Sonny hooper, hollywoods greatest stuntman, deals with his relationship with the daughter of his mentor, a challenge from a young stuntman who idolizes him, and the egomaniacal director of his latest movie. When an opportunity arises for sonny with ski to earn a shedload of money to make a nearimpossible car jump the ageing stuntman will risk all hoping to survive and maybe make this his last stunt. This is hooper, hal needhams second film in a sixmovie run with burt. This movie is one of a handful of pictures that burt reynolds made with his 1970s girlfriend sally field.
Very worth watching, also stars jan michael vincent, and sally fields. In the 1970 arthur penn film little big man, starring dustin hoffman and faye dunaway, one stunt. The hooper dvd movie, is a really good and funny movie starring burt reynolds. After sonny and ski make the jump, they pull sonny out of the car and he hugs gwen.
Reynolds spins it around in the middle of the road and then speeds along backwards until hes pulled over by the cops. All you need to know about zero to sixty is that joan collins drives a silver 1978 trans amhardthrough much of the film, including burnouts, power slides, and a considerable jump about three minutes into the film. The car is bright red with a 403cubicinch v8 lurking under the. Hooper trans am jump scene 1978 burt reynolds, janmichael vincent. Hal needham is itone of the greatest to ever walk onto a movie set. In the years between 1973 and 1984, reynolds starred in no less than seven, yes seven, films that centered around cars. When hooper and ski are discussing skis falling stunt after the charity stunt show, hooper starts mentioning the heights hes fallen from, ski mentions that hooper fell seventyfive feet in bullitt. Car body customers included the kings of spain, norway, portugal and siam, the shah of persia and the negus of abyssinia. Sadly, the latter films flopped, virtually destroying reynoldss superstar status, but to be honest the writing was on the wall early on with hooper. When sonny and ski escape the cop with the jet car you hear the cop yell, great god almighty.
Buyers also get a replica of sonny hooper s silver screamingchicken jacket, which is an. There are some high jumps that are performed and final car jump is without question wonderful. Hooper 1978 is a car movie that gives us the chance to reminisce. When someone points out that no car could jump the 335 foot gap, hooper suggests that a rocketpowered car could make it.
Best car action of hooper burt reynolds is back in action again in the 1978 film hooper. The first royal car, a hooper body on a daimler chassis, was delivered to sandringham on 28 march 1900. Hooper is yet another example of burt reynolds at the top of his game. Stuntmen jumped the cars, fell from the highest towers and tackled the bad guys from their. Sonny and ski agree to do the jump, even though everyone close to them urges them to turn it down as the odds of performing it successfully seem almost impossible. Hooper movie brews with ski rocket car getaway from police mhtfixit. The guys must navigate a gauntlet of destruction evading. The other trans am is a 1978 model that resembles the red example featured in the movie. In the 1977 iconic film about the stunt business, hooper, buddy joe broke industry records with a rocket powered car jump and many other stunts doubling jan michael vincents character ski. Sep 27, 2018 a bar fight with terry bradshaw, a chariot race, backwards driving down the highway, a helicopter stunt without a parachute, a beerdrinking horse, and an impossible jump across a 325foot gorge. The movie features three generations of stuntmen played by brian keith, reynolds, and janmichael vincent. The huge stunt sequence was referred to by the crew as damnation alley. No chases in particular, but lots of car action as you can probably tell. In every movie they made together, field played reynolds girlfriend.
Theres another trans am in hooper, a movie about the lives of stuntmen, and although that one is a gorgeous red hardtop, its his rare squarebody truck that deserves a mention. Dennis hopper full list of movies and tv shows in theaters, in production and upcoming films. Pictures are property of movie companies owner of the respective movies. Hal needhams six greatest stunts hal needham decades before cgi allowed filmmakers to create exciting action sequences from the safety of the editing bay, men and women who were exceptionally brave, tough and a little crazy had to perform the stunts themselvesand wear the bruises and broken bones as badges of honor. The 10 best movie trans ams hagerty classic car insurance. The grand finale is a whopping sequence featuring hooper and skis car trying to escape a small town set whilst it crumbles down around it. Barrettjackson to auction vehicles from the burt reynolds. Anyone ever notice how the trans am changes when they make the jump at the end. The film is lightly based on hal needhams director experiences as a stuntman, but the films main character is modeled after stuntman buddy joe hooker, who just happens to do many of the stunts in the film himself. The final stunt scene from the 1977 movie hooper that was the entire movie. Smokey and the bandit, the cannonball run and hooper.
Burt reynolds plays veteran stuntman sonny hooper, known in hollywood as the greatest stuntman alive. The company was founded as adams and hooper in 1805 and held a royal warrant from 1830, building elegant horsedrawn carriages, supplying them to king william iv, queen victoria and king edward vii. Feb 09, 2009 hooper, burt reynolds, and ski,michael jan vincent, testing the rocket car from the stunt set of the spy who laughed at danger. Gwen pulls back about 2 feet to look at sonny and when the camera angle changes they are back nose to nose. In 1911, hooper built an extension onto their kings road works, due to increased customer demand. The rest was a barely serviceable skeleton of a story that was bad even by 70s b movie standards. There is one scene in the final earthquake as ski and sonny are driving around the city thats being destroyed the trans am gets hit from the right side, hard enough to throw the car into a small skid, but seconds later there is no damage to the car, and nothing like that was discussed during the planning of the stunt. Stunt performers for hooper brothers ink productions. Hooper trans am jump scene 1978 burt reynolds, jan michael. The greatest car jumps in hollywood history jalopnik. Hooper movie brews with ski rocket car getaway from police.
Oct 01, 20 1967 shelby gt500 barn find and appraisal that buyer uses to pay widow price revealed duration. Brings back old memories, i remember this and many other burt reynolds movies, this is funny, i imagine a lot of this is true of the stunt men, pulling pranks, pushing stunts to the limit to set records, the jump of the station wagon in national lampoons vacation was pushed to set a record by the driver, like the stunt in this movie, theres a. There is an entire genre of southern car jumps and we raise a coors to the most classic southern jump of all. Weve seen before that its actually possible for a stuntie to jump a car. If the rocket had the required pressure of 1,500 pounds, the. The rocket car makes the jump right on target with only 1,100 pounds of pressure. This hooper recreation not only pays homage to the rocketpowered flying car used to jump bridges in the 70s action film but also nods to the prowess of stuntmen at that time in hollywoods. Pictures are property of movie companies owner of the. They moved into motor bodies at the turn of the 20th century. As the stunt double for sylvester stallone on the renowned high fall through the trees off the cliff in first blood, buddy joe made history yet again.
Like those films its harmless fun, and hooper conceived as a tribute to veteran stuntman buddy joe hookerbenefits from the fact that both reynolds and director hal needham were former stuntmen. Dennis hopper list of movies and tv shows tv guide. This time he takes on the 1978 film, hooper, starring burt reynolds, sally field and janmichael vincent. Hooper 1978 pg 1h 39min action, comedy 28 july 1978 usa hollywood aging stuntman sonny hooper wants to prove that hes still got what it takes to be a great professional in this risky and underrecognized line of work.
A lot of the blame can go towards the screenplay and especially the. Remembering burt reynolds and his awesome movie cars. The final stunt scene from the 1977 movie hooper, starring. A bar fight with terry bradshaw, a chariot race, backwards driving down the highway, a helicopter stunt without a parachute, a beerdrinking horse, and an impossible jump across a 325foot gorge. Hooper 1978 rocket powered 1978 pontiac transam jumps bridge. The films usually made bundles of money and were usually pretty enjoyable.
The car used in the scene to jump the blown up bridge in hooper was a model car. In the movie, burt reynolds and james best were long time friends. Burt was a superstar who enjoyed making these action comedies for the summer drivein crowd. A forgotten classic car movie with an epic pontiac transam. Jan 23, 2009 burt reynolds as hooper on the way to the palomino club driving 55 backwards so jocko can have a beer handed to him from the other car. This is hooper, hal needhams second film in a sixmovie run with burt reynoldssemiautobiographical, a tribute to stuntmen by stuntmen. This film is also a tribute to jock mahoney who brian keiths character, jocko doyle, is modeled after, who really is sally. It appears that the red trans am in the bridge jump turns into a different body style while in the air. Its about a stunt man, and all the stunt jobs he does.
The problem with the film is that the whole personal drama is pretty much wasted and it never fully works. A second 78 transam, in red, was built to evoke the rocketpowered hooper bridge jump car. Hooper is a 1978 american action comedy film directed by hal needham and stars burt. Join sign up keep track of your favorite shows and movies, across all your devices. He ultimately attempts to perform a recordbreaking jump over a gorge in a rocketpropelled car. Hooper was the second flick of a six movie reynoldsneedham partnership that included smokey i and ii, cannonball run, and stroker ace. Hooper 1978 is a car movie that gives us the chance to reminisce about the golden age of hollywood stunts performed at their best. Unlike the bandit replica, which carries a pontiac 400 under the hood, the hooper car features an olds 403, which was used for california and highaltitude markets. In the second half of hooper, and the films final climatic. And the best part is the 17,000 random explosions, as if god was attacking them the whole way with molotov cocktails.
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