#1 ·
This isn't a poll 😁
Just doing a little trip down memory lane here... thinking about those retro classics—those specific cinematic inventions that still carry a bit of a "life" of their own long after they left theaters.
Firefox (1982)
Blue Thunder (1983)
Black Moon Rising (1986)
Firefox - trailer Blue Thunder - trailer Black Moon Rising - trailer tri
Blue Thunder - trailer Blue Thunder - trailer Black Moon Rising - trailer tri
Black Moon Rising - trailer Black Moon Rising - trailer tri
Three movies where the entire plot hinges on some kind of high-end piece of tech—which, let's be honest, isn't exactly common in mainstream Hollywood—and none of them were ever intended to be anything more than standard summer action flicks meant to fill up theater schedules. Low ambitions, sure, but pretty interesting results nonetheless. I mean, none of them are reaching the level of all-time action masterpieces (though Blue Thunder pretty much always shows up on those lists of the most iconic 80s action hits), and the character development is... well, pretty shallow. The plot basically just serves as an excuse for the visual stunts involving whatever machine is driving the story, and... yeah, that's about the whole pitch for these films. Nowadays, they're seen as early examples of the hi-tech triler genre—following in the footsteps of The Hunt for Red October (that silent, high-tech sub... you know, the Russians 🤣) and, somewhat less successfully, Stealth (the one with the stealthy, AI-driven jet). Today, people mostly remember them by those "underground" descriptions passed around during the VHS era—Clint Eastwood stealing a top-secret Russian plane, that super-advanced police helicopter that can fly silently, and "that movie with the weird car that jumps over two towers at the end" (my personal favorite 🙂)... The line between reality and sci-fi has totally blurred since the Fire Fox plane and the Blue Thunder helicopter have become such common tropes, but the pioneers of these ideas—things that felt like pure sci-fi back then—are still holding their ground on screen.
I should probably mention the leads, too, because we're looking at three pretty heavy-hitting Hollywood names here, and their charisma is a huge reason why these movies still hold water. Firefox was never going to be the peak of old Clint Eastwood's career, but it sits there as a bit of an outlier since he wasn't exactly known for playing around with techno-gadgets. Roy Scheider was a solid name to have on a poster back then—a real guarantee of quality, even if he never quite hit that massive A-list status... he's always been one of my favorites. Then you've got Tommy Lee Jones, who was just starting to make his mark, backed up by Linda Hamilton, who was definitely the "it girl" right after The Terminator. Her role feels a bit like a consolation prize since that car in this movie doesn't actually get much screen time or much intrigue compared to the first two... so, while every one of these movies eventually hands the spotlight over to the "invention," the acting is enough to keep things moving.
Since I’m a total retro nerd who still lives for titles like these—just purely out of curiosity—I wanted to see if anyone else actually picks these up when they happen to be on... FOX seems to cycle through Firefox all the time, and Blue Thunder used to be a staple on cable back in the day. What’s the general consensus on them? Does the plot actually grab you, or does the tech feel convincing enough to stay immersed... or do you spend most of the runtime just kind of smirking at the screen, thinking about how much easier it would've been to pull this stuff off on a bigger screen back then?
Just doing a little trip down memory lane here... thinking about those retro classics—those specific cinematic inventions that still carry a bit of a "life" of their own long after they left theaters.
Firefox (1982)
Blue Thunder (1983)
Black Moon Rising (1986)
Firefox - trailer Blue Thunder - trailer Black Moon Rising - trailer tri
Blue Thunder - trailer Blue Thunder - trailer Black Moon Rising - trailer tri
Black Moon Rising - trailer Black Moon Rising - trailer tri
Three movies where the entire plot hinges on some kind of high-end piece of tech—which, let's be honest, isn't exactly common in mainstream Hollywood—and none of them were ever intended to be anything more than standard summer action flicks meant to fill up theater schedules. Low ambitions, sure, but pretty interesting results nonetheless. I mean, none of them are reaching the level of all-time action masterpieces (though Blue Thunder pretty much always shows up on those lists of the most iconic 80s action hits), and the character development is... well, pretty shallow. The plot basically just serves as an excuse for the visual stunts involving whatever machine is driving the story, and... yeah, that's about the whole pitch for these films. Nowadays, they're seen as early examples of the hi-tech triler genre—following in the footsteps of The Hunt for Red October (that silent, high-tech sub... you know, the Russians 🤣) and, somewhat less successfully, Stealth (the one with the stealthy, AI-driven jet). Today, people mostly remember them by those "underground" descriptions passed around during the VHS era—Clint Eastwood stealing a top-secret Russian plane, that super-advanced police helicopter that can fly silently, and "that movie with the weird car that jumps over two towers at the end" (my personal favorite 🙂)... The line between reality and sci-fi has totally blurred since the Fire Fox plane and the Blue Thunder helicopter have become such common tropes, but the pioneers of these ideas—things that felt like pure sci-fi back then—are still holding their ground on screen.
I should probably mention the leads, too, because we're looking at three pretty heavy-hitting Hollywood names here, and their charisma is a huge reason why these movies still hold water. Firefox was never going to be the peak of old Clint Eastwood's career, but it sits there as a bit of an outlier since he wasn't exactly known for playing around with techno-gadgets. Roy Scheider was a solid name to have on a poster back then—a real guarantee of quality, even if he never quite hit that massive A-list status... he's always been one of my favorites. Then you've got Tommy Lee Jones, who was just starting to make his mark, backed up by Linda Hamilton, who was definitely the "it girl" right after The Terminator. Her role feels a bit like a consolation prize since that car in this movie doesn't actually get much screen time or much intrigue compared to the first two... so, while every one of these movies eventually hands the spotlight over to the "invention," the acting is enough to keep things moving.
Since I’m a total retro nerd who still lives for titles like these—just purely out of curiosity—I wanted to see if anyone else actually picks these up when they happen to be on... FOX seems to cycle through Firefox all the time, and Blue Thunder used to be a staple on cable back in the day. What’s the general consensus on them? Does the plot actually grab you, or does the tech feel convincing enough to stay immersed... or do you spend most of the runtime just kind of smirking at the screen, thinking about how much easier it would've been to pull this stuff off on a bigger screen back then?
