Blue Thunder

Factual error: Cochrane chases Murphy in a Hughes 500 which has a top speed of 147 mph and easily keeps up with him, demonstrating that Blue Thunder's top speed is less than 150 mph. The F-16s sent after Blue Thunder have a stall speed of 175 mph. They would have to slow down to the point of falling out of the sky to have a shot at Murphy. Its utterly impractical and far more likely that the military would have sent AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters after him.

Grumpy Scot

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Not necessarily. The F16 (and other fast movers) can and do engage slow moving helos all the time. They just engage them by missile from a long distance, where speeds are irrelevant.

stiiggy

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't think the US Military keeps helicopter crews on Alert Status like they do for fighters. This film was during the Cold War, so maybe, but it wouldn't make sense to keep an attack helicopter crew (and ground crew) on Alert like they would for fighter jets. Even after 9/11, I wouldn't think a (armed) helicopter crew would be beneficial to keep.

Factual error: When the F-16s take off to shoot down the Blue Thunder, both planes have the same tail number 068. All military jets have individual tail numbers. (01:30:25)

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Mistakes

Other mistake: Murphy lands the helicopter on a railway line so an oncoming train will destroy it completely, and this happens exactly on cue with huge, dramatic explosions and flying debris. Apparently the train driver doesn't think this is important enough to interrupt his busy schedule - he doesn't stop the train. We do not hear brakes being applied - the wheels would make a noise like the sky coming down - and the train doesn't slow down at all - it just keeps on going.

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Quotes

Frank Murphy: That's Cochrane, F.E., US Army.
Lymangood: Cochrane, F.E. What's the "F.E." stand for?
Frank Murphy: "Fuck Everybody."

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Trivia

Trivia: The registration number N77GH is visible on a gold placard on right surveillance camera' but only civilian aircraft are given November numbers. Military helicopters only have a series of numbers like on the tail. You aren't supposed to notice Blue Thunder's real "N" number, but it is there throughout the movie making it known it was truly a civilian helicopter.

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Questions

Question: Near the end, Cochrane wants to kill Murphy. Why do it in the air? Even if Cochrane did wipe him out, the only way he would have to do that was to destroy the helicopter completely when he had the chance; instead, he injured Murphy and disabled the cannon somewhat, which is painful to watch and understandable, for fear of collatoral damage or simply because he did not want to blast it out of the sky and foot the bill. But the helicopter costs '$5 million', and even if Cochrane had the money, it would have been cheaper to take Murphy out on land instead of in public and in broad daylight.

Allister Cooper, 2011

Chosen answer: Murphy has been deemed a threat to the public at large by the authorities, having "snapped" and stolen an armed helicopter. Cochrane is using that determination as cover to finally kill Murphy, whom he's long despised. Killing Murphy on the ground would be harder to get away with. He would not be responsible for paying for the helicopter anymore than the Air Force or the other police helicopter crews would be had they sucessfully knocked Blue Thunder down.

johnrosa

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