Roy Scheider, Warren Oates, Candy Clark

"Suspense in a void" is how critic Pauline Kael described this action-packed hit from 1983. In other words, this is one of those flashy, superbly crafted high-tech thrillers in which the star is a mac...( read more  read more... )hine, while intelligent plotting and human characters are a lesser priority. The machine in question is Blue Thunder--a heavily armored prototype helicopter that is secretly being tested for use in a devious government conspiracy. Roy Scheider plays the police pilot who catches on to the nefarious plot and takes to the skies against an evil army colonel (Malcolm McDowell) who will defend his coconspirators at any cost. Director John Badham was a hot property in the early '80s (he directed WarGames the same year), and Blue Thunder served as the popular model for many formulaic action thrillers to follow. That doesn't make it a great movie, but with a fine cast (including Daniel Stern in a memorable supporting role) and a dazzling aerial chase among big-city skyscrapers, Blue Thunder qualifies as slick entertainment. --Jeff Shannon

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50% liked it

7,979 ratings

R, 1 hr. 49 min.

Directed by: John Badham

Release Date: May 13, 1983

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DVD Release Date: May 22, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (283)


  • September 28, 2009
    Blast from the past,this superb action movie from 1983 still stands tall.Yes its a little dated but the theme and story line stand up well even now.Roy Scheider give a wonderful perfromace as frank murphy a police helicopter polet with a dodgy past.What is the best thing about th...( read more)e movie is the dog fight in the last 30 mins or so.Its well done and with no CGI at the time makes the stunts so more incredable.Need to see to believe and even todays standed its still brillant and no film that i seen as come close.If you not seen it yet get a copy now and if you got a blu ray player see it in that its so cool...
  • October 31, 2008
    Another 80's flick that finds itself relevent today. Politics, military equipment in police hands and invasion of privacy play just as well now as they did then.
  • May 16, 2007
    Even when I was a teenage boy, I still found this dull. Basically a helicopter gunship goes round shooting things and erm...well, that's about it. There isn't even that much action.
  • February 24, 2007
    Awesome movie, no wonder I was hooked on helicopters as a kid with a movie like this and Airwolf on TV every week.
  • September 16, 2008
    Ha,a terrible example of a chaotic script gone bad.An averagely made film,out of the huge number of productions specifically made for the "legendary" U.S. 80's of action-packed thrillers and methodical collisions.It's not really horrible.The unbelievably disjoint theory of helico...( read more)pters conquering the skies is a truly weak point,no human contains a decent storyline and even if it's not measured as Badham's late failures e.g. Nick of Time,it still was a film with potential.
  • October 31, 2009
    For it's time...I loved that helicopter, until I realized it was just a mock up of the Apache"
  • August 24, 2009
    masa kecik minat gila 2
  • March 14, 2009
    The helicopter rules
  • February 21, 2009
    An 80s classic. not to be taken seriously. Just a fun action flick.
    one question... why does every cop in the 80s was named murphy?
  • February 14, 2009
    Cops in choppers, started off slowly, was starting to look like a decent enough flick and then, overkill, shame!

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Blue Thunder Trivia


  • Who is the late actor(RIP) who yells this quote in "Blue Thunder".."I like morals Frank, and the moral of this story is, when you're walking on eggs, don't hop!" is it..  Answer »
  • What type of actual Military helicopter was used in the movie,"Blue Thunder"?   Answer »
  • What did the acronym JAFO stand for in "Blue Thunder"?  Answer »
  • What actor in "Blue Thunder"utters the response to the question "feeling any pressure Murph?" with"Yeah, about 15 pounds per square inch at sea level!"   Answer »

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