8 Helicopter Sequences That Pushed Hollywood's Action Filmmaking to the Edge

Watching a helicopter explode and disintegrate on-screen, especially in chase sequences, is always a fun experience.

When helicopters are flying around, things might go down violently in a matter of seconds. A controlled flight can come crashing down in flames, the blades might fall, people can get crushed below, or worse, blown apart.

Great action-packed movies have shown us numerous ways of combat, chase sequences, or all-out assaults involving helicopters — more often than not, they do not go well. Moreover, such action scenes require helicopters to be in close proximity to the action, making the experience more immersive and jarring.

Let’s jump into the best over-the-top helicopter scenes in the history of movies.

8 Iconic Helicopter Scenes You Must Watch

1. Ride of the Valkyries — Apocalypse Now (1979)

Disrupting the calm before the storm as the soldiers switch on the helicopter sound system over the ocean, playing classical music (Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries), is not how I expected an assault would start.

Moreover, being shot in 1979, you can feel the intimacy of being too close to the helicopters flying towards the village. It felt like a spidercam shot before the spidercam even existed. And, the attack is an edge-of-the-seat, merciless pounding of bullets that destroys the entire village set up by the production.

As Coppola used real Philippine Air Force helicopters for filming, they had to be called back several times for actual missions. Featuring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Harrison Ford, Apocalypse Now is truly one of the greatest war epics we have in cinematic history.

2. Helicopter Chase in the Forest — Outbreak (1995)

Featuring the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey, and Morgan Freeman, Outbreak might be one of the most underrated thrillers; however, it has an exciting plot along with a helicopter combat sequence that certainly makes your mouth go dry.

With the race against time to save the nearby town and its residents from a dangerous virus outbreak, contagious disease expert Sam (Hoffman) and his pilot, Major Salt (Cuba Gooding Jr.), capture the host animal. But they are confronted by Major General Donald (Donald Sutherland), who wants to take them to the camp. The disagreement forces a chase and firing.

At one particular moment, helicopters pass through under a bridge over the scenic river valley, and you’ll start mirroring Hoffman’s reaction — pure discomfort.

3. Helicopter Race for the Detonator — Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Time after time, the Mission Impossible saga has shown us that when in doubt, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) figures everything out.

In this scene, Ethan has one goal — to snatch the nuclear weapon trigger from August Walker (Henry Cavill), a CIA agent secretly working with the terrorist organization, the Apostles.

What makes the climax of this movie enthralling? Let’s just make a quick list: Hunt pulls himself up into the helicopter through a rope, does hand-to-hand combat in the air with the pilot, performs high-risk maneuvers, and, finally, gives no thought before flying his helicopter into Walker’s (all real stunts, mind you). And even after that, there’s a juicy fist fight waiting for you on the cliff they crash on. Try catching a break.

Moreover, Tom Cruise actually learned to pilot a helicopter to make the scene as realistic as possible.

4. T-1000 chases T-800 — Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

In this epic sci-fi action movie directed by James Cameron, the T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) races to save humanity from the T-1000 Terminator (Robert Patrick).

In one scene, the T-1000 Terminator jumps out of a two-story building on a motorbike, latches onto a helicopter, and transforms into liquid metal to pass himself through the glass to enter the cockpit. The original pilot just jumps out in pure terror, and the chase to catch our heroes begins.

The wild, imaginative James Cameron is widely appreciated for his bold visuals, and this helicopter scene really set up the blueprint for many helicopter chase sequences to come.

5. Day of the Dead Celebration (Opening scene) — Spectre (2015)

In the opening sequence of Sam Mendes’s Spectre, Bond (Daniel Craig) pursues a mysterious man named Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona), and both men, along with the pilot, duke it out in the helicopter.

Followed by fast cuts and rapidly changing camera movements, the helicopter hovers and backflips just above a crowded plaza in Mexico City, celebrating “Dia De Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). Bond keeps it from crashing into people and flies into a scenic view surrounded by buildings. By the end, both the helicopter and your stomach will be stirred up.

6. Neo Rescues Morpheus — The Matrix (1999)

When Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) is captured and tortured by the agents, Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) arrive in style in a helicopter fitted with a juggernaut machine gun. Neo fires at Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and other agents to rescue Morpheus. The slow-motion shots of bullets make you feel the thudding impact and details in the frame.

Moreover, the choreography behind Trinity’s escape from the chopper is a thing of beauty. After Agent Smith shoots the chopper’s gas tank, Trinity must leap from the cockpit, holding the rope that saved Neo and Morpheus, before the whole thing smashes into the side of a skyscraper. Lana and Lily Wachowski’s wild imagination serves thrilling, blood-thumping scenes one after the other in this classic.

7. Iconic Chase Scene on the Train — Mission: Impossible (1996)

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) hangs onto a racing TGV train as Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) tails him relentlessly in a helicopter outfitted with a rope that’s used to pick up Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). Bold but not the brightest idea when Ethan is involved in the scene.

Ethan manages to hook the rope onto the train — Franz has no choice but to be dragged into a tunnel behind the train, where Hunt delivers the final blow by sticking explosives on the helicopter. And it explodes, the blades land just an inch away from Ethan’s neck, who hangs on to the train for his dear life. The visuals are truly out of control, and you’ll gasp for air until the end.

8. Discovering the Giant — Kong: Skull Island (2017)

A crew from the US Air Force set out to map the mysterious and mythical Skull Island, only to be put face-to-face with the great ape, Kong himself.

As an entire fleet of military helicopter heads toward the ape who stands before the melting tangerine sun, and are baffled by his enormous size. The five-minute sequence is one of the most intense and breathtaking visuals of humans being crushed like ants.

In one instance, one soldier tries to pull out another from a crashed helicopter, but Kong just crushes them with his hand that fills the screen.

Conclusion

Including helicopters in your film might not serve your story, but if it serves your budget, the action scenes can become memorable for years to come. And these movies are prime examples of that. Because exploding a car is fine, but crashing a chopper is pure chaos.

Which one of the helicopter scenes do you love the most? Let us know in the comments.