Saturday 29 April 2017

5th Wave

THE 5th WAVE (2016)
In this sci-fi movie about an invasion by mysterious aliens, we see a fleet of school buses arriving at the military base, where a Cobra and a Huey are parked outside of a hanger, and another Huey flies overhead.


Later, a Huey flies a squad of kids into action against the bad guys, and the helicopter returns to pick up a survivor.


When a rebel saboteur’s bombs destroy the base, a pair of Black Hawk transports get airborne to evacuate the commander.



A gun-man aboard one of the Black Hawks shoots down at the young heroes who are trying to escape.

The 5th Wave is reviewed on VideoVista.

Friday 28 April 2017

Midnight Special

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (2016)


This sci-fi mystery adventure is a road movie that features an FBI transport (a Eurocopter AS-350) used by agents to reach the site of a satellite crash.


Later, two A-Star helicopters appear at the road block.


A UH-60 Black Hawk joins the police and army's search for a psychic boy, and there are other Black Hawks (all animated images) seen flying in the distance during later scenes.


Thursday 20 April 2017

London Has Fallen

LONDON HAS FALLEN (2016)
This sequel to Olympus Has Fallen (2013) has a few good helicopter scenes. 


First, there’s a Metropolitan police Eurocopter EC-145 hovering over the city.


During the security prep and British police briefing, there’s a brief shot of helicopters in silhouette, flying in formation.


Arriving in Britain, the US president is flown into London by the Sikorsky VH-60N White Hawk and its two decoy helicopters.



After the initial terrorist attacks, POTUS and his bodyguard escape across London to reach the helicopters but, even when he's airborne, the president is still not safe.

When a missile strike destroys one of the choppers, and a second is forced into a sacrifice position to intercept another missile when the flights all run out of flares.


In addition to destroying several of London’s landmarks, the special effects for this movie include White Hawk helicopters attacked by terrorists.

Eventually, the US President’s helicopter flight ‘Marine One’ is shot down by a missile and crashes in a field.

Thursday 13 April 2017

Deadpool

DEADPOOL (2016)

Yet another superhero movie based on a Marvel comics character, this comedy features a Sikorsky S-61N transport that lands at an isolated airfield. The big helicopter takes off again when the bad guys have finished their business deal.


Saturday 8 April 2017

Captain America 3

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)

This superhero movie in the Disney & Marvel studios franchise has a few helicopter scenes.

After the bomb attack in Vienna, there's an Agusta-Westland AW-109 medevac flight seen above the damaged U.N. building.

When a GSG 9 squad hunt down ‘Winter Soldier’ Bucky Barnes in Bucharest, an AW-109 gunship delivers aerial support, while heroes are fighting on a flat roof-top. Flying superhero Falcon kicks the helicopter’s tail boom and spins it away from attack position.


The same gunship returns to strafe the street when fugitive Bucky tries to escape. We also see the AW-109 fly over the scene where Captain America is arrested.

In the Berlin breakout sequence, Bucky steals a German police chopper (a blue Eurocopter AS-350) for his escape attempt.

However, in a roof-top stunt, Steve Rogers prevents this getaway flight, using his brute strength to grab the landing skid and pull the helicopter back down.

It’s a clever blending of CGI stunt work and studio props for live-action filming.




At the Leipzig airport, there’s another AS-350 parked on the concrete. Captain America walks towards the A-Star, but Iron Man disables the helicopter with an electric device.

Other AW-109 helicopters are seen in the background, but less visible, during this climactic battle. 

Tony Stark uses a private Bell 429 GlobalRanger to fly out to sea and rendezvous with the Raft prison.



After visiting inmates in the cells, Stark returns to his auto-piloted GlobalRanger, leaves the submarine base, and then Iron Man launches from the helicopter.



Saturday 1 April 2017

Batman v Superman

BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016)

In this superhero movie, the action begins with a Bell 429 GlobalRanger. This Wayne company helicopter lands at a bay-side heli-port in Metropolis.


After dropping off Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), the chopper leaves the scene.


A Huey flies over a rebel base in the Sahara desert, and a Gazelle is seen during the same African sequence.


During the post-holocaust ‘Knightmare’, there are a couple of CGI Black Hawk gun-ships (only visible at the top of the screen) used to drop troops into the improvised fort where Batman is fighting enemy soldiers.


When Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is kidnapped by henchmen, they use an Agusta-Westland AW-109 Power, with LexCorp logo, to fly her to the heli-pad atop Lex Luthor’s tower, and the company helicopter immediately takes off again.

After Superman arrives, the AW-109 returns to pick-up Luthor.

From the roof-top of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis, Lois gets a Eurocopter EC-120B to fly her across the bay to Gotham.

We see a Bell 206 flying over the dome that covers a spaceship wreck in Metropolis.

When the Doomsday monster jumps into the night sky, it smashes through a helicopter (presumably the JetRanger seen earlier).


As the Krypto-human hybrid does a King Kong style pose atop the LexCorp tower, four Apache helicopters arrive to attack the giant beast, but even a combination of machine-guns and rockets fail to harm the creature.

One Apache is destroyed by concrete debris that Doomsday throws at it, and the other three attacking helicopters are, presumably, downed by an energy shockwave from the monster.



Apache Longbow helicopters appear in some versions of the movie’s poster artwork.