Sky Fighters

Infobox Film
name = Sky Fighters (Les Chevaliers du ciel)


caption = French theatrical poster
director = Gérard Pirès
writer = Gilles Malençon (screenplay)
Jean-Michel Charlier (comic book)
Albert Uderzo (comics)
starring = Benoît Magimel
Clovis Cornillac
Géraldine Pailhas
producer = Eric Altmeyer
Nicolas Altmeyer
Christopher Granier-Deferre
distributor = Pathé
released = flagicon|France 15 October 2005
flagicon|Belgium 9 November 2005
flagicon|Japan 18 February 2006
flagicon|Germany 23 February 2006
flagicon|ROC 7 april 2006
flagicon|South Korea 5 April 2007
runtime = 102 min.
language = French
budget = €19,610,000
imdb_id = 0421974
amg_id = 1:342479

"Sky Fighters" (French title "Les Chevaliers du ciel", literal translation "The Knights of the sky") is a 2005 French film directed by Gérard Pirès ("Taxi") 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 which was also made into a hugely successful tv series from 1967 to 1969 making Tanguy and Laverdure, the two main heroes, part of French popular culture.

Plot

The film starts out at the Farnborough Airshow where a demo Mirage 2000-5 is stolen. Captains Antoine "Walk'n" 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'n" 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 both of them being kicked out of the air force.

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 F-16's.

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'n" 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'n" 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 Force. 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).Fact|date=September 2008 The filming of these flight sequences seen in the movie 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 shots 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.

Reaction

Benoît Magimel says "There is no shame in saying (about the movie) that it looks like "Top Gun" "à la Française"..."

Aircraft

* Mirage 2000-5: Maiden flight: April 27 1991 : Model: 1 seat : Maximum speed: Mach 2.2

Soundtrack Listing

#Chris Corner - "Attack 61" (02:51)
#Chris Corner - "We Rise" (03:10)
#Thirteen Senses - "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)
#Placebo - "The Crawl" (02:58)
#Chris Corner - "The Clash" (03:47)
#Chris Corner - "14th Of July" (01:47)
#I Monster - "Heaven Is Inside You" (03:55)
#Chris Corner - "You're The Conversation (I'm The Game)" Original Version (03:02)

See also

* Mirage 2000
* Top Gun (film)

External links

* [http://www.leschevaliers-lefilm.com/site/intro.html Official website] (French)
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421974/ Imdb link]
* [http://www.dassault-aviation.com/gb/home/ Dassault Aviation official website] (English)