Blue Thunder (1983) is an American action thriller directed by John Badham, starring Roy Scheider, Warren Oates, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern and Malcolm McDowell. Scheider plays Frank Murphy, a Los Angeles police helicopter pilot who is chosen to test an advanced experimental attack helicopter known as Blue Thunder. What begins as a demonstration of new police technology gradually turns into a conspiracy thriller, as Murphy discovers that the helicopter is intended for surveillance, crowd control and political misuse rather than ordinary law enforcement. The film combines 1980s action cinema with a darker fear of militarised policing and high-tech surveillance.
Blue Thunder was filmed around Los Angeles, using the city’s rooftops, streets, freeways, river channels and skyline as part of the action. The police air-unit base was filmed at the City of Los Angeles Piper Technical Center at 555 Ramirez Street in Downtown Los Angeles, listed as the police helipad and command centre location. The film also used Hooper Heliport as the fictional police helicopter unit’s home base while the real heliport was still under construction.
Other Los Angeles-area locations connected to the film include the former Pickwick Drive-In Theatre in Burbank, used for the scene where Kate retrieves the tape, and several recognisable urban locations used during the climactic helicopter chase. The drive-in no longer exists and has since been replaced, so that one would probably need to be listed as a former site if you add it.
Circus Liquor
Circus Liquor appears in several films, like Clueless (1995), Blue Thunder (1983), and Alpha Dog (2006).
Westin Bonaventure Hotel
Westin Bonaventure Hotel has appeared in a long list of films and television productions, including The Driver (1978), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and many more.
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