[3] Frank Murphy is a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) air support division pilot and troubled Vietnam War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Upon returning from patrol, the pair are placed under a two-week suspension for allegations of voyeurism during a nearby mugging incident gone wrong that leads to the shooting death of city councilwoman Diana McNeely.

Murphy is shortly reinstated for duty and is instructed to attend a private sunrise demonstration in the Mojave Desert at "Pinkville" and is selected to pilot an advanced helicopter, informally called "The Special" but given the nickname "Blue Thunder", during an evaluation exercise.

With robust bulletproof armor, powerful armament, and other accoutrements, such as thermal infrared scanners, unidirectional microphones and cameras, built-in mobile telephone, computer and modem, a six-barreled 20 millimeter electric cannon, a "whisper mode" that lets the aircraft fly silently and a U-matic video cassette recorder; Blue Thunder appears to be a formidable tool in the war on crime.

Murphy hijacks Blue Thunder and arranges to have his girlfriend Kate retrieve the tape and deliver it to the local news station, using the helicopter to thwart her pursuers.

Deeming Murphy as a security risk, Cochrane and the other conspirators employ every asset they can manage to bring Blue Thunder down, including the initial support of the municipal government; beginning with two LAPD Bell 206s.

After Murphy incapacitates the first one, forcing it to land via autorotation, he engages in a cat-and-mouse chase with the second by slaloming down the Los Angeles River viaduct until his pursuer crashes.

Cochrane, frustrated and bent on finally putting down his former subordinate, defies his orders to stand down and ambushes Blue Thunder in a heavily-armed Hughes 500 helicopter.

Co-writers Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby began developing the plot while living together in a Hollywood apartment in the late 1970s, where low-flying police helicopters woke them on a regular basis.

The first draft of the screenplay for Blue Thunder was written in 1979 and featured Frank Murphy as more of a crazy main character with deeper psychological issues, who went on a rampage and destroyed much of Los Angeles before finally falling to F-16s.

[5] Malcolm McDowell, who portrayed antagonist F. E. Cochrane; ironically has an intense fear of flying in real life and not even his then-wife Mary Steenburgen could persuade him to overcome his phobia.

In the TaleSpin episode "Baloo Thunder," the episode title and certain plot elements are referenced and parodied from the film, when ace pilot Baloo helps out his inventor friend Buzz, who is being framed for stealing a "Top Secret Project" from his industrialist employer Shere Khan by an ambitious corporate spy within Khan Industries for a rival competitor, which in reality is the new invention for its time period: the helicopter.

[18] In the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the player can infiltrate a military base and steal an attack helicopter to perform vigilante missions known as Brown Thunder, spoofing the film.

In 1987, Coca-Cola Telecommunications released a Blue Thunder video tape cartridge for Worlds of Wonder's short lived Action Max game system.

Using footage from the film, the player plays the pilot of the Blue Thunder helicopter as he tries to prevent the World Peace Coalition from being attacked by a terrorist organization.

In 2015, Sony proposed a remake of Blue Thunder focusing on drone technology, with Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca as producers, and Craig Kyle as writer.