hollywood action films, there's really is no on screen violence at all although there's a fair amount of profanity & some nudity. Apparently the first draft of the script was about a police helicopter pilot going mad & terrorising Los Angeles using his chopper, the studio men didn't like it though & made the main character a hero & Blue Thunder was born.This has good production values & is well made, the majority of the action scenes are real with a few model shots & a bit of rear projection & it still looks better than most modern CGI effect heavy films. The acting is good from a decent cast, Roy Scheider never really made it big as a star but he's good here, Malcolm McDowell is wasted although Warren Oates in his last film is great as the bad tempered police Captain.Blue Thunder is a decent enough action thriller that doesn't quite deliver in either regard but it's alright for what it is, the action scenes are good & the helicopter looks cool so 80's action fans should like it. Followed by the Blue Thunder (1984) TV series which ran for eleven episodes & surely this influenced the makers of Airwolf?