Hellfighters

1968
G
2h 1m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

John Wayne and Katharine Ross in Hellfighters (1968)

Divorced Chance Buckman fights international oil rig fires. An injury brings his daughter and to his dismay, she weds Greg, a team member. Chance gets a desk-job, so he and Madelyn remarry, ... Read allDivorced Chance Buckman fights international oil rig fires. An injury brings his daughter and to his dismay, she weds Greg, a team member. Chance gets a desk-job, so he and Madelyn remarry, but a Venezuelan oil rig fire reunites them.Divorced Chance Buckman fights international oil rig fires. An injury brings his daughter and to his dismay, she weds Greg, a team member. Chance gets a desk-job, so he and Madelyn remarry, but a Venezuelan oil rig fire reunites them.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

6.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The news truck seen at the first fire carries the markings of KPRC Channel 2, which is a real Houston NBC affiliate. The reporter, Chris Chandler was an actual KPRC reporter as well.

Goofs
The Australian driller takes off his mask a decent distance away from the poison well fire and dies nearly instantly. Yet Greg is right under the well and has a hole in his hose going directly into the closed environment of his mask and is only knocked out. However, this can be explained by the Australian breathing air that had been saturated with the poison gas. The gas was spreading past the safety flags, possible due to wind or other weather conditions. Greg was working with an air mask. When his hose split he still had some air left in his tank that would have been at a higher pressure than the outside air, keeping it out of his breathing air to a degree. He is seen putting his hand over the leak and then passing out in the water. The water would have prevented further poisonous air from getting into his system.

Quotes
Chance Buckman: Exactly WHAT did you tell her about Madame Loo?
Greg Parker: Only that she's 80 years old, weighs 300 pounds and is one of your oldest friends.

Crazy credits
There is a print which has been shown on UK television, an original English language print with English titles, which however includes two frames of opening titles in Italian: the list of technical consultants is headed "Consulenti Tecnici" and the next sheet explaining that the events depicted are based on the real live experiences of those people, is written in Italian. Then the credits revert to English.

Connections
Featured in The Sopranos: Walk Like a Man (2007)

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Review

Featured review

The Original Armageddon!

Exciting adventure (re-made years later as ARMAGEDDON with Bruce Willis and re-set in outer space) with John Wayne as a successful contractor to oil companies. He's successful because his job is a very dangerous one: Drill into oil fields that are on fire, set explosives into the heart oil field fires, and cause them to lose oxygen. This job description has caused his wife to divorce him. John Wayne's top employee is young hot shot Jim Hutton, who John Wayne sees as someday taking over the company. Jim Hutton and John Wayne's daughter, Katharine Ross, are in love and want to get married, but John Wayne wants nothing of it. He doesn't want his daughter to suffer the same stress his own wife suffered, wondering if her husband would live through another dangerous assignment. Unlike ARMAGEDDON in which we never explore Bruce Willis' marriage we actually get to see John Wayne's wife, Vera Miles and listen to her concerns (the divorce was more than just because he had a dangerous job). The climax of the film centers around a government contract that sends the crew into the middle of a war where aircraft is blowing up oil fields as John Wayne and company are trying to put the fires out. Will John Wayne allow Jim Hutton to marry Katharine Ross? Will John Wayne get back together with Vera Miles? Will John Wayne and Jim Hutton blow themselves up in a fire ball or be blown apart my the aerial attacks? If you loved ARMAGEDDON check out the film that started it all.