Movie Mistakes

[BenThomas]

Just an idea, one of my pet peevs is when movies get things wrong when it comes to helicopters just thought I would start a post to talk about them. Why can't the get it right, don'y the have people on hand too advise the on this?

Two that get me are...........

Broken Arrow

Would an EMP blast that takes out all of your electrics bring a helo down? Wouldnt the engines still run? I guess maybee if it had a FADEC

Tropic Thunder

The pilot applies full aft cyclic and the helo goes straight up!!!

[Eric Hunt]

Every helicopter, be it a 2- 3- 4- or more-blader, sounds like a Huey wop-wop-wop.
The chopper lands, you hear the engines shut down immediately, and in the next jump-cut the blades have stopped.
To start the engine there is usually a shot of somebody flicking the battery switch, the engine fires, and in the next jump-cut the machine tales off.

Blue Thunder - the bad guy cuts the split pin holding the N2 beep actuator nut on. The vibrations from the turbine engine are so big that the nut vibrates loose and the engine fails.

[Uncle Chop Chop]

Speaking of Blue Thunder, if you look closely in some of the flying sequences, you can pick out the r/c heli in place of the real thing (2 blades with paddles), some of the shots in the movie include the camera on the vertical stabiliser still attached.

[deskpilot]

One thing that gets me is the sound they add after.

Yesterday i was watching the movie Splash... (free to air, lazy sunday) and at the end, there is a twin squirrel hovering and chasing down the escaping 'Mermaid', but the sound clearly changed between a 206 and a 47 with each camera angle...

sounds geeky I know...

I swear there is a file named - "Helicopter Noise" in the hollywood editing building that they used to use in every 80's movie! (just the 1 file)

DP

[Heliyeah]

How 'bout the one where James Bond (and sexy Bond girl) push the 520N-if I remember correctly- outta the back door of the plane, then manage to light the fire and pull away just before they hit the deck! Ha ha, gets me every time.....

[torqueguage]

another good one heliyeah is the movie mission impossible 1, when the notar flys through a tunnel with the blades scraping the tunnel walls, the remote gets hiffed at the telly everytime.

[Master Cylinder]

Speaking of Broken Arrow...how bout when they're in the desert (Christian Slater and the chickey) and the helo crashes...tail rotor hits the ground and keeps going, and going, and going...nice angle grinder action (good to know those tail rotors are so robust).

MC

[lelebebbel]

I always liked the sound of that Turbine R22 firing up when the bad guys escape from the train in Golden Eye

[Kwyjibo]

I like the way in nearly EVERY scene with a turbine helicopter, to get airborne, the associated sound of the engine winding up corresponds to 'lift' and therefore takeoff. To the point, as a kid I thought that at idle was ready for a hover, increase RPM ( and that beautiful turbine winding up sound) meant coming up into a hover, then really wind her up, and away you went!! - course since then, every time I see a flick with a jetty, they magically get off the ground at about 60% N2 , transition through about 80% and disappearing at 100!!

[bellslapper]

Alby Mangles
had a good one in a KH4 starting up with turbine sound, then close up of the rotor head which is of a Puma.

[wilco]

The list is long for bad helicopter scenes in hollywood, however I must admit they did a brilliant job in "We Were Soldiers". One movie that made me cringe was in the Dark Knight when they pulled a wire up in front of the chopper.

[BenThomas]

Another one from Broken arrow is the jetranger on the train, how does fuel spilling in the pan a the bottom of the engine bay get ignited by the igniters in the combustion chamber??

[Yakking]

Don't forget the Bond movie where he's on the motorcycle, cornered by the helicopter is waiting at the other end of the alley. The Helicopter then comes at him in a slow hover on a 45-50degree tilt forward with the intention of chopping him and he just slides on under the blades.

There are numerous movies where piston engine aircraft sound like turbines.

I always feel sorry for the pilot in a lot of these movies. Realistcally he's just doing his job. He probably kisses his kids goodbye every morning goes into work speaks to his Operations manager; "What have I got on today boss?". He's expecting to go fly some tours or maybe some aerial work but his boss says that the company has just landed a new contract and he's to make sure that he does everything to please the new client in the hope to get more business.
Suddenly he's flying some bad buys about and he inevitably gets shot by the hero or his aircraft explodes mid air in a huge fireball after recieving one bullet carefully aimed at the fuel tank by our muscle bound hero. Everyone forgets about the contract pilot, poor guy was just trying to do his job.

[OzCan]

Broken Arrow definately has a few to answer for!! Well at least i think its broken arrow, where the Jetty is being shipped on the train (stationary tied down) and their is a fight scene where the chick kicks the tail rotor and it spins around freely hitting the attacker! ...... Their not ment to do that right!!!

[BenThomas]

Oh yeah forgot about that one, its the new free wheeling tail rotors so you can autorotate on your side if the main rotor seperates from the mast.

[Bedouin Prince]

There's good old MacGuyver whos mate can get a jetty started and fully run up in the time it takes for MacGuyver to run the 150m from the house to the machine. I was also interested to note that when they showed the guy flicking the switches during his startup, he flicks the generator to off.

[BenThomas]

The New A-Team Movie:
In first five minutes of the film they had managed to barrel roll a huey, then to avoid a heat seeking missile they turned of the engine, COMPLETELY!!!!! stopped the rotors and then managed to re light the engine and spool up the blades in the space of about 600ft.

I am all for dramatic license but why does something have to be that extreme. We all know these days’ pilots are pretty thick on the ground, not to mention all other people who have enough knowledge of aerodynamics to appreciate that these things just can’t be done. Does Hollywood just believe that we don’t go to movies?

Ben Thomas

[Acrophobia]

Funny you say that Bedouin Prince about the switches. I was watching a old movie the other day with two blokes in a B206, (neither with headsets on and talking fine) and the Battery was OFF and all the circuit breakers still pulled

[vortexstate]

I saw one of the old A-Team episodes the other week on TV and Murdock took a scrappy looking Hughes 369 D out of a helicopter maintainance come wrecking yard and they set it up to battle a Huey with airborne live fire!

After being chased all over the skies with the Huey in close pursuit!!!!!!!!!! The Hughes climbed over a rocky out crop and the Huey plowed into it. During the several replays that they liked conducting during that era, the Huey changed into an empty Bell 206 shell upon collision, and not 100% sure but I’m sure I saw a real quick flash of a Bell 47 from a distance shot. Naturally, there were flames and explosions..... but all the bad guys climbed out of a Huey shell without a scratch but dazed.

Good ol A-Team.......