I'm very interested to find out what peoples opinions are on what is 'the' best skydiving movie.
Cutaway?, Terminal Velocity?, Drop Zone?, something else?, what do you think is the best skydiving movie and why?
Don't knock on deaths door....
...Ring the bell and runaway! He hates skydivers!
I haven't seen it myself but have been highly recomended to watch "The Gypsy moths" which has some amazing stunts in!
it's an oldy but a goody
I've made a decent number of jumps and own almost all the "skydive movies". CUTAWAY is the most authentic and realistic representation in my opinion, so it remains my MAIN favorite. The rest are good for being movies around skydiving but they don't capture the true esseance of the Dropzone "family" feel like CUTAWAY does. Great Skydive Flick. AND, yes, pretty good as just a watchable movie also
shareOne of my favorites was not a movie but a 1962 TV classic called Ripcord. Don't remember much about it, except it got me interested in sky diving as it did most skydivers ever since. I wish I knew where there was any archival recordings of any episodes, so I can view & find out what I think of it as an adult. Probably just another TV show, but it did have a riviting theme song.
Cutaway was the most authentic I believe
You could say Cutaway is a continuation of the Ripcord tradition.There seems to be a track record of giving skydiving shows jargon specific titles: Ripcord, Terminal Velocity, Drop Zone, Free Fall, & Cutaway. Skydiving dramas from different periods w/ different equipment, but the plots & characters are probably interchangible.
2/20/6.. I finally got to watch CA in a way that enabled me to hear more of it. As a result, I would have to rate it as the best skydiving drama of all I've seen or remembered.Mostly because of the way the relationship developed b/n the DEA skydiver & Redline, the dope smuggling team inspiration & funds provider the agent did not want to bust. Skydiving drama has a reputation for focusing on skydiving the way action movies focus on action. Namely at the expence of developing characters & sincere human drama. CA did well at developing relationships & making all characters concerned easy to care about. Point Break did well in this sence too, but skydiving was very secondary in it.
What I can't help but wonder is this.... If the DEA cut away from his job & the sktdivers no longer have the Cartel connection to support their obsession, how was the former DEA going to support it? This cut way analogy was what qued him in that something was amiss. The idea of giving up your job to devote yourself to an expensive cause. How long would the girl stay w/ him after learning he deprived them of their sole support?
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It is possible to make a living skydiving.
Depending on what work is on, maybe even more than at the DEA.
"The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."
I know that profit can be made by training students & renting jumps, but team practice is presumably something that only head management like Redline could profit from, & that's if the team members pay. I'm pretty sure team members practice at their expence, Therefore are the jumpcenters source of profit
There's only 1 Yogi Bear. They tried a 2nd time, & they made a Booboo!HeyeyeyhEY!
Skydiving is getting more and more popular every year. I personally have seen a shift from small-time "Tandem Factories" getting-by solely on the profits of a one-time thrill seekers. More and more drop zones are surviving and expanding today because they are building their base of regular skydivers. This includes hiring skydiving coaches and trainers, even sponsoring competition teams to represent the drop zone and the sport. The massive skydiving corporation of Skydive Arizona sponsored a full-time skydiving team that dethroned the untouchable Army Golden Knights nearly 10 years ago and hasn't looked back. Today more and more sponsored skydiving teams are cropping up in California, Texas and Florida. Drop Zones are seeing beyond profit, but longevity, by investing into jumpers that keep coming back.
shareYou obviously missed the whole point. Must've too blown away by the great skydiving. The whole point in winning the competition was to get total corporate sponsorship, which means all their training jumps/planes everything would be paid for, for life or however long the sponsor wants to keep paying for them. Redline and Star made inferred this a number of times throughout the movie.
Second of all, why do you think Star was on the drop zone? She too had "cut away" giving up everything to live a life on the drop zone. What are you, a sexist? Where'd you get the impression she was after some guy to support her?
I have to agree with the general post(s) that you are not going to find a better skydiving movie to date than Cutaway. Cutaway was the first movie to feature the real actors REALLY skydiving, and all the action filmed in the air. Drop Zone and Terminal Velocity, great movies, but the skydiving action was performed by skydiving standins (or fall-ins) or filmed against blue screens.
Gypsy Moths, with Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman is the true skydiving classic. But you have to date yourself on the skydiving scenes. After all, the movie was made in 1969. Innovations in aerial photography was still decades away. It is phenomenal to contemplate how they filmed the in-air action. The side-story really detracts from the action. In fact, the skydiving sequence only takes up the last 1/3 of the movie. But its worth every skydiver's film collection.