New Netflix Doc on Thunderbirds Waves the Flag, and Lowers it to Half Staff for Fallen Team Members.
The new docu-drama and hype film “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” from director Matt Wilcox dropped to Netflix subscribers on May 23, 2025. And while it is a somewhat refreshing look at the normally scripted, spit n’ polish world of the big military flight demo teams, the struggle between telling a gritty, unscripted journalistic story of a military demonstration team and maintaining the official Air Force “company line” so rigidly adhered to by the U.S. military boils just below the cinematic surface. It’s this contrast that makes “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” a worthy and complex film, even more so than last year’s theater released, “Blue Angels” from director Paul Crowder.
There are also some fascinating historical and genetic similarities between “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” and other hyper-successful Netflix tell-all documentary projects.
In our May 7, 2025 preview of “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds”, we speculated that the Netflix production team of Matt Wilcox, Ethan Lewis, Brian McGinn and Jason Sterman may peel back the normally polished veil of military decorum that puts both a shine and an over-produced, artificial feeling over military demo teams. No human organization can be as perfect as the starched flight suit, razor-sharp salutes of the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels. And, both airshow audiences and the general public would likely celebrate a real behind-the-scenes look at the human side of people who make up the flight demo teams.
We wrote in our preview of “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” that, “If one key difference emerges between the fabricated, hype-heavy feel of ‘Blue Angels’ and the promise of the upcoming Thunderbirds film, it is Netflix itself”. As it turns out, we are only partially right.
Netflix has built its success partially on a new style of documentary that takes cameras into the back rooms and behind the closed doors of previously sacred institutions like Formula 1 racing. This journalistic, tell-all style has been massively successful. While you’re watching “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds”, you can almost feel the push/pull between the Netflix production team of Matt Wilcox and the rigid hand of Air Force public affairs, an ancient institution that is often its own worst enemy. The Air Force clearly kept Wilcox and his Netflix team on a very short editorial leash. But, Wilcox still managed to stamp the Netflix brand for gritty tell-all documentaries on this film from the opening scene.
The opening dialogue in “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” is a voiceover from 2023 team leader (then) Lt. Col. Justin Elliott telling viewers, “You look at the accident rate on this team, it’s very, very high”. And while this sets the tone for a potentially dark, gritty expose’ on how dangerous demo team flying really is, it feels like the Air Force public affairs people burst into the editing suite and shouted, “Whoa! Can you walk that dark stuff back with some scenes of him playing with his kids at home maybe?” It is this contrast that gives “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” a credible feel.
“Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” does delve into the scary history of Air Force demo team flying and its horrific accidents, including the catastrophic 1982 Indian Springs crash when the team lost all four pilots in the Thunderbird diamond formation. The film owns the risks and personal costs of being both a Thunderbird demo pilot and a member of its elite enlisted support team.
But, the value of “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” goes deeper than just an attempt at expose’ filmmaking. “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” success is built on three structural thematic and cinematic components.
Firstly, to maybe even a greater degree than the 2024, “Blue Angels” film, “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” is visually spectacular. The technology and craft of action viewpoint filmmaking in the GoPro era takes viewers into the diamond formation and into the cockpit. But even more importantly, the director and producers of “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” build great visual composition and creative lighting into every scene. This is a really beautiful film to watch whether the images are in the air or behind the scenes.
Secondly, the Netflix team does marginally pull back the curtain on what it’s like to serve on the elite Air Force demo team. They even briefly touch on the combat legacy of team members, a theme that could have been expanded upon much more to bring an even more credible feel to the story line of the Thunderbirds. This gives “Air Force Elite Thunderbirds” a more credible feel than other flight demo hype films.
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Lastly, the Air Force does maintain powerful and nearly sacred standards on Thunderbirds’ culture. If you come away from “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” wondering if any organization can be this enthusiastic, this motivated and this consistent in their devotion to perfection, one visit to Nellis AFB in Nevada, where the team is headquartered, confirms this reality. Scripted or not, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are a highly professional and deeply motivated group of service members who could have never made it onto the team if they didn’t personally own its powerful ethos. That reality does come across in the behind the scenes feel of “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds”. The devotion to service shows because it’s real.
What remains to be seen about “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds” is what kind of commercial success it may or may not have. The 2024 Blue Angels film did better than expected in box offices. Last year’s “Blue Angels” film was also a Memorial Day release but debuted in theaters, not online. And, it came on the heels of the smash hit Hollywood feature, “Top Gun Maverick” This difference could be key to the commercial success of “Air Force Elite Thunderbirds”. One thing that may help the shelf life of this new docu-drama is how Netflix serves content to subscribers based on interest, potentially keeping this film relevant for longer than last year’s Blue Angel film.
