Wordiezett So much average

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Trying to prove to himself and the US Air Force that he still got it, guts and a pair of you know what, washed out air flight commander Maj. Lincoln "Link" Bond, William Holden, wants a chance to get back in the cockpit and test pilot the newest and fastest jet planes that the US military has in it's arsenal. The trouble for Link is that he lost his nerve while being held as a POW in North Korean where he was forced, under extreme torture, to sign a confession that he used chemical and biological weapons against North Korean civilians.Given a chance by the boss of Edwards Air Force Base and good friend Brig. Gen. Bill Banner, Lloyd Noland, Link while trying to screw his head back on later gets involved in an altercation with fellow flier Maj. Bromo Lee, Murray Hamilton, at the base officers club that almost has him grounded for life. It was Maj. Lee who felt that he was to fly the new and improved X-2 jet plane that Link was assigned to pilot in it's maiden flight. The fact that Link wanted to walk away from the confrontation, in that Lee was so drunk that he couldn't stand on his feet, was soon discovered through dozens of eye witnesses to the event has Gen. Banner reinstated Link to fly the plane. Link of course was looking after his friend Gen. Banner, who in suffering fainting spells, was in no shape to fly the plane himself as he at first planned to do. Ther's also link's old flame Gen. Banner's secretary Connie Mitchell, Virginia Leith, who feels that Link is not the at his best, due to his alcohol or drinking problems, to fly the plane either. ***SPOILERS*** Link finally gets his wish to fly the X-2 only to have it brake up in mid-air some 10 mile above the earth with him losing consciousness as he was bailing out. But as things turned out Link's parachute opened up just in time thus preventing him to crash land, on his head, and get killed as he finally hit the ground breaking both his legs in the process. As the movie ends Link out of the base hospital, against orders, embraces Gen. Banner who's to leave for a higher position, Let.General?,in a desk job in Baltimore and rides or flies into the sunset with Connie Mitchell who's now, after breaking up with him, back as his once ex and now study girlfriend.P.S Check the fun loving and lovable without a care in the world James Garner as USAF pilot Let. Col. Joe Craven. Garner is so cool and untouched by the dangers he faces flying jet planes in the movie that when he end up falling to his death from his out of control plane at 4,000 feet after his parachute failed to open that for a while you don't even realize that that it was him who was killed! Maybe by Garner wearing an oxygen mask at the time of his fatal crash you didn't recognize who he was!

zchicco William Holden at his best, a great cast with LLoyd Nolan as base Commander. Good story, marvelous air sequences and a lot of special airplanes since the movie airport is Edward Air Force Base (ex Muroc ) where all the USAF prototypes made test flights. In the movie there are several interesting planes like the XF-92 Dagger, the Martin XB-51, Lockheed F-94 C Starfire, Boeing B-50 and Bell X-2, X-3 Stiletto , Convair B-36, Convair C-131, The Thunderbirds on F-84 F. A must for all aviation buffs and Holden's fan. This movie is seldom seen and is not available on the VHS or DVD market. Among the actors, a very young James Garner .

DrHypersonic This film has excellent performances by Holden and some of the other actors, but the real stars are the extraordinary research airplanes of the Air Force Flight Test Center in 1955-56, when the film was made. There is superb inflight footage of the Martin XB-51 (which is painted up as the "F-120" fighter), and outstanding footage of the Bell X-2 rocket research airplane, as well as footage of the rare TF-86 (only two were made), a two-seat version of the famed F-86 Sabre jet fighter. For "real" the X-2 in 1956 reached an altitude of 126,200 feet flown by Captain Iven "Kinch" Kincheloe, and Mach 3.2 (2,196 mph) by Captain Milburn "Mel" Apt. Both were advisers on the film. Apt died in the crash of the X-2 on 27 Sept. 1956, the same flight on which he reached M = 3.2, Kincheloe was selected as lead AF pilot on the hypersonic X-15 program, but was killed in 1958 in the crash of a Lockheed F-104. Incidentally, Holden was flown in a high-performance airplane for familiarization purposes at Edwards for the film...not sure if it was a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star trainer (most likely), though there is a curious photo I have seen of him in front of the TF-86, suggesting that, possibly, he was one of the (very) few non-Sabre pilots to have flown this machine...and if he did, it is possible as well that he flew faster than Mach 1, the speed of sound, as the TF-86 could clearly do so. A great film, not to be missed.

kevkohler This film rocks! (if you're a aviation buff and even if you're not) Holden gives one of his best performances, and there are numerous well filmed flight sequences featuring some of America's vintage jet aircraft. Vivian Lieth's acting is somewhat wooden, but her husky voice more than makes up for it.