Line #1 YMMV/BlueThunder


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZsADRNLeI main theme]] by Arthur B. Rubinstein is a classic, unforgettable riff that shows up whenever the titular helicopter appears.
2	* BestKnownForTheFanservice: The scene where Murphy and Lymangood peek into the house of the actress doing nude yoga.
3	* HarsherInHindsight:
4	** A heat-seeking missile hitting a skyscraper in a busy city, causing panic on the streets below, probably won't be depicted in a film this way again. Also, the building afterward looks a ''lot'' like the towers of the World Trade Center after impact.
5	** The anti-PoliceBrutality/Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 put a special focus on the U.S.'s increasingly militarized police forces, ''especially'' in minority neighborhoods, which makes the GovernmentConspiracy here -- deliberately stoke unrest in those neighborhoods and turn a high-tech helicopter on crowds ''just to sell more of them'' -- frighteningly relevant. Not to mention that the cover story is to have a weapon to use to fight potential terrorist threats against the 1984 Summer Olympics, because the 2028 Games are also set to be held in Los Angeles. While he doesn't cite specific incidents, director John Badham's ''Trailers From Hell'' commentary for this film admits that its themes remain relevant today.
6	** It's stated that with a dozen Blue Thunders you could run the entire country. As UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror showed, Apache gunships and surveillance drones aren't enough to run a country if the populace is hostile and well-armed.
7	* HilariousInHindsight: Two years later, the climax of ''Film/SantaClausTheMovie'' hinges on a near-identical ChekhovsSkill to this film's ([[spoiler:the protagonist accomplishing a mid-air loop-the-loop]]). Most modern viewers would likely see the latter film first, making for a funny surprise once they're older and see this one!
8	* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/DanielStern as a rookie policeman, years before his more well known comedic roles in ''Film/HomeAlone'' and ''Film/CitySlickers''.
9	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The story reflects both lingering distrust of the U.S. military and government post-Vietnam and the tougher-on-crime policies that were being introduced in TheEighties, particularly in minority neighborhoods. The cover story for the GovernmentConspiracy involves security for the then-nigh 1984 Summer Olympics. It's also easy to peg it to the ''early'' '80s in that the protagonist is not a nigh-invincible Stallone/Schwartzenegger type ''or'' a jovial everyman like Creator/BruceWillis, the two dominant action hero types of the back half of the decade, but a grizzled Vietnam veteran played by Creator/RoyScheider. An early scene outside a movie theater has ''Film/MommieDearest'' up on the marquee, a giveaway to the film being shot over late 1981-early '82.
10	* {{Woolseyism}}: The Latin American translation of the film censors the part of Lymangood's [[DeadManWriting final recorded message]] where he says that he figured out [[FunWithAcronyms the "JAFO" nickname the other officers gave him meant "Just Another Fucking Observer"]] and has him say that he figured out what it meant and he will discuss it later with Murphy, turning it into a more poignant DeadlyDeferredConversation.

Context YMMV / BlueThunder