[Video] F-14 Pilot who helped film The Final Countdown tells the story of when he let the cameraman in the B-25 camera plane touching his Tomcat with his foot in mid flight

[Video] F-14 Pilot who helped film “The Final Countdown” tells the story of when he let the cameraman in the B-25 camera plane touching his Tomcat with his foot in mid flight

By Dario Leone
Aug 17 2020
Share this article

The movie company obtained a modified B-25 from Tallmantz Aviation, with a camera in the tail gunner position.

The interesting video in this post features Alan “Shoes” Mullen, one of the F-14 Tomcat pilots from VF-84 Jolly Rogers that helped film The Final Countdown, recalling a story about letting the cameraman in the B-25 camera plane touch his Tomcat with his foot in mid-flight.

As we have already explained in a previous article, Shoes said that filming in Key West “started with a helicopter as a camera platform, two T-6s (and a spare) playing Zeros, and about five F-14s: two painted as ‘202,’ two painted as ‘203,’ and one spare ready to be anything.”

[Video] F-14 Pilot who helped film The Final Countdown tells the story of when he let the cameraman in the B-25 camera plane touching his Tomcat with his foot in mid flight
This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. F-14A Tomcat VF-84 Jolly Rogers, AJ200 / 160393 / 1977

“The strategy was doomed from the start. The movie guys wanted the Tomcats flying with their wings swept back to look cool (so we had to be fast), the T-6s flying with their canopies open to look cool, (which slowed them down) and the helicopter hovering as a stable camera platform, theoretically in a known location.” That is, until the tropical winds blew it around.

But a helicopter as camera platform complicated their filming. Shoes said, “Every scene was an attempt to get three pool balls to collide on a pool table at exactly the same time. Try it sometime!”

“Either the Tomcats and Zeros were awesome, but no helicopter was there to film it. Or the helo was trying to hang on to a formation of Zeros and the Tomcats fell out of the sky trying to slow down to below 200 knots with the wings swept back.” It was an expensive waste of time.

F-14 Model
This Model is Available from AirModels! CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS.

Eventually the movie company obtained a modified B-25 from Tallmantz Aviation, with a camera in the tail gunner position.

“This was a game changer because the bomber was speed compatible with the Zeros and they could comfortably fly in formation with the bomber as one element. We (Tomcats) could fly at 300 knots or more to sweep the wings and finally we only had to get two pool balls to hit on the table at the same time. Infinitely easier!”

The following footage is an edited excerpt from the bonus DVD from The Final Countdown movie.


Share this article

Dario Leone

Dario Leone

Dario Leone is an aviation, defense and military writer. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviation Geek Club” one of the world’s most read military aviation blogs. His writing has appeared in The National Interest and other news media. He has reported from Europe and flown Super Puma and Cougar helicopters with the Swiss Air Force.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share this article


Share this article
Share this article

Always up to date! News and offers delivered directly to you!

Get the best aviation news, stories and features from The Aviation Geek Club in our newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.



    Share this article
    Back to top
    My Agile Privacy
    This website uses technical and profiling cookies. Clicking on "Accept" authorises all profiling cookies. Clicking on "Refuse" or the X will refuse all profiling cookies. By clicking on "Customise" you can select which profiling cookies to activate.
    Warning: some page functionalities could not work due to your privacy choices