This week, Roy Scheider scores an action hit with 1983's BLUE THUNDER! Directed by John Badham (WARGAMES) and co-starring Malcolm MacDowell, Daniel Stern, and Warren Oates, this '80s thriller features top-notch helicopter stunt work and exciting twists and turns (and according to recent completely unsubstantiated rumor, may be a big influence on Christopher Nolan's next film!)
[00:00:00] It's showtime folks! It's on bad hat Harry. What was the weight of the car when you got it, uh?
[00:00:06] You're not right or wrong. You just don't care.
[00:00:09] Benway! Oh sons of bitches. I didn't know. I didn't know.
[00:00:18] And welcome to episode 19 of The Complete Works season 4, a deep dive into the career and films of actor Roy Scheider.
[00:00:31] My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey across the Scheiderverse is my friend, co-host, and fellow Roy boy.
[00:00:38] Mike DiCreccio.
[00:00:39] How'd you do today, Mike?
[00:00:40] I'm doing great. I'm excited to talk about this seemingly forgotten movie.
[00:00:47] A discovery for me personally. And if I've never heard of it, that means nobody else has either.
[00:00:51] This is true. This is very true.
[00:00:53] Uh, yeah, we are going all the way back to the year 1983 on this one, Mike.
[00:00:57] And, uh, we're now in, I think, a pretty interesting time in the career of Roy Scheider.
[00:01:02] Because we've talked about it a lot.
[00:01:04] But looking back on that 70s run, man.
[00:01:06] Oh baby.
[00:01:07] It's pretty massive.
[00:01:08] And after he caps it off with all that jazz in 1979, he takes a bit of a break.
[00:01:13] Uh, and considering how insane some of the productions that he worked on ended up being, he probably needed that.
[00:01:19] Yeah.
[00:01:20] I would imagine.
[00:01:20] Let him take a nap. Let him take a nap.
[00:01:22] Yes, exactly.
[00:01:23] Maybe he wants to spend a year not being tortured by William Friedkin in the jungle, you know?
[00:01:27] Just for one year.
[00:01:28] Just for one year.
[00:01:32] So he takes a couple of years off and he returns in 1982 with Still of the Night, which receives tepid reviews and disappoints at the box office.
[00:01:41] So Scheider is kind of looking for a hit and a new action movie might just be the thing to do it.
[00:01:46] He is also apparently trying very hard to not get cast in Jaws 3D.
[00:01:56] You know, uh, we stand self-care here on the podcast and good for good for him.
[00:02:02] Uh, and that is actually a factor of why he ended up joining this movie.
[00:02:06] Of course he's in Jaws.
[00:02:07] He, you know, is the star of Jaws, biggest movie ever, tough production, but I think worth it in the end.
[00:02:12] He did not want to come back for Jaws 2, but he had a contractual obligation to do so.
[00:02:16] If he didn't, he would get sued because he dropped out of the deer hunter.
[00:02:19] And even though he didn't want to do Jaws 2, he gave it his darndest.
[00:02:22] You know, he, he fought with the director on several key scenes because he truly believed in the vision for what he thought his character should be.
[00:02:30] And so, yeah, just did not want to come back for another Jaws movie, but he knew they were making a third one and it was coming out around this time.
[00:02:36] Jaws 3D came out in 1983.
[00:02:39] So he was looking for something to occupy his time so that he would be unable to do Jaws 3.
[00:02:44] They couldn't even ask him to do it.
[00:02:46] Amazing.
[00:02:46] Have we talked about, I guess this is a good opportunity to talk about Jaws 3 People Zero.
[00:02:51] You heard of, you heard of this?
[00:02:53] Oh, is this the play?
[00:02:54] Is this, uh...
[00:02:55] No, this was, uh, so there was a documentary on Shudder called Shark'sploitation.
[00:02:58] Okay.
[00:02:59] Which is the history of shark exploitation movies.
[00:03:00] And in that, they had an in-depth section on the, uh, almost made Jaws, third Jaws movie, which was going to be National Lampoon's Jaws 3 People Zero, about them making a third Jaws movie that is like haunt, not haunted, but, uh, terrorized by a shark on the film, the film production, like a movie within a movie thing.
[00:03:22] It was a National Lampoon movie, so it was like a hard R boobies and violence movie.
[00:03:27] Uh, and Universal was like, no, it's gotta be PG.
[00:03:31] And Joe Dante was attached to direct, and he's talked about it on his podcast, uh, so that's how I heard a little bit more about it.
[00:03:36] Um, but he thinks it was a, yeah, we're totally making this, wink-wink, to, like, get people to do, like, contracts or whatever.
[00:03:43] I don't know, he thinks that, like, it was never actually gonna be seriously made, uh, but it was, like, people signed on to it and stuff.
[00:03:48] Right.
[00:03:48] And that was, that was allegedly almost the third movie.
[00:03:52] Okay.
[00:03:52] Which is crazy.
[00:03:53] It would have been, like, the new nightmare of the, uh, Jaws series.
[00:03:57] Right.
[00:03:57] Which, uh, yeah, that would have been ahead of its time.
[00:03:59] That would have been interesting.
[00:04:00] That would have been crazy, yeah.
[00:04:01] National Lampoon's Jaws 3 People Zero.
[00:04:04] I think, I definitely had heard that title before.
[00:04:06] Um, yeah.
[00:04:07] That's a great title, yeah.
[00:04:08] That is a good title.
[00:04:09] Uh, the play that I was thinking of, have you heard about this, Mike?
[00:04:11] Uh, a play called The Shark Is Broken?
[00:04:13] Oh, yeah, I think I have, actually, yeah.
[00:04:15] I'm not sure if we've talked about it on the podcast, but this is coming soon.
[00:04:18] Like, this is a, if it's not out already, there's a, I'm looking at the website now.
[00:04:23] There's a tour of it in UK and the Ireland next year.
[00:04:26] Um, but this is a play that is written by Ian Shaw, the son, I think, of Robert Shaw.
[00:04:31] Whoa.
[00:04:31] Uh, and it's about the making of Jaws.
[00:04:34] It's called The Shark Is Broken, and it's about Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw
[00:04:38] just on the set of Jaws, hanging around while they're waiting for the shark to work.
[00:04:43] Wild.
[00:04:43] We have to see it and do an episode on it.
[00:04:46] Uh, Kofi donation, a trip to, uh, Ireland to go see.
[00:04:49] How much could that be?
[00:04:51] I'm in.
[00:04:52] I think that could probably, uh, happen.
[00:04:54] It'll be cheaper for you, uh, because you're in New York.
[00:04:57] Two less flights for me.
[00:04:58] Exactly, yeah.
[00:04:59] No, it might be trickier for me out here in Montana, but, uh, that play sounds insane.
[00:05:03] I would like to see that.
[00:05:04] Yeah, that is, uh, also something on the horizon.
[00:05:06] If, if we can make that happen, we absolutely should.
[00:05:09] When it comes to New York or something, yeah.
[00:05:11] Yes, definitely.
[00:05:12] Definitely.
[00:05:13] Uh, but yeah, no, we're not talking about anything Jaws related today because Roy Scheider deliberately
[00:05:17] did not want to be in Jaws 3, so he chose to do something else.
[00:05:21] Uh, today's film actually began as an idea from co-writers Dan O'Bannon and Don Jacoby.
[00:05:26] Uh, now you may know Dan O'Bannon as the screenwriter of the original Alien, uh, and later he was also
[00:05:31] the director of Return of the Living Dead.
[00:05:33] Jacoby would go on to write or co-write movies like Tobey Hooper's Life Force, uh, Arachnophobia, and John Carpenter's Vampires as well.
[00:05:42] Are you a big Arachnophobia guy, Mike?
[00:05:43] Big, big Arachnophobia guy.
[00:05:46] Like, in real life and also the movie.
[00:05:48] Sure.
[00:05:49] Fair enough.
[00:05:50] I've actually never seen Arachnophobia.
[00:05:52] What?
[00:05:53] Add it to the list.
[00:05:54] Add it to the list for next year, baby.
[00:05:55] Uh, but the two of them lived in Hollywood in the late 70s and would often be woken up by low-flying police helicopters.
[00:06:03] Yes.
[00:06:05] Uh, and so they turned this very frequent annoyance in their lives into a screenplay idea, uh, which was originally a darker political piece that really attacked the idea of a surveillance state run by the police, uh, with main character Frank Murphy, eventually played by Scheider, uh, having intense psychological issues and going on a rampage to destroy Los Angeles.
[00:06:24] In the final act of the film.
[00:06:26] Fuck yeah.
[00:06:27] Dudes rock.
[00:06:28] Uh, and then the LAPD got involved.
[00:06:30] Oh, whoops.
[00:06:32] Uh, and the script was rewritten a few times and, uh, I, I think it is still a pretty like, you know, it's pretty against the idea of a surveillance state and all that kind of stuff.
[00:06:39] You know, it's sanded down the edges, I think a little bit.
[00:06:41] Yeah.
[00:06:42] Of what it originally was.
[00:06:43] It turns it, uh, into the cops are the good guys, but it's actually the overreach of the federal government.
[00:06:49] That's bad.
[00:06:50] Like, all right.
[00:06:51] Yeah.
[00:06:51] Uh, so it became the movie we're talking about today.
[00:06:54] And since Roy Scheider is in it, it is time for Blue Thunder.
[00:06:59] What brings you to air support?
[00:07:00] Kind of like the idea of it.
[00:07:02] No guns, no kicking in doors, you know, just quiet.
[00:07:07] Oh yeah.
[00:07:08] For Frank Murphy, policing the air has its ups.
[00:07:11] Welcome to air support.
[00:07:13] Got a runaway.
[00:07:14] And downs.
[00:07:22] Columbia Pictures presents Roy Scheider.
[00:07:27] Blue Thunder.
[00:07:28] I thought it was illegal to arm police helicopters.
[00:07:33] A flying arsenal.
[00:07:35] That hears through walls.
[00:07:37] Sees in the dark.
[00:07:39] And thinks your thoughts.
[00:07:40] Wherever you look, the guns follow.
[00:07:43] They told Murphy to test it.
[00:07:45] Doesn't it, he's coppers.
[00:07:46] You can run the whole damn country.
[00:07:48] They didn't tell him what it was for.
[00:07:50] He's totally unsuitable for our purpose.
[00:07:52] But when Murphy went looking for answers.
[00:07:55] You got all this on tape?
[00:07:55] I got every word of it.
[00:07:57] The answer.
[00:07:58] Uh oh, uh oh.
[00:07:59] Came looking for him.
[00:08:08] They had the ultimate weapon.
[00:08:12] And the perfect plan.
[00:08:17] But Murphy stole their thunder.
[00:08:25] All right, so Blue Thunder stars Roy Scheider as Frank Murphy,
[00:08:29] a Los Angeles helicopter cop who patrols the city at night.
[00:08:33] His new partner, a rookie named Richard Limangood,
[00:08:36] is played by Daniel Stern,
[00:08:38] who at this point had just broken through with movies like Breaking Away and Diner.
[00:08:43] Chud?
[00:08:43] We're still one year away from Chud.
[00:08:45] I actually wrote that down in parentheses.
[00:08:47] Sorry.
[00:08:48] Yeah, Chud is coming up.
[00:08:50] And then, of course, Home Alone a few years later, all that stuff.
[00:08:52] But the police captain, John Braddock,
[00:08:55] is played by Warren Oates,
[00:08:57] who is unbelievably good in this movie.
[00:09:00] Oh, man.
[00:09:01] He's fantastic.
[00:09:02] Warren Oates, who, of course,
[00:09:03] William Friedkin actually wanted to cast in Roy Scheider's role in Sorcerer.
[00:09:07] So it's sort of a full circle thing.
[00:09:08] And this is actually one of Warren Oates' final roles before he died.
[00:09:12] Really?
[00:09:12] He died in 82, I think.
[00:09:14] So this was released posthumously.
[00:09:15] This came out after he died.
[00:09:17] Wow.
[00:09:17] Interesting.
[00:09:18] Yeah.
[00:09:18] And the movie is dedicated to him as a result.
[00:09:20] From there, Candy Clark from American Graffiti and The Man Who Fell to Earth plays Kate,
[00:09:25] Scheider's girlfriend.
[00:09:26] Joe Santos from The Rockford Files plays Montoya.
[00:09:29] Jason Bernard, who is also the judge in Liar Liar, plays the mayor.
[00:09:34] Okay.
[00:09:34] And the film's antagonist, F.E.
[00:09:37] Cochran, is played by Malcolm McDowell, which is pretty fun to see him in this.
[00:09:41] This is like right after Cat People.
[00:09:43] So it's like a really weird period in the Malcolm McDowell career.
[00:09:46] A real sexy time.
[00:09:47] Yes.
[00:09:48] The film was written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jacoby, and it was directed by John Badham,
[00:09:53] who scored big in 1977 when he directed Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta.
[00:09:58] And he had another big nice in 83, actually, because in addition to Blue Thunder, he also
[00:10:02] directed War Games, which came out the same year.
[00:10:05] It's no Blue Thunder.
[00:10:07] That's pretty cool.
[00:10:08] I didn't know that.
[00:10:09] Yeah.
[00:10:09] Have you seen War Games?
[00:10:10] I have.
[00:10:11] Yeah.
[00:10:11] War Games rocks.
[00:10:12] I like that movie a lot.
[00:10:13] It does.
[00:10:13] For sure.
[00:10:13] I was I think I watched War Games when I was like 20 and I was like, I'm sure it'll be
[00:10:17] fine.
[00:10:17] Whatever.
[00:10:18] I put it on.
[00:10:18] Like, I know the line.
[00:10:19] Like, do you?
[00:10:20] Shall we play a game?
[00:10:20] Whatever.
[00:10:21] Yeah.
[00:10:21] And I was like locked in.
[00:10:22] I thought that movie ruled.
[00:10:25] I haven't seen it since, but I think I would still really enjoy it.
[00:10:27] Blue Thunder was released on May 13th, 1983, and it opened number one at the box office
[00:10:34] that weekend.
[00:10:35] What?
[00:10:35] Yeah.
[00:10:36] No, it was a big hit, Mike.
[00:10:37] It was a pretty solid hit for Roy Scheider.
[00:10:39] That's crazy.
[00:10:39] I've never heard of this movie.
[00:10:40] Like I said, if I've never heard of it, it doesn't exist.
[00:10:44] It doesn't.
[00:10:44] Nobody else has.
[00:10:46] Yeah.
[00:10:46] No, this opened to number one at the box office.
[00:10:48] Opening to number two was the American remake of Breathless starring Richard Gere, which I've
[00:10:53] never seen.
[00:10:54] I didn't know that existed.
[00:10:55] Oh, yeah.
[00:10:55] No, it exists.
[00:10:56] I remember.
[00:10:57] I think it was a pure cinema podcast or something.
[00:10:59] We're talking about it at some point.
[00:11:00] Oh, yeah.
[00:11:01] And I was listening to that and I think that some of them were kind of fans of it.
[00:11:05] So I think there is like a small fan base for the American Breathless, but I've
[00:11:09] never seen it.
[00:11:09] It just seems like an insane thing to do.
[00:11:12] Oh, yeah.
[00:11:12] 100%.
[00:11:13] I mean, what are you doing?
[00:11:14] And this is like Breathless is like 1960s.
[00:11:16] This is like a full 20 plus years after Breathless comes out.
[00:11:19] It's like an established French new wave classic at this point.
[00:11:21] An odd choice to do.
[00:11:24] But, you know, back then, I mean, you know, this still happens.
[00:11:27] I mean, we still get American remakes of foreign language films actually just this past
[00:11:31] weekend.
[00:11:31] Speak No Evil entered the box office.
[00:11:34] Right, Mike?
[00:11:34] I just want to escape that movie.
[00:11:37] As we talked about, well, that'll have come out already for a couple weeks ago now.
[00:11:42] But my Regal Unlimited series, you know, having watched a lot of movies this summer in the
[00:11:48] theaters, I didn't understand that when I started that, how many times I would see the Speak
[00:11:54] No Evil trailer.
[00:11:55] Yeah.
[00:11:55] No, it was in front of everything for a long time.
[00:11:59] Yeah.
[00:12:00] Our long national nightmare is over.
[00:12:01] The Speak No Evil trailer is finally done.
[00:12:03] That's right.
[00:12:03] But yeah, Breathless, number two at the box office.
[00:12:07] The rest of the top 10 consisted of Flashdance, Dr. Detroit, Still Smokin', a re-release
[00:12:14] of Porky's.
[00:12:16] Rad.
[00:12:16] Yeah.
[00:12:18] Porky's had come out in like 1980, I think.
[00:12:19] So it was back in theaters.
[00:12:21] Tootsie in its 22nd week at the box office.
[00:12:24] Woof.
[00:12:25] Valley Girl with Nicolas Cage.
[00:12:26] Let's go.
[00:12:27] Yeah.
[00:12:27] Haven't seen that one in a long time.
[00:12:29] But yeah, that was in its third week right here.
[00:12:31] Gandhi in its 23rd week at the box office.
[00:12:33] And a re-release of Friday the 13th Part 3.
[00:12:37] Oh, interesting.
[00:12:39] Which had come out the year before in 1982.
[00:12:42] But this weekend was May 13th, 1983, as in Friday the 13th.
[00:12:46] So they put out the most recent Friday the 13th movie again.
[00:12:49] Hell yeah.
[00:12:50] It's interesting to have, you know, we started so far back in film history this time.
[00:12:54] Yeah.
[00:12:54] You know, and we've now caught up to season one of the podcast.
[00:12:58] Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:59] It was a Nick Cage movie.
[00:12:59] Valley Girl, I think, was episode three of the Nicolas Cage podcast?
[00:13:03] Pretty early, yeah.
[00:13:04] Yeah.
[00:13:04] Best of Times was number one, obviously.
[00:13:06] The TV pilots that Nick Cage was in.
[00:13:09] And then it was Fast Times where it went high, which he's barely in.
[00:13:11] And then Valley Girl was the next movie.
[00:13:14] No, that's what I've been kind of meaning to re-watch for a while.
[00:13:17] I feel like when we saw it, we were both like, yeah, this is okay, I guess.
[00:13:21] I think I would like it a lot more now for some reason.
[00:13:22] Yeah.
[00:13:22] I don't know.
[00:13:23] I got the Shout Factory Blu-ray a while back and I haven't opened that or anything yet.
[00:13:27] But one of these days, I'm going to re-watch Valley Girl and have a great time.
[00:13:30] That modern English song, it's going to kick ass.
[00:13:32] His Woody Woodpecker voice or hair or whatever he's got in that.
[00:13:35] Is that that movie or is that Peggy Sue Got Married?
[00:13:36] You're thinking of Peggy Sue Got Married when he was doing the yummy ma huang.
[00:13:41] That's right.
[00:13:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:42] No, but Valley Girl does have one of my favorite exchanges.
[00:13:45] Nicholas Cage is at the movie theater and some guy comes up and is like, oh, hey, is this in 3D?
[00:13:50] And Nick Cage goes, no, but your face is.
[00:13:54] Got him.
[00:13:55] Yeah.
[00:13:56] Burned.
[00:13:57] Yeah.
[00:13:57] What can you say?
[00:13:59] The IMDb plot synopsis for Blue Thunder reads,
[00:14:01] the cop test pilot for an experimental police helicopter learns the sinister implications of the new vehicle.
[00:14:09] Oh.
[00:14:09] All right.
[00:14:10] So Mike D, going into Blue Thunder, it sounds like you really didn't know what to expect.
[00:14:14] This was a movie that was not on your radar at all.
[00:14:17] Never heard of it.
[00:14:18] But what did you think of Blue Thunder?
[00:14:19] I think this movie is pretty good.
[00:14:22] I mean, I had a lot of fun.
[00:14:23] I liked it.
[00:14:24] I think this is a perfect test case for the theatrical experience.
[00:14:29] Because while I was watching this, all I could picture was if this was movie three of a mystery
[00:14:35] action movie marathon at the draft house or at some kind of theater like that.
[00:14:39] Yeah.
[00:14:39] And we didn't know what was playing.
[00:14:41] And this movie kicks off and then it gets to shit like the where it gets to where it's
[00:14:45] going.
[00:14:45] Like we'd be throwing popcorn.
[00:14:47] We'd be cheering.
[00:14:48] We'd be going nuts.
[00:14:50] But like alone on my couch in the afternoon.
[00:14:52] Yeah, it's pretty good.
[00:14:53] It's fine.
[00:14:54] You know, I had fun with it.
[00:14:55] I think it's bananas.
[00:14:55] But I could tell it has that like early 80s sleaziness to it.
[00:15:02] Roy Scheider, a man with nothing left to lose somehow against the kind of, you know, blonde,
[00:15:13] weirdly Aryan looking Malcolm McDowell in this.
[00:15:17] And Daniel Stern is just a pervert.
[00:15:20] Warren Oates is a man who doesn't have time anymore.
[00:15:22] I don't have time for your shit.
[00:15:24] It's great.
[00:15:25] Warren Oates as the cop who just like can't handle this like this reckless pilots like
[00:15:29] crazy antics anymore.
[00:15:31] You know, you're a loose cannon.
[00:15:33] Yeah.
[00:15:34] Basically.
[00:15:34] Turn in your badge and your gun like that.
[00:15:35] Like he's playing that kind of character.
[00:15:37] Crushes it.
[00:15:38] He's so good.
[00:15:39] He's so good.
[00:15:40] Well, yeah.
[00:15:41] When he says when I get out of this chair, I'm going to have no ass because that man
[00:15:44] just chewed it off.
[00:15:45] It's so fucking funny.
[00:15:47] Oh my God.
[00:15:49] Yeah.
[00:15:49] He rules.
[00:15:49] So I just the biggest thing is I'm sad that Warren Oates won't be able to be season
[00:15:53] five now because of this movie.
[00:15:55] But man, I think he'd be fun.
[00:15:57] I've seen at least like three of his movies.
[00:16:00] I did recently watch Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia at the Roxy earlier this year.
[00:16:05] And man, that movie is fantastic.
[00:16:08] So good.
[00:16:08] Nice.
[00:16:09] Yeah.
[00:16:09] He was great in it.
[00:16:10] So it's just really cool.
[00:16:11] I think we were trying to play Tulane Blacktop recently too and we couldn't get our hands
[00:16:14] on it.
[00:16:15] He's so good in that.
[00:16:16] Yeah.
[00:16:16] But yeah, one of these days it's going to happen.
[00:16:18] Yeah.
[00:16:18] I think I think it's fine.
[00:16:19] I think it is.
[00:16:20] It is a wild movie where like the two main characters, the first thing they do peeping Tom shit
[00:16:26] and you're like, OK, all right.
[00:16:30] I don't know if I like these guys.
[00:16:31] It's such an insane thing where they're just like parking the helicopter like I level with
[00:16:37] the window.
[00:16:38] Yeah.
[00:16:39] It's one of those movies.
[00:16:40] It's one of those things in movies that like as if helicopters are stealthy and you can't
[00:16:45] hear them from miles away to the point where, yeah, they're hovering above a residential
[00:16:50] street looking through a woman's bedroom window watching her do naked yoga.
[00:16:54] Right.
[00:16:54] And they're talking about it as if like, oh, she does this every Friday or whatever.
[00:16:57] We're going down.
[00:16:58] It's like, is this is this body double?
[00:17:00] It's body double.
[00:17:01] Yeah.
[00:17:01] Out of wear that this is like weird and creepy.
[00:17:03] Yeah.
[00:17:05] And I really thought they were going to see her see her be murdered.
[00:17:08] And it was going to be them having to do their only pilots and them having to do the murder
[00:17:13] investigation.
[00:17:14] But but it's not what the plot is.
[00:17:15] Yeah.
[00:17:16] That is what's so funny about it.
[00:17:17] So, you know, the movie starts and it establishes.
[00:17:20] Yeah.
[00:17:20] Roy Scheider is a helicopter pilot working for the police.
[00:17:23] You know, he's a police officer, but he's a helicopter division or whatever.
[00:17:26] Yeah.
[00:17:26] And Daniel Stern's like the rookie cop who's assigned as his partner.
[00:17:28] And they're going out and doing their thing.
[00:17:30] And the first like 20 minutes of the movie, you're watching them kind of patrol.
[00:17:34] But like they don't really do much.
[00:17:36] They are mostly shining lights on people.
[00:17:39] And then the other cops go after them.
[00:17:42] Yeah.
[00:17:42] They're doing helicopter stuff.
[00:17:44] You know, and once that once I realized that was happening, I was like, you know, I was
[00:17:47] kind of excited about the idea of like a helicopter action movie.
[00:17:50] But if the whole movie is going to be them shining lights on people, this is going to be kind of
[00:17:53] disappointing.
[00:17:55] It's going to be weird.
[00:17:56] Luckily, it is not that because then they introduce the Blue Thunder helicopter.
[00:17:59] Yeah.
[00:18:00] Yeah.
[00:18:00] And it's just insane.
[00:18:02] Yeah.
[00:18:02] I mean, but I do sort of appreciate the movie's, you know, willingness to and it makes sense
[00:18:07] having like, you know, Dan O'Bannon and that whole thing.
[00:18:10] You know, the movies, the other movies that he's made, like, oh, they've got this sort
[00:18:14] of sensibility to have it be like, oh, no, this is like a tool of like master aliens and
[00:18:20] like oppression, governmental oppression and like all this stuff.
[00:18:24] Like having that be like a secret conspiracy that they uncover kind of thing is pretty fun
[00:18:28] and interesting.
[00:18:30] But I think maybe it doesn't.
[00:18:30] I feel like it does lull in the middle.
[00:18:32] Like I kind of like there's a point where they overhear because this thing has the helicopter
[00:18:37] has heat vision and or thermal vision scopes or whatever and like incredible microphones
[00:18:43] and stuff.
[00:18:43] So they're able to record audio like the conversation of like a meeting with all the feds and all the
[00:18:49] people and the investors in this helicopter explaining what they want this thing to do and
[00:18:53] and ordering the assassination of somebody and like because they don't want this to get
[00:18:57] out and all this stuff.
[00:18:58] And like that's all really tense and exciting.
[00:19:00] And there's a whole thing with the tapes and the recordings after that part.
[00:19:03] It's just like, whoop.
[00:19:04] And it's like 30 minutes before we get to the big action climax stuff.
[00:19:08] And I feel like it kind of dipped in the second act for me or whatever.
[00:19:11] Sure.
[00:19:11] So I think it starts pretty funny and weird and exciting when they get the Blue Thunder
[00:19:16] and they're testing it out and all this stuff.
[00:19:18] And they're the guy, Malcolm McDowell is loosening bolts on the helicopters to try to get
[00:19:23] them to crash and all this stuff.
[00:19:25] But then I feel like it does dip in the middle a little bit for me before it gets to the big
[00:19:29] action.
[00:19:29] I think that's true.
[00:19:30] I think it kind of comes back once like Daniel Stern gets killed.
[00:19:33] Oh, yeah, for sure.
[00:19:33] It comes back.
[00:19:34] But it does like.
[00:19:35] Yep.
[00:19:36] Yeah.
[00:19:36] But yeah.
[00:19:36] And because it's yeah.
[00:19:37] Then yeah.
[00:19:38] Daniel Stern gets killed.
[00:19:38] He gets run over.
[00:19:39] And then some Roy Stadders trying to like avenge his death, trying to figure out what
[00:19:42] happened.
[00:19:43] Then, yeah, he gets a he gets like a tape of them like essentially confessing to the crime
[00:19:47] of killing Daniel Stern and like all the things they're planning to do with the Blue Thunder and
[00:19:51] the surveillance and all that kind of stuff.
[00:19:53] And so Malcolm McDowell is trying to chase him down with his own helicopter while Roy
[00:19:56] Stadders Rogue and the Blue Thunder, all that stuff, which is really, really fun.
[00:19:59] And they're all like, you know, real helicopter action sequences that are shot in L.A.
[00:20:04] Yeah.
[00:20:04] It looks incredible.
[00:20:05] That's the thing.
[00:20:07] This bullshit ass movie that I guess open at number one, but this bullshit ass movie,
[00:20:12] they crashed real helicopters and real cars and real motorcycles and blew up miniatures
[00:20:17] of buildings and like they did real shit.
[00:20:21] And that's, you know, having watched these two back to back to do podcast time travel
[00:20:26] right as I after I watched episode one of Chaos, the Netflix Goblin Greek God show.
[00:20:32] Yeah.
[00:20:32] Where he is in a green screen garden and here they're crashing cars and helicopters.
[00:20:38] It was just like, man, never forget what they took from us.
[00:20:42] That's the thesis of season four of The Complete Works, Colin Roy Scheider.
[00:20:47] Never forget what they took from us.
[00:20:49] Yes, absolutely.
[00:20:50] I will also say, you know, a good chunk of it all takes place at the L.A. River, like
[00:20:54] where all those bridges were.
[00:20:54] Hell yeah.
[00:20:55] And I was like, oh man, like in the core.
[00:20:58] Right.
[00:20:58] This is where they are in the core.
[00:21:01] Yeah.
[00:21:01] I saw something on Twitter that was like, it's like, you know, the shit's about to
[00:21:05] pop off when this shows up.
[00:21:06] And it was like one of the bridges from the L.A. River.
[00:21:09] It's like, yeah, that's so true.
[00:21:12] They crash helicopters into the L.A. River for real air quotes, you know, like, but
[00:21:17] a real helicopter.
[00:21:19] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:21:19] And apparently, according to Mary Steenburgen, who is Malcolm McDowell's girlfriend at the
[00:21:25] time or wife around around this time in the 80s, Malcolm McDowell, huge fear of flying,
[00:21:30] not a fan.
[00:21:31] And they somehow got him to actually be in the helicopter for a lot of these shots.
[00:21:35] And like Mary Steenburgen was like, I can't get him to fly like on a commercial flight.
[00:21:40] How did you do this?
[00:21:42] Yes.
[00:21:42] That's crazy.
[00:21:43] But there are apparently like scenes where you can actually see like the actual terror
[00:21:47] on Malcolm McDowell's face.
[00:21:48] Whoa.
[00:21:49] Because he just like can't they can't stand being up in the air.
[00:21:52] He doesn't like it.
[00:21:53] Reasonable.
[00:21:54] It's against nature.
[00:21:55] We've we've created a God against sin against nature.
[00:21:57] This is very true.
[00:21:58] So, yeah, that's exciting.
[00:21:59] That's crazy.
[00:21:59] They're doing stunts.
[00:22:01] Yes.
[00:22:01] Bananas.
[00:22:02] Yeah.
[00:22:02] And they all look fantastic.
[00:22:03] It's really, really cool.
[00:22:04] It's a great climax that this movie has between the two helicopters.
[00:22:08] Yeah.
[00:22:09] And you also have this sort of like thing happening in tandem with it where Kate Shider's
[00:22:13] girlfriend has like the incriminating tapes and she's trying to get them to the news station.
[00:22:17] And there's this great moment where she's like kind of being taken in by the cops and then
[00:22:21] Ray Shider pops up in the blue thunder and destroys like half a cop car and she gets
[00:22:27] away.
[00:22:28] Shoots a car in half.
[00:22:29] Yeah.
[00:22:29] So good.
[00:22:30] It rules.
[00:22:31] And what I was going to say is it's so interesting to have, you know, this movie contemporary in
[00:22:37] 1983, right?
[00:22:38] Contemporary so that you can have Ray Shider be a like Vietnam pilot with PTSD.
[00:22:44] Yeah.
[00:22:45] And like have him black out while flying.
[00:22:47] Like you can have all that stuff going on in this movie.
[00:22:49] It's it's it's wild.
[00:22:51] And the war crime they committed or something.
[00:22:53] I don't really know what they threw a guy out of a helicopter or something.
[00:22:56] Right.
[00:22:56] Is the reveal something along those lines.
[00:22:58] Yeah.
[00:22:59] Anyway, I thought that was like an extra layer of like sleaze isn't the right word, but
[00:23:05] it adds like a certain grime to this movie.
[00:23:08] You know?
[00:23:08] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:23:09] I mean, I think so.
[00:23:10] Like we kind of said, the first draft of the script had him with like deep psychological
[00:23:13] issues.
[00:23:14] I would bet that they kind of stem from this sort of backstory.
[00:23:17] And I mean, the original draft has Frank Murphy going on a rampage and destroying Los
[00:23:21] Angeles on his own.
[00:23:23] It's falling down.
[00:23:24] Right.
[00:23:24] And so that's not really what they do in the final movie.
[00:23:27] But I think they did keep this sort of like, you know, PTSD backstory for him because he
[00:23:31] is haunted by like his his, you know, past in the war.
[00:23:34] And that sort of informs him as a as a character now.
[00:23:37] And it's why like his relationship with Kate is sort of strained, I think.
[00:23:41] Yeah.
[00:23:41] Which is I really liked their kind of dynamic between Roy Shatter and Kate, which is like,
[00:23:47] you know, Kate's his girlfriend.
[00:23:48] She has a kid.
[00:23:49] It's not his kid, but he like is good with the kid.
[00:23:52] Like he is like pretty like, you know, he plays around with him and all that kind of stuff
[00:23:56] like when they show up.
[00:23:57] But yeah, I think like that when you're first introduced to her, it's like, you know, he gets
[00:24:01] home and it's his empty apartment and you hear her on the voicemail on the voicemail
[00:24:05] didn't exist back then on the answering machine on the answering machine kind of saying like,
[00:24:10] I miss you.
[00:24:11] I want to come back.
[00:24:12] And then he opens the door and she's there with the kid already.
[00:24:14] Like, yeah, but he pulls a gun because he thinks it's like he's being broken.
[00:24:17] His house is being broken into.
[00:24:19] Yeah.
[00:24:20] Yeah.
[00:24:20] I don't know.
[00:24:21] Their relationship is so fucked up, but like also weirdly honest and wholesome, you know,
[00:24:27] like they, they're both aware of their codependency or whatever they've got going on.
[00:24:31] Right.
[00:24:31] She keeps leaving in that answering machine.
[00:24:33] Like she's left a bunch in a row and is like, okay, like, you know, when are you going to
[00:24:38] get rid of this crazy girl?
[00:24:39] Right.
[00:24:39] Ha ha.
[00:24:40] But anyway, I miss you.
[00:24:41] Right.
[00:24:41] You know, like she's also aware that she's like clinging to him or whatever.
[00:24:44] And he knows he's too damaged to like take care of them properly.
[00:24:49] Um, but then the end she's like a stunt driver basically or whatever.
[00:24:53] She gets like really involved in the action.
[00:24:57] She put that up earlier in the movie when they're trying to drive to the train station
[00:25:01] or whatever.
[00:25:02] And she like just drives the wrong way down a one way street in order to get there.
[00:25:06] Yeah.
[00:25:06] She's late.
[00:25:06] So she whips a U-turn on a one way street and drives the wrong way to get to the next
[00:25:10] station before the train.
[00:25:11] Yes.
[00:25:11] Um, which is crazy.
[00:25:14] And then it all pays off at the end when she has to be in a car chase against the cops.
[00:25:19] It's like wild.
[00:25:20] I don't know.
[00:25:20] This movie, this movie kind of rules is what I'm saying.
[00:25:23] Absolutely.
[00:25:23] So, uh, Roy Scheider, the star of the movie, he plays Frank Murphy.
[00:25:26] I mean, we've talked about this already a little bit, but what'd you think of Roy Scheider
[00:25:29] in blue thunder, Mike?
[00:25:31] What a champ.
[00:25:31] He's great.
[00:25:32] I think, uh, there, there is a version of this movie where he just totally phones it in.
[00:25:37] Um, having been in some of the most important and, uh, you know, monumentous movies of all
[00:25:42] time in the previous decade.
[00:25:44] Uh, and here he is in this sort of weird action movie thing, but I guess, I guess it's open
[00:25:48] to number one.
[00:25:49] So I keep thinking of it being like, like slumming it kind of movie, but I guess it wasn't
[00:25:53] really.
[00:25:53] See, I guess it was a big deal.
[00:25:55] I mean, I think this was positioned as like sort of a blockbuster when it came out.
[00:25:58] Yeah.
[00:25:58] Yeah.
[00:25:59] So that's wild to think, but I think there is a version of a world where he sort of like
[00:26:03] phones it in or whatever.
[00:26:04] If he was somebody else or lesser, a lesser professional than Roy Scheider.
[00:26:08] Um, and he doesn't, and he totally, I totally buy when he's, uh, timing his sanity or whatever
[00:26:14] he's doing, like trying to count to 25.
[00:26:16] And cause he thinks that he heard that if you are going nuts, you can't tell the difference
[00:26:20] between five seconds and 25 seconds.
[00:26:21] So he's counting on his watch and he does that a bunch of times and the scenes where
[00:26:25] he's having those horrific flashbacks and he's like in a flop sweat, rolling around on
[00:26:30] the floor and all that stuff with, with the Kate and then all that.
[00:26:34] So yeah, I mean, and, and the man who knew too much kind of thing that he's got going on.
[00:26:38] Um, I think he's, he's really good.
[00:26:40] Yeah, no, absolutely.
[00:26:41] Uh, I will say so Mike, I mean, so this movie was made for $22 million.
[00:26:45] That was the budget.
[00:26:46] It grossed about double that.
[00:26:47] Uh, so it was like a $44 million hit.
[00:26:50] It was number one for like that one weekend and then other stuff kind of came in.
[00:26:52] Uh, there was a spinoff TV show, which aired a year later.
[00:26:57] What?
[00:26:57] Uh, which ran for 11 episodes was also called blue thunder.
[00:27:00] Roy Scheider was not in it.
[00:27:02] Um, I can't get a TV show between Simon Munich and yes.
[00:27:07] Yeah, no, Roy Scheider not in the show.
[00:27:09] However, Dana Carvey was in the show.
[00:27:11] What?
[00:27:11] Dana Carvey, main cast of the blue thunder TV show.
[00:27:14] Was he 12?
[00:27:15] What?
[00:27:15] This was, uh, like maybe a year or two before he was on SNL.
[00:27:19] Uh, wild.
[00:27:20] Yeah.
[00:27:20] So very early Dana Carvey role, the, uh, the blue thunder TV show in 84.
[00:27:25] There was also a blue thunder video game in 1987 on the action max game system.
[00:27:29] That one didn't last too long.
[00:27:30] I don't think that's a long time after this movie to make a video game of it.
[00:27:34] That is a couple of years later.
[00:27:35] Yeah.
[00:27:36] You know?
[00:27:36] Yeah, no, definitely.
[00:27:38] Um, but they did make a video game.
[00:27:40] And, uh, I think even like semi recently, like in the last few years, there has been talk
[00:27:44] about trying to do some kind of remake of blue thunder and specifically one focusing on drone
[00:27:50] technology rather than helicopters.
[00:27:52] Makes sense.
[00:27:53] Which I, I get the logic behind that.
[00:27:55] However, drones aren't as cool as helicopters.
[00:27:57] I think if you want to do something like blue thunder again, you got to do helicopters.
[00:28:02] Yeah.
[00:28:03] Yeah.
[00:28:03] Uh, stealth or eagle eye already exists.
[00:28:05] What do we need?
[00:28:06] Another?
[00:28:06] Exactly.
[00:28:07] You know, Top Gun Maverick knew the planes are what you're here for.
[00:28:10] You don't want to see drones.
[00:28:11] Exactly.
[00:28:12] If we're going to do blue thunder colon Murphy, uh, it's got, it's gotta be helicopters, right?
[00:28:19] A hundred percent.
[00:28:20] Starring CGI Roy Shatter in the lead role.
[00:28:23] Oh God, what have you done?
[00:28:24] Oh no.
[00:28:25] Now that I've spoken, it's going to come true.
[00:28:27] Yeah.
[00:28:27] Uh, yeah, no, I think Roy Shatter is fantastic in this movie.
[00:28:30] It's, it's just a solid action hero role.
[00:28:32] Uh, and yeah, he does get to do that kind of like tortured thing.
[00:28:35] Like it feels like there's more, he brings more to it than I think is maybe necessarily
[00:28:38] there on the page.
[00:28:40] Yeah.
[00:28:40] Um, and yeah, I think his dynamic with Kate's so great.
[00:28:42] I like his dynamic with, uh, Lyman good, which is, which is such a good name for a
[00:28:46] rookie cop.
[00:28:47] I don't know.
[00:28:48] All the names are great in this.
[00:28:50] Yeah.
[00:28:51] Um, I like his, uh, you know, kind of playoff with Malcolm McDowell, who was also his like
[00:28:55] commanding officer, I think in Vietnam.
[00:28:57] Like they happened to know each other from back in the day.
[00:28:59] Well, so he's, that's what the thing when they do the war crime, they throw the guy out
[00:29:03] of the helicopter.
[00:29:03] It's revealed that Malcolm McDowell is the guy that pushed him.
[00:29:06] Right.
[00:29:07] Pushed the North Vietnamese guy out of the helicopter.
[00:29:09] But Malcolm McDowell is British.
[00:29:10] So what is he doing in an American army helicopter?
[00:29:13] Right.
[00:29:13] I don't know.
[00:29:14] Which is weird.
[00:29:15] So that's all.
[00:29:15] That was my question.
[00:29:16] Sure.
[00:29:16] Yeah.
[00:29:16] I think, um, I mean, I think is Malcolm McDowell is his character British in this movie.
[00:29:22] He's got the accent.
[00:29:23] If he's got a very thick British accent, I guess, I guess anybody could enlist, I guess.
[00:29:30] So it doesn't necessarily mean, uh, but yeah, true.
[00:29:35] Yeah.
[00:29:35] But, uh, but yeah, I liked their kind of, you know, antagonistic relationship.
[00:29:38] I liked, uh, I liked the catch you later thing.
[00:29:41] Yes.
[00:29:42] That was very good.
[00:29:42] Catch you later was good.
[00:29:43] Uh, and yeah, every scene with Rishad or Warren Oates is so good.
[00:29:46] Um, just fantastic.
[00:29:48] Yeah.
[00:29:48] The scene when they come back, I think it's at the beginning when they come back for
[00:29:52] after the first flight with Daniel Saren and they like go to the women's apartment and
[00:29:56] all that stuff.
[00:29:57] Uh, and he has to like dress them down about like getting reports over in Sino of a helicopter
[00:30:02] hovering over this lady's house and all that.
[00:30:03] I'm like, oh man, you could like, you know, Warren Oates, man.
[00:30:07] Love him.
[00:30:07] So, so good.
[00:30:08] Um, so how do you think this fits into the Roy Shatter roles that I've seen so far, Mike?
[00:30:13] Um, well, it weirdly fits into stuff like sorcerer and movies like that.
[00:30:18] I don't know.
[00:30:19] I guess.
[00:30:19] Sure.
[00:30:19] Also, also a movie about a vehicle.
[00:30:21] Um, well yeah, movie about a vehicle, but like because of the weird post Vietnam edge thing,
[00:30:26] like it has like a man on the brink, like quality, it's like way less exaggerated in these
[00:30:31] in, in blue thunder, but like it's got a three, there's a three line between a lot of his
[00:30:34] movies about a man obsessed with a thing that is going to destroy his life.
[00:30:38] Cause it's all he can think about, uh, kind of thing.
[00:30:40] Like I guess seven ups or whatever.
[00:30:41] Right.
[00:30:42] Those, those things, um, less, it's less prevalent in this, but it's interesting that it is there
[00:30:48] and what could have just been like a silly action movie.
[00:30:51] There's, there's a lot of like weird gravitas moments for him.
[00:30:54] Yeah.
[00:30:55] I think, um, you know, so Roy Shatter at this point has played a lot of cops in his career.
[00:30:59] Yeah.
[00:30:59] Yeah.
[00:30:59] Uh, and that is something that he was very much aware of going into blue thunder.
[00:31:02] And, uh, you know, he's had sort of been typecast into that role in the past.
[00:31:06] Uh, and so one thing that he did say to, uh, John Badham, to the filmmakers was like, listen,
[00:31:11] I will do this as long as I don't do just three.
[00:31:13] Uh, but also like if I'm playing a police officer, I don't want to ever be in uniform.
[00:31:18] Uh, interesting.
[00:31:19] And so, yeah, I don't think you ever actually see him like in a cop uniform and a police
[00:31:22] officer's uniform in this movie at all.
[00:31:24] Uh, that's wild.
[00:31:25] Cause I don't think in any of the movies that he's been a cop, he's been a uniformed police
[00:31:29] officer.
[00:31:29] He's always a detective in a suit.
[00:31:32] That is a good point.
[00:31:33] But, but I guess, I guess it's, it, you know, it's just being aware of that.
[00:31:38] Like if he's in, if he's now in a police uniform in this movie, like that's just going
[00:31:41] to cement it more in people's minds.
[00:31:43] Right.
[00:31:43] Yeah.
[00:31:44] Yeah.
[00:31:44] Um, yeah.
[00:31:45] And so to that, to that end, I did think, um, a French connection kind of came to
[00:31:48] mind for me.
[00:31:49] True.
[00:31:49] Um, which is a movie that's, you know, is, is really, really dark and really intense.
[00:31:53] Uh, and I think Frank Murphy in this movie sort of feels like a version of Popeye Doyle.
[00:31:59] Uh, whereas Roy Scheider in the, in French connection is not Popeye Doyle.
[00:32:02] He's Popeye Doyle's partner.
[00:32:03] Um, and he's definitely like more weary and like worldly than Daniel Stern is in this movie.
[00:32:08] Yeah.
[00:32:09] Uh, in French connection, Roy Scheider to that end, I think Roy Scheider in this movie
[00:32:13] sort of feels like a sanded down version of what Popeye Doyle is, uh, or not like the,
[00:32:17] the racist parts.
[00:32:18] Cause it's cause his character in this movie doesn't really do like do that.
[00:32:22] I don't remember any, anything specifically.
[00:32:24] Um, I'm more talking about, I'm more talking about like the broken down nature of his life.
[00:32:28] Yes.
[00:32:29] Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:32:30] You know, you go back to Popeye Doyle's apartment and it's a shithole and like the cheapest
[00:32:33] place there is.
[00:32:34] And you know, he's, you know, just drunk in his underwear when Roy Scheider comes in and all
[00:32:39] that kind of stuff.
[00:32:39] It's not like quite that extreme, but I think there is like elements of that in a shatters
[00:32:43] performance here too.
[00:32:44] And also like the, um, hyper competent at being his job.
[00:32:48] Like all the stuff is particularly in the beginning section with Daniel Stern, who's
[00:32:51] a rookie who's never done this before and like all that shit.
[00:32:53] And, uh, Murphy is able to like call out like, Oh, what's that car doing over there?
[00:32:58] And he's like, how do you even see that shit?
[00:33:00] The spotlight's not even on yet.
[00:33:01] And he can, you know, Scheider's character knows where stuff is and what he's got to, what
[00:33:06] he's got to do in that moment in the junkyard when the guy gets the drop on the, on the
[00:33:09] beat police.
[00:33:10] And he's like, we got to dust him.
[00:33:11] Right.
[00:33:11] And he like lowers the helicopter and all that stuff.
[00:33:13] So he gets the dirt in his face and all that.
[00:33:15] So like, he's a, he's a pro.
[00:33:16] He knows exactly what he's doing.
[00:33:17] And that is a through line between a lot of his, you know, even in, um, the movie,
[00:33:21] that French movie with the, when he's the assassin, right?
[00:33:24] The outside man, the outside man.
[00:33:26] Right.
[00:33:26] He's, he's, even though he fails in that, I think ultimately is the assassin, but you know,
[00:33:30] he's a terrifying hit man, right?
[00:33:32] Like, I don't know.
[00:33:32] Yeah.
[00:33:33] There's a through line there.
[00:33:34] Yeah.
[00:33:34] No, he's terrorizing the, the mother of Jackie Earl Haley and all that stuff.
[00:33:39] Watching Star Trek.
[00:33:40] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:33:42] Uh, any other scenes or moments in a blue thunder that stand out to you, Mike, anything that
[00:33:45] you wanted to especially mention?
[00:33:47] I think it's so funny.
[00:33:48] Just also in 1983, like the highest of technology and it's like CRT screens in the helicopter,
[00:33:56] right?
[00:33:56] With all the cameras and the microphones and stuff.
[00:33:58] And when they're like, they have to get in the helicopter to use the computer in the
[00:34:02] helicopter to search databases because they don't have them at the police station, right?
[00:34:08] Like all that stuff is fun.
[00:34:10] I think it's interesting that John Madden directed both this movie and war games in the same year,
[00:34:14] which are both like very tech driven, like action adventure thriller movies, you know?
[00:34:19] That's right.
[00:34:19] Yeah.
[00:34:19] The only move is not to play or whatever.
[00:34:21] I think is the final, the, the, the final thing of the movie.
[00:34:25] Yeah.
[00:34:25] I think you're right.
[00:34:26] I should watch war games again.
[00:34:27] Good movie.
[00:34:27] Four games.
[00:34:28] Good movie.
[00:34:28] Allie Sheedy.
[00:34:28] So great.
[00:34:29] Oh, that's right.
[00:34:30] I couldn't remember who the girl was in that.
[00:34:32] Yeah.
[00:34:32] It's Allie Sheedy.
[00:34:33] What a picture.
[00:34:33] The sequence when they first introduce blue thunder and it just made me think of Kong skull
[00:34:38] Island was like, did they take that shot from this Kong silhouetted against the sun
[00:34:44] or coming out of the sun as blue thunder coming out of the sun in this.
[00:34:48] I had assumed that the Kong, uh, shot was lifted from apocalypse.
[00:34:53] Now, uh, that's way more sense.
[00:34:56] Honestly.
[00:34:56] Yeah.
[00:34:57] But I wouldn't be surprised.
[00:34:59] Yeah.
[00:35:00] So that, that whole sequence when they introduced blue thunder and they're like, check this
[00:35:05] shit out.
[00:35:06] Uh, and they like are doing the demonstration in front of the audience and it's shooting
[00:35:10] up the street and, uh, hitting the, the terrorist cutouts or whatever and stuff until
[00:35:14] it starts to fail and blows up the school bus and all that shit.
[00:35:17] And that feels like some very pointed, uh, political commentary at the time.
[00:35:22] Yeah.
[00:35:23] There's one exchange where, uh, you know, it's, it's like even before it blows up the
[00:35:27] school bus, like it's blowing up the, the terrorist cutouts, but it is still occasionally
[00:35:31] hitting like a civilian part cutout.
[00:35:33] And somebody's like, oh yeah.
[00:35:34] So there's about one civilian dead for every 10 terrorists.
[00:35:37] That's an acceptable ratio.
[00:35:39] And Roy Scheider like kind of leans back and is like, not if you're the civilian.
[00:35:43] Yeah.
[00:35:45] Exactly.
[00:35:46] Yeah.
[00:35:46] So, uh, yeah, I mean, this movie is just bananas basically.
[00:35:49] Yes.
[00:35:50] Yeah.
[00:35:50] It's fun.
[00:35:51] No.
[00:35:51] Yeah.
[00:35:51] I, I, I do really love that sequence where you are introduced to blue thunder and you
[00:35:54] get to see like, see it in action.
[00:35:56] Like it's, it's Malcolm McDowell flying it at that point, I think.
[00:35:58] Right.
[00:35:58] It's, and, uh, yeah.
[00:36:00] And so you're seeing it like do, do what it's capable of and it's got all this firepower
[00:36:03] and all that stuff.
[00:36:04] And it's also got all the surveillance technology.
[00:36:06] Uh, and then, yeah, you get to see kind of Roy Scheider and Daniel Stern playing around
[00:36:09] with it, trying to figure out what, how to work blue thunder.
[00:36:12] What's the first thing they do?
[00:36:14] They look down a woman's shirt.
[00:36:16] There it is.
[00:36:16] The cops, baby.
[00:36:18] Yes, there it is.
[00:36:19] Uh, and so they do, but yeah.
[00:36:21] And they're like listening into people's conversations.
[00:36:23] Uh, and they also discover that there's like a huge database of files that's in blue
[00:36:27] thunder.
[00:36:27] They just look up anything.
[00:36:29] And I think Daniel Stern looks up himself and he's like seeing all these details about
[00:36:32] himself, but then they look up Frank Murphy.
[00:36:35] Yeah.
[00:36:35] There's nothing.
[00:36:36] It's not a single thing about Frank Murphy.
[00:36:38] What, what's happening here?
[00:36:40] What's his past?
[00:36:41] What's, what's the past?
[00:36:41] What's the conspiracy?
[00:36:43] Uh, he's like completely erased from the system.
[00:36:45] Uh, so yeah, I, I did like that kind of like, Ooh man, what does that mean?
[00:36:50] Yeah.
[00:36:50] Yeah.
[00:36:51] Yeah.
[00:36:52] I like the, uh, they see like a, um, a, like a highway patrol motorcycle parked in
[00:36:58] someone's driveway and they're like, what is, let's check this out, whatever.
[00:37:00] Right.
[00:37:01] And they, uh, that's when they, I think they like look up the plate number or whatever in
[00:37:05] the computer and find out who it, who, who's the officer it belongs to and stuff.
[00:37:09] And they turn on the microphones and they hear them having sex and him coming too fast,
[00:37:12] which is pretty wild to have in a movie where it's just like fully like, yeah, why I wasn't
[00:37:16] done yet.
[00:37:16] Why'd you, what happened?
[00:37:17] It's like, what is going on in this?
[00:37:18] Um, which is pretty funny, but, uh, that's what the kicks off the whole, well, search
[00:37:23] me search.
[00:37:24] Let's look up you and all this and that stuff.
[00:37:26] Um, and then, yeah, they, uh, I think after that run, right, they're supposed to come back
[00:37:30] to the police station, but they see, uh, Malcolm McDowell like peeling out of the parking
[00:37:34] lot and they think something's up.
[00:37:36] Yes.
[00:37:36] So they decide to follow him instead.
[00:37:38] And that's when they overhear the, the conspiracy.
[00:37:41] Yes.
[00:37:42] There's a great moment when I think it's Malcolm McDowell and like a bunch of people
[00:37:46] like, I think it's in that room and they're all, they're in the helicopter.
[00:37:48] They're being very quiet.
[00:37:49] Yeah.
[00:37:50] They're engaged whisper mode.
[00:37:51] Yes.
[00:37:52] It's just so funny.
[00:37:53] And so the helicopter is like, you know, hanging out outside the room, like bait, like
[00:37:57] in clear view of the window, the shade, the, the curtains are drawn.
[00:38:01] Uh, I guess so.
[00:38:02] That's the whole thing.
[00:38:03] Yeah.
[00:38:03] Cause he opens it.
[00:38:04] Yeah.
[00:38:05] It's the helicopters there.
[00:38:07] It's such a funny reveal when he like discovers that the helicopter is there.
[00:38:10] It's very good.
[00:38:11] And then yeah, Malcolm McDowell peels out and they, um, they get suspended or something
[00:38:15] like that.
[00:38:15] Like they get kicked off the force.
[00:38:17] Yeah.
[00:38:17] They get grounded.
[00:38:18] Turn in your bed.
[00:38:19] Turn in whatever.
[00:38:20] All that shit.
[00:38:20] Yeah.
[00:38:21] Yeah.
[00:38:21] And yeah.
[00:38:21] Malcolm, or, uh, Warren O's gets his ass chewed out and, uh, you know, he's, he'll
[00:38:25] be lucky if he's not driving a patrol car to cross town or whatever tomorrow.
[00:38:28] And then yeah, Daniel Stern dies.
[00:38:30] Uh, he gets killed.
[00:38:31] It's run over, like violently run over.
[00:38:34] Yes.
[00:38:34] It's gnarly.
[00:38:36] Uh, and so, yeah, now they have to kind of figure out how, why Daniel Stern died, how, who
[00:38:40] killed him, all that kind of stuff.
[00:38:42] And then, yeah, they got the incriminating tape and Kate runs it back to the, uh, uh,
[00:38:46] news station while Frank has like stolen blue thunder and is going on a rampage and like
[00:38:51] he's taken down Malcolm McDowell.
[00:38:53] It's good stuff, man.
[00:38:54] This last half hour is just so fun.
[00:38:55] I love that.
[00:38:56] There is like no indication other than that.
[00:38:59] Like he's a good pilot, right?
[00:39:00] Like they talk about that.
[00:39:01] He's, he's flipped a helicopter, which is like aerodynamically impossible or that whole thing.
[00:39:06] Done a loop de loop that like they talked about that, but then they send fighter jets to destroy,
[00:39:12] to, to blow him up once he's stolen the helicopter.
[00:39:14] And he's somehow like the best combat pilot that's ever lived.
[00:39:18] Right.
[00:39:19] They don't like, they don't set that up at all.
[00:39:20] I mean, other than that, he's a, like was a pilot in Vietnam, but they don't talk about like combat mission,
[00:39:25] like whatever, you know, all that kind of stuff.
[00:39:28] So, uh, but he's like tricking the heat, the heat guided missiles and like all that,
[00:39:32] like he parks over that smokestack above the barbecue place.
[00:39:35] Right.
[00:39:35] So that it will go to that instead of the helicopter.
[00:39:37] He flies in front of the sun reflecting off a mirror of a window.
[00:39:41] So it'll go to that, hit the building instead of the helicopter, like all this shit.
[00:39:44] And it rules.
[00:39:45] It looks awesome.
[00:39:46] That's when they're blowing up miniatures and you'll like never forget what they took from us.
[00:39:49] Yeah.
[00:39:49] Destroy this barbecue stand.
[00:39:51] Yeah.
[00:39:51] Fall into my knees in my living room.
[00:39:53] Like, nah, um, and, uh, all that stuff.
[00:39:57] But, uh, it just comes out of nowhere.
[00:39:58] It's so funny.
[00:39:59] Like, but, but it, but it rips.
[00:40:01] Um, and that's, and then, and then because he, it's, it's like fast and furious because
[00:40:05] he's decided his helicopter must loop de loop.
[00:40:08] It just does.
[00:40:09] He just can do, he just can do it.
[00:40:11] Um, um, and he, he gets, comes down behind Malcolm McDowell and, and was able to shoot
[00:40:17] him.
[00:40:17] Uh, but it rules.
[00:40:19] Yeah.
[00:40:19] The whole last 20 minutes action air to air combat is cool as hell.
[00:40:23] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:40:23] And so, yeah, he takes down Malcolm McDowell.
[00:40:26] He shoots him down or whatever.
[00:40:26] He does the loop de loop.
[00:40:27] And then he also, when he lands, he destroys blue thunder because he plays, he like lands
[00:40:32] it in front of like a freight train.
[00:40:33] And that's like coming down and lands it gets out and it explodes.
[00:40:37] And he's like, cool guys.
[00:40:39] Don't look at explosions.
[00:40:40] Walks away.
[00:40:41] Freeze frame.
[00:40:41] Yeah.
[00:40:42] Credits.
[00:40:42] Yeah.
[00:40:43] Pretty rad.
[00:40:44] But a picture, man.
[00:40:45] Yeah.
[00:40:45] And then, uh, yeah, the tape is made public and everybody who is, uh, conspiring to do
[00:40:50] all this stuff is arrested.
[00:40:51] Movie ends.
[00:40:52] That's it.
[00:40:53] Yeah.
[00:40:53] It's pretty cool.
[00:40:54] I mean, it's, yeah, it's interesting.
[00:40:55] And it's like, also they use the, the upcoming LA Olympics as an excuse for why we need to
[00:41:00] be testing this stuff.
[00:41:01] That's right.
[00:41:01] Yeah.
[00:41:01] So it's in case something happens like in Munich, right?
[00:41:04] Uh, you know, uh, assignment Munich, right?
[00:41:06] Um, right.
[00:41:07] All that.
[00:41:07] And, uh, but yeah, he ultimately discovers that, yeah, this is meant to be a, like a tool
[00:41:12] of oppression.
[00:41:13] Um, and that's, that's the grand conspiracy.
[00:41:15] It's an excuse to be able to use this against the citizens kind of thing.
[00:41:19] Yeah.
[00:41:19] Damn.
[00:41:20] Pressure.
[00:41:21] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:41:22] So yeah.
[00:41:22] Blue thunder rocks.
[00:41:23] Really fun.
[00:41:24] Yeah.
[00:41:24] It rules.
[00:41:25] What a picture.
[00:41:26] Uh, any other thoughts about this movie, Mike, before we move on to a letterbox reviews?
[00:41:29] No.
[00:41:30] Daniel Stern.
[00:41:30] What a guy.
[00:41:31] You know, I really don't know him from anything besides the home alone and the stuff we've
[00:41:36] seen in Chad.
[00:41:38] All right.
[00:41:38] Of course.
[00:41:38] But yeah, he rules in this.
[00:41:39] Yeah.
[00:41:40] He's, he's super fun.
[00:41:41] Yeah.
[00:41:41] I mean, he's in, yeah, obviously the home alone movies.
[00:41:43] He's also in the city slickers movies.
[00:41:45] Um, which around that time he was the narrator on the wonder years, um, which was a little
[00:41:50] bit before my time.
[00:41:51] And I really watched that show, but you know, that's, that's what he's also known
[00:41:53] for.
[00:41:54] Yeah.
[00:41:55] But yeah, but I've seen breaking away and diner and, uh, yeah, he's really good in both those
[00:41:58] movies popped.
[00:41:59] He was in a lot of stuff in like the eighties and nineties and then, yeah, just hasn't really
[00:42:01] been in that much lately.
[00:42:03] Good for him, I guess.
[00:42:04] Yeah.
[00:42:05] You know, I mean, like, like many other actors, he's almost 70.
[00:42:10] He's, he can, he can chill out if he wants to.
[00:42:12] Yeah.
[00:42:12] He can retire.
[00:42:13] He can do whatever.
[00:42:13] Uh, he was also the narrator in an episode of the Simpsons, three men in a comic book,
[00:42:17] a classic season two episode, uh, of the Simpsons.
[00:42:20] So got in on there early.
[00:42:21] So that's, that's neat.
[00:42:25] All right.
[00:42:25] Let's see.
[00:42:26] He's on for all mankind now.
[00:42:27] I didn't know that.
[00:42:27] Oh shit.
[00:42:28] Uh, yeah, I, I, so I've watched three seasons of for all mankind.
[00:42:33] Um, or I'm some, I'm getting into season three.
[00:42:36] Uh, I haven't picked up in a little while, but, uh, yeah, it looks like he's in season
[00:42:39] four.
[00:42:39] He's the new administrator of NASA, uh, in, in for all mankind.
[00:42:42] So that's cool.
[00:42:43] That's neat.
[00:42:43] I look forward to getting to that at some point, at some points.
[00:42:46] Uh, all right.
[00:42:47] Letterboxd reviews for a blue thunder.
[00:42:49] Yes.
[00:42:50] What are the people have to say?
[00:42:51] All right.
[00:42:51] Uh, got a lot of, uh, repeat people here, Mike, a lot of people who have been featured
[00:42:55] on these letterboxd reviews before.
[00:42:57] Oh.
[00:42:57] Uh, so first off, it's a four star review from Justin Liberty, uh, who's been featured
[00:43:01] a lot on the Roy Shatter season specifically, I think.
[00:43:03] Yeah.
[00:43:04] Uh, of course, uh, from cinematography who, uh, are putting out last embrace on blu-ray.
[00:43:08] Of course, the first thing that Daniel Stern does when getting control of the
[00:43:11] $5 million high tech helicopter is looked down a woman's shirt.
[00:43:15] I love how gopher broke crazy.
[00:43:17] This all is culminating in a last act that features a bisected cop car that continues
[00:43:21] driving down the highway and exploding barbecue shack that rains rotisserie chickens over little
[00:43:26] Tokyo.
[00:43:28] Fuck yeah.
[00:43:29] Yeah.
[00:43:29] Which absolutely it rules.
[00:43:31] Uh, here's a five star review from HK fanatic who, uh, used to pop up a lot on the Michelle
[00:43:36] Yo season of the podcast.
[00:43:37] Wonder what the HK stands for.
[00:43:38] Exactly.
[00:43:40] Uh, I realized John Badham is the definition of a journeyman director, but this film co-written
[00:43:45] by alien scribe Dan O'Bannon still feels unheralded to me.
[00:43:49] Blue Thunder is an absolute must see for fans of practical stunts and analog effects.
[00:43:53] An action movie I would comfortably rank alongside the likes of John Glenn's 007 outings and the
[00:43:58] best of James Cameron when it comes to sheer pick your jaw off the floor spectacle.
[00:44:03] Granted Roy Scheider's character is something of a cipher, a military vet turned cop who must
[00:44:08] overcome his residual PTSD from Vietnam by engaging in several aerial firefights over the greater
[00:44:13] Los Angeles area.
[00:44:14] But Scheider's still determination compensates for the script's shortcomings.
[00:44:18] And did I mention there are several aerial firefights over the greater Los Angeles area?
[00:44:23] Let me put it another way.
[00:44:24] I'm pretty sure when Tom Cruise tries to fall asleep at night, he doesn't count sheep.
[00:44:29] He counts blue thunders.
[00:44:33] Yeah.
[00:44:34] Okay.
[00:44:34] Sure.
[00:44:35] Yeah, sure.
[00:44:35] I could see it.
[00:44:36] Yeah.
[00:44:36] That makes sense.
[00:44:37] Uh, here's a three-star review, uh, from Thomas Ringdahl, which reads what a mad film this
[00:44:42] is.
[00:44:43] Uh, Scheider gets stern as his new observer and they spend the time getting him acquainted
[00:44:47] with the chopper's technology through spying on women.
[00:44:50] Then they go to a presentation of Blue Thunder, a presentation that horribly fails, killing a
[00:44:54] whole bunch of cardboard cutouts of civilians.
[00:44:56] Out of this killing machine steps Malcolm McDowell and the story has its villain, a Brit that
[00:45:01] for some reason was Scheider's superior officer in Vietnam.
[00:45:04] Yeah, wait a second.
[00:45:05] Yeah.
[00:45:06] Uh, Dan O'Bannon really outdid himself in presenting a script that wouldn't be fit to
[00:45:09] make the basis of a porn, let alone this action thriller.
[00:45:12] It's just incredibly lazy work that comes off as done in his sleep.
[00:45:15] Loved it when they typed Frank Murphy into the computer and only Scheider's character
[00:45:19] came up.
[00:45:19] Yeah.
[00:45:20] One Frank Murphy in the entire U.S.
[00:45:25] I believe it.
[00:45:26] Yeah, I can see it.
[00:45:26] Candy Clark does her best at being the second worst thing behind the script and wins that
[00:45:30] contest by a mile, but we're all here to watch Chopper Carnage anyway, right?
[00:45:34] And that we do get with little regard for collateral damage, which is to my satisfaction,
[00:45:38] I must admit.
[00:45:39] Too few innocent bystanders bite the dust nowadays.
[00:45:43] My palms came close to touching my face a couple of times there towards the end, but I did
[00:45:46] enjoy this immensely during the action sequences and save special mention for Warren Oates.
[00:45:51] I'm a big, big fan and his laconic devil make hair performance as Captain Braddock.
[00:45:55] P.S.
[00:45:55] This L.A.
[00:45:56] basin.
[00:45:57] Has it ever held water?
[00:46:01] No, not till this year.
[00:46:02] Remember?
[00:46:03] Yeah, that's true.
[00:46:04] Yeah.
[00:46:05] Anyway.
[00:46:06] I got one more of you here, Mike, and this is from someone returning from the Goldbloom
[00:46:10] season of the podcast, a four and a half star review from the Poetic Critic.
[00:46:15] Hey, welcome back to the pod.
[00:46:16] Yes.
[00:46:17] If the Poetic Critic is still listening, I'm sure they're excited.
[00:46:20] Yes.
[00:46:22] Action engaging.
[00:46:24] Premise still frightening.
[00:46:26] Acting fantastic.
[00:46:27] Striking as lightning.
[00:46:29] Whoa.
[00:46:29] Yeah.
[00:46:30] There it is.
[00:46:31] We missed the Poetic Critic.
[00:46:32] Yeah.
[00:46:32] I missed it too.
[00:46:33] We used to be, we could get a new Poetic Critic poem every Jeff Goldblum movie that came
[00:46:38] out, which was a lot of fun.
[00:46:39] And towards the end, like they were watching the movies like right ahead of us reviewing
[00:46:44] them so that we set their problems to get in there.
[00:46:46] That was great.
[00:46:47] And I, yeah, it's exciting.
[00:46:48] Exciting movie.
[00:46:49] It's crazy.
[00:46:49] There's a moment, the first time they crashed the helicopter after Malcolm McDowell like loosens
[00:46:54] the bolts or whatever.
[00:46:55] Yeah.
[00:46:56] That thing.
[00:46:56] And they crashed into a construction site.
[00:46:58] And it's so funny that the construction guys like help them out of the helicopter and
[00:47:02] then like kick their ass.
[00:47:03] They're like, get the fuck out of here.
[00:47:05] You broke our thing.
[00:47:06] Like they're all mad.
[00:47:07] They're like, yo, you're going to cause overtime.
[00:47:08] And they're like trying to kick them off the site.
[00:47:10] It's very funny.
[00:47:11] Yes.
[00:47:12] So, so good.
[00:47:13] Yeah.
[00:47:13] Blue Thunder.
[00:47:14] What a picture.
[00:47:14] Fun times.
[00:47:15] What a discovery.
[00:47:16] Yes.
[00:47:17] I'm glad we both really enjoyed it.
[00:47:19] And that's going to be it for this week's episode of The Complete Works.
[00:47:22] Mike D, where can we find you online this week?
[00:47:24] You can find me at MD Film Blog on Twitter and Letterboxd and Blue Sky.
[00:47:29] You can donate to support the show on our Ko-fi page, which is ko-fi.com slash Mike
[00:47:34] and Mike Pods, where you can also donate $50.
[00:47:36] Pick a bonus episode for Mike and Mike Go to the Movies.
[00:47:39] We'll talk about whatever you want.
[00:47:41] And it's the only way we're going to talk about Joker Faliadu, but I don't remember podcast
[00:47:45] time travel for when this will come out.
[00:47:47] So maybe somebody's already done it and we've already talked about it.
[00:47:49] Yeah, man.
[00:47:49] This will probably be out after the release of Joker Faliadu.
[00:47:53] You're welcome or I'm sorry.
[00:47:55] You can, if you also want merch, you can get merch on our Redbubble, which is mikeandmikepods.redbubble.com.
[00:48:01] Yes, you can.
[00:48:02] And you can find me online at msmithfilmblog on Twitter, Mike Smith Film on Letterboxd,
[00:48:06] and Radio Mike Sandwich on Instagram.
[00:48:08] Thanks so much for listening to Complete Works.
[00:48:09] I'm Mike Smith.
[00:48:09] That's Mike DiCrecio.
[00:48:10] Don't forget to rate and view the show on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast app.
[00:48:14] And if you want to contact us, you can tweet at us at Complete Works Pod.
[00:48:17] That's W-R-K-S, no O in the word works.
[00:48:19] And you can find the rest of our podcast on Rapture Press alongside many other podcasts,
[00:48:23] all kinds of comic books and movie news and all that good stuff.
[00:48:26] Our theme song was created by Kyle Cullen, who you can reach for your own podcast themes
[00:48:29] at kylespodcastthemes at gmail.com.
[00:48:32] And our logo was designed by Mac V or at Fearless Guard on Twitter.
[00:48:36] Next week, we are maybe talking a TV movie that Roy Scheider starred in,
[00:48:41] which aired just about a week or so after Blue Thunder hit theaters.
[00:48:44] And that is Jacobo Timerman, prisoner without a name, cell without a number.
[00:48:50] Now, I say maybe because we're not sure if we can find it.
[00:48:53] Right.
[00:48:54] If we can't find it, we're going to talk about the other TV movie that Roy Scheider starred in in 1983,
[00:48:59] which is called Tigertown, which we do have a copy of.
[00:49:02] Yes, he was firing on all cylinders, movies, TV movies.
[00:49:06] It's all happening.
[00:49:08] Yes, absolutely.
[00:49:10] The only two cylinders there are.
[00:49:11] Yes, indeed there were.
[00:49:13] He wasn't making the Blue Thunder TV show.
[00:49:15] He had to make some other TV stuff.
[00:49:16] That's right.
[00:49:16] Exactly.
[00:49:17] And remember to check out our other podcasts, Mike McGo to the movies,
[00:49:20] for all kinds of other movie-related stuff, including recent releases,
[00:49:23] ranked lists, general discussions, and a lot more.
[00:49:25] Thanks so much for listening, guys.
[00:49:27] And thanks for taking a ride on the Scheider side.
[00:49:31] Hell yeah.
[00:49:31] I figured this one should be Ride because it's a helicopter.
[00:49:34] It's a helicopter.
[00:49:35] Blue Thunder.
[00:49:35] That's the one, yeah.
[00:49:37] Yeah.
[00:49:38] Scheider Thunder.
[00:49:39] Blue Scheider.
[00:49:40] Blue Scheider, yeah.
[00:49:41] Blue Thunder.
[00:49:42] Blue Thunder.