Birds of Prey (1973 film)

Plot

Harry Walker is piloting his helicopter when he spots an armored car robbery at Zion's Bank in downtown Salt Lake City. Several bearded men shoot the guards, take a canvas bag of cash, and force a female hostage into their car before speeding off. Walker radios his former military commander, McAndrew, to report what he saw. As Walker follows the getaway car, McAndrew tells him that fingerprints have linked two of the robbers to past service as Marines in Vietnam, and they suspect the helicopter pilot involved has similar experience.

The hostage is identified as Teresa Janice "T.J." Shaw, a bank employee who is set to be married that Friday. Walker manages to rescue Shaw, who tells him she has never left Salt Lake City in her 22 years and has known her fiancé since childhood. A light flirtation develops, and she kisses Walker three times, growing somewhat infatuated. The next morning, after Walker lifts off, he directs Shaw to go to a nearby highway and hitchhike.

The helicopter chase continues, and McAndrew, along with a police pilot in a Piper Arrow, is alerted by an airline pilot and heads toward the area. Both helicopters reach an abandoned airfield, where Shaw had said the robbers have a plane and pilot ready to fly them to Mexico. The police aircraft arrives, and McAndrew runs to the hangar where Walker has trapped the bandits' helicopter inside. Walker throws the money out to McAndrew, then deliberately crashes his helicopter into the bandits' aircraft to save his friend.

The police pilot rushes over, and McAndrew announces they are now pursuing the getaway plane's pilot, who fled in a Cessna 206 after witnessing the collision.

Production

The production shot this film in Salt Lake City, Utah, and used the recently decommissioned Wendover Air Force Base for its final scenes. That base was where the 509th Composite Group once trained with their Silverplate B-29 Superfortresses for World War II’s atomic bomb missions. Additional filming took place at Canyonlands and Sevenmile Canyon in Utah. One particularly risky scene required two helicopters to fly mere feet apart inside a hangar. Pilots and aeronautical engineers had never attempted this before, deeming it too dangerous.