One of the Zero/T6 Texan pilots from the film passed recently. Tom Gregory, old P47 pilot. He was a good friend of my father. When I was growing up Tom would take me up for some flight time here and there. It was a blast. Thanks Tom.
When I got HBO in my apartment in 1981 while attending college, this movie was the main flick the first month of the service. This movie had so much impact on my life that eventually I served on the first Nimitz-class carrier in the Pacific Fleet, and subsequently the first Nimitz carrier at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. Sadly ... no Zeros were to be seen.
Great story. A similar thing happened to me after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. I went to college, earned a graduate degree and explored much of this ole' world while wearing fedora. :)
I was stationed on the USS Nimitz from 1981 - 1985 and saw this movie countless times. I was especially impressed with the F-14's maneuverability in this scene. I had already learned that at the time there were no actual Zeros flying, so Hollywood used T-6 Texans as "Hollywood" Zeros, so the speeds of the aircraft were much slower than an actual Zero. The F-14s still did a great job of maneuvering at what must have been just above stall speed.
at the Cleveland Airshow in the 90's they had a mock dogfight between an F14 and a P 51 Mustang.. the F 14 did EVERYTHING the P 51 could do... they broke and did an opposed circle ... the P 51 went by at full throttle at about 450 mph... then banked away.. from the opposing direction the F 14 came by with wings pulled back going almost 700.. full afterburner.... the sound was behind the plane by 200 feet or so ... very close to the sound barrier ... it took a couple days for my goosebumps to go back down ... whole demo reminded me of eagle chasing a crow ... F14 was huge by comparison... with wings forward, the F14 stuck to it easily ..
Never would have been allowed. For one, the other commentors are correct in that the entire incident would have been classified top top top secret. Secondly, in the time period that the NIMITZ returns back to, the US Navy (including the Nimitz) would be participating in CIN-PAC maneuvers in the Pacific, and this includes our ALLIES the Japanese and the South Koreans. It would raise TONS of questions, why an American jet would have the kill mark for a (current) ally in the Pacific ;) LOL.
LOL, if he would have done that, then probably some weeks later, a US plane goes missing over Japanese controlled airspace... And then a Japanese fighter pilot suddenly would have appeared during joint maneuvers with a white star painted on the side of his F-15.
I was plane captain on the DET to Key West for filming the flying scenes. We painted 2 kill flags on 203. If you know where to look you can make them out in one of the scenes in the movie. I believe I am the only one with a photo - Link - i.imgur.com/kKD3Flw.jpg
Certainly in the upper echelon for 1941 - there were faster planes available but not by a whole lot at the time and pretty much all carrier fighters had a top speed in the range of 325-340 mph. It wasn't until 1943-44 that the Americans had a decisive speed advantage with the Hellcat.
I saw this in the theater when it came out. It was fairly empty but there were a couple of sailors a few rows in front of me. When the Zero's were shot down they put their arms in the air crying out "YEAH!". Just one of those memories in life. Great movie.
6:54 As goofy as this movie is, it's the ONLY movie that actually uses the real sound of a Vulcan cannon. So many movies make it sound like a freaking M-60 when they fire.
Not fast enough to save the SS Gatsby though. My Great Grand Uncle Harvey served aboard as captain and went down with the ship, because he couldn’t swim.
I feel exactly the same way when I see this scene. I don't know what it is but it makes me feel so proud to be an American when I see this and really proud of our Navy too. I'm really sorry that I never joined but that's another story. I feel like I really missed out on something. Oh well, what can you do.
The aerial photography on the F14s is what makes it. The pilots were really showing off for the camera. The F14 really looked pretty even with the wings spread wide, which was the only way they could possibly stay with those Zero err T6 Texans. Oh and did you notice the F14 using his flaps? Again in flying so slowly the pilot was using every trick in the book. I would even bet he split his throttles to get that big turkey to move like that.
when I started my 32 year career at Grumman I watched this movie many times,loved the flight deck scenes.A lot of people dont realize just how awesome the Tomcat was. I am proud to have worked on Hawkeyes , Tomcats, Greyhounds and Prowlers , all very awesome ,,the Hawkeye is still in service now.
We grunts are damn grateful to everyone involved in aviation, military and civilian. I worked closely with rotary-wing, of course. I also got to watch an F-16 smoke an insurgent strong point with a 500-pounder. Aviation has saved the lives of more ground-pounders than we could ever know. Sometimes the mere presence of aircraft was enough to deter any would-be attackers. If one of our birds even took fire, we were REDCON 1, if not already en route. Again, thank you very much. Charlie-Mike, we got your six.
and all the shots on the Nimitz, the crew was actually servicemen and film crew just had to film them. so yes in a way alot of this movie was paid for by taxpayers
This scene gave me so much pride in America as a teenager, and quite the woody too! Back in the day when Ronald Regan was in charge and the America was great!
RIP Charles Durning, the actor playing Senator Samuel Chapman. (February 28, 1923 - December 24, 2012) He was a decorated WW2 vet & he was in first wave of infantry landing on Omaha beach during D-Day. He was the ONLY survivor of his unit that day. Just nine days after D-Day he severely wounded by a German anti-personnel mine, taking six months to fully recover. He later saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. By war's end he was decorated with the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts.
@@larrymor I'm not sure there's that many.....but by God, even at 82 I still hear well enough to man a sonar and I would love to ride a modern boat.....ETR2(SS)
Charles Durning was a big hit with the sailors during filming, when they were at the hotel bar. If he saw anybody from the ship he would tell them to join him and he'd buy them a beer. Ironically the only actor/actress they had a sour experience with was Katherine Ross who wasn't very nice. They wanted to say hi and she was like no I don't want to meet them, they were getting ready to film the refueling scene and another plane flew up next to them with a camera and asked if ready. Nodded and held up a sign to the camera then the plane returned back to the ship so the scene can be shot. Next day in the daily screenings first thing comes up was the camera shot of the plane with the sign reading " F U Katherine Ross! We didn't want to meet you anyways!"
Yeah, yeah. Except it never happened. All a lot of U.S. smug superiority. The reality of it was that the Japanese had air superiority over anything the U.S. had in planes in 1941.
Truth is stranger than fiction. The X wing foils being moved to attack position is a fictional nod to the sweep back of real life variable geometry aircraft. Not explaining myself very well here.
Should have been in New Zealand when it came out. We were at Wellington during a port call and were specially invited for the showing. We started cheering and shouting kick there asses etc. I looked over across the aisle at the important older invited New Zealanders in suits and nice dresses thinking were gonna get kicked out. And they were smiling and laughing at us. They knew we had just come from the Indian Ocean during the hostage crises and wanted some payback. Also I think a lot of them were WWII vets.
As a helicopter pilot, I met the guy who flew the camera ship. Getting a 90 knot helicopter, 140 knot T6, and a 500 knot F14 in the same place at the same time was somewhat challenging
On the DVD, interview with The Jolly Rogers. They said it's like trying to get 3 pool balls hitting each other at same time which was impossible, they reached out to Frank Pine who had a B-25 camera plane and helped a little bit to get the scene. They said we got it 1 out of 5 times lol. Oh the camera guy in the back of the camera plane was shooting down the nose of the F-14 for the refueling scene, wanted to touch the probe with his foot. Even though Mullens shook him off, he went ahead and got launched back in the plane from the static charge. Camera guy showed up later with huge curly hair lol
I hope folks remember that this was BEFORE the age of CGI, so we're being treated to real and beautiful LIVE ACTION footage of actual planes flying around. There are some seriously beautiful aerial action cinematography in this sequence :)
You know, Iran still has some in active service. Big part of why the US was too afraid to attack them. Iran has not only maintained theirs, but they have MODERNIZED theirs, to use 21st Century munitions.
I really loved this movie as a kid. Too bad F-14s were just too expensive for the USN to maintain. I mean Super Hornets are great and all and far more cost effective, but the Tomcat's looks and performance was just so awesome.
Wedge Antilles And to add to that, the F-22 and F-35 are late-80s to late-90s designs that are put into production in the 2000s. Just some fun facts. :)
And the F/A-18 started life as the YF-17 that lost the lightweight fighter competition to the F-16 and they Navy went hmm let's take a closer look at that.
Wedge Antilles F/A-18 is a beautiful little plane. A worthy replacement for F-14. But personally, I don't like Super Hornet's design. It's like the cute lil' F/A-18 had a plastic surgery and some ridiculous boob job, and end up becoming Super Hornet. Those square air intake really turned me off.
Absolutely one of my favorite Navy movies. A spectacular "what-if" scenario. I watched this movie when it was released while I was in the Navy at NTTC Meridian, MS
Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (the Jolly Rogers), assigned to Carrier Air Wing Seven, currently flying the FA-18F Super Hornet. See the Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFA-103
I watched this as a kid. My dad explained to me how much damage one tomcat could do. Then now I go to explain it to my kids. My kid asked me the same question I asked my dad. Loved it. Just the jet wash from the tomcats cutting close and cutting turns in front of those zeros would most likely down them.
If I remember correctly, Ward Carroll did a video about the filming of this movie, and said that the wild maneuvering when the Tomcats passed the Zeros wasn't scripted, but they actually almost went down due to the jet wash.
almost did. I saw an interview about this movie some years ago where the pilot related to the person being interviewed that when the F14s flew by the backwash is what flipped him up on his wingtip and he nearly lost the plane. The Tomcats were going 300 mph faster than they were scripted too for the scene cuz the pilots ere hotshoting.
I love this flick!! Can you image the shock of sitting in tranquil waters in 1941, and two F-14 Tom Cats fly over you at about 300 mph, 50 feet off the deck!! Such a great scene!!
They were doing more than 300mph,planes of the 4th generation if they fly slow as 300,more than half the time would have the air brakes out. But,you're right,it was a cool scene.
Would this be like today, only UFO's come flying overhead at about 100' and hovering, then a bright light shines down on you and you wet your pants???? LOL
The man on the yacht in the blue shirt is Charles Durning who went ashore at Omaha beach with the Big Red One in one of the first assault waves. Severely wounded later in the bocage, he spent 6 months recovering before he supposedly broke out of the hospital to rejoin his unit just in time for the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, 3 purple hearts and a boat load of other citations. Durning might be best know for his "wonderful performance" as Pappy O'Daniel in 'O Brother Where Art Thou.'
@@ussakira7294 mhm ok grandpa, go back to watching films which looks like theyre just satire cabaret. Like, grandpa, if u watch marvel movie what do you expect? Practical effects? Watch the movie that doesnt need cgi, and u wont have cgi.
Seeing those two magnificent planes sweep their wings back reminds me of two thoroughbred horses laying their ears back and going into a full-speed gallop. What a plane.
This is probably one of the coolest, one sided, what if stories that could've ever been told if they had gone through with their defence of Pearl Harbor.
Epic on board and in-flight photography highlight this imaginative adventure tale. Kirk Douglas, at this late stage of his career, was excellent, and the supporting cast was terrific. The time travel aspects of the movie are very interesting. It is a shame that more roles are not available for older actors like Douglas.
no shit right? a million dollar missile t take out a 30 thousand dollar zero? that's like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant. and what pilot would do that when the most desired kill to this day is a gun kill.
Sporkmaker5150 and did you notice? The captain of the yacht takes two 20mm shells to the chest during the first strafing run, Yet he somehow didn’t explode into a fine red mist
We used Twenty-Mike-Mikes in WWII. Fifties were adequate against the Japanese planes but the cannon's explosive shells were mighty helpful against the German bandits.
The only part of the movie that I liked. But it's interesting to think 1 aircraft carrier from today could have wiped out the entire Japanese invasion fleet.
The Nimitz was (is) nuclear armed, so it could have defeated the entire Axis, not just the invasion fleet, limited only by its supply of jet fuel and ability to somehow get more if needed.
Yeah, the Japanese carrier strike force was really lousy! Just to think we could have wiped them all clean out of the ocean by simply sending one "Nimitz" class carrier back in time...
One of my favorite movies! My friend Bob Lambert who retired as the "top" film editor at Warner Brothers Burbank (around 20 years ago), was the editor and 2nd Unit Director on this film. He also was the editor on the original Rollerball (with James Caan) and Red Planet. Now he just plays mechanic on his permanently garaged Formula 1.
@@tenfourproductionsllc They had their time, yes they did. Then we captured a Zero, sent it back to the states, and built the F6F-5 Hellcat, which just shredded the Zeros from then on.
Worked alongside Nimitz in late 81 in the med when i was serving in the Royal Navy. We had a few USN ships with us… think the Forrestal was there and the USS Donald B Berry.I was like … “ Look at the bloody size of that” Our frigate looked like a rowing boat. And seeing that film years later always brings a smile to my face. Respect to the USN from an old ex matelot
Not that it's a true representation, but in the old Jane's simulations, it wasn't a walk in the park to take out WW2 aircraft with modern fighters. You damn near had to stall just to get your guns lined on them, and a lot of missiles were useless as they didn't give off a large heat signature. This would be a dream simulator game though 😉
I imported a F-14 into the old MS combat flight simulator, was impossible to hit any of the ww II planes. It just go to fast. Not that MSCFS is a accurate representation of the planes but anyway.
@@thomass4471 Yes, that was so. The only way to get an advantage against the Zero in such a scenario was not in a turning duel, the Tomcats were in a continuous 'rolling scissors' bleeding energy, to try and stay with the Zero. The only realistic way to defeat them would be to make high speed passes and not try and turn with them. In a turning battle, the advantage would actually be with the Zero. The Argentinians in their Mirages discovered this to their cost when trying to dogfight with British Harriers. The Harriers were slower, but turned far better and could use their vertical thrust capability to pretty much stop dead and let the Mirage zip past, which made them a perfect heat seeker target as they tried to break clear on afterburner.
Ive heard that in the theater when he reached the bottom of his dive and flattened out above the water you could see the air from the down draft actually hit the water. He was LOW!
I just love this sequence. And when the Zero's try to stay with the Tomcats. The F-14's are like, "Your puny 1,115-horsepower 14-cylinder does not impress me!"
GreenCrim I’n reality they’d be extremely hard to hit I’d imagine, in a dogfight the zeros would turn on a dime, the F14s would need to zoom and boom them from a distance.
I remember the very first time I saw this movie, I was about 14 years old which was around 2004, and at that time my mom worked late nights and I would always try to stay up to make sure she got home OK. One of those nights around 1230 I'm changing the channels on TV and came across this movie like what the hell is going on here. To say the least I ended up loving this movie and I remember staying up until 230 to finish it. Great times back than 😁
It's a very good movie! One of my all time favorites!! 😉🥰 And this scene with the F-14's taking down those pathetic little Mitsubishi Zeros is hilarious!
I didn't see an A6M Zero anywhere in this movie. I did see a couple of converted AT-6 Texans. WWII ace-in-a-day Archie Donahue was one of the Zero pilots. The script called for the Japanese pilot to try to force the F-14 into the water. The pilot who basically did a hammerhead and pulled out real close to the water was Richard "Fox" Farrell (VF-84 XO)
I remember watching this movie when it first came out in 1981 I was in Navy A School and saw it in downtown San Diego. The theater was full of Sailors and Marines.
One of the Zero/T6 Texan pilots from the film passed recently. Tom Gregory, old P47 pilot. He was a good friend of my father. When I was growing up Tom would take me up for some flight time here and there. It was a blast. Thanks Tom.
Rest in peace, never forget him.
When I got HBO in my apartment in 1981 while attending college, this movie was the main flick the first month of the service. This movie had so much impact on my life that eventually I served on the first Nimitz-class carrier in the Pacific Fleet, and subsequently the first Nimitz carrier at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. Sadly ... no Zeros were to be seen.
Great story. A similar thing happened to me after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. I went to college, earned a graduate degree and explored much of this ole' world while wearing fedora. :)
@@perrywidhalm114 I use to watch adult vids and then learned to pork myself, kind of the same thing.
I was there!!
@@perrywidhalm114 *tips hat*
That was the Navy's goal. Showcase to enlist
Now the Tomcats are just as old to us as the Zeros were to them back then. Time flies! 11 years since I posted a comment on here too!
I was stationed on the USS Nimitz from 1981 - 1985 and saw this movie countless times. I was especially impressed with the F-14's maneuverability in this scene. I had already learned that at the time there were no actual Zeros flying, so Hollywood used T-6 Texans as "Hollywood" Zeros, so the speeds of the aircraft were much slower than an actual Zero. The F-14s still did a great job of maneuvering at what must have been just above stall speed.
The scene with the T-6 (fake zero) and the F14A where really quite good it was kirk Douglas and his son Peter who fought to keep that scene in
I think the Zero's would have wrecked the f-14's in real life since there a lot faster.
@@Ono-Lin_Tam Not only that, but the Zero had no armor to speak of. It was nimble, but it was fragile.
at the Cleveland Airshow in the 90's they had a mock dogfight between an F14 and a P 51 Mustang.. the F 14 did EVERYTHING the P 51 could do... they broke and did an opposed circle ... the P 51 went by at full throttle at about 450 mph... then banked away.. from the opposing direction the F 14 came by with wings pulled back going almost 700.. full afterburner.... the sound was behind the plane by 200 feet or so ... very close to the sound barrier ... it took a couple days for my goosebumps to go back down ... whole demo reminded me of eagle chasing a crow ... F14 was huge by comparison... with wings forward, the F14 stuck to it easily ..
@@retrostuff8976 depends. the f-14 is faster but you can see in this video it is struggling to turn as well as the 'zero'.
If I was one of those Tomcat pilots, I'm painting a "Rising Sun" kill marker by my cockpit. I don't care what questions it raises later..
Lexington73300 if they got back*
Never would have been allowed. For one, the other commentors are correct in that the entire incident would have been classified top top top secret. Secondly, in the time period that the NIMITZ returns back to, the US Navy (including the Nimitz) would be participating in CIN-PAC maneuvers in the Pacific, and this includes our ALLIES the Japanese and the South Koreans. It would raise TONS of questions, why an American jet would have the kill mark for a (current) ally in the Pacific ;) LOL.
LOL, if he would have done that, then probably some weeks later, a US plane goes missing over Japanese controlled airspace... And then a Japanese fighter pilot suddenly would have appeared during joint maneuvers with a white star painted on the side of his F-15.
I was plane captain on the DET to Key West for filming the flying scenes. We painted 2 kill flags on 203. If you know where to look you can make them out in one of the scenes in the movie. I believe I am the only one with a photo -
Link - i.imgur.com/kKD3Flw.jpg
@@jimf4036 I enjoyed the heck outta that! Thanks for posting the pic; and thank you for your service.
I give the zero pilots credit. To go from the shock of "what the hell are you?" to shooting at an f14 is quite the recovery.
At a guess, they saw the star and bars (and English writing on the planes) and put 2 and 2 together.
indeed, given how the F-14s blew straight past them, given they were flying what they'd think is the fastest plane in the world.
they do it all the time in warthunder. . . . . . .
Certainly in the upper echelon for 1941 - there were faster planes available but not by a whole lot at the time and pretty much all carrier fighters had a top speed in the range of 325-340 mph. It wasn't until 1943-44 that the Americans had a decisive speed advantage with the Hellcat.
The best part of this is that the Vulcan actually sounds correct for once in a movie.
I saw this in the theater when it came out. It was fairly empty but there were a couple of sailors a few rows in front of me. When the Zero's were shot down they put their arms in the air crying out "YEAH!". Just one of those memories in life. Great movie.
6:54 As goofy as this movie is, it's the ONLY movie that actually uses the real sound of a Vulcan cannon. So many movies make it sound like a freaking M-60 when they fire.
doggonemess
wow, step it up, cinema.
The movie probably modeled the Vulcan's damage the way War Thunder models MK 108s.
And bottom gun wasn't goofy?
It's actually a Zero. From What I know, the Zeke was mainly used by the IJA
@@derptank3308 The "Japanese" aircraft in this move WEREN"T Zeros. They were modified AT-6s
this is like the BR system in war thunder
Omg I just died XD
lmao so true!!
+TheAttack Cheese Oh, don't I know it. XD
+TheAttack Cheese N1K vs F-80C very fair komrade
n as
I've seen this movie growing up enough to wear out three VHS copies, and I still get chills when those two tomcats charge in to save the day!
Not fast enough to save the SS Gatsby though. My Great Grand Uncle Harvey served aboard as captain and went down with the ship, because he couldn’t swim.
More like the Wrath of God
I feel exactly the same way when I see this scene. I don't know what it is but it makes me feel so proud to be an American when I see this and really proud of our Navy too. I'm really sorry that I never joined but that's another story. I feel like I really missed out on something. Oh well, what can you do.
The aerial photography on the F14s is what makes it. The pilots were really showing off for the camera.
The F14 really looked pretty even with the wings spread wide, which was the only way they could possibly stay with those Zero err T6 Texans.
Oh and did you notice the F14 using his flaps? Again in flying so slowly the pilot was using every trick in the book. I would even bet he split his throttles to get that big turkey to move like that.
when I started my 32 year career at Grumman I watched this movie many times,loved the flight deck scenes.A lot of people dont realize just how awesome the Tomcat was. I am proud to have worked on Hawkeyes , Tomcats, Greyhounds and Prowlers , all very awesome ,,the Hawkeye is still in service now.
My dad worked at Grumman in the 1970s. I still have one of the original Iranian air force tie clips and IAF (pre revolution) tomcat decal.
I worked on the F14A, hysterics and airframe. 88-92. Love the plane. Hated the snap rings on the screws. Always popped off pulling panels. FOD
We grunts are damn grateful to everyone involved in aviation, military and civilian. I worked closely with rotary-wing, of course. I also got to watch an F-16 smoke an insurgent strong point with a 500-pounder.
Aviation has saved the lives of more ground-pounders than we could ever know. Sometimes the mere presence of aircraft was enough to deter any would-be attackers. If one of our birds even took fire, we were REDCON 1, if not already en route.
Again, thank you very much. Charlie-Mike, we got your six.
The Tomcat is still the best looking jet ever built, only one that come even close is the F22.
The sad part is the Tomcats probably didn't even need to waste the ammo, just fly by on burner and the jet wash would probably shake the Zeros apart.
Of course it would
+likemynewname During the filming of this movie, they nearly killed a pilot by doing just that.
Zeros for all their strengths were notouriously fragile, a single burst of .50 from a Wildcat or Hellcat would cause them to fly apart.
+Wedge Antilles All it would take is a supersonic flyby and the shock wave would practically vaporize the Zeros.
bionicsjw um no it wouldn't
Cats love to play with their prey before the kill.
Too Funny Dude!!
You win the comment section, good sir
'Prey' not 'pray'
Those damn tomcats
🤣
For a relatively low budget film, the aerial cinematography is outstanding. This is one of my favorite rainy day movies.
This is because they didn't have to pay for the actual cost of the flying. Taxpayer did.
and all the shots on the Nimitz, the crew was actually servicemen and film crew just had to film them. so yes in a way alot of this movie was paid for by taxpayers
This scene gave me so much pride in America as a teenager, and quite the woody too! Back in the day when Ronald Regan was in charge and the America was great!
America was Great under Reagan, no question.
The F-14 is such a beautiful aircraft. I remember watching this movie in complete awe when I was 12 years old.
No lie, my favorite time travel movie. One of the few to actually do a predestination paradox right.
Awesome movie, and cannot be duplicated, thank God. RIP to the many main actors no longer with us.
RIP Charles Durning, the actor playing Senator Samuel Chapman.
(February 28, 1923 - December 24, 2012)
He was a decorated WW2 vet & he was in first wave of infantry landing on Omaha beach during D-Day. He was the ONLY survivor of his unit that day. Just nine days after D-Day he severely wounded by a German anti-personnel mine, taking six months to fully recover. He later saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. By war's end he was decorated with the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts.
We have maybe three actors who would serve now....
@@larrymor I'm not sure there's that many.....but by God, even at 82 I still hear well enough to man a sonar and I would love to ride a modern boat.....ETR2(SS)
Charles Durning was a big hit with the sailors during filming, when they were at the hotel bar. If he saw anybody from the ship he would tell them to join him and he'd buy them a beer. Ironically the only actor/actress they had a sour experience with was Katherine Ross who wasn't very nice. They wanted to say hi and she was like no I don't want to meet them, they were getting ready to film the refueling scene and another plane flew up next to them with a camera and asked if ready. Nodded and held up a sign to the camera then the plane returned back to the ship so the scene can be shot. Next day in the daily screenings first thing comes up was the camera shot of the plane with the sign reading " F U Katherine Ross! We didn't want to meet you anyways!"
My grandparents who fought in the Pacific WW2 loved this scene. One was a 1LT US Army AirCorps fighter pilot.
The soundtrack for this scene was just out of this world.
Zeroes: We got this in the bag. Nothing could ever stop us.
F-14s: Allow us to introduce ourselves
* Tomcat has entered the chat
Tomcat go Brrrrrrrr
That woke em up!!
The F-14 was a god damn beauty
The F-14 and the Submarine Spitfire are the most Beautiful Fighter Aircraft of all Time !
The F-22 is sexier, and deadlier.
When those F14s streaked by the A6M's, I had the biggest smile on my face...
ikr i loves jets i need 2 fly 1
Same
they we're like
HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT?!
Yeah, yeah. Except it never happened. All a lot of U.S. smug superiority. The reality of it was that the Japanese had air superiority over anything the U.S. had in planes in 1941.
thomas Romano no shit sherlock. The japanese had the best Navy in late 1941 and the US didnt have anything but maybe P-40s
It gave me wood.
Still my favorite part of this movie is after the "splash the Zeros" order is given the wings come back, the music changes....and the FANGS come out!
Truth is stranger than fiction. The X wing foils being moved to attack position is a fictional nod to the sweep back of real life variable geometry aircraft. Not explaining myself very well here.
The one order Captain Yelland never thought he'd ever have to give.
Should have been in New Zealand when it came out. We were at Wellington during a port call and were specially invited for the showing. We started cheering and shouting kick there asses etc. I looked over across the aisle at the important older invited New Zealanders in suits and nice dresses thinking were gonna get kicked out. And they were smiling and laughing at us. They knew we had just come from the Indian Ocean during the hostage crises and wanted some payback. Also I think a lot of them were WWII vets.
I was stationed with vf 171 at key west saw the whole thing it was great
One of my favorite movies. I watch it regularly.
I love that Robotech and this film both fly the same squadron colors
VF-84 Jolly Rogers
VF-84 Skull Squadron
As a helicopter pilot, I met the guy who flew the camera ship. Getting a 90 knot helicopter, 140 knot T6, and a 500 knot F14 in the same place at the same time was somewhat challenging
On the DVD, interview with The Jolly Rogers. They said it's like trying to get 3 pool balls hitting each other at same time which was impossible, they reached out to Frank Pine who had a B-25 camera plane and helped a little bit to get the scene. They said we got it 1 out of 5 times lol. Oh the camera guy in the back of the camera plane was shooting down the nose of the F-14 for the refueling scene, wanted to touch the probe with his foot. Even though Mullens shook him off, he went ahead and got launched back in the plane from the static charge. Camera guy showed up later with huge curly hair lol
I hope folks remember that this was BEFORE the age of CGI, so we're being treated to real and beautiful LIVE ACTION footage of actual planes flying around. There are some seriously beautiful aerial action cinematography in this sequence :)
My father took me to watch this movie 42yrs ago...wow the memories
Watching this reminds me of what a beautiful aircraft the F-14 was.
It reminds me of what a load of sh*t Hollywood can put out! ;-)
You know, Iran still has some in active service. Big part of why the US was too afraid to attack them. Iran has not only maintained theirs, but they have MODERNIZED theirs, to use 21st Century munitions.
The Harley of the fleet.They even leaked hydraulic fluid like Harleys leak oil!
Coolest movie ever ! I too remember watching this movie as a kid. Me and my dad! Modern technology vs yesterday’s technology.
I really loved this movie as a kid. Too bad F-14s were just too expensive for the USN to maintain. I mean Super Hornets are great and all and far more cost effective, but the Tomcat's looks and performance was just so awesome.
Phrancis5 yeh, the f14 is my favorite fighter. probably the f16 after that.
Dirt Muhgert
don't forget the air force's F-15. that plane is the bad ass of them all.
The best fighter ever made. The D version F-14 with the upgrades was the most lethal fighter when it was retired in 2005.
kcirred nosrednad yes, the f-15 is a nasty aircraft as well.
Dirt Muhgert Yeah, F15 is an awesome fighter as well.
RIP, F14. A creation of pure beauty, and a scary beast too. They don't make warplanes like they used to.
Milander just milander So is the F-14, the A-10 and F/A -18 are products of the 70's.
Wedge Antilles And to add to that, the F-22 and F-35 are late-80s to late-90s designs that are put into production in the 2000s. Just some fun facts. :)
And the F/A-18 started life as the YF-17 that lost the lightweight fighter competition to the F-16 and they Navy went hmm let's take a closer look at that.
Wedge Antilles F/A-18 is a beautiful little plane. A worthy replacement for F-14.
But personally, I don't like Super Hornet's design. It's like the cute lil' F/A-18 had a plastic surgery and some ridiculous boob job, and end up becoming Super Hornet. Those square air intake really turned me off.
*****
But... I wasn't arguing. :|
Absolutely one of my favorite Navy movies. A spectacular "what-if" scenario. I watched this movie when it was released while I was in the Navy at NTTC Meridian, MS
What a spectacular movie. Then and now.
Love the jolly rogers on the Tomcat. What an aircraft.
I noticed too--BAD ASS for sure!!
Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (the Jolly Rogers), assigned to Carrier Air Wing Seven, currently flying the FA-18F Super Hornet. See the Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFA-103
@@jamesdarnell8568 Used to be VF-84 Jolly Rogers during this time. Fighter squadron.
Skull squadron - Robotech
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Jet Pilot: 'why the hell are we playing with these guy's'
LOLZ😂
Not very sporting.
I watched this as a kid. My dad explained to me how much damage one tomcat could do. Then now I go to explain it to my kids. My kid asked me the same question I asked my dad. Loved it. Just the jet wash from the tomcats cutting close and cutting turns in front of those zeros would most likely down them.
If I remember correctly, Ward Carroll did a video about the filming of this movie, and said that the wild maneuvering when the Tomcats passed the Zeros wasn't scripted, but they actually almost went down due to the jet wash.
almost did. I saw an interview about this movie some years ago where the pilot related to the person being interviewed that when the F14s flew by the backwash is what flipped him up on his wingtip and he nearly lost the plane. The Tomcats were going 300 mph faster than they were scripted too for the scene cuz the pilots ere hotshoting.
I flew tanker support in a KA-6D from VA-35(Black Panthers) for this movie. My one and only Hollywood moment!
1:14 "Oh my god...he was a tomato!"
lmfao, this made my day.
I love this flick!! Can you image the shock of sitting in tranquil waters in 1941, and two F-14 Tom Cats fly over you at about 300 mph, 50 feet off the deck!! Such a great scene!!
They were doing more than 300mph,planes of the 4th generation if they fly slow as 300,more than half the time would have the air brakes out. But,you're right,it was a cool scene.
More like Mach 1.5. Over 1000 mph they blink and your gone.
Would this be like today, only UFO's come flying overhead at about 100' and hovering, then a bright light shines down on you and you wet your pants???? LOL
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@@trevorwerkheiser934 As a top speed. But they certainly were not going that fast in these scenes.
The man on the yacht in the blue shirt is Charles Durning who went ashore at Omaha beach with the Big Red One in one of the first assault waves. Severely wounded later in the bocage, he spent 6 months recovering before he supposedly broke out of the hospital to rejoin his unit just in time for the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, 3 purple hearts and a boat load of other citations. Durning might be best know for his "wonderful performance" as Pappy O'Daniel in 'O Brother Where Art Thou.'
Still one of my favorite time travel movies. Great cast and the story might be a little silly but i still love the ending.
The ending is the worst. Missed an opportunity to have the coolest movie ending of all time
In spite of everything, seeing the big cat flying makes the chills always come. Those pilots who have ridden him are blessed
the scene where the f-14 pops out of the clouds behind the zero is so epic. i hate all the cgi crap in the movies today.
Ok grandpa
Grandpa: 60
cgi fans: 3
I totally agree movies 2day have 2 much cgi
@@ussakira7294 mhm ok grandpa, go back to watching films which looks like theyre just satire cabaret.
Like, grandpa, if u watch marvel movie what do you expect?
Practical effects?
Watch the movie that doesnt need cgi, and u wont have cgi.
I dont get it they didnt have f 35 at that time
FIRST PILOT: "I'm too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns."
SECOND PILOT: "Hold my beer!"
Seeing those two magnificent planes sweep their wings back reminds me of two thoroughbred horses laying their ears back and going into a full-speed gallop.
What a plane.
F14s are just beautiful 😊
I love it how you can see in some scenes how much the F-14 pilots are struggling to keep from stalling when trying to stay behind the zeros.
A Tomcat will do as little as 90 mph without falling out of the sky with wings extended.
Not while, doing heavy maneuvers.
One of the greatest time travel movies ever.
关公 战 秦琼 。。 ^O^
I was always left feeling unfulfilled after watching this movie. I loved it but desperately wanted to see the Nimitz destroy the Japanese task force!
One of my all time favourite movies!!!! I've seen it about 10 times and would watch it again anytime!!!
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This scene never gets old. A couple of Tomcat sledgehammers vs a couple of Zero walnuts.
This was great scene, & a great sci-fi movie with a great story & several top of the line actors
My favorite Kirk Douglas movie!!! Seen it at the theater when it first came out
Love the music change when the fangs come out on the tomcats! Still one of my favorite (though silliest) USN movies.
This is probably one of the coolest, one sided, what if stories that could've ever been told if they had gone through with their defence of Pearl Harbor.
Great movie, and my favorite scene. Imagine if your on a boat and a fighter from 40 years in the future did a flyby.
Epic on board and in-flight photography highlight this imaginative adventure tale. Kirk Douglas, at this late stage of his career, was excellent, and the supporting cast was terrific. The time travel aspects of the movie are very interesting. It is a shame that more roles are not available for older actors like Douglas.
I can imagine those zero pilot were like "What in the world is that plane what kinda planes are the Americans developing now"
saw this movie as a kid on cable long ass time ago. always been one of the guilty pleasure movies. Love anything time travel.
"Why are we playing with these guys??" ...who were some of the best and most experienced combat pilots in the world at that time.
REAL tricky scene to make and record - @ 5:50 : multi-million buck F-14 nearly goes splash and is only saved by going full afterburner.
I love how on the Nimitz the 50 star flag is present and the 48 star flag on the fishing boat
Oh come on. Firing the Vulcan was enough of an overkill. What a waste of a Sidewinder.
no shit right? a million dollar missile t take out a 30 thousand dollar zero? that's like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant. and what pilot would do that when the most desired kill to this day is a gun kill.
I just spit my milk through my nose. Thanks.
Yes, but you can never over estimate the "cool" factor in a movie scene!
just showing off, lol
Relax its just Holywood
imagine if four F-14 Tomcats take on Messerschmitt Me 262s shooting down B-17s.
Unless, If the US invested on Rocket Technology back in the 1920's.
That would be cool
Weird, considering that an F-14 is almost as big as a B-17.
more like a b-25 size wise
It's all german tech in the end.
Would love to see this amazing movie remade today.
Absolutely my favorite movie at the time. 15 years later I was working on their sibblings in the Marines.
20mm on a zero? More like a shotgun blast on a bird!
+Pat Smith Those Zeros may be made of cardboard and bubblegum, but they actually have 20mm cannons too.
True. But the Vulcan 20mm would shred a Zero.
Very small bird.
Sporkmaker5150 and did you notice? The captain of the yacht takes two 20mm shells to the chest during the first strafing run,
Yet he somehow didn’t explode into a fine red mist
We used Twenty-Mike-Mikes in WWII. Fifties were adequate against the Japanese planes but the cannon's explosive shells were mighty helpful against the German bandits.
Love this movie. And in particular, this scene!
ruclips.net/video/fFwAd8eNK68/видео.html 💌
ruclips.net/channel/UC3XoekGSQcJqX91kEsB1-sQ 💌💌🙏
One of my favorite all-time scenes from one of my favorite movies.
The best Scene in that Movie, and of course, the beautiful F14 Tomcat.
Jolly Rogers! Fear the Bones!
pontiacGXPfan jolly rogers never die
USS Nimitz CVN-68. She was docked right in front of us (USS Constellation CV-64) in San Diego over at North Island back in 1987.
Norfolk, in mid 70's !~
FIGHTING 84
VF-84 then. VFA-103 today
The only part of the movie that I liked. But it's interesting to think 1 aircraft carrier from today could have wiped out the entire Japanese invasion fleet.
+Hendo56 or even from 35 years ago when this movie came out.
+Hendo56 Besides the fact that the nimitz would run out of ammo before hand
The Nimitz was (is) nuclear armed, so it could have defeated the entire Axis, not just the invasion fleet, limited only by its supply of jet fuel and ability to somehow get more if needed.
Insane, right?
Yeah, the Japanese carrier strike force was really lousy! Just to think we could have wiped them all clean out of the ocean by simply sending one "Nimitz" class carrier back in time...
The cinematography is just orgasmic. The Zero with a Tomcat following it through the clouds at 4:40 is superb.
One of my favorite movies! My friend Bob Lambert who retired as the "top" film editor at Warner Brothers Burbank (around 20 years ago), was the editor and 2nd Unit Director on this film. He also was the editor on the original Rollerball (with James Caan) and Red Planet. Now he just plays mechanic on his permanently garaged Formula 1.
God the F-14 was awesome! They were carrying Phoenix's along with the Sidewinders
The Zero's were also awesome at the time, a great plane, and a zero vs and equal American plane in 1941, the zeros win.
@@tenfourproductionsllc They had their time, yes they did. Then we captured a Zero, sent it back to the states, and built the F6F-5 Hellcat, which just shredded the Zeros from then on.
4:42 one of the coolest shots ever!
Worked alongside Nimitz in late 81 in the med when i was serving in the Royal Navy. We had a few USN ships with us… think the Forrestal was there and the USS Donald B Berry.I was like … “ Look at the bloody size of that” Our frigate looked like a rowing boat. And seeing that film years later always brings a smile to my face. Respect to the USN from an old ex matelot
What a great film ❤
Love the Tomcat, beautiful bird
Thank you
Good thing F-14 has swing wing technology. Must be close to stalling speed just to stay behind the A6Ms.
In the one scene where the Tomcat lights the burners low on the deck he had stalled according to the pilot.
The A6m could easily do 300 mph. Giving the gap between stall on the F14 and the Zero plenty of maneuvering room.
Not that it's a true representation, but in the old Jane's simulations, it wasn't a walk in the park to take out WW2 aircraft with modern fighters. You damn near had to stall just to get your guns lined on them, and a lot of missiles were useless as they didn't give off a large heat signature. This would be a dream simulator game though 😉
I imported a F-14 into the old MS combat flight simulator, was impossible to hit any of the ww II planes. It just go to fast. Not that MSCFS is a accurate representation of the planes but anyway.
@@thomass4471 Yes, that was so. The only way to get an advantage against the Zero in such a scenario was not in a turning duel, the Tomcats were in a continuous 'rolling scissors' bleeding energy, to try and stay with the Zero. The only realistic way to defeat them would be to make high speed passes and not try and turn with them. In a turning battle, the advantage would actually be with the Zero. The Argentinians in their Mirages discovered this to their cost when trying to dogfight with British Harriers. The Harriers were slower, but turned far better and could use their vertical thrust capability to pretty much stop dead and let the Mirage zip past, which made them a perfect heat seeker target as they tried to break clear on afterburner.
One of my favorite movies.
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The F14 was the most beautiful jet ever created.
This has to be coolest scene in any movie I have ever seen. Love watching F-14's in action
Great white shark vs. guppy.
Great White Shark wins.
lmao
Or Eagles vs Pigeons. ;-)
@@coolcat6303 more like Eagles vs hummingbirds
4:39 specially in this frames!.
My favorite scene is the TOMCAT screaming toward the deck..that sound is just awsome
Ive heard that in the theater when he reached the bottom of his dive and flattened out above the water you could see the air from the down draft actually hit the water. He was LOW!
I just love this sequence. And when the Zero's try to stay with the Tomcats. The F-14's are like, "Your puny 1,115-horsepower 14-cylinder does not impress me!"
Hands down, one of coolest movie sequences ever made. Easily in the top 5.
Is it me or would those Japanese pilots have been thinking "oh F#CK!" when they saw the F-14s stop playing and move to kill positions.
Probably more like "what the f#ck?!?"
Per the novelization, they had no clue what to think.
GreenCrim I’n reality they’d be extremely hard to hit I’d imagine, in a dogfight the zeros would turn on a dime, the F14s would need to zoom and boom them from a distance.
It was a hate crime.
@@Jester123ish well at super sonic speeds vs no where near supersonic speed, that is not realy a problem
I remember the very first time I saw this movie, I was about 14 years old which was around 2004, and at that time my mom worked late nights and I would always try to stay up to make sure she got home OK. One of those nights around 1230 I'm changing the channels on TV and came across this movie like what the hell is going on here. To say the least I ended up loving this movie and I remember staying up until 230 to finish it. Great times back than 😁
It's a very good movie!
One of my all time favorites!!
😉🥰
And this scene with the F-14's taking down those pathetic little Mitsubishi Zeros is hilarious!
Wonderful movie. Must have watched it at least a dozen times.
This movie is so fckin great, one of my favorites of all time. What makes it especially great is the US Navy was involved in making it as well.
20 mm Vulcan probably would have completely shredded a Zero rather than just making it puff some smoke out
The rounds would have gone thru it like shit through a goose. But perhaps the didn't have the budget to trash it.
+BTL Y-Wing He had it set to "splash only"
+BTL Y-Wing lol well yeah, and also a Zero's machine guns would leave giant holes in the boat and people on it, too. Limited budget I guess
+sentient02970 LOL! underrated comment
I didn't see an A6M Zero anywhere in this movie. I did see a couple of converted AT-6 Texans. WWII ace-in-a-day Archie Donahue was one of the Zero pilots. The script called for the Japanese pilot to try to force the F-14 into
the water. The pilot who basically did a hammerhead and pulled out real
close to the water was Richard "Fox" Farrell (VF-84 XO)
This is when the fleet aircraft had that gorgeous gull gray and white paint scheme,with full color insignia
This movie actually holds up very well when it comes to effects. And there was great acting.
It's been a long time since I've seen this movie (10 years) and I never realized how good this footage is! Love seeing F-14s chase Zeros!
Tomcats are one of the most badass looking machines ever...
I remember watching this movie when it first came out in 1981 I was in Navy A School and saw it in downtown San Diego. The theater was full of Sailors and Marines.
Love the Tomcats, when those wings came back it was instant P for who ever they were after