#16. A Gathering of Eagles (1963)

Storyline: Rock Hudson plays an Air Force Colonel who has just been re-assigned as a cold war B-52 commander who must shape up his men to pass a grueling inspection that the previous commander had failed, and had been fired for. He is also recently married, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape his men up, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before.—Roger Dearnaley <roger@paperart.com>

Plot Keywords: commander, colonel, wife, alcoholic, best friend, replacement, tense ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#17. Fighter Squadron (1948)

Storyline: At an American air base in England, 1943, is conniving Sergeant Dolan, who manipulates everyone, and insubordinate ace fighter pilot Major Ed Hardin. When Ed is promoted to commander of his group, he must fight his former anti-authority stance as well as the enemy; tension grows as D-Day approaches. Generally lighthearted between moments of technicolor gore; lots of air combat footage, much of it genuine.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: captain, colonel, pilot, major, sergeant, brash, patriotic ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#18. American Ultra (2015)

Storyline: Small-town stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) spends most of his time getting high and writing a graphic novel about a superhero monkey. What Mike doesn't know is that he was trained by the CIA to be a lethal killing machine. When the agency targets him for termination, his former handler activates his latent skills, turning the mild-mannered slacker into a deadly weapon. Now, the utterly surprised Mike must use his newfound abilities to save himself and his girlfriend from getting wasted by the failed test subjects that are sent after him by the CIA.

Plot Keywords: stoner, cia agent, girlfriend, assassin, amusing, confident, cool ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#19. Project X (1987)

Storyline: A young inductee into the military is given the task of looking after some chimpanzees used in the mysterious "Project X". Getting to know the chimps fairly well, he begins to suspect there is more to the secret project than he is being told.—Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

Plot Keywords: pilot, graduate student, chimpanzee, scientist, military officer, engaging, heartwarming ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#20. Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)

Storyline: Manfred von Richthofen (John Phillip Law) arrives from the Cavalry, at a squadron in the German air force under the command of Oswald Boelcke. He quickly becomes an ace. Meanwhile, a Canadian pilot named Roy Brown arrives at a British squadron, where the top scoring pilot is Victoria Cross winner, Major Lanoe Hawker. Brown ruffles the feathers of his squadron mates by refusing to drink a toast to von Richthofen. Von Richthofen and fellow squadron pilot, Hermann Goering clash when squadron commander Boelcke is killed after a mid air collision( Boelcke's upper left wing struck the undercarriage of Böhme's Albatros ). von Richthofen is given command of the squadron. Outraged when he is ordered to have his aircraft camouflaged, von Richthofen has the squadron's aircraft painted in bright conspicuous colors, claiming that gentlemen should not hide from their enemies. Later, von Richthofen is wounded during an aerial battle; meanwhile Lanoe Hawker is killed. Brown and his squadron decide to attack von Richthofen's airfield, destroying their aircraft on the ground. However, von Richthofen, with the help of a batch of new fighters from Anthony Fokker, the 'Richthofen Flying Circus' launches a counter attack on the British airfield. Brown later kills von Richthofen during an aerial combat, and Hermann Goering takes over command of the 'Flying Circus'.—H W Thorn

Plot Keywords: fighter pilot, german officer, mentor, thrilling, engaging, gripping, germany ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#22. Bombardier (1943)

Storyline: Major Chick Davis proves to the U.S. Army the superiority of high altitude precision bombing, and establishes a school for bombardiers. Training is followed in semi-documentary style, with personal dramas in subplots. The climax is a spectacular, if somewhat jingoistic, battle sequence.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: major, captain, pilot, secretary, cadet, friend, moving ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#23. The Mountain Road (1960)

Storyline: Maj. Baldwin (James Stewart) is an American officer stationed in China during World War II charged with stopping the advance of the Japanese army and protecting civilians. One of his tasks is destroying infrastructure to stop the progress of enemy troops. Baldwin is put in command of a unit and is taken aback by how primitive China is. He meets widow Sue-Mei Hung (Lisa Lu) who attempts to explain local customs, but she is ultimately put off by his brutal methods.

Plot Keywords: major, colonel, widow, commanding officer, villager, brutal, disturbing ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#24. Starlift (1951)

Storyline: Air Force fliers Rick Williams and Mike Nolan attempt to meet film star Nell Wayne, with whom Rick shares a hometown but not much else. Fellow film stars Doris Day and Ruth Roman mistakenly believe Rick to be very close to Nell and arrange for him to meet her. The pair begin to form a match, especially after Nell, Doris, and Ruth arrange for Hollywood stars to perform for G.I.s in transit to and from the Korean War, at Travis Air Base. But Nell thinks Rick is getting ready to ship out to the war, when in reality, he and Mike ferry troops part of the way then return to Travis Air Base with returning soldiers. Nell is furious with Rick for letting her believe he was headed to a war zone, especially because the press has made a huge story of their romance. Meantime, a new program, Operation Starlift, has been set in place by the Air Force and the Hollywood studios, whereby stars are flown to San Francisco to perform for the outbound and inbound troops. Movie stars such as Randolph Scott, Phil Harris, and Jane Wyman pitch in to entertain the troops. Rick volunteers for duty in a combat zone, and Nell begins to think she's been wrong about him.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Plot Keywords: pilot, movie star, friend, soldier, performer, crew member, cheery ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#25. Bombers B-52 (1957)

Storyline: U.S Air Force Sgt. Chuck Brennan always disliked playboy and hotshot, Col. Jim Herlihy. He first met him in Korea, where his emergency arrival for repairs while enroute for what Chuck thought was the colonels "hot date" in Tokyo, caused the death of several of his crewmen. Now several years later when Chuck, while still in the Air Force, is now weighing continued enlistment or retirement, the base's new C.O. is none other than Col. Herlihy. Compounding his dislike is a budding romance with Chuck's daughter, Lois.—Bill Walch

Plot Keywords: mechanic, pilot, daughter, sergeant, colonel, father, tense ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#28. Mosquito Squadron (1969)

Storyline: Squadron Leader Quint Munroe, an RAF pilot in World War II, has a hard time dealing with the presumed death in action of fellow Sq. Leader David 'Scotty' Scott, whose family practically raised him when he was orphaned, so they were like brothers. RAF Air Commodore Hufford has a crucial task for Quint, who is no longer serving in the squadron: a reconnaissance flight over the château de Charlon, a castle in occupied France, where the Nazis are probably developing a new generation of flying bombs; the defenses are indeed suspiciously tight. When analyzed, the photos show the castle grounds harbor an underground launching tunnel, and Quint gets a nearly impossible precision top-secret mission: select and train a team in only 10 days, when the French underground believes the first launch is planned, to 'aim' a new type of bouncing bomb into the tunnel, to blow up the whole Luftwaffe installation. Quint falls in love with Scotty's young widow Beth Scott, whose crippled brother, Flight Lieutenant Douglas Shelton, is on his team. After the Gestapo catches and tortures a French underground member, the Luftwaffe drops a film showing the castle being filled with captured RAF men, one of which is, to Quint and Doug's shock, Scotty, not dead after all, causing a dilemma for which Quint presents an even more daring solution, to be prepared in a few days...—KGF Vissers

Plot Keywords: fighter, squadron leader, wife, brother, nazi, priest, patriotic ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#29. Iron Eagle (1986)

Storyline: When Doug's father, an Air Force Pilot, is shot down by MiGs belonging to a radical Middle Eastern state, no one seems able to get him out. Doug finds Chappy, an Air Force Colonel who is intrigued by the idea of sending in two fighters piloted by himself and Doug to rescue Doug's father after bombing the MiG base. Their only problems: Borrowing two fighters, getting them from California to the Mediteranean without anyone noticing, and Doug's inability to hit anything unless he has music playing. Then come the minor problems of the state's air defenses.

Plot Keywords: teen boy, father, pilot, arab, colonel, campy, melodramatic ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#30. Flight From Ashiya (1964)

Storyline: Flight from Ashiya is a 1964 film about the U.S. Air Force's Air Rescue Service, flying out of Ashiya Air Base, Japan. In this fictionalized film set in the early 1960s, a flight crew's mission is to rescue a life raft of Japanese civilians stranded in rough seas. The Airplane used in the film was the HU-16 Albatross, A flying boat.—Dod H

Plot Keywords: pilot, survivor, sergeant, lieutenant, wife, tense, thrilling ...

Movie Details Click Here!