It wasn’t easy to pin down All About Aviation.gr’s favorite aviation movies. There are so many. Hollywood has a history of loving movies about flying. The fact is that motion pictures and airplanes were invented around the same time. Since then, comedies, animated movies, dramas and thrillers that center around aviation and great aviators have been produced. Many of them ended up being blockbuster hits.
This list had the potential to get really long so we’ve decided to start with the 80s to today.
Airplane! (1980)
As IMDb puts it: “An airplane crew takes ill. Surely the only person capable of landing the plane is an ex-pilot afraid to fly. But don’t call him Shirley.” We laugh. Ha ha. The movie Airplane!, well, is about an airplane . It also happens to be one of the great comedies of all-time. The film is one funny scene following another about war pilot named Ted Striker. He attempts to land a plane whose pilots have been poisoned.
Top Gun (1986)
This classic movie from the 80s starred Tom Cruise making him a star. Cruise played a hotshot military pilot named Maverick. We like how IMDb sums it up: “As students at the United States Navy’s elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.”
Air Force One (1997)
Who doesn’t love a great action flick or Harrison Ford? In this movie Ford plays America’s Commander in Chief and an ex-soldier who takes control after some badass hijackers seize his plane Air Force One. F-15 Eagle aircraft from the 33d Operations Group was used in the film. It was a box office success and was one of the most popular action films of the 1990s.
The Aviator (2004)
At All About Aviation.gr we love Leonardo DiCaprio who had the starring role in this Marty Scorsese film that gives us a look into the life of Howard Hughes, the wealthy and obsessive filmmaker. However, a big part of the film centers around Huges’passion: aviation. So besides great acting, we love that this movie focuses on Huges’contributions to the world of aviation.
Amelia (2009)
Outstanding actress Hilary Swank takes on the lead role of the legendary American pilot and one of the greatest female aviators of all time, Amelia Earhart. Beginning in 1928, Earhart sets amazing aviation milestones, including speed and altitude records, and she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Sadly, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world. It has been a real-life mystery since.
Like we said, we know we left out a lot of great films. We thought our list had a bit of variety throughout the last few decades. What are your favorite aviation movies?
