BLUE THUNDER (1983)

BLUE THUNDER is John Badham's super-helicopter thriller, starring Roy Sheider as Frank Murphy, a cop assigned to test-fly the dangerous vehicle for the '84 Olympics. When Murphy suspects that the government plans to use the chopper for evil, he steals it, resulting in some of the most intricate helicopter chases ever captured on film.

BLUE THUNDER is deservedly one of Arthur B.'s best known scores, a unique combination of '80s electronics with acoustic brass, strings and percussion. The main theme is dynamite, an ascending long-line melody usually voiced on a hollow-sounding synclavier patch (at times layered over a sampled rhythm of whirling helicopter blades). As per custom with Rubinstein, the tune takes unexpected harmonic turns that keep you on your toes everytime you hear it. It's not often you get to hear a classically trained film composer write this sort of sophisticated music for the synthesizers that were more often employed on pop-scores by Vince Di Cola and Harold Faltermeyer. BLUE THUNDER is a rare thrill in that it tricks you into thinking you're in for an enjoyably trashy synth score only to reveal the classical intricacies found in Rubinstein's best work. 

As you might suspect in a movie about a helicopter, a good deal of the music is buried under sound effects. The promo soundtrack CD is hard to find but Track 14 (River Chase/Hide and Seek) may very well be the best action cue Rubinstein has ever penned, mixing and matching his main theme with the rest of the score's biting, mechanical sub-motives, and brilliantly blurring the line between electronic and symphonic. Highly recommended.

Definitely worth watching.

-- Al B

We attempted to sync up the picture with the exciting River Chase half of the cue. Here you can see how the music works in the film with only Rubinstein's score isolated: 




There are some standout themes in BLUE THUNDER like the soft piano theme for the quiet moments between Murphy and Kate (on the album as Kate's Theme). This theme has a haunting quality in it's beginning statement but ends with a more hopeful turn in the closing phrase. 

The composer utilized some experimental piano effects for the creation of the score. According to John Badham in the promo CD liner notes, Rubinstein created an unusual piano sound by placing the microphone inside a large empty water bottle underneath a Steinway. 

Track 8, Follow My Leader, is one of my personal favorite cues which plays with fun synth textures and contains an early statement of the action motif later heard in River Chase. Always present are the bouncing minor 3rd intervals expected from the composer. Synths used for the score were the Synclavier II, Jupiter, Prophet and Moog. An original version of Murphy's Theme was composed for the end title and performed with a single piano building with a crescendo in the orchestra (Track 15, Ride With The Angels) but the filmmakers opted for a more pop flavored version which can be heard as Murphy's Law - Theme from Blue Thunder (Track 16). 

BLUE THUNDER stands as one of the best action films of the 1980s and it's theme of secret government surveillance is still a very relevant subject. Today's word of summer blockbusters with nothing coming out but comic book action movies gets old and stale so it's nice to reflect on how action used to be made. It's incredible to think now that John Badham's BLUE THUNDER was released the same year as WARGAMES.  1983 would be a watershed year for both Arthur B and the director. 

-- Brandon F. 


The promotional CD cover for BLUE THUNDER.  Unfortunately as of this post the soundtrack still has not seen an official release from any label.