Today in the 80's

1983 - Movies

Blue Thunder is released

When you're 13 years old, nothing is cooler than the Blue Thunder helicopter. Roy Scheider stars in this movie about a cop, a helicopter, and a conspiracy. Here's some movie trivia.

The television control room shown early in the film is the same control room set seen extensively in The China Syndrome (1979).

The helicopter used to portray Blue Thunder was a French-made Gazelle helicopter with bolt-on parts to change its appearance. Most notably the chin cannon assembly was too heavy, necessitating a weight attached to the tail to keep the nose from dipping forward in flight.

The control stick in the F-16 cockpit is identical to the one from the Viper starfighter cockpit in "Battlestar Galactica" (1978).

Although the city is Los Angeles and the action centers around the police department, the LAPD is never mentioned. The force is called the "Metropolitan Police," and their badges are silver, of a more generic style, instead of the distinctive LAPD bronze-colored badges depicting old Los Angeles City Hall. However, City Hall does figure prominently in several fly-bys.

Actual chicken was used during the "chicken rain" sequence. Four huge vats of actual barbecue chicken were lifted by crane and released over the police car and three other cars. When the scene was over, homeless people quickly appeared to help the film crew "clean up" the scene (in exchange for the chicken, of course). No rubber chicken was used, according to director, John Badham, because rubber chicken costs 4-10 times the cost of real chicken.