Five Great Fighter Plane Movies

If you’re a flying buff, you can take flying lessons, get a license, or even buy your own plane. But unless you’re in the Air Force, what you can’t do is engage in even mock aerial combat. What with fighter planes being one of the more appealing aspects of modern warfare, though, you’d think you could at least indulge in whole libraries of great films centered around aerial warfare. The trouble is since shooting aerial combat can be a technical challenge, a lot of filmmakers either focus too much of their attention and budget on aerial combat sequences or too little, resulting in either a mix of excellent aerial shooting and bad story, directing, acting – or vice versa.

It’s a rare film that gets commended both for the authentic eye candy of its fight sequences and for its other elements. Here’s a short list of some films that get it right, as well as some that don’t quite but still made it into the list of classics.

Battle of Britain

In 1970, Battle of Britain was the most popular movie selling reserved tickets at the British box office, and its popularity with flying buffs and movie critics survives up to now. A good part of the reason for this WWII movie’s consistent appeal is the sheer attention to detail in the production values: a large all-star international cast, spectacular flying sequences on a scale never seen before its making, and participants in the original battle serving as consultants. Contrary to the custom of the time of using Anglophone actors to play German parts, they even got German-speaking actors and just added English subtitles.

Top Gun

The critics weren’t too fond of this Jerry Bruckheimer film, but what everyone agrees on is that they got the sound and effects right. For a whole lot of people though, this was apparently enough: the movie was the highest grossing film of 1986 and took in over $350 million. It’s also been nominated in several of the American Film Institute’s lists, being noted for its thrilling action, inspiring tone, and memorable hero.

Sky Fighters: Les Chevaliers du Ciel

This is a French film about two air force pilots preventing a terrorist attack on the Paris Bastille Day celebrations. While it’s based on a comic book series, a whole lot of realism went into it: Filmed in cooperation with the French Air force, filming of flight sequences was done from the air, in contrast to Top Gun, where they did filmed from the ground. The film crew also got special permission to do the filming on the actual Bastille Day. Standard safety rules were bent to reduce minimum allowed altitude to 10 feet and the minimum distance between aircraft to 3 feet. All this realism shows in the final cut, and despite problems with the story and less than spectacular acting, the awesome aerial stunts and jaw-dropping flight footage using the Dassault Mirage 2000 make this a must for every flying buff’s collection.

Hell’s Angels

Filmed in 1930 by Howard Hughes, this movie about World War I combat pilots had a bit of a rough takeoff, with controversy from the accidental deaths of several pilots, an inflated budget, a lawsuit against a competitor, and repeated postponements of its release date. Despite all this, its weak initial performance at the box office, and negative comments on its plot and acting, Hell’s Angels eventually earned its production cost twice over, an inflation-adjusted take of $110 million. It’s now considered one of the first sound blockbuster action films, and no less than Stanley Kubrick called Hell’s Angels one of his favorite movies. The film also catapulted its female lead, Jean Harlow, into international stardom and sex symbol status, despite harsh reviews from critics on her acting.

Twelve O’Clock High

This story about US Air Force aircrews who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany scored a hit on many different levels: it was a box office success in 1949, the year of its release; two of its four Academy Award nominations resulted in Oscar wins; it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant;” and it’s used to this day by both military and civilian organizations to teach leadership.

Authenticity plays a huge role in the film’s success: The screenwriters drew on their own wartime experiences with fighter bomber units, and Twelve O’Clock High was produced with the full cooperation of the Air Force and made use of actual combat footage during the battle scenes, including some shot by the Luftwaffe. They even crash-landed an actual B-17 bomber. The result: veterans of the heavy bomber campaign frequently cited the movie as the only Hollywood flick that accurately captured their combat experiences, and the commander of the Strategic Air command told the screenwriters after the premiere that he “couldn’t find anything wrong with it.”

Brandon Peters is an entrepreneur, writer, and aviation enthusiast. When not playing flight sims, he looks up planes for sale online.