Not long after the Wright brothers made their historic first flight in 1903 did Hollywood start making motion pictures about pilots. Georges Méliès' 1911 silent short film The Aviator's Wife is one of the earliest examples of a filmmaker featuring a pilot in a movie.
Ever since, Hollywood has looked to the skies to pilots flying various aircraft for inspiration. 1927's Wings — the first film to win a Best Picture Oscar — is about combat pilots in the Army Air Service. Movies such as The Right Stuff, Top Gun, Iron Eagle, and Catch-22 tap into our longing to fly through the clouds.
Whether the story is about wartime combat or heroic flying such as Flight and Sully, the following pilot-centric movies soared to new heights on the big screen.
Top Gun (1986)
Tony Scott's 1986 action-drama Top Gun stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, one of several co*cky naval pilots selected to train at the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School in San Diego.
Long before CGI became commonplace, Scott filmed real F-14 fighter jets in action for the blockbuster film that earned more than $357 million worldwide against a budget of only $15 million.
If beautiful, sun-kissed footage of fighter jets taking off and landing doesn't fire you up enough, the '80s soundtrack featuring the Oscar-winning love song “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin and “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins provides the necessary nostalgia fuel to rev your engines.
The Right Stuff (1983)
The high-flying 1983 historical drama The Right Stuff is about the military test pilots chosen to become the first U.S. astronauts for Project Mercury in the late 1950s.
The universally praised movie starring Dennis Quaid, Ed Harris, and Charles Frank won four Oscars: Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing. Both models and recreations of planes from the period were used for this beloved inspirational movie.
One of the best scenes in the movie shows Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) surviving the crash of his F104. Today, the whole sequence would be rendered on a computer, but director Philip Kaufman makes you feel like you are falling to earth right along with Yeager.
Flight (2012)
In the 2012 drama Flight directed by Robert Zemeckis, Denzel Washington plays William “Whip” Whitaker Sr. — an alcoholic commercial airline pilot who makes a miraculous emergency crash-landing after a mechanical malfunction and saves nearly everyone on board.
Despite demonstrating heroic piloting skill to save lives, Whip undergoes an investigation about flying under the influence in this movie that earned Washington a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
The best sequence in Flight occurs near the beginning, but what a crash scene! Watching Whip fly a commercial plane upside down and then expertly crash-land it safely beyond the houses of frightened onlookers is one of the most memorable piloting moments in cinema history.
Sully (2009)
Clint Eastwood's biographical drama Sully tells the true story of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks), a commercial pilot who saved the lives of 155 passengers and crew by landing US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after the plane hit a flock of birds in 2009.
The Oscar-nominated film follows not only the harrowing crash-landing, but the subsequent investigation and interviews with the passengers and crew.
Like Flight, the most exciting piloting footage comes at the beginning as Eastwood recreates Flight 1549's final desperate moments in the air before plunging into the Hudson River. Hanks' sympathetic portrayal of a real-life pilot becoming a national hero while under incredible pressure is cinematic gold.
The Aviator (2004)
In Martin Scorsese's 2004 biographical drama The Aviator, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes — one of the wealthiest and most influential pilots to have ever lived.
The film follows Hughes' life from 1927 to 1947 as he simultaneously becomes an aviation legend while battling OCD. The Aviator won five Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett, who plays Katharine Hepburn.
One of the most thrilling sequences in The Aviator is watching Hughes test-fly an H-1 Racer and set a new speed record to the astonishment of onlookers on the ground — even as the plane runs out of fuel, forcing Hughes to crash-land it in a beet field.
Air Force One (1997)
In the 1997 action-thriller Air Force One, Harrison Ford plays the U.S. President James Marshall who is on board Air Force One with his family when it is hijacked midflight. It's established that President Marshall is a Vietnam vet and decorated helicopter pilot, which comes in handy as the president tries to wrestle control of Air Force One away from the hijackers.
The Oscar-nominated film directed by Wolfgang Petersen became a box office hit and is notable for featuring some dizzying midair action, like in this scene where fighter jets engage with Air Force One and everyone on board the latter struggles to keep their footing.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Although critics love to poke fun at director Michael Bay's highly fictionalized account of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii in 1941 in the romantic war drama Pearl Harbor, the movie starring Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett as combat pilots still features some breathtaking aerial action.
Pearl Harbor won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and became a box office hit. No matter what you think about how Bay directs actual human actors, you have to admit after watching sequences like this attack scene that the Transformers director knows how to expertly film explosive chaos, like the iconic shot where the camera follows a bomb from a plane all the way down into a ship's galley.
Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan's epic 2017 war film Dunkirk is about the historic Dunkirk evacuation during World War II.
One reason Dunkirk soars above other pilot movies is that Nolan used as many practical effects as possible, including real Spitfire airplanes from the period provided by the Imperial War Museum Duxford as well as other planes modified for the movie. Dunkirk won three Oscars: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing.
Because Nolan filmed real planes, this riveting dogfight scene looks tangible — not like something rendered on a Macintosh in some studio basem*nt.
Catch-22 (1970)
Mike Nichols' satirical 1970 war film Catch-22 is set at a fictional Mediterranean base during World War II.
The movie gained notoriety for saving 17 flyable B-25 Mitchells from the scrapyard. The bombers were reportedly flown for approximately 1,500 hours over the course of 6 months for about 10 minutes of total screen time.
One of the craziest and most notorious scenes in Catch-22 is this one in which a plane descends toward a man standing on a raft and the plane's propellor cuts the fellow in half. There's something you don't see every day (ever?) in a movie about pilots!
Iron Eagle (1986)
Iron Eagle, starring Louis Gossett Jr. as Colonel Charles “Chappy” Sinclair and Jason Gedrick as Doug Masters, had the misfortune of getting released during the same year as the more popular Top Gun.
The movie about a teenage pilot's efforts to rescue his pilot father after the latter is shot down and captured in the Middle East used real F-16s filmed in Israel for its combat sequences. The movie spawned three sequels, with Gossett Jr. appearing in all four movies.
One of the most rousing scenes in Iron Eagle — and the one that most justifies all of the sequels — is this dogfight scene in which Doug battles his way out of enemy territory with his father.
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
1970's Tora! Tora! Tora! is yet another movie about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. Filming took place in both the United States and Japan using 30 modified planes to resemble the historical ones during combat sequences.
During production, footage of the crash-landing of a real Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress made its way to the final cut. Watch the exciting footage leading up to that accidental crash-landing right here.
Wings (1927)
The 1927 silent film Wings is about two World War I combat pilots fighting for the affection of the same woman (Clara Bow). At least 300 pilots were involved in the filming, including director William A. Wellman who had actual combat pilot experience during WWI.
Wings became the first movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Check out this video of the first dogfight scene in the movie and remind yourself that Wellman filmed this exciting footage before there were even talkies and the movie industry was still in its infancy.
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Based on the novel of the same name by Elleston Trevor, 1965's The Flight of the Phoenix follows a group of men who survive the crash-landing of their Fairchild C-82 Packet cargo plane in the Sahara. Several Fairchild C-82A Packets and other real planes were used during filming.
During production, stunt pilot Paul Mantz died in a tragic accident and the final film credit reads, “It should be remembered… that Paul Mantz, a fine man and a brilliant flyer, gave his life in the making of this film.” Here is shocking archival footage of Mantz and the crash that claimed his life and cemented his film legacy.
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Gregory Peck plays Brig. Gen. Frank Savage in 1949's Twelve O'Clock High set during World War II. During filming, pilot Paul Mantz — the man who lost his life filming The Flight of the Phoenix years later — deliberately crash-landed a B-17G AAF.
Twelve O'Clock High won two Oscars: Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Sound Recording. Here is dramatic footage of Mantz piloting a B-17G AAF and crashing through some tents, which he wasn't supposed to do. Thankfully, the tents were empty, and the director got the crash footage that he wanted.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
In 2022's Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise reprises his role as the titular naval aviator who trains a new Top Gun class while haunted by the ghosts of his past. Cruise reportedly trained with the actors playing pilots in a three-month boot camp so that they could get used to high-flying aerobatics.
The production team scored 20 real planes for filming, including several F/A-18E/F aircraft. The Oscar-winning, long-overdue sequel became the highest-grossing film of Cruise's career, earning nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.
The reason why flight scenes such as this one in Top Gun: Maverick feel so authentic is that Cruise was actually in the backseat during filming while Navy pilots flew the F/A-18 Super Hornets. This commitment to realism makes Top Gun: Maverick the Top Gun of pilot movies… at least until the next Top Gun sequel.
