Les Chevaliers du ciel
Encyclopedia
Les Chevaliers du ciel is a 2005 French film directed by Gérard Pirès
about two air force pilots preventing a terrorist attack on the Bastille Day
celebrations in Paris
. It is based on Tanguy et Laverdure
, a comics
series by Jean-Michel Charlier
and Albert Uderzo
– of Astérix
fame, which was also made into a hugely successful TV series
from 1967 to 1969 making Tanguy and Laverdure, the two main heroes, part of popular Francophone
culture.
is stolen. Captains Antoine Walk'in Marchelli (Benoît Magimel
) and Sébastien Fahrenheit Vallois (Clovis Cornillac
) are instructed to escort it back. They find the rogue Mirage flying stealthy under a Qatar Airways
Airbus A340
. They get the order to abort when the rogue Mirage is about to fire on Fahrenheit. Walk'in is forced to shoot the demo Mirage down when it is about to fire a R550 Magic
missile at his wingman
, disobeying an order which results in Marchelli being kicked out of the air force. Vallois resigns when informed by Marchelli.
They get a promise to be reinstated if they fly a Cannonball race
over hostile territory to the Horn of Africa
for Special Missions to help sell the Mirage to an Asian customer. Its competition consists of an F-16.
During the race, their tanker does not show up for in-flight refueling because terrorists have killed the crew. This forces the Mirages to land in hostile territory where their aircraft are taken. Walk'in and Fahrenheit manage to escape with one of the planes and destroy another, one plane however remains in the hands of the terrorists.
The terrorists plan to shoot down a tanker over Paris during the Bastille Day celebrations but Walk'in and Fahrenheit intercept the rogue Mirage and shoot it down over an unpopulated area.
. Initially the standard safety rules applied, but eventually the minimum allowed altitude
was reduced to 3 m (10 ft) and the minimum distance between aircraft was reduced to 1 m (3 ft). The filming of these flight sequences seen in the film were mainly done from the air, as opposed to Top Gun
where most of the filming was done from the ground.
To achieve this, one of the Mirage's external fuel tanks was modified to fit a camera. A HD camera
was considered for this purpose, but it did not fit in the fuel pod. Tracking shot
s were done from a hired Lear Jet
.
Additionally, jet aircraft are not allowed to fly over Paris. As a result of this, all the Paris filming had to be done on the actual Bastille Day (14 July) for which the filming crew got special permission.
à la Française..."
as a commercial aircraft (Qatar Airways)
as tanker aircraft
as AWACS
as UN transport aircraft.
Gérard Pirès
-Filmography:* Guo bao zong dong yuan * Les Chevaliers du ciel * Double zéro * Steal * Taxi...
about two air force pilots preventing a terrorist attack on the Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
celebrations in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. It is based on Tanguy et Laverdure
Tanguy et Laverdure
Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo, about the two pilots Michel Tanguy and Ernest Laverdure, and their adventures in the French Air Force.-Publication history:...
, a comics
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
series by Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier was a Belgian script writer best known as a writer of realistic European comics. He was a co-founder of the famed European comics magazine Pilote.-Biography:...
and Albert Uderzo
Albert Uderzo
Albert Uderzo is a French comic book artist, and scriptwriter. He is best known for his work on the Astérix series, but also drew other comics such as Oumpah-pah, also in collaboration with René Goscinny.-Early life:...
– of Astérix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
fame, which was also made into a hugely successful TV series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
from 1967 to 1969 making Tanguy and Laverdure, the two main heroes, part of popular Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
culture.
Plot
The film starts out at the Farnborough Airshow where a demo Mirage 2000-5Dassault-Breguet Mirage 2000
The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed as a lightweight fighter based on the Mirage III in the late 1970s for the French Air Force . The Mirage 2000 evolved into a multirole aircraft with several...
is stolen. Captains Antoine Walk'in Marchelli (Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. A prolific actor who was 14 when he appeared in his first film, Magimel has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema....
) and Sébastien Fahrenheit Vallois (Clovis Cornillac
Clovis Cornillac
Clovis Cornillac is a French theater, television and cinema actor.- Biography :Clovis Cornillac was born to actors Myriam Boyer and Roger Cornillac. He started studying theatre at the age of 14....
) are instructed to escort it back. They find the rogue Mirage flying stealthy under a Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways Company Q.C.S.C. , operating as Qatar Airways, is the flag carrier of Qatar. Headquartered in the Qatar Airways Tower in Doha, it operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 100 international destinations from its base in Doha, using a fleet of over 100 aircraft...
Airbus A340
Airbus A340
The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engine wide-body commercial passenger jet airliner. Developed by Airbus Industrie,A consortium of European aerospace companies, Airbus is now fully owned by EADS and since 2001 has been known as Airbus SAS. a consortium of European aerospace companies, which is...
. They get the order to abort when the rogue Mirage is about to fire on Fahrenheit. Walk'in is forced to shoot the demo Mirage down when it is about to fire a R550 Magic
R550 Magic
The R.550 Magic is a short-range missile designed in 1968 by French company Matra to compete with the American AIM-9 Sidewinder. On 11 January 1972, a Gloster Meteor of the centre for in-flight trials fired the R550 Magic and shot down a Nord CT20 target drone .Mass-produced from 1976, the Magic...
missile at his wingman
Wingman
A wingman is a pilot who supports another in a potentially dangerous flying environment. Wingman was originally a term referring to the plane flying beside and slightly behind the lead plane in an aircraft formation....
, disobeying an order which results in Marchelli being kicked out of the air force. Vallois resigns when informed by Marchelli.
They get a promise to be reinstated if they fly a Cannonball race
Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash
The Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, widely known simply as the Cannonball Baker or Cannonball Run, was an unofficial, if not outlaw, automobile race run four times in the 1970s from New York City and Darien, CT, on the US Atlantic coast, to Redondo Beach, a Los Angeles...
over hostile territory to the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
for Special Missions to help sell the Mirage to an Asian customer. Its competition consists of an F-16.
During the race, their tanker does not show up for in-flight refueling because terrorists have killed the crew. This forces the Mirages to land in hostile territory where their aircraft are taken. Walk'in and Fahrenheit manage to escape with one of the planes and destroy another, one plane however remains in the hands of the terrorists.
The terrorists plan to shoot down a tanker over Paris during the Bastille Day celebrations but Walk'in and Fahrenheit intercept the rogue Mirage and shoot it down over an unpopulated area.
Filming
Les Chevaliers du Ciel was filmed in co-operation with the French Air ForceFrench Air Force
The French Air Force , literally Army of the Air) is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, then was made an independent military arm in 1933...
. Initially the standard safety rules applied, but eventually the minimum allowed altitude
Altitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...
was reduced to 3 m (10 ft) and the minimum distance between aircraft was reduced to 1 m (3 ft). The filming of these flight sequences seen in the film were mainly done from the air, as opposed to Top Gun
Top Gun
Top Gun may refer to:* Top Gun is a 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.**Top Gun , soundtrack to the movie**Top Gun , a number of games based on the movie...
where most of the filming was done from the ground.
To achieve this, one of the Mirage's external fuel tanks was modified to fit a camera. A HD camera
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
was considered for this purpose, but it did not fit in the fuel pod. Tracking shot
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
s were done from a hired Lear Jet
Lear Jet
Learjet is a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use. It was founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation. Learjet is now a subsidiary of Bombardier and marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family".-History:The Learjet started life as an...
.
Additionally, jet aircraft are not allowed to fly over Paris. As a result of this, all the Paris filming had to be done on the actual Bastille Day (14 July) for which the filming crew got special permission.
Reaction
Benoît Magimel says "There is no shame in saying (about the movie) that it looks like Top GunTop Gun
Top Gun may refer to:* Top Gun is a 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.**Top Gun , soundtrack to the movie**Top Gun , a number of games based on the movie...
à la Française..."
Aircraft
- Mirage 2000-5
- Maiden flight: April 27, 1991
- Model: 1 seat
- Maximum speed: Mach 2.2
- Airbus A340-600
as a commercial aircraft (Qatar Airways)
- Boeing C-135FR Stratotanker
as tanker aircraft
- Boeing E-3F Sentry
as AWACS
- Transall C-160RTransall C-160|-See also:-References:* Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1982-83. London:Jane's Yearbooks, 1982. ISBN 0-7106-0748-2.-External links:*...
as UN transport aircraft.
- Dassault-Breguet-Dornier Alpha Jet E
Soundtrack Listing
- Chris CornerChris CornerChris Corner is an English musician and songwriter. He was a founding member of the band Sneaker Pimps and is now active with the IAMX solo project.He has been living in Berlin since 2006, where he has set up his new IAMX studio for music and visual work....
– "Attack 61" (02:51) - Chris Corner – "We Rise" (03:10)
- Thirteen SensesThirteen SensesThirteen Senses are a post-britpop band from Penzance, Cornwall. The group released the album The Invitation on 27 September 2004, along with several singles: "Thru the Glass", "Do No Wrong", "Into the Fire" and "The Salt Wound Routine", of which the first three have reached the UK Top 40...
– "Into The Fire" (03:36) - Chris Corner feat. Sue Denim – "Gonna Wanna" (02:52)
- Chris Corner feat. D. Manix – "Sugar Jukebox" (02:10)
- Chris Corner feat. Sue Denim – "Girl Talk" (02:08)
- Ghinzu – "Cockpit Inferno" (03:50)
- Chris Corner feat. Sue Denim – "You're The Conversation (I'm The Game)" (03:55)
- PlaceboPlacebo (band)Placebo are a British rock band from London, England, formed in 1994 by singer and guitarist Brian Molko and bass guitarist Stefan Olsdal. The band was joined by drummer Robert Schultzberg, who was later replaced by Steve Hewitt after conflicts with Molko. Hewitt left the band in October 2007 and...
– "The Crawl" (02:58) - Chris Corner – "The Clash" (03:47)
- Chris Corner – "14th Of July" (01:47)
- I MonsterI MonsterI Monster are an English electronic music group, composed of the Sheffield based record producers Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling. They formed in 1997, and released their debut album These Are Our Children in 1998....
– "Heaven Is Inside You" (03:55) - Chris Corner – "You're The Conversation (I'm The Game)" Original Version (03:02)
External links
- Official website (French)
- Dassault Aviation official website (English)