MovieChat Forums > Deadly Encounter (1982) Discussion > Looking for 70's helicopter movie

Looking for 70's helicopter movie

posted 14 years ago by roximunro
3 replies | jump to latest

Stayed up with my dad late one night in the 70s to watch the late late show. Ended up eating ice cream and watching a movie about a helicopter pilot. The guy had a beard and wore tinted (not mirrored) aviator sunglasses. At the time, I thought it was Roger Whitakker (my parents had cheesy taste in music). The movie ends with the helicopter on fire on the tarmac (possibly with the pilot inside) and the camera does one of those crane or 'copter shots where it backs away into the air, always focused on the burning helicopter.

Can any helicopter movie buffs help me? It definitely wasn't this movie because I saw it in my family's original house and by 1982 we were already moved to a whole new town.

[–] mike_cable 11 years ago

I'm a big helicopter buff but don't know this film. If you ever find out, please let us know!

[–] etsuo 10 years ago

That would be the 1972 TV movie "Birds of Prey," which is/was on DVD. David Janssen played "Harry Walker," an ex-Flying Tiger pilot flying a Hughes 500C, as the traffic reporter for radio station KBEX, Salt Lake City. The bad news is the soundtrack: It's generic and can't live up to the 1940's music so dear to "Harry Walker" and The Greatest Generation. Bits of the original movie can be found on YouTube, showing real stunt flying work devoid of DFX/computer graphics "magic.: (Even then I found it scary/exciting to see a Hughes 500 helicopter fly UNDER a freeway bridge!)

The movie starts the roller coaster "battling helicopters" sequences when Harry is informed that one of his three ex-wives gripes about a late alimony payment. Heading over to the local bank to use the helipad, he sees an armored car get ambushed by grenade-tossing robbers. A female bank clerk is grabbed, and the bearded, sunglass-wearing gang piles into a full size 4 door sedan before the police arrive. Harry reports the action to his old Flying Tiger buddy, a police lieutenant, who blows him off until he asks for help tracking the robbers.

All in all, a not-quite-epic TV movie that predated "Blue Thunder" and has more action, pathos, and memorable characters than that high tech DFX thing.

[–] NOTACLERK1 8 years ago

If I may offer a question about another tv movie or show..I could really use some help with the name.. A man...I think some sort of police officer is lowered by cable in to a large smokestack to get a bomb and the helicopter pulls him with the bomb out of the stack and has to fly him over the city to get rid of the bomb. Thanks for any help