I meet the pilot of the Sandy wingman (Jay Cullum). He owned an AD-4 that had a seat in the fuselage for a radar operator. The jungle screens were filmed in Hawaii (they put his Skyraider on a ship to get it there). They painted the camouflage over his Navy paint scheme. My Dad flew Skyraiders, and was a Sandy. I’ve talked to a lot of A-1 pilots, and I agree they got the SAR part right.

As far as the beard goes for the admiral, beards were actually allowed in the navy through the 1970s. It wasn't until 1984 that beards were outlawed altogether from what I've read.

"Normally I'm blabby, but I sat on this one." I love that line.

The movie cost thirty million to make but the box office income was just shy of fifteen million. What a shame. This should have been a box office hit big time.

You guys miss the part "Fighter pilots make movies ,Bomber pilots make History " 😁

RIP Brad Johnson. Also, one of my best college friends was an A-6 driver and flew in the gulf war. He is now one of the top civilians in PACAIR. He called me after his first Low level out through the mountains flying out of Widbey. He was s excited he could hardly talk. FYI. he had just finished flight school when the first Top Gun came out. Since he had a similar build and apperance to Tom Cruise he had fun telling people that he was the pilot double for Tom Cruise.

You cut out what I always felt was the most critical part of the end scenes...when Virgil is calling in the Sandies he ultimately convinces them to drop on him by saying "I'd do it for you"...

Senator Thompson was a good actor. Just a great cast all around.

I always had to chuckle at the scene with the board of inquiry, where Fred Thompson is threatening them with being sent to Adak, AK or Diego Garcia. At the time this movie came out, my dad was the CO of NAVCOMSTA Diego Garcia. Most people would've had to look up where it was to understand why it would've been a punishment to get sent there.

As far as the shaving, the Navy didn't get rid of beards until around '82 so it was still a thing in this timeframe. I think it needs to make a comeback!

Everyone was so serious in that movie. They needed a goofy Admiral that loses his cover in the ocean and orders the XO to "swing her around" so he can keep Admiraling

Man I love this movie. This is my favorite aviation film. That shot of the 4 A6s in formation passing behind the island - heck yeah! What a cool airplane.

The ejection scene was pretty good but the seat-man-separation was inaccurate. Still better than 95% of other movies!

The inquiry occurred on a basketball court with a 3-point line. 7 years before the line existed. TOTALLY UNREALISTIC!

Considering that Stephen Coonts flew A-6s in Vietnam, I think he would have made sure that everything was as accurate as possible. Hell...they even had F-4s in the hangar bay and two flying over for that last cat shot. All real Phantoms.

Tom Cruise: "Top Gun is the best fighter jet movie in the history of ever!" Danny Glover: "Hold my beer because Flight of the Intruder is coming in!"

I was stationed to the Airwing onboard when they made this movie... They actually went and got KA-6D's and repainted them to look like A/B models... The squadron ready room is the actual one on the ship and was filmed.. we had to constantly look out to make sure there where no film crews in the hanger or flight deck "so that the Enlisted don't screw up the scenes"

What is crazy is that the same A1 SkyRaiders flying in Vietnam; were 20 years before flying cover for William Holden and Mickey Rooney. 😏

I'm so happy you found almost no "wrongs". Even the scene where the Hanoi SAM base is hit and results in SAMs flying all over the neighborhood turns out to be accurate. Multiple videos of Russian ammo dumps being hit show the same kind of sympathetic ignitions of SAMs and MLRS rockets flying a kilometer or more unguided into the surrounding areas. I always sort of scoffed at that scene as unrealistically dramatic. Seems the real thing is at least as dramatic.

Glad to see part 2. Loved both book and movie. Went to flight school with Steve. As OBTW, the movie's opening scene with BN shot in cockpit actually occurred on USS Midway. I 2as standing right beside the a/c after deplaning when medics got him out -Ray Donnelly, Pilot was Mike McCormick, later killed in last A-6 loss of the war. The BN,Arlo Clark, had a son who was Thunderbird and commanded F-16 wing.

My buddy was the special effects guy on this and he built the A6 models and all special effects in the film. He was a Navy A6 Veteran. Navy could have beards up through the Seventies.

The Late Senator Fred Thompson was an attorney but never served in the military or as a JAG. But he was a damn good actor

Special thanks coming your way sir. Thank you so much for what you do. The Flight of the Intruder is one of the most accurate of all military Aviation movies without it being a documentary. That of course is in comparison to all the others that have been produced.

LCDR Ronald Pinkard was also an actor playing Dr. Morton in "Emergency!" Was Navy corpsman, retired full CDR USNR. Also, I once had the honor of speaking w/ a WWII bomber pilot who had dropped WP at Anzio, he said "it moved them back."

Steve Hinton is listed as one of the two "stunt pilots". He piloted and crashed the P-51 Red Baron at the Reno Air Races, and survived in either 1978 or 79..... he has had his hand in countless aviation milestones and movies..... I bet he was in one of the Sandy's for filming.....

Been waiting for Part 2! Not sure which I like more, laughing while you ruin a movie, or watching along as you appreciate a well-made one! Thanks Mover & Wombat!

The tomcat was still a kitten in 1972, the year Flight of the Intruder was set. Not quite full-grown yet.

One of my Navy buddies was on the Independence he said that William Dafoe was really cool and Danny Glover was a strange dude which is exactly opposite the types of characters they portray. The A6 pilot that had the IRL BN partially eject is KP classmate of mine. Beeker out.

Brad Johnson does his John Wayne thing in every movie he is in. Leg up, arm over leg, leans in, slower meter to his speech. They made fun of him for it in Always.

Love this movie and the book. I noticed Steve Hinton in the credits as stunt pilot. He must have been one of the Sandy pilots since he is a big time war bird pilot out of Chino Planes of Fame here in California. Great stuff. 👍🇺🇸

"Where's the Tomcats?" Out on CAP. At that time they were called F-4s : )

I have one more "wrong" (and yes, I'm being nitpicky). Razor's helmet has bayonet receivers that commonly weren't used by the Navy at that time (The USAF did though), the ones used on the other characters helmets are accurate though (the sharktooth style receiver). Did anyone notice that Grafton & Cole changed their clear visors for tinted visors before the final strike which was a day mission? Always thought that was a cool little detail.

At 4:33, there are two AN/SPS-49 antennas visible and when the camera zooms out, you can see a Mk92 CAS "egg"--two of the main radars on OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class guided missile frigates that didn't enter service until 1977. They had ships from the future in Subic Bay during the Vietnam War!

Mover and Gonky - As an E-2 NFO, I made the ’72 cruise on the Enterprise. I remember sitting down the wardroom table from Steve Coonts and I would have talked to him and every other pilot on the radio. To clarify, this was the second-ever EA-6B deployment. The F-14 made its maiden deployment one cruise later on the Enterprise. When my flight gear was issued at Pensacola, helmets were white with dual (clear and tinted) visors with a knob on each side. Some folks may have had a single visor with a knob in the middle, possibly an earlier version. At the beginning of the cruise, small strobe lights were added to our survival gear and a patch of Velcro was glued to the helmet to hold the strobe light - in case we went in the water at night. That’s why you see black squares on most of the helmets. I can’t think of any other critiques regarding authenticity. FWIW, Harley Hall was shot down on the last day of the air war over South Viet Nam. I remember briefing Harley on a mission at Fallon. He was gracious. Dan Pedersen, founding OIC of Top Gun, replaced him as XO of VF-143. Regarding authentic movies, I have to tell you The Bridges at Toko-Ri made the rounds of our ready rooms during Linebacker II (Google Christmas Bombing) in December of ’72 and it had striking parallels with Viet Nam. We J.O.s adopted the Admiral’s closing line in the movie as a snide remark when somebody screwed up: “Where do we get such men?"

I attended the Official Disestablishment Ceremony at NAS Whitby Island for VA-196. Sad day, but a proud day. Go Intruders!!!!!

As a kid, this was one of the 1st books I read, sparking my love of reading. When I found out they were making a movie of one of my favorite books, I couldn't wait. I loved the book and I loved the movie.

The A-6 explosion was used for both Boxman and the final shootdown of Devil 505. The time was also sped up for Boxman's death. The Navy CSAR HH-3A were nicknamed Big Muthas. It was also cool to see the A-3 in the hangar deck in the beginning.

I remember watching this movie on vhs a while after it came out. Some years later, I hired on with a defense contractor as a QA engineer. The naval aviator was my end customer. I stumbled onto the book at a bookstore, bought it, read it, then picked up "The Intruders" , also by Mr. Coonts. In reading those two books, I got some great insights into what the naval aviator deals with. I now have a banker's box full of Stephen Coonts books. My absolute favorite modern author.

Brad Johnson, who played Jake, just passed away earlier this year too.

Court martial captain is uncredited, but is played by former Tennessee senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Before he was in politics, he was a lawyer. He got into acting by playing himself in a movie based on a real case he took part in.

Probably one of the best books I've ever read. The movie was good also. You and Wombat provided great commentary. As we said in the Navy back when I was in "OUTSTANDING"

Got this book from my grandfather and it opened the whole Grafton series to me . Thanks for this Mover and Wombat

The Cockpit section of one of the A6s used in this movie was left abandoned in a field and bought by the AMT school I attended, they used it to teach us Sheetmetal repair as we restored it. I think the Aviation museum in Ypsilanti, MI was going to use it for something, but that was 8 years ago and I never learned what became of it. We also had an old F-86 Sabre that we were visually restoring for the museum.

Part 2 was worth the wait, good job guys. very entertaining.

Loved Tennessee Senator & ex US presidential candidate Fred Thompson as the Courts-Martial Captain.

Always loved this book, the movie wasn't bad. Pleasure watching you guys review it. Thank you!

Thank you guys! I always valued this movie as one of the best aviation war films and happy you both gave it a discussion!

Oh, & forgot about the shot of the USS Missouri BB63 while they are at Subic Bay. In 1972, Missouri was in the mothball fleet at Bremerton & was not reactivated till 1984.

Wombat is an outstanding co-commentator. Marvelous, outstanding video as always, Mover sir.

"I'm done Sandy..." brings tears to my eyes each time I watch this part

The point is I’m addicted to Mover ruins movies…it’s a good day when an episode of Mover ruins movies comes out lol keep up the good work Major…actually fun fact I worked with an Army veteran when I was at Dayton Job Corps Center (his name is Payne) who retired as a sergeant but literally every one called him Major for the obvious reason lol

This was a criminally underrated movie. I watched it when it was released and loved it then.

Finally!!! The moment we’ve all been waiting. Liked the video and I haven’t even watched it yet

Awesome. I'm now judging the age of content by the presence of Wombat's chair.

I remember seeing this in the theatre with a friend who was stationed on CVN 72 Abraham Lincoln. I live in the San Fran Bay Area & the Lincoln would put in at Mare Island for maintenance/restocking supplies, & of course shore leave. Dude showed up one day with two movie tickets to see this^^^^^movie. He said it was the best f*****g military movie Hollywood ever did. He wasn't wrong.

Great movie,also you should do Bat-21,I believe Danny Glover is in that one too,thanks mover!

The mission to “downtown” Hanoi was based on the actual 10/30/67 solo A-6 attack flown by Charles Hunter and Lyle Bull for which they were awarded the Navy Cross.

When Admiral Zumwalt was CNO, he authorized the wearing of beards. He was a traditionalist who also brought back the traditional sailor’s uniform with the “dixie cup” cap for enlisted.

Mover, you missed one, the last shot of the carrier you could clearly see the Phalanx CIWS, which didn’t make it on board ships till around 79 or 80. We (USS Milwaukee) got ours in 1984.

I still watch it about every 6 months. The technical inaccuracies are able to stomach. Thank you for the review!

Hot Shots! DID use some footage from this movie, Mover! It's actually listed in the credits.

That was one great movie a classic! Reminds me our my old Navy days on the USS Midway, we had no F-14s on board.

Mover, thank you for doing this episode with Wombat. I knew of this movie (I'd seen some clips before), but after watching your vid recently I went and got a blu-ray right away, and watched it in full for the first time--and I loved it. Being a (very!) casual aviation fan, it was cool to learn that it was one of the more realistic movies, though I understand the movie is still a movie. Some of the special effects were pretty bad (like the explosion of the SAMs on the ground), but others, although dated, I felt they had some kinda nice whimsical charm to them. Maybe it's just the flavor of 90s (less than best) SFX. (Personally love the soundtrack too, I didn't know at first, but it's by the guy who did the score for Robocop) Been watching your other vids too lately, and very much enjoying them. Not just the military aviation stuff, but also mental health subject and such. Appreciate you talking about them, thank you for the cool stuff Mover. Love from Japan, Ken

One of my all-time favorite war movies. RIP Brad Johnson.

Worth the wait! Thanks Mover & Wombat

Great two parter, I love that film and the Skyraider scenes especially. I can't imagine flying something with 2700 hp the torque must have been insane.

I was just thinking about the part two of this and saw you upload it perfect timing.

There's a funny story about the court martial scene. Ed O'Neill was originally supposed to play the admiral who questioned Grafton and Cole, but because he had been typecasted at the time as 'Al Bundy,' nobody on the set could take him seriously, and Fred Thompson was given the part instead. Also, the A-1 was pretty badass, so it's no surprise that it was the predecessor of the mighty A-10!

I was off shore, North SAR during the Christmas Bombing of ‘72. Go Navy!!!🇺🇸⚓️

In the sequel book "Final Flight", Cowboy is the Admiral in command of the Carrier group and Grafton is the CAG.

Been looking forward to this getting out of copyright jail for a long time

The spads in the movie came from air museums and were re painted for the movie

My uncle was a 23 year chief petty officer from WWII until the 60’s and had a beard while stationed in Antarctica.

1. I've been waiting for someone to do this one. THANKS 2. I was stationed on the "USS Inconvience" (CV62) 3. Brad Johnson and Willem DaFoe from time to time eat with the crew. That was cool Glover always hung with the Captain and Admiral. That was not. 4. DaFoe and Johnson weren't fond of him either. 5. The Court Martial Captain was originally Ed O'Neil (Married with Children) but when the test audience laughed. Not something for that moment in the movie. Fred Thompson played the part. 6. Steven Coontz wrote the books for this and "Under Seige" with Tommy Lee Jones and Steven Seagal. 7. Alpha-Mike-Foxtrot= Adios MotherFucker 8. I will go to my grave that this is better than "Top Gun". This one has a plot.

Danny Glover was in BAT-21 as well. Not sure if you have done that movie, but it's based on a true story of the rescue of LtCol Iceal Hamilton in Viet Nam. Danny Glover plays a Air Force CSAR Pilot. Lots over SERE type stuff and a lot of Flying scenes with Jolly Greens and O2 Skymasters.

Regarding Tomcats, this is based in 1972 and the first mission ever flown by the F-14 was in 1975 during the evacuation of Saigon. It was flown by Tomcats of VF-1 Wolfpack from the USS Enterprise.

Enjoyed very much! Born and raised in Savannah Ga FWIW

cool movie was in VA 196 for my first sea duty when this fill was made. The lead cast spent some time with the VA 196 at NAS Whidbey Island.

Got home from work just in time!

This is such an underrated movie. Love it.

When those skyraiders come in over the trees my favourite part of the whole filum.

Fred Thompson was a fine actor and US Senator. Uncredited for this movie. He played the court martial captain.

Really glad to see you enjoy what is one of my favorite books and movies of all time. Great to see it is almost entirely accurate in its depiction of Naval aviation at the time.

"Throughout the 1970s, more restrictions were placed on hair and beards. In 1981, CNO Adm. Thomas Hayward sought to institute “Pride in Professionalism” by tightening regulations even further. No one under the rank of petty officer 3rd class was permitted to have a beard, nor were officers of “special authority or highly visible positions.” The razor finally dropped in 1984 when CNO Adm. James D. Watkins banned all beards. The concern that a sailor with a beard would not be able to gain a proper seals with his emergency breathing apparatus frequently was given as the reason." -- From a USNI article, "A Brief History of Grooming in the U.S. Navy" -- October 23, 2014

The book and subsequent movie took me back to VMAT 202 A6E TRAM Fire Control Avionics. Really enjoyed that squadron. - Swamp

On Nov 10 1970 the chief of naval operations allowed beards to active navy personal..... So the navy was allowed to have beards look it up and linebacker 2 was ordered in 1972 that was in the proper time line that the navy allowed beards. I love your videos. But they were even accurate on beards in the navy during that time. Oh ya and great review... I remember my dad taking me to see this when I was kid. Again I love you videos and I plan on getting one of your books I'm looking forward to it

My father flew F-4s on hundreds of CAS missions in the Marines out of Chu Lai and off the USS Ranger. Flight of the Intruder was hands down his favorite aviation movie.

YESSS!! Been waiting for this.

Finally. Glad you got to do this

22:47 Wait what? Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel... For real? I watched this movie several times and always preferred it over Top gun and all the fighter aircraft movies i remember at the moment, but i never looked at the credits, and when i saw this movie the first time, i wouldn't have known who Lynn Thompson was anyways, but years later at the second and third time i would have. Edit: at the end of the video i got an ad for an upcomming airshow in the country i live in. A fitting ad! That's so rare that i have to mention it!

At 5:41 is a shot of an Iowa class Battleship, I'm 90 % sure the hull mumber is 63. USS Missouri was not active, only USS New Jersey was, BB 62.

Lovely movie. One of my favourites.

Until John F. Lehman changed the grooming standards in 1984, Naval officers and Enlisted E-4 (Petty Oficers) and above were authorized to wear beards within the standards set for beard wear. ✌🐸

Wikipedia states that both A-1 Skyraiders were privately owned.

The Skyraiders where already phased out of USAF and USN service long before this movie was filmed. These were privately owned A1's. The strafing seems to be done with their wing mounted quad 20mm

Ronald F. Pinkard also played Dr. Morton in the 70's TV show "Emergency!"

Been waiting for this!

Buy any of your books, I have them all sirs. Flight of the Intruder is awesome, it's what modern military movies should aspire to be.

I just finished watching the clip and reading the comments. I enjoyed both. Now I've got to backtrack to watch 1/2 because for some reason it didn't hit my Notifications alert. Thank you Mover great job as always, and Wombat ain't chopped.. Props to both of you gentlemen.

We had facial hair in the Navy then under Zumwalt. The cat was hunting the pigeons.