HELICOPTER vs CAR - chase from "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" - '74 - HQ

[gravelrob1]

I love this type of flying.

[DownRange1776]

I love this movie and both Vanishing Points the original and remake both great.

[joten70]

thats some amaxing piloting ^_^

[doacarnage]

Lots of People talkin bout the Charger outrunning that chopper...easily?? I owned a 1970 Dodge Charger 440 4spd and 3.23:1 gears. I took it up over 145 MPH several times so it is possible, BUT could not sustain these speeds for a long time as rpms were 5500+. This was also done on Interstate 5, a very flat and level concrete highway. Someone also mentioned a 200mph top speed on the Charger? hahahahaa Only the most stout and fully race prepped Hemi Daytonas and Superbirds reach those speeds.

[69sexyLEGS]

i want to press the dislike button cuz they wrecked the car !!

[TheForwardGaze]

I remember sneaking into the theater to see this when I was a kid. We thought this movie was so cool.

[lheard8664]

wish I had this on DVD

great movie

[colts1948]

I used to drag from stoplight to stoplight. Missed a gear and still be the hemi. One time I had my family with me and the clutch began to slip. In trying to get them home I floored it in fourth and it was only going about ten,shearing off the fan into the radiator. That was power.

[aaatomicpunk]

Eugene Daniels says "Im gonna show you my twice pipes this time buddy" He says that because it means the car he is driving has dual exhaust. I know because I have the actual script for the movie and thats what is says. The script and toms of other stuff came with the Charger that I bought that was made into a replica of the car from the movie. Ill have to post some videos of it.

[crashandcynder]

id still take the charger like tht

[colts1948]

4400, 4 speed, positraction, 4 barrel. Nothing like it. Could miss a gear and still out run 'em. Know, I did it. 140 wasn't the top. never knew what it was no one could get a time on me. Two lane highway, Indy, Rochester, Argos, South Bend from Fort Knox 305 miles, 3 hours and 45 minutes. Would have been better if I hadn't stopped to get food.

[TheJer1963]

@colts1948 I would have rather had the 426 Hemi in that 68 Charger myself. They destroyed 2 of the Chargers making this movie. I could have used the deck lid off of one of them back in 79. The 440 Magum was cool but as I say, I would have went with the Hemi from the factory that you could have ordered. Almost forgot, they destroyed a 69 Charger making this movie to.

That 440 Magnum came with 375HP back then.

[chrisdimson]

what does eugene daniels say when he is chasing the charger onto the dirt road??" I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU MY ONCE TWICE TWIST PIPE"???? can anyone figure out what he says??? i have asked several people and no one can figure it out?

[chrisdimson]

i have watched this 1000+ times/Can anyone figure out what eugene daniels says,in the scene chasing the charger on the dirt road????" I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU MY ONCE TWICE_______twist pipe??" or something like that?Would love to know what he says?anyone,thank you

[guguigugu]

unfortunately, this scene and the charger are the only good things about this movie...

[weirdcitykid]

That is some crazy stunt...they would never be allowed to do that these days. Would be all cgi and trickery...but you can tell this actually happened. Risky stuff.

[weirdcitykid]

Is that...Johnny Cash?

[Reactiv12]

@weirdcitykid Vic Morrow...

[CygnusatratusZ]

@weirdcitykid Vic Morrow, who died few years later, on the set, due to the blades of a Hellicopter, ahile filming The Twighlight Zone, The Movie... Take care, God bless...

[weirdcitykid]

@CygnusatratusZ

OMG really:( That is so sad - poor children and poor guy.

I have seen that film a thousand times was one of my favourites as a kid - I recall no hellicopter scene but maybe I just forgot it. That is awful - surprised they finished making the film. Hope they gave the profits to the families.

[knightflyte]

@weirdcitykid There was a large law suit. The movie was almost not released.

[weirdcitykid]

@CygnusatratusZ

I remember it now - he was sucked back into wartime and was stuck in the middle. I always think of those cartoon things when I think TZ.

[Reactiv12]

Saw this when it first came out in theaters. It was a real sleeper hit.. This was probably one of the best chase scenes I've seen - certainly the most unique, pitting a Dodge Charger up against a Bell helicopter. This was the high point of the movie for sure, but you would have had to have seen this and other scenes on a wide-screen theater format to have really appreciated it. It was, as they say, "like being there."

[Andreas748]

Clown to Franklin...

[mt3311]

You are all missing the point of this clip, this is some of the best helecopter flying on film. the pilot was a genius. When they come around the corner, and the Charger stays straight as does the helicopter, and as soon as he completes the turn he drops the nose so he can keep up his foward airspeed. That is flying a helicopter. The best I have seen on film.

[richguy920]

if the charger was orange with 2 "01" on it they could have outran the helicopter

[crazyracer12]

I hate the way this Charger got mashed up, then destroyed. D:

[REDTOP4LIFE]

2 bad they die at the end

[80s4U]

BTW N20DB is still registered for flight today =)

[Kooshmeister3]

@80s4U It was also used in The Towering Inferno.

[80s4U]

poor Vic Morrow he liked Choppers a little too much.

rip

[joejoe417]

IRONIC....VIC MORROW WAS KILLED BY A HELICOPTER.....

[alwaysBnatural]

I once spent a day traveling in a helicopter. It was a slightly bigger Bell Mid Ranger (7 passengers). The pilot was constantly refueling. So, fact that the chase is called off because the chopper is running out of fuel is true to life.

[THX1205]

Spectacular Chase Scene!

[Kinemacolour]

They're not going very fast.

[disparatedan]

@Kinemacolour - Speed ain't everything! As has been pointed out by another commenter - flat out, the car could easily have outrun the chopper - but in the movie, Fonda's character was more interested in PLAYING with the Sheriff than merely LOSING him!!

[stolenusername4]

@Kinemacolour this was when stunts were really stunts

[SanAntonio78210]

@Kinemacolour kids these days!!!

[gza069]

Anyone know if this is the movie where the female actress says something to the effect of "I think I just eloped" just before the car is hit by a train?

[VICMORROWFAN]

Man Vic was great in this!

Altho I get a bit of a lump in throat thinking how he was murdered in 1982 by a reckless hack director ordering a helicopter 24 feet over his head with explosions going off everywhere.

What a waste.........

[RT440Dodge]

Nothing like a big block 440 Mopar!

[stybarrow]

those Chargers could do 140mph+ . it would have been a better scene if Fonda had opened up that 440ci and given that chopper a bit more competition.

[disparatedan]

@stybarrow - In a straight line, the Jetranger would never have been able to keep up with it!

[Kooshmeister3]

@disparatedan I did some quick research. You undersell the JetRanger, I think. It does 220 mph, 20 more than the Charger's already impressive top speed of 200. I'd say they're matched for speed with the helicopter slightly edging the car out.

[Kooshmeister3]

@Kooshmeister3 Nevermind, that's km/h. Frickin' metric system. Scratch that.

[LateNightCable]

@disparatedan That's not true. The Bell JetRanger is capable of about 140 miles per hour in it's own right, and it doesn't have to follow paved roadways. If you're in a car, any car, it's hard to outrun a chopper and even harder to outrun a cb radio.

[Kooshmeister3]

@stybarrow And a Bell JetRanger can do 220.

[Kooshmeister3]

@Kooshmeister3 Well, 220 km/h. I guess a Charger can outrun it. I need to be more thorough in my research. It does 136 mph which is pretty low compared to the Charger, but it could still just go higher up and follow it, if not outright catch it.

[grumpypant]

Disparatedan:

Everytime I tune in to your video here, I would watch it up to about six times...Always mesmerised by that tight corner turn by the helicopter! My goodness, what we're watching here are REAL FAST MOVING MACHINES chasing each other on real public roads---not like that IGC craps of today's Hollywood!!! Thanks again for sharing this!!!

[grumpypant]

Also note that as part of the safety of the chase scene after going around the intersection, the helicopter has to keep a straight path while the Charger is freed to swirl from one side of the road to the other; one bad mistake and that chopper would have chopped some fine fire woods!!!

[Highice007]

Bell Jet ranger helicopters rock!!!! Would have won but for fule

[disparatedan]

Had a ride in one once. Like sitting in a chair hanging from a rope - while someone is whirling it around over you!

[TheGypsy2352]

Check out my clip in the video responses above - stuntman versus TRAIN!!

[grumpypant]

Thank you, oh, so much, whoever you are, for posting this video; I really think today's film makers should watch and study this scene for their future projects...

I'll give you a 5-star rating!!!

[grumpypant]

...a flying stunt like that is very dangerous; and good 'ol Gavin there really knew "the right stuff..."

And it's kind of ironic that Vic Morrow accidently got killed from a helicopter blade a few years later while on the set of "Twilight Zone The Movie."

[disparatedan]

@grumpypant - As I said in my "info" panel, a cruel twist of fate indeed.

In fact, very FEW premature stunt-person deaths were EVER stunt-related (of course, after the "Twilight Zone The Movie" incident, the definition of the word "stunt" got re-written - which is why modern movies that appear to have few, if ANY stunts have a SLEW of "stunt performers" in the end credits).

Basically, these days, if a script calls for an actor to get up quickly out of a CHAIR - it's classed as a STUNT!!!

[grumpypant]

Man, this portion of the movie has always amazed me since I first saw this flick at a refugee camp in Guam back in '75; as an 8 1/2 year old kid, "American actions" like this can drill into your membranes FOR YEARS!!!

[grumpypant]

I'll tell y'all something: whoever flew that chopper was a natural-born talented! Notice how low those blades to the road?

[disparatedan]

@grumpypant - the first time I saw this, the tight corner where the pilot seemingly brushes the road with his rotor tips BLEW ME AWAY!

And there's a bit in Deadly Encounter (see below) where the same pilot flies a chopper (if memory serves, a Hughes L500) along a narrow storm drain with seemingly NO clearance for his rotors.

Buried in today's CGI, dangerous stunts ARE still done - often with Buddy, Glenn, Terry or other surviving veterans directing - but they can't top gags like THESE!

[disparatedan]

@disparatedan - True. Quentin Tarantino tried to recapture REAL stuntwork in his "Grindhouse" movie, "Death Proof". He managed to get veteran stunt guys Buddy Joe Hooker and Terry Leonard on board - and the result was pretty good.

But that chopper was flown by James Gavin - another '70s stunt genius. And yes, that tight turn is FANTASTIC!!

[volumeguy]

@grumpypant I'm guessing the guy was a fresh out of Vietnam pilot. I trained air-ambulance in the 90's with an Arkansas Guard pilot who was a Vietnam vet, and that guy flew the f. out of that chopper. I was scared shitless, but he knew what he was doing.

[kevinabalo88]

Nothing produced nowadays will ever come close this.

We used to take stunts for granted back then.

[disparatedan]

@kevinabalo88 - Actually, the cruel irony is that in amongst all the digital trickery in modern movies, some pretty good stunts are still performed.

But they go UNRECOGNISED, because people assume it's ALL done with CGI!

[kevinabalo88]

>disparatedan - I expect you`re probably right, but looking at this clip I reckon they have to be going 70 - 80mph along that tree lined road weaving from side to side with the chopper six feet off the ground.

And it shows, it looks real, a lot of the CGI stuff looks to have gone backwards.

I havent seen a sci fi film lately that can outdo Star Wars for special effects.

[disparatedan]

@kevinabalo88 - (1) - see above - "grumpypant" and (2) - They had to really WORK on Star Wars - the effects were OPTICAL!

[georgeone11]

No computers, no special effects, only edition and brave stunts. Great era (1974)

[doacarnage]

The same chopper pilot from Vanishing Point

[flycubfly]

@doacarnage He was Hollywoods only heli pilot from late 60, 70s and early 80s. If there was a scene with a helicopter in it, it was him . Even tv shows such as Fall Guy , Hawaii 5-0, Magnum PI (TC acted as if he was flying) ect,,

[disparatedan]

@flycubfly - If I may butt in: you are speaking of the great James W. Gavin.

He also did some sterling work in a TV movie called Deadly Encounter - starring Larry Hagman and Susan Anspach. A terrific little movie with some amazing helicopter flying.

Of course here, we get to SEE Mr Gavin - he IS the pilot of the chopper, as shown.

[flycubfly]

yep, thats the name. AOPA pilot magazine did a nice story on him a few years back. Heck, I even remember him in Starski and Hutch, Chips, later version of Lassie, Charlies Angles and ,,,,,,,,,,

[Kooshmeister3]

@disparatedan He also had a bit part as the Gazelle pilot in The Gauntlet. He looks a little like Hugh Laurie, I think!

[1967bigjohnny]

Brill movie shame they don,t show it much