History Film / AirAmerica

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In one scene at a restaurant, two Laotian lounge singers are singing Music/{{America}}'s "Horse With No Name". In {{Engrish}}. And off-key.

* WhatAnIdiot: InUniverse. The pilots' reaction to every psychological warfare method Rob assigns to them.
** Rob plays a recording of a woman screaming that they are supposed to broadcast from loudspeakers mounted on their planes while flying at low altitudes. He admits that it's dangerous. One of the pilots says:
--> This isn't dangerous, this is ''embarrassing''. They're not gonna shoot at us, they're just gonna point up at us and laugh at this shit!
** Later:
--> What the fuck is that? Paul Bunyan's condom?

-->'''Rob''': Is he dead?
-->'''Gene''': Well, Rob, if he's not dead, he's very, very calm.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Air America was a real airline operated by the CIA during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar which [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America_(airline)#Drug_smuggling evidently did in fact smuggle drugs on the side.]]

1969: After [[ItMakesSenseInContext buzzing a semi-driver]], radio eye-in-the-sky Billy Covington (Downey) gets stripped of his pilots license. No sooner does this happen than he gets a job offer from Air America, a covert airlift organization operating out of Laos. Once there, he finds the company full of lunatics, with perhaps the looniest being Gene Ryack (Gibson), a self-proclaimed Buddhist who runs guns on the side. He also finds out the organization is secretly a drug-smuggling operation, run by [[MagnificentBastard Major Lemond]] (Ken Jenkins) and General Soong (Burt Kwouk).

!!!Tropes

* BigDamnHeroes: Gene, Billy, and Babo come to rescue Corrine from Soong's troops. When they find out a number of villagers also need saving, Gene dumps his whole stash of weapons(that he was planning to sell for his retirement) to make room for them, and then blows the weapons up so Soong's men can't use them.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: After [[spoiler:Jack]] dies while searching for Gene and Billy, Billy buys some grenades on the black market to destroy the drug lab in revenge. Gene thinks that it's not "well-planned fun" and warns him not to do it. He does it anyway. All Billy ends up doing is knocking out the lab for three hours and gets everyone in the surrounding area stoned with production resuming that morning. Worse, Soong knows exactly who's responsible as the guards saw him. So, Lemond decides to use him as a scapegoat for Davenport. [[spoiler: It almost works. If it weren't for Babo saying that there is no "routine inspection", they would've been killed.]]

* ImprobableAimingSkills: At the beginning, a farmer shoots down a plane with a casual pot-shot.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The film was sold as a buddy movie, when it's really an anti-war political thriller.

** CIA Agent Robert Diehl is based on Jerry Daniels, who was the Agency's liason to the Laotian Army.

** Rob plays a recording of a woman screaming that they are supposed to broadcast from loudspeakers mounted on their planes while flying at low altitude. He admits that it's dangerous. One of the pilots says:

1969: After [[ItMakesSenseInContext buzzing a semi-driver]], radio eye-in-the-sky Billy Covington (Downey) gets stripped of his pilots license. No sooner does this happen than he gets a job offer from Air America, a covert airlift organization operating out of Laos. Once there, he finds the company full of lunatics, with perhaps the looniest being Gene Ryack (Gibson), a self-proclaimed Buddhist who runs guns on the side. He also finds out the organization is secretly a drug-smuggling operation, run by [[MagnificentBastard Major Lemond]] ([[Series/{{Scrubs}} Ken Jenkins]]) and General Soong ([[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Burt Kwouk]]).

* AnachronismStew: Not ''too'' bad, but some of the songs on the soundtrack actually came out ''after'' 1969.

* CasualDangerDialog

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: After [[spoiler:Jack]] dies while searching for Gene and Billy, Billy buys some grenades on the black market to destroy the drug lab in revenge. Gene thinks that it's not "well-planned fun" and warns him not to do it. He does it anyway. All Billy ends up doing is knocking out the lab for three hours and gets everyone in the surrounding area stoned with production resuming that morning. Worse, Soong knows exactly who's responsible as the guards saw him. So, Lemond decides to use him as a scapegoat for Davenport. [[spoiler: It almost works. If it weren't for Bobo saying that there is no "routine inspection", they would've been killed.]]

** Rob plays a recording of a woman screaming that they are supposed to broadcast from loudspeakers mounted on their planes while flying at low altitude. He admits that it's dangerous. One of they pilots says, "This isn't dangerous, this is ''embarrassing''. They're not gonna shoot at us, they're just gonna point up at us and laugh at this shit!"
** Later: "What the fuck is that? Paul Bunyan's condom?"

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: After [[spoiler:Jack]] dies while searching for Gene and Billy, Billy buys some grenades on the black market to destroy the drug lab in revenge. Gene tell him that it's not "well-planned fun" and warns him not to do it. He does it anyway. All Billy ends up doing is knock out the lab for a few hours. Worse, Soong knows exactly who's responsible. So, Lemond decides to use him as a scapegoat for Davenport. [[spoiler: It almost works. If it weren't for Bobo saying that there is no "routine inspection", they would've died.]]

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: After [[spoiler:Jack]] dies while searching for Gene and Billy, Billy buys some grenades on the black market to destroy the drug lab in revenge. Gene warns him not to do it and to just let it go. He does it anyway. All Billy ends up doing is knock out the lab for a few hours. Worse, Soong knows exactly who's responsible. So, Lemond decides to use him as a scapegoat for Davenport. [[spoiler: It almost works. Bobo saying that there is no "routine inspection", Billy's GenreSavvy and quick thinking saves him and Babo from being killed.]]