History Film / Flyboys

[[TheHero Blaine Rawlings]] (Creator/JamesFranco), a rancher whose farm has recently been foreclosed, heads to France to help fight in World War I. There he meets Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), a disillusioned ace who teaches Rawlings and his squad to fly and shoot Germans under the command of French captain Georges Thenault (Creator/JeanReno).

* AluminumChristmasTrees: With all the other liberties the movie takes with history, you would be forgiven for thinking Whiskey the lion was made up for the story. Turns out, Whiskey was real, and there was another lion who served as a mascot with him.

* TheObiWan: Cassidy

* OldSchoolDogfight: Kind of a given, considering UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne was the "Old School" in question.

[[TheHero Blaine Rawlings]] (Creator/JamesFranco), a rancher whose farm has recently been foreclosed, heads to France to help fight in World War I. There he meets Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), a disillusioned ace who teaches Rawlings and his squad to fly and shoot Germans under the command of French Captain Thenault (Creator/JeanReno).

''Flyboys'' is a 2006 film about American fighter pilots flying for the French [[EagleSquadron Lafayette Escadrille]] in the mid period of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

[[TheHero Blaine Rawlings]] (Creator/JamesFranco), a rancher whose farm has recently been foreclosed, heads to France to help fight in World War I. There he meets Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), a disillusioned ace who teaches Rawlings and his squad to fly and shoot Germans.

''Flyboys'' is a 2006 film about American fighter pilots in the mid period of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

'''''Flyboys''''' is a 2006 film about American pilots in the mid period of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. [[TheHero Blaine Rawlings]], a rancher whose farm has recently been foreclosed, heads to France to help fight in World War I. There he meets Reed Cassidy, a disillusioned ace who teaches Blaine and his squad to fly and shoot Germans.

Later, during a far more successful assault on a German zeppelin, Reed Cassidy is [[MentorOccupationalHazard killed by the Black Falcon]], although he [[HeroicSacrifice takes the zeppelin down with him.]]

* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: Rawlings in the final dogfight, when his machine guns are disabled by German aircraft. Just as the Black Falcon [[DramaticGunCock dramatically cocks his guns]] to prepare for the killing shot, he flies around, pulls off his pistol, [[BoomHeadshot and shoots him]] straight in the head. Note that that was quite a special case; he didn't use this gun against Wolfert (the German pilot who spared his life) when his machine guns jammed, but considering that this was the ''Black Falcon'' he was dealing with (who [[KickTheDog mercilessly killed an airman on the ground]], as well as having shot down Cassidy), he just ''had'' to kill the bastard in any way he could in revenge.]]

'''''Flyboys''''' is a 2006 film about American pilots in the mid period of WorldWarI. [[TheHero Blaine Rawlings]], a rancher whose farm has recently been foreclosed, heads to France to help fight in World War I. There he meets Reed Cassidy, a disillusioned ace who teaches Blaine and his squad to fly and shoot Germans.

* OldSchoolDogfight: Kind of a given, considering WorldWarOne was the "Old School" in question.

* WorldWarI

* RedBaron: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Black Falcon]].[[hottip:*:On a side note, almost all the German pilots fly red planes similar to the one the real RedBaron flew.]]

* OldSchoolDogfighting: Kind of a given, considering WorldWarOne was the "Old School" in question.

* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: Rawlings in the final dogfight, when his machine guns are disabled by German aircraft. Just as the Black Falcon [[DramaticGunCock dramatically cocks his guns]] to prepare for the killing shot, he flies around, pulls off his pistol, [[DeusExMachina and shoots him]] straight in the head. Note that that was quite a special case; [[FridgeLogic one may wonder why]] he didn't use this gun against Wolfert (the German pilot who spared his life) when his machine guns jammed. Well, considering it was the ''Black Falcon'' he was dealing with (who [[KickTheDog mercilessly killed an airman on the ground]], as well as having shot down Cassidy), he just ''had'' to kill the bastard in any way he could in revenge.]]

* CurbStompBattle: The first dogfight that the Escadrille gets into. [[RedShirtArmy The Americans]] are shot down easily by the more skillful, better-equipped German pilots. The succeeding ones show the Americans easily triumphing over the [[AirborneMooks Germans]].
* DoABarrelRoll: The {{Narm}}tastic ending. Although this is somewhat TruthinTelevision. Early dogfights actually did involve guys shooting handguns, rifles, and even dropping [[ImprobableWeaponUser ''bricks'']] on enemy aircraft. And there was actually one incident in which a pilot whose guns had jammed [[spoiler: just flew up beside the enemy's plane and headshotted himy with his service revolver in the same manner in which Rawlings finally offs the Black Falcon in the movie. I believe it was American pilot Frank Luke who did this, on whom Rawlings is loosely based]].

* JustPlaneWrong: Lots and lots of red Fokker Dr.I triplanes. In [[RealLife]], they were rather uncommon, and of course [[TheRedBaron only one pilot flew an all-red one]]. Also, the French Nieuport brand of biplanes had rotary engines, while the ones in the film are shown to have static ones. This is somewhat forgivable, considering they're all just replicas. What's far worse is that several planes seen in the movie either didn't exist at this point of the war, or were already retired from service. In the commentary, producer Dean Devlin comments that they knew the Red Fokker Triplanes were inaccurate, but they wanted to keep the dogfights easy to follow for the audience by [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience making the aircraft as different as possible.]]

* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: Rawlings in the final dogfight, when his machine guns are disabled by German aircraft. Just as the Black Falcon [[DramaticGunCock dramatically cocks his guns]] to prepare for the killing shot, he flies around, pulls off his [[ChekovsGun pistol]], [[DeusExMachina and shoots him]] straight in the head. Note that that was quite a special case; [[FridgeLogic one may wonder why]] he didn't use this gun against Wolfert (the German pilot who spared his life) when his machine guns jammed. Well, considering it was the ''Black Falcon'' he was dealing with (who [[KickTheDog mercilessly killed an airman on the ground]], as well as having shot down Cassidy), he just ''had'' to kill the bastard in any way he could in revenge.]]

* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: Rawlings in the final dogfight, when his machine guns are disabled by German aircraft. Just as the Black Falcon [[DramaticGunCock dramatically cocks his guns]] to prepare for the killing shot, he flies around, pulls off his [[ChekovsGun pistol]], [[DeusExMachina and shoots the him]] straight in the head. Note that that was quite a special case; [[FridgeLogic one may wonder why]] he didn't use this gun against Wolfert (the German pilot who spared his life) when his machine guns jammed. Well, considering it was the ''Black Falcon'' he was dealing with (who [[KickTheDog mercilessly killed an airman on the ground]], as well as shooting down Cassidy), he just ''had'' to kill the bastard in any way he could in revenge.]]

* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: Rawlings in the final dogfight. He {{Narm flies away from the Black Falcon's sights}}, pulls off his [[ChekovsGun pistol]], [[DeusExMachina and shoots the him]] straight in the head when his machine guns are disabled by other German aircraft. Note that that was quite a special case; [[FridgeLogic one may wonder why]] he didn't use this gun against Wolfert (the German pilot who spared his life) when his machine guns jammed. Well, considering it was the ''Black Falcon'' he was dealing with (who [[KickTheDog mercilessly killed an airman on the ground]], as well as shooting down Cassidy), he just ''had'' to kill the bastard in any way he could in revenge.]]

* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: Rawlings in the final dogfight. He [[Narm flies away from the Black Falcon's sights]], pulls off his [[ChekovsGun pistol]], [[DeusExMachina and shoots the him]] straight in the head when his machine guns are disabled by other German aircraft. Note that that was quite a special case; [[FridgeLogic one may wonder why]] he didn't use this gun against Wolfert (the German pilot who spared his life) when his machine guns jammed. Well, considering it was the ''Black Falcon'' he was dealing with (who [[KickTheDog mercilessly killed an airman on the ground]], as well as shooting down Cassidy), he just ''had'' to kill the bastard in any way he could in revenge.]]

* ChekhovsGun: In the final dogfight scene, [[Spoiler: the Black Falcon almost kills Rawlings when he suddenly flies around and shoots him with a pistol Cassidy gave him earlier]].

* CurbStompBattle: The first dogfight that the Escadrille gets into. [[RedShirtArmy The Americans]] are shot down easily by the more skillful, better-equipped German pilots. The succeeding ones show the Americans easily triumphing over the [[Mooks Germans]].

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Even though WWI planes were far lighter and much more nimble than any later-existing military aircraft, their depiction in the movie still strains the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Some of the manoeuvres they pull off would tear the canvass on their wings to shreds or would be simply impossible with the aircraft engines of the era. [[JustHereForGodzilla All justified]] by the RuleOfCool, it seems... Also {{justified|Trope}} by the fact that some of the maneuvers that the DR.1's were capable of pulling off would have had the audiences in complete disbelief. One of the more notable ones is a sideslip (an actual maneuver used by real-world pilots to drop altitude quickly and recover just as quickly). Some German pilots performed this trick to strafe enemy aircraft as they passed. Note that in a sideslip, an aircraft is basically flying sideways. DR.I's could also turn on a dime, almost literally, as one pilot is said to have reversed his aircraft in midair almost instantly, and was able to keep flying.

* ChekhovsGun: Literally...
* CurbStompBattle: The first dogfight that the Escadrille gets into. The German pilots are more skilled and have better planes.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of the pilots in the Black Falcon's squadron shakes his head when the Black Falcon strafes one of the escadrille's RedShirt pilots while he's on the ground and can't fight back. TruthInTelevision for the pilots. Early WWI pilots were a fair bit more noble than their contemporaries on the ground. Most pilots of both sides would refrain from shooting pilots on the ground or finishing off an aircraft that had stalled or jammed its guns (the latter being a depressingly common occurrence in the war). The infamous Red Baron was even buried with full military honors by the same guys who had shot him down. There's a deleted scene on the DVD for the movie that has a German pilot showing this bit of honor by dropping a RedShirt's canvas on the French base.

* JustPlaneWrong: Lots and lots of red Fokker Dr.I triplanes. In the real world the triplane was rare, and only one was red. Also, the French Nieuport brand of biplanes had rotary engines, while the one's in the film are shown to have static ones. This is somewhat forgivable, considering their all just replicas. What's far worse is that several planes seen in the movie either didn't exist at this point of the war, or were already retired from service. In the commentary, producer Dean Devlin comments that they knew the Red Fokker Triplanes were inaccurate, but they wanted to keep the dogfights easy to follow for the audience by making the aircraft as different as possible.

* TheThemeParkVersion : [[GeorgeLucasThrowback Done on purpose]], since the creators admitted of liking the {{Rule of Cool}} approach to movies like this.