Best and Worst Movie Pilots

[Ack-Ack]

Wost: Nicholas Cage piloting an Apache in Fire Birds.  Would also put Sean Young in there but she looked pretty damn good in a flight suit so I've cut her some slack.

ack-ack

[HPriller]

Worst: The Black Falcon - got himself capped by a handgun.

This reminded me of another worst:

Michael Keaton as batman.   How do you miss with all those rockets and machine guns and then get one shot by a what looked like Saturday night special with lead pipe welded on the end of it.

[Muzzy]

This reminded me of another worst:

Michael Keaton as batman.   How do you miss with all those rockets and machine guns and then get one shot by a what looked like Saturday night special with lead pipe welded on the end of it.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Seriously?

[HPriller]

Other candidates for worst include the cast of "Stealth"

Jessica Biel gets points for managing to rip open her flight suit after punching out.

[Saxman]

Other candidates for worst include the cast of "Stealth"

Jessica Biel gets points for managing to rip open her flight suit after punching out.

The only thing I remember about that POS is Jessica Biel has a bikini scene. Which is about the only reason I can think of for watching it.

[eagl]

This reminded me of another worst:

Michael Keaton as batman.   How do you miss with all those rockets and machine guns and then get one shot by a what looked like Saturday night special with lead pipe welded on the end of it.

Yea, this.  Up to that point I was thinking what a badazz batplane, then one shot from a handgun and it crashed.  Stupid worthless piece of crud batplane actually.  He would have been better off taking a bus or taxi to the fight, really.

[earl1937]

Just as in real life, in the movies everybody loves the fighter pilots. However not all fighter jocks are created equal. Who do YOU think are the best and worst fighter pilots out of any film you've seen?

This can include historical and modern films, SciFi, hell, even fantasy if you can argue it as being a fighter pilot.

Best: Wedge Antilles, the Star Wars Original Trilogy. Only one man in film survived attacking TWO Death Stars AND managed to take down an Imperial Walker. And in a series where some pilots get a little supernatural help, he did it completely on his own.

Worst: Trudy Chacón, Avatar. I'm ignoring the fact that Avatar was a godawful film that tossed Pocahontas and Fern Gully into a blender and strained out the best parts of both, and focusing on one particular character: Besides the fact that with all its special effects budget Michelle Rodriguez was STILL more lifeless than the CGI characters, she's probably hands down THE dumbest fighter pilot in the history of film. Despite having a faster and more maneuverable ship than the bad guys, she decides to spend the entire fight hovering her fighter RIGHT IN THE FORWARD KILLZONE OF THE GIANT GUNSHIP. Just like anyone dumb enough to HO a Mosquito or 110 in the Mains, she DESERVED to die. The aliens riding the giant space pterodactyls showed a better understanding of air combat tactics!

Jimmie Stewart in SAC, and William Holden in Bridges at Tok Ri, now sure how to spell either title, but if you haven't seen these two movies, it is well worth watching both. I have both and have watched them at least 25 or 30 times apiece.
Best flight engineer goes to "Pappy" in the movie Air Force, about a early model B-17 with out the dorsal fin, dodging Japanese in the Pacific during first weeks of WW2

[Brooke]

Best flight engineer goes to "Pappy" in the movie Air Force, about a early model B-17 with out the dorsal fin, dodging Japanese in the Pacific during first weeks of WW2

I loved that movie.  It was hokey -- but very fun to watch for a WWII aviation buff.

[Slash27]

well see the thing about criticizing how pilots fly in a movie is kindda dumb.  for example:

trying to criticize Mellish from saving private ryan for not stabbing the german soldier on the leg or stomach when he pulled out his bayonet which caused him to die.  you can say he did something dumb, on the other hand the scrip called for him to do exactly what he did.  and he was supposed to die.

same thing with Trudy Chacon.  the reason she was in the kill zone is because that's how the scrip was written.  so it's not really that she was bad pilot, heck she probably has never flown any type of aircraft.  however that's how the scrip was written.

so basically when it comes to movies, it's not fair to compare how pilots flew but more like how the scrip was written.

another example.  in top gun, Hollywood had just graduated from top gun school and yet he lasted something like 2 or 3 seconds in a fight against the migs.  Iceman on the other hand fought 5 of them by himself while maverick was trying to figure out "his true self".  so the scrip made hollywood look really bad, Iceman really good, but maverick awesome.  even though the better pilot was Iceman.


semp

Can't have a decent thread without semp dropping in to miss the point, and proceed to windbag us.

[Dichotomy]

Ive seen some pretty good pilots in AH movies. 

[guncrasher]

Can't have a decent thread without semp dropping in to miss the point, and proceed to windbag us.

not it was the mention that she was dumb for being in the kill zone.  as if she had a choice.  all of you missed this point.


semp

[Saxman]

not it was the mention that she was dumb for being in the kill zone.  as if she had a choice.  all of you missed this point.


semp

This thread was not about "the script made me do it" or any other meta influence (bad technical advisers, directors who IGNORE the technical advisers, etc). It was meant to STRICTLY be about what we see ON SCREEN. It's about approaching things with suspension of disbelief intact, and looking at these as REAL pilots, not plot devices.

So yes, you not only missed the point, it was about four feet outside off the plate and you lost your bat while taking a swing, and plunked some poor fan in the stands.

[Masherbrum]

well see the thing about criticizing how pilots fly in a movie is kindda dumb.  for example:

trying to criticize Mellish from saving private ryan for not stabbing the german soldier on the leg or stomach when he pulled out his bayonet which caused him to die.  you can say he did something dumb, on the other hand the scrip called for him to do exactly what he did.  and he was supposed to die.

same thing with Trudy Chacon.  the reason she was in the kill zone is because that's how the scrip was written.  so it's not really that she was bad pilot, heck she probably has never flown any type of aircraft.  however that's how the scrip was written.

so basically when it comes to movies, it's not fair to compare how pilots flew but more like how the scrip was written.

another example.  in top gun, Hollywood had just graduated from top gun school and yet he lasted something like 2 or 3 seconds in a fight against the migs.  Iceman on the other hand fought 5 of them by himself while maverick was trying to figure out "his true self".  so the scrip made hollywood look really bad, Iceman really good, but maverick awesome.  even though the better pilot was Iceman.


semp

Why does there ALWAYS have to be someone who takes this too serious and bogart the thread?  

[guncrasher]

This thread was not about "the script made me do it" or any other meta influence (bad technical advisers, directors who IGNORE the technical advisers, etc). It was meant to STRICTLY be about what we see ON SCREEN. It's about approaching things with suspension of disbelief intact, and looking at these as REAL pilots, not plot devices.

So yes, you not only missed the point, it was about four feet outside off the plate and you lost your bat while taking a swing, and plunked some poor fan in the stands.

well then int that case you are wrong about trudy chacon.  she showed more balls in baseball that 1/2 the fighters in top gun.  or you expect me to believe that iceman's wingman got shot down in like the first 5 seconds of the firefight at the end of the movie?  hey dont forget about cougar.  he gave up his wing after seeing a mig-29 even though there was no shots fired.

heck john Belushi showed more courage in 1941 than cougar did.  heck even "dead meat" was a good pilot.  I mean he showed great skill by surviving an airplane crash.  too bad he died at the hospital due to incompetent emt's.

now this is all in the name of fun.  so dont get your panties in a bunch  .

but if you want to know the best pilot ever.  that's anakin skywalker, he was less than 10 years old when without training destroyed a control ship of the trade federation and thus saved Naboo.

let's see any of your pilots claim that.  (no dont bring his son luke as he was helped by Han solo).


semp

[Saxman]

well then int that case you are wrong about trudy chacon.  she showed more balls in baseball that 1/2 the fighters in top gun.  or you expect me to believe that iceman's wingman got shot down in like the first 5 seconds of the firefight at the end of the movie?  hey dont forget about cougar.  he gave up his wing after seeing a mig-29 even though there was no shots fired.

It's about skillz, not ballz. I've seen better pilots than Trudy on the Mains. Hell, most of the Na'vi flyers showed a better grasp of ACM.

but if you want to know the best pilot ever.  that's anakin skywalker, he was less than 10 years old when without training destroyed a control ship of the trade federation and thus saved Naboo.

let's see any of your pilots claim that.  (no dont bring his son luke as he was helped by Han solo).

Already beat that in my first post. Wedge Antilles. NO help from the Force, and survived two Death Stars -- including being one of THREE Rebel pilots shown to survive Yavin, surviving getting shot up by Vader himself, and knocking out the two power regulators of Death Star II enabling Lando to destroy the reactor itself. The Death Star II run alone is one HELL of a piece of flying when you consider how tight it is, and the speeds at which they're flying -- and Hoth (only Rebel pilot we see taking down an AT-AT).