Blue Thunder (TV Series) The Long Flight (1984) User Reviews

The Long Flight

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 5 September 2023]

The Blue Thunder team angrily scrap the rule book when their boss's beautiful daughter is kidnapped by drug-running terrorists headed by the colourfully named, the Cobra, who demands Blue Thunder as a ransom. Of course, as the APEX don't give into demands to terrorists, the request to acquiesce with the demand is rejected, hence Chaney and gang opt for disregarding that.

A simple plot, standard kidnapping scheme and a good performance by Sandy McPeak (Captain Braddock) as the father of whose daughter( a fresh-faced Kelly Preston) is kidnapped, as well as the fun aspect of the Blue Thunder working together makes this a fun watch. I always loved watching Blue Thunder after school when it was run BBC1, finding it light, action-packed and fun.

The Kidnapping Blues

[zardoz-13 · 5/10 · 5 August 2007]

In this episode of "Blue Thunder," a notorious Mexican drug lord (Gregory Sierra of NBC-TV's "Miami Vice")dispatches a gang of thugs to kidnap Captain Braddock's young, beautiful daughter Amy (Kelly Preston of "Jerry Maguire"), and they seize her after a tennis match while the captain is in a convenience store. The Cobra, as the drug lord prefers to be called, contacts Braddock, and states that he will release Amy only if Braddock will turn the helicopter Blue Thunder over to him. Braddock contacts his Federal bosses at A.P.E.X. and they refuse to negotiate with the Cobra. Of course, insubordinate Frank Chaney has his own ideas and Jafo tracks the tags of the car that the kidnappers used when they grabbed Amy. Meanwhile, Bubba and Ski disguise themselves as Catholic priests and cross the border into Mexico. These guys are like a really bad vaudville routine, but the fight scene is amusing. Captain Braddock doesn't try to stop Frank (James Farentino) from taking off in Blue Thunder. Our heroes-in the-air deal with the Cobra who sends them to a number of places to be sure that Blue Thunder is alone before he personally meets them face to face for the transaction. Amy, who tried to escape earlier but was caught, is about to be killed on the Cobra's orders when Bubba and Ski crash the execution. Frank lands Blue Thunder and demands to know Amy's whereabouts. The Cobra warns Frank that if he continues to delay that he will kill Amy. Bubba and Ski contact JAFO only seconds before Frank is about to surrender Blue Thunder.

This episode of "Blue Thunder" is a thoroughly ordinary kidnapping episode that maintains all the clichés and conventions of abduction epics. Some of the dialogue sounds like it came from the first kidnapping movie with lines like "I hope we get there in time." The best scene occurs when Amy tricks an unsuspecting guard into lowering his guard. She breaks out of captivity but only momentary before the Cobra nabs her. The next best scene takes place in Braddock's office where he explains his behavior to his L.A.P.D. superior and threatens to quit his post. At the end, as Blue Thunder is flying away, Frank apologizes to the proper Mexican authorities.