A still from a new trailer for the upcoming Netflix documentary Air
Force Elite: Thunderbirds. (Courtesy image via Netflix)
‘Blind Trust’: Netflix Drops Trailer for Air Force Thunderbirds Movie
Sjekk traileren Netflix dropper her: https://tinyurl.com/2fzk2h3s Denne er sakset fra atikkelen under.
April 29, 2025 | By David
Roza
An upcoming
Netflix documentary promises an inside look at the Air Force’s premier aerial
demonstration team. Premiering May 23, “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” will
showcase the skill, trust, and hard work it takes to fly six F-16 fighters in
tight formation nearly every week for eight months, judging by a trailer
released April 29.
“If you
don’t have blind trust, this show will not work,” Lt. Col. Justin Elliot said
in the trailer. Elliot commanded the team from 2022 to 2023, before the current
commander, Lt. Col. Nathan Malafa, took over in 2024.
The trailer
emphasizes the high stakes and slim margins of Thunderbird performance.
“Six jets
flying 18 inches apart, nearly at the speed of sound … you are microseconds of
lag from a life-threatening situation,” an interviewee says over scenes of the
pilots strapping into the F-16s and taking off.
“They’re
already the best combat pilots the Air Force has to offer, but air
demonstration is a completely different animal,” Elliot added.
“We are
always under a little bit of like, the ‘I’m going to die’ factor,” said
then-Thunderbird 6, Maj. Eric Tise.
The
90-minute documentary comes exactly a year after the streaming premiere of
Amazon Studios’ “The Blue Angels,” a documentary of the same length about the
Navy’s flagship aerial demonstration team. One of the producers for that film
was Glen Powell, who starred in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel
to the 1986 naval aviation classic.
“Air Force
Elite: Thunderbirds” has an even higher-profile producer team: former President
and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama. Their company Higher Ground
Productions has a history of
working with Netflix on shows and movies, both fiction and nonfiction.
The documentary
was directed by Matt Wilcox, who has directed at least two basketball
documentaries, according
to the Internet Movie Database. That background may help with a documentary about the Thunderbirds which,
like a professional basketball team, involves talented individuals working long
hours to put on dazzling performances on a regular basis. Except with the
Thunderbirds, any mistake can end lives.
“As a
newbie, there’s immense amount of pressure to get this right,” Capt. Jacob
Impellizzeri said in the trailer. “You don’t want to be the reason the team
fails.”
Like the
Blue Angels documentary, “Thunderbirds” seems to take viewers into the no-holds barred post-practice debrief
sessions.
“We’re going
to pick apart everything that went wrong, and it’s going to feel like you’re
getting crushed,” Elliot said in one of those sessions featured in the
trailer.
The United States Air
Force Air Demonstration Squadron “Thunderbirds” perform at the California
International Air Show in Salinas, Calif. Staff Sgt. Andrew Sarver
One reviewer
called the
Blue Angels documentary a “visually stunning recruitment ad,” but it was
well-watched, topping Amazon Prime Video’s charts over Memorial Day
weekend, according to The
Aviationist.
“Thunderbirds”
appears to follow the same formula, and more exposure to Air Force aviation may
help shore up a long-running pilot shortage that leaves experts wondering if the service has enough fliers to win a war.
To what
extent airshows help with that shortage may soon come under scrutiny: in
December, federal lawmakers asked the Department of Defense to study how
military air shows affect recruiting and readiness, and to look into performing
at more rural areas across the country.
