We've all seen a million battles on the big screen. Sword fights, fist fights, shootouts, massive army engagements, and many more subcategories of violence have played out in vivid detail. After the advent of air travel, the dogfight swiftly became the new way to duel. The dogfight is a compelling spectacle from period-accurate historical dramas to science fantasy epics.
There's a pocket of time in which the dogfight makes perfect sense. That period lasted from the 30s to the year 2000. Aerial dogfighting has largely become obsolete in the modern day, with a few exceptions. However, there's plenty of fun to have with the battles of the past and the possible battles of the future.
Top Gun: Maverick
The obvious front-runner. Easily the best-received legacy sequel of all time, this year's follow-up to Top Gun was celebrated for basically every aspect. The film sees Tom Cruise return to the eponymous role and undertake a group of new hotshot pilots. The film builds to a shattering conclusion in the form of a prolonged modern-day dogfight. Much has been made about the film's practical effects. The 1986 original featured some interesting aerial battle scenes, but, Maverick uses the benefit of technological advancement and new film techniques to great effect. The real-world armed forces don't do a lot of dogfighting today, but this film manages to make it feel real while taking contemporary technology into account. Top Gun: Maverick is probably the best and certainly the most profitable dogfighting movie of all time.
Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan's 2017 World War II epic is spread across three perspectives, each of which operates on a different timetable. The shortest of the three schedules, taking up only one real hour, takes place entirely in the air over the titular beach. While the men on the mole argue for space and try to avoid bombing raids, Fortis 1 and 2 attack the Germans from the sky. This prolonged battle has everything. Pilots get shot down, the upper hand shifts from one side to the other, and the conflict never loses tension. The film's approach to time is already an impressive feat, but the aerial battle is the most immediate and fast-paced. It's less of a scene and more of a subplot, but the fate of the pilots and their success in the mission remains hugely important to the other two stories. Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden portray the English pilots, portraying the range of emotions across their long fight. The final few moments of this dogfight are among the most striking shots Nolan ever put to screen, both visually and emotionally.
Area 88
What's the crossover like between anime fans and airplane combat enthusiasts? Anyone who fits into both camps owes it to themselves to seek out this adaptation of Kaoru Shintani's classic manga. Shintani worked with Leiji Matsumoto on iconic manga series like Space Pirate Captain Harlock before publishing his own series in 1979. Area 88 was the third manga ever to be translated into English. The books were adapted into three OVA films in 1985 and 86. The story follows Shin, an ace pilot who finds himself trapped working for an ethically dubious group of mercenaries. The titular Area 88 brings the best pilots in the world to fight battles for a Middle Eastern king. The result is a series of massive aerial engagements with a wide variety of aircraft from different eras. This anime film covers aspects of dogfighting that rarely get brought up elsewhere. Despite the lack of live-action photography, Area 88 is one of the most faithful versions of aerial combat on screen. Area 88 is an underrated classic in the world of dogfights.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The Star Wars franchise has featured the outer space equivalent of dogfighting since the beginning. Around all the laser swords and space magic, a lot of the most important scenes in the film were communicated with aerial violence. The CGI innovations of the modern day allowed current creators to bring those battles to life with striking visual beauty. Though Rogue One is often an embarrassing mess of callbacks, it's also a genuine war film. The final battle scene is divided between ground and air combat. That massive spectacle is inarguably compelling. The CGI sci-fi maelstrom of effects and impactful chaos is easily the best scene in the film, and it's also the best futuristic dogfight of the modern era.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
The power of modern filmmaking is all well and good, but this 1970 classic still holds up. Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, and Kinji Fukasaku worked together to direct this retelling of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. In the 90s, the film was widely regarded as the go-to place most American citizens learned the history of the event. Like the modern hits, the filmmakers used real planes and full-scale practical effects to capture the epic historical events. The current blockbusters are great, but anyone looking for an old-fashioned take on the concept should look no further than Tora! Tora! Tora!