Blue Thunder is now 26 years old, The film revolves around Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) a Los Angele’s Police Department (LAPD) helicopter pilot and troubled Vietnam War veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  The night shift is about to begin Murphy is assigned a new partner Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern) who is given the nickname “JAFO” the pair take off in one of the helicopters while on patrol they spot an abandoned vehicle with no plates,  in the Brentwood neighborhood,  pretty upscale.  They called it in and continue on patrol,  later that evening they are called back to the the same area to assist ground units in arresting two suspects for robbery and rape of city councilwoman Diane McNeely who later dies in hospital.  The next day Murphy is informed that he and his co-pilot have been chosen to test pilot an advanced helicopter nicknamed “Blue Thunder” which is to be used by the LAPD.  That afternoon Murphy is taken to a demonstration for this new helicopter which has a chain gun in the nose capable of dealing out precise firepower,  a full surveillance platform with video,  infra-red  and audio capabilities as well as a whisper mode which cancels a lot of the noise from the blades and turbine boost for the two turbines for extra amount of power and can also access almost any computer database in the world.   When the Blue Thunder lands after the demonstration,  Murphy is surprised to see an old nemesis on board Colonel Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell) commander of his unit in Vietnam.  The next night Murphy and Lymangood fly Blue Thunder for a test flight at night they find plenty of harmless targets to test the various capabilities of Blue Thunder on,  as they are returning to base they spot Cochrane leaving and decide to follow him who ends up at the Federal building.  Hovering outside Murphy orders whisper mode activated, thermal vision activated and audio surveillance activated,  Murphy and Lymangood listen in on Cochrane’s conversation with a group of government officials discussing the killing of councilwoman McNealy.  Then Cochrane looked out the window only to see Blue Thunder looking back at him,  Murphy and Lymangood quickly return to base.  Lymangood quickly removed the tapes of Cochrane’s conversation from Blue Thunder and went home and hid the tapes,  Murphy went to see Braddock only to find Icelan in Braddock’s office thus leaving Murphy with no choice but to keep silent.  The next morning Lymangood was killed,  Murphy goes to  Astro Division HQ and sneaks into the main hangar and onto Blue Thunder he reinserted the fuse into the cockpit recorder and found Lymangood’s last message,  he hid the video tape in a dumpster out by a drive in theater’s projection shack.  Murphy quickly put on his helmet and started Blue Thunder´s engines and took off just as Cochrane and others were deciding what to do next they saw him take off.  Murphy quickly used mobile operator to place two calls,  one to Alf Hewitt the channel 8 investigative reporter and one to Kate (Candy Clark) his girlfriend,  asking her to go find the tape at the dumpster.  Kate goes to the dumpster out by a drive in theater’s projection shack and obtains the tape only to chased by the police, she is stopped on a bridge and the officers with pistols drawn order her out of her car when Murphy shows up in Blue Thunder.  The officers were distracted by Blue Thunder so Kate drove away.  The officers tried to pursue but Murphy activated the cannon and in a quick burst cut the police car in half allowing Kate to escape.  Kate made it to Channel 8 and gave the tape to Alf Hewitt but not before she was nearly stopped in the lobby by Fletcher who was killed by a security guard.   Cochrane has ordered two Air Force fighters to shoot down Murphy in Blue Thunder,  one of the fighters fires a Sidewinder missile at Murphy but misses and blows a BBQ restaurant to bits instead.  Murphy activates the nose cannon and with a long burst caught one of the F-16′s in the wing.  The pilot ejects before the plane explodes,  Murphy watches the F-16 pilot drifting back down to earth under his parachute when Cochrane attacks from his blind side wounding Murphy and causing the nose cannon to be jammed in the straight ahead position.   The two adversaries dogfight among the skyscrapers and landmarks of the city Murphy decides to end it he enables the turbine boost on both engines and goes for a 360 vertical loop,  Cochrane tries to follow but Blue Thunder has already completed the loop and with his cannon pointing up as Cochrane’s chopper is stuck in the sky, trying to loop but can’t Murphy fires and Cochrane’s chopper explodes.  The sky is getting dark Murphy spots a freight train traveling at a moderate speed and lands Blue Thunder ahead of the train and walks away as the train smashes Blue Thunder into pieces.

Roy Scheider

Roy Scheider was an American actor he was best known for his role as Police Chief Martin Brody in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jaws (1975). His films include The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964), Paper Lion (1968), Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1969), Klute (1971), The French Connection (1971), The Outside Man (1972), The Assassination (1972), The Seven Ups (1973), Jaws (1975), Marathon Man (1976), Sorcerer (1977), Jaws 2 (1978), All That Jazz (1979), Blue Thunder (1983), 2010 (1984), The Russia House (1990), Naked Lunch (1991), Romeo is Bleeding (1994), The Peacekeeper (1996), The Rainmaker (1997), Chain of Command (2000) and The Punisher (2004).   He has appeared in TV series such as seaQuest DSV,  The Seventh Scroll,  Third Watch and Law and Order Criminal Intent.  Roy Scheider died on February 10 2008 aged 75 in Little Rock,  Arkansas at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital.

Malcolm McDowell

Malcolm McDowell is an English actor his career has spanned more than forty years his films include if (1968), Figures in a Landscape (1970), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Aces High (1976), Cat People (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), Get Crazy (1983), Sunset (1988), Moon 44 (1990), The Player (1992), Night Train to Venice (1993), Cyborg 3 The Recycler (1994), Star Trek Generations (1994), Milk Money (1994), Tank Girl (1995), Fist of the North Star (1995), I Spy (2002), Hidalgo (2003), Halloween (2007) and Doomsday (2008).   He has appeared in TV series such as Law & Order Criminal Intent, Heroes, Entourage and Monk.   He has also provided the voices for Dr Calico a character in Disney’s Bolt,  Metallo in Superman The Animated Series and Mad Mod in the cartoon Teen Titans.   He has also provided the voice for the character President John Henry Eden in the video game Fallout 3.

Warren Oates

Warren Oates was a American actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah.  His films include In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969), There Was a Crooked Man (1970), The Hired Hand (1971), Two Lane Blacktop (1971), The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973), Badlands (1973), Dillinger (1973), Cockfighter (1974), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), The White Dawn (1974),  Race with the Devil (1975), 92 in the Shade (1975), The Brink’s Job (1978), 1941 (1979), Stripes (1981), Blue Thunder (1983) and Tough Enough (1983).    He has appeared in TV series such as Wagon Train, Tombstone Territory, Rawhide, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, The Twilight Zone and Lost in Space.   Warren Oates died of a sudden heart attack in Los Angeles, California on April 3 1982 at the age of 53.

Candy Clark

Candy Clark is an American film and television actress her films include Fat City (1972), American Graffiti (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Handle with Care (1977),  The Big Sleep (1978),  When You Comin Back, Red Ryder (1979),  More American Graffiti (1979), National Lampoon’s Movie Madness (1982),  Blue Thunder (1983),  Amityville 3-D (1983), Cat’s Eye (1985), At Close Range (1986), The Blob (1988), Cool as Ice (1991), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and Cherry Falls (2000).   She has appeared in TV series such as Perry Mason, Banacek,  Starman,  Magnum PI,  St Elsewhere, Father Dowling Mysteries and Baywatch Nights.

Daniel Stern

Daniel Stern is an American actor of film and television. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films.   His films include Breaking Away (1979), Starting Over (1979), Stardust Memories (1980), Diner (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), C.H.U.D. (1984), Frankenweenie (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), D.O.A. (1988), Little Monsters (1989), Home Alone (1990), City Slickers (1991), Home Alone 2 Lost in New York (1992), Rookie of the Year (1993), City Slickers II The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994), Bushwhacked (1995), Celtic Pride (1996), Very Bad Things (1998) and The Last Time (2006).  He has appeared in Tv series such as SeaQuest DSV, Gun, Danny and Regular Joe.

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