Sora e-Sukui No Tsubasa RESCUE WINGS- (空へ-救いの翼 RESCUE WINGS-) or To the Sky-Wings of Salvation RESCUE WINGS- in English, is a 2008 Rescue movie directed by Masaaki Tezuka, who's previously known for directing several Showa and Heisei-era Godzilla films. The movie was released in theaters on December 13, 2008. RESCUE WINGS was produced with the assistance of the Japanese Ministry of Defense alongside the Japanese Air and Maritime Self-Defense Forces with Komatsu Air Base and Komatsu City as the setting. RESCUE WINGS takes some elements from Yomigaeru Sora — Rescue Wings and the Rescue Wings Zero manga.
The movie is significant since it made Yuko Takayama known in Japan when she was billed as the main star at the age of 15. It also inspired her to be casted since her own father was in the JASDF and died in the line of duty while working with the Air Rescue Wing Komatsu Detachment in a training op.
2nd Lieutenant Haruka Kawashima, who's from Kozushima, was recently assigned at Komatsu Air Base as the first female pilot assigned to do search and rescue ops by flying the Mitsubishi UH-60J under the codename Helios 87. She was inspired to sign up as an officer after seeing them in action in 1994 to help her ailing mother be flown to the mainland for immediate medical treatment.
As Kawashima gets used to the job of conducting SAR ops to fly in medics to rescue people in medical emergencies, she gets traumatized after a SAR op where she and her team evacuate an ill girl named Aya for medical treatment. The rookie officer is shown the harsh realities of SAR ops the more she's deployed.
Air Rescue Wing Komatsu Detachment was later tasked to assist the Japan Coast Guard in evacuating crewmen from a damaged container ship left adrift in the Sea of Japan. Things get really bad when Kawashima and the others find out that Captain Yokosuka was forced to bail from his F-15J while on a routine flying op with Captain Oda sustaining an injury on the latest SAR op.
The film contains examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: Whenever ARW UH-60J choppers show up in-universe. It's not always the case when Yokoyama tells Kawashima that Aya, a patient medevaced died of pneumonia after her surgery went well.
- Cool Plane: The Mitsubishi UH-60J, used by the Air Rescue Wing for search and rescue ops throughout Japan.
- Code Name: ARW Komatsu's UH-60J chopper are assigned the codename Helios'. For Hawker 800 twinjets (known as U-125s), the codename is Artemis.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Kawashima was able to land on the deck of the JS Harusame with Yokosuka safely evacuated despite concerns from Lt. Col. Yasuo Kikuta that Kawashima shouldn't fly Helios 87 despite since Oda's vision isn't good due to an injury from debris that struck the right side of his face above the eyebrow.
- Foreshadowing: When Yokosuka is introduced to Kawashima, he says that she'll likely have to rescue him from a plane crash on of these days. Turns out he jinxed himself.
- Making the Choice for You: When Kawashima saw someone still left behind on a ship during a SAR op, she's ordered to leave him be from the fishing boat Isemaru.
- Mythology Gag: Several bits and pieces of the movie are from Yomigaeru Sora — Rescue Wings and the Rescue Wings Zero manga.
- The main protagonist, Haruka Kawashima, is a 2nd Lt. like Kazuhiro Uchida from Yomigaeru Sora — Rescue Wings and was just recently assigned to Komatsu Air Base. However, the protagonist being female was taken from the initial anime pilot concept and from Rescue Wings Zero.
- The ending of the movie is based from the "A Painful Job" when Kawashima lands Helios 87 on the Harusame's deck. Unlike Uchida where the patient he's flying in his chopper doesn't make it, Yokosuka was safetly evacced for medical treatment.
- Reveal Shot: When Kawashima nearly misses the cable (from presumably a rope bridge) before Lt. Col. Kikuta stabilizes Helios 87, the camera shows Sergeant Sena checking the blanket used to wrap up a person in it to reveal that it's just a training dummy.
- Scenery Porn: The movie shows off Mt. Hakusan in Ishikawa Prefecture and Kozushima in the Izu Islands.
- Shown Their Work: JASDF personnel use English alongside Japanese while doing radio comms. This is done because of the presence of USFJ bases/units in Japan and the ARW sometimes do joint rescue work with them or with multinational military units in and out of Japan.
- When pilots either need to take over or switch control, the pilot needs to say "I have control" and the other pilot says "You have control".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lt. Col. Kikuta was told that Kawashima is depressed after she's ordered to leave the last crewman from the Isemaru. The last orders mentioned that she had to leave due to the harsh weather and risk crashing the chopper.
- Lt. Col. Kikuta is told that one of the patients medevaced by Kawashima died of pneumonia. Major Takasu raised concerns that she could develop PTSD if the situation's not taken care of. He tells Kawashima to take time off.
- Take a Third Option: A Mythology Gag from the anime. Kawashima's warned that without Oda assisting to pilot the UH-60J, she needs to either fly back to Komatsu and let another rescue team handle the SAR op to rescue Yokosuka or join in, but risk loosing more fuel until it crashes. Major Takasu advises Komatsu that she can land the chopper on a JMSDF ship that's in the Sea of Japan.
- Wham Line: Uttered by Staff Sergeant Yokoyama after receiving call to Komatsu regarding a plane crash.Yokoyama: 306 SQ F-15, off radar. The pilot is Captain Yokosuka.
