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{{work}}
A 2012 Action Drama film starring [[Cuba Gooding Jr.]] and [[Terrence Howard]], based on the exploits of the Tuskeegee Airmen, an all-black squadron of American fighter pilots in [[World War II]]. This is the first feature film to be produced by Lucasfilm since 2008.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abandon Ship]]: Of the aviation variety. Various aircraft end up badly damaged, requiring their crews to bail out.
** Played straight a few times, notably with one pilot who escapes his burning plane simply by jettisoning the canopy, unbuckling from his seat, and rolling the plane onto his back, which neatly drops him out of the plane so he can trigger his parachute. This technique is truth in television but particularly applies to the British Spitfire, whose cockpit was so narrow (thanks to the need for streamlining) that climbing out quickly was difficult.
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* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: The Red Tails' first front-line engagement results in 8 enemy planes shot down and 63 enemy planes destroyed on the ground for none of their own shot down (although damage is taken).
* [[Dare to Be Badass]]:
{{quote|
* [[Death From Above]]: The Red Tails find themselves doing this a lot. At first, settling for trucks and trains because the higher ups refuse to station them somewhere where they will find any German aircraft to shoot at. Later on, they inflict heavy damage upon a German airfield and a destroyer as targets of opportunity. The P-51s were slower than the German jets, but if they climbed and then dove, they could fly faster. This is shown in the film.
* [[Desk Jockey]]: Major Stance and Colonel Bullard, what with them running the squadron's operations and [[Benevolent Boss|dealing with the higher-ups]].
* [[Do a Barrel Roll]]: Inevitable. The rolls they performed above the base after a successful mission were "victory rolls." Victory Rolls is the title of one background music track on the soundtrack. And then there was the tight loop that Pretty Boy used against Lightning, and that Lightning later used against a Luftwaffe mook in the final battle.
* [[Development Hell]]: George Lucas originally developed the idea in 1988, with a scheduled release for 1992. A number of writers worked on the project until John Ridley was hired in 2007 to write the final screenplay, which was then subsequently revised by [[The Boondocks|Aaron McGruder]]. If what Lucas said on ''[[The Daily Show]]'' is true, another reason it took long to produce was because [[Executive Veto|Hollywood executives]] [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|did not think a movie with a mostly black cast would be successful or make money.]]
* [[Dies Wide Open]]: {{spoiler|Lightning, in the film's climax.}}
* [[Divine Race Lift]]: Deke always makes sure to pray to "Black Jesus."
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* [[Faceless Goons]]: The only German pilot's face you see is "Pretty Boy," the main antagonist, who never seems to wear his goggles. Could also be [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic]].
* {{spoiler|[[Fatal Family Photo]]: Lightning's photo of Sofia.}} Averted with {{spoiler|Junior}}. It's only after the heroes find out that [[He Didn't Make It]] that it is mentioned that he had a wife and two kids.
* [[
* [[Five
** [[The Hero]] / [[The Leader]] (type II) - Easy
** [[The Lancer]] - Lightning
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* [[Foreign Cuss Word]]: A German pilot yells ''"Scheiss!!"'' as he is shot down.
* [[Foreshadowing]]:
** Deacon is badly wounded, and ends up soaked in gasoline due to a punctured fuel tank, in one mission. It doesn't take much imagination to foresee [[Kill It
** A bomber officer warns the fighter pilots about the new jet fighters the Germans are beginning to field late in the movie.
* [[Functional Addict]]: He never gets heavily drunk, and it's unclear if anything particularly bad ever comes of it. That said, because of the revelation that he {{spoiler|has been [[Drinking
* [[George Lucas Throwback]]: To the straightforward, patriotic war movies of the 1940s and 1950s, which the Tuskegee pilots didn't actually get back then because of their race.
* [[He Didn't Make It]]: {{spoiler|Junior, according to an escaped prisoner of war. Subverted, in that Junior manages to survive and escape on his own.}}
* [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic]]: [[Played Straight]] at the beginning to give the audience a chance to get to know the pilots, then [[Averted]] after the switch from P-40 Warhawks to P-51 Mustangs.
* [[Hoist
* [[Hot
* [[Huddle Power]]: "[[Dare to Be Badass|Nothing's difficult! Everything's a challenge! Through adversity to the stars!]] [[Determinator|From the last plane to the last bullet to the last minute to the last man we fight! We fight!]]"
* [[In
** [[Embarrassing Nickname]]: Ray Gun hates being called Junior.
** [[Ironic Nickname]]: Pretty Boy sports a nasty scar on his face. Easy is the most tightly wound of the bunch, with Lightning concerned that he is going to [[Heroic Fatigue|burn himself out]].
** [[Nicknaming the Enemy]]: "Pretty Boy"
** [[Nom
** [[Only Known
* [[Iconic Item]]: Deacon's "Black Jesus" picture, Junior's toy Ray Gun, Stance's pipe, and {{spoiler|Easy's pocket flask.}}
** Also the Red Tail's [[Nose Art|red-tailed planes]], and Pretty Boy's yellow-nosed Messerschmidts.
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* [[Language of Love]]: Lightning/Sofia
* [[Live Action Escort Mission]]: The Red Tails' preferred ''modus operandi''.
* [[Mid
** Pretty Boy and his squadron trade up from their Messerschmidt Me-109s for Me-262s, the first operational jet fighters in history.
* [[Mildly Military]]: [[Hot
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: {{spoiler|Lightning's}} solemn funeral is interrupted by {{spoiler|Junior}} returning and making a [[Incoming Ham|very bombastic entrance]].
* [[More Dakka]]: The American fighters mount six .50 cal machine guns each. The German fighters carry 20 millimeter cannons amongst their loadout.
** The B-17s carry as many as 12 heavy machine guns firing in all directions, hence their name: "Flying Fortresses". It doesn't do them much good against the [[Lightning Bruiser|fast, agile German fighters, which carry half as much firepower themselves.]]
* [[
* [[Mutual Kill]]: {{spoiler|Lightning and Pretty Boy.}}
* [[Nobody Ever Complained Before]]: Evidently, it never occurred to at least one member of the white bomber crews that black people took offense to the expression "Colored People."
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*** And Pretty Boy [[Ace Custom|has his]] [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|yellow-nosed]] Messerschmidts.
** A more subtle example, both the B-17s and the P-40s at the beginning of the film bear the drab olive-green paint scheme common of US Army Air Forces aircraft for much of the war. Towards the end, the Americans have all transitioned to the striking ([[Bling of War|and very shiny]]) bare metal paint jobs used by the Army Air Forces towards the end.
* [[N
* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: A joint vehicular and human version when Lightning's plane goes head to head with an M-262 jet fighter. M262s were armed with 4 × 30 mm MK 108 cannons which are exploding rounds; Lightning and his plane are hit several times and should have been obliterated instantly with that kind of firepower. {{spoiler|He dies and crashes soon after, however.}}
* [[Operation: Blank]]: Operation Shingle, providing air cover for an amphibious assault in Italy.
* [[Point Defenseless]]: The anti-aircraft guns at the German airfield, aboard the destroyer, and in the American bombers are pretty much useless in this movie.
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Major Stance, and then Colonel Bullard once he returns from Washington.
* [[Red Alert]]: The Luftwaffe airfield when Pretty Boy reports that he is [[Coming in Hot]], pursued by four American fighter planes.
** The [[Fighter Launching Sequence]] barely has a chance to get started before the American pilots lay waste to the place. Two planes [[Sitting Duck|barely make it into the air]] before getting shot down.
* [[Red
** Interestingly, while Easy is much more level-headed (and higher-ranking), Lightning is much more often ''right'' about what tactics they should use, which is the cause of much of their tension.
* [[Retirony]]: {{spoiler|Lightning proposes to Sofia and keeps a picture of her in his cockpit. He dies in the very next mission.}}
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* [[Shown Their Work]]: The filmmakers went through great pains to make the movie accurate, going as far as interviewing the surviving members of the squadron, and even getting access to their journals. That over-the-top bit with one pilot disabling an Italian destroyer? [[Reality Is Unrealistic|It happened.]]
* [[Sitting Duck]]: The German aircraft at the airfield that is treated to an impromptu air raid by Easy, Lightning, Joker, and Junior.
* [[Sobriquet]]: Pretty Boy.
* [[Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure]]: Used to attack a German train at the start of the film. [[Subverted Trope|Lightning protests that it would be smarter (and safer) to attack the train head-on instead]], due to the presence of [[Anti
* [[Stereotype Flip]]: In an [[Ironic Echo]] to a previous scene, some of the black pilots are walking past the Officers' Club, where Lightning had previously gotten into a brawl with a large group of racist white officers. A very redneck sounding pilot walks out and shouts at them, seemingly trying to taunt them. He's a grateful bomber pilot wanting to share a drink with the men who saved his crew.
** Later, a German guard is shown gleefully introducing a POW barracks full of grumpy white officers to their new room mate, very black, and very alone {{spoiler|Junior.}} As soon as the guard leaves, {{spoiler|Junior}} learns that the men there are grateful to have him, because he couldn't ''possibly'' be [[Stalag 17|a Nazi spy]]. {{spoiler|And they want him to have a part in their escape.}}
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* [[War Is Hell]]: Played straight in the film's prologue, showing a formation of bombers being torn to shreds by the Luftwaffe fighters.
** And [[Subverted]] in the very next scene, with four of the 332d Fighter Group pilots cruising along on another boring patrol.
{{quote|
* [[We Have Reserves]]: Escort pilots are explicitly encouraged to think of themselves as this in relation to bombers. The commander of the bomber forces comes to Bullard looking for escort pilots who'll put the bombers over themselves, and Bullard tells his men "At all costs, protect the heavies."
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Easy
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Lucas held discussions with [[Samuel L. Jackson]] regarding Jackson possibly directing and acting in the film. Although Jackson praised the script, he did not commit to either role.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Lightning towards Easy after he realizes that {{spoiler|Easy has been flying while drunk.}}
** And later on, Major Stance towards Easy for allowing himself {{spoiler|to wallow in his self pity. He has to accept that not every choice he makes as a commander will be correct.}}
* [[Where Da White Women At?]]: Lightning is implied to be quite the ladies' man while stationed in Italy. After the film's first battle, he spots a beautiful Italian woman hanging laundry as he flies overhead, and proceeds to seek her out on ground later.
** Actually a subversion, as his skin color has surprisingly little effect on how their relationship develops, and even her ''mother'' doesn't seem dismayed by it.
* [[With
▲* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: The {{spoiler|Black Jesus picture}} being recovered from {{spoiler|Deacon's}} burning plane.
▲* [[With All Due Respect]]: Between Colonel Bullard and Colonel Mortamus. Pretty much the only thing keeping either officer from telling the other what they ''really'' think about each other.
* [[X Meets Y]]: [[HBO]]'s ''The Tuskegee Airmen'' meets ''[[Pearl Harbor]]''.
* [[Yanks With Tanks]]: We briefly see ships of the US Navy shelling a beach, with infantry from the Army landing ashore. Most of the film, obviously, centers on the US Army Air Forces, and in particular the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/332d_Fighter_Group 332d Fighter Group.]
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Military and Warfare Films]]
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