{"id":24589,"date":"2019-03-05T15:23:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/05\/captain-marvel-pays-tribute-to-air-force-history-and-a-fallen-thunderbird\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:48:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:48:48","slug":"captain-marvel-pays-tribute-to-air-force-history-and-a-fallen-thunderbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/off-duty\/movies-video-games\/2019\/03\/05\/captain-marvel-pays-tribute-to-air-force-history-and-a-fallen-thunderbird\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Captain Marvel\u2019 pays tribute to Air Force history \u2014 and a fallen Thunderbird"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stephen Losey explains how the Air Force played a big role in the production of Captain Marvel–and what they hope to get out of it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

\u201cCaptain Marvel<\/a>,\u201d the latest in Marvel\u2019s series of blockbuster superhero films, is packed with hat tips and tributes to aviation history, culture and, in particular, a fallen Thunderbird<\/a> whose death last year shook the Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final version of the movie, which tells the story of superpowered F-15 pilot Carol Danvers<\/a>, aka Captain Marvel, ends up giving the Air Force less actual screen time than the behind-the-scenes features and trailers suggest. Much of the film instead deals with the war between two alien races \u2014 the warrior Kree and the shape-shifting, lizard-like Skrulls \u2014 and what happens when that conflict spills onto an unsuspecting, mid-1990s Planet Earth, with Capt. Danvers caught in the middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Danvers\u2019 Air Force service sets the tone for the film and was the \u201cgrounding element\u201d that drew directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck to her character, they said in a Feb. 22 interview with Air Force Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, who came from an Air Force family and created this incarnation of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel in 2012, \u201calways described her as having a Chuck Yeager swagger,\u201d Fleck said. \u201c’The Right Stuff\u2019 was a big influence on this movie as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boden, Fleck and the movie\u2019s star, Oscar winner Brie Larson, famously traveled to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in January 2018, where they spent days talking to pilots, maintainers and other airmen, and even flew in fighter jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, the first female fighter pilot in the Air Force, who at the time was commander of Nellis\u2019 57th Wing, also met with Larson and the directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Feb. 11 interview, Leavitt said Larson was focused on getting her portrayal of a female fighter pilot right. Larson asked Leavitt about details as minute as how a fighter pilot would salute, interact with her crew chief, climb the ladder into the cockpit, carry her helmet bag and put on her flight gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brie Larson, left, with former 57th Wing Commander Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt — the first female fighter pilot in the Air Force — on a January 2018 trip to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to research her character, Carol Danvers, for Marvel Studios\u2019 \u201cCaptain Marvel.\u201d(Brad Baruh\/Marvel Studios)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leavitt also told her about her flying experiences at events such as Red Flag and weapons school. The demanding pace of being a fighter pilot requires one to be very driven, she told Larson, and also described what it was like to be a woman, a wife and mother in the heavily male fighter pilot culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very impressed with how interested she was in getting the character correct,” Leavitt said of Larson. “With it being Hollywood, it doesn\u2019t have to be accurate, and yet it was very important to her that she was accurate in her portrayal of a female fighter pilot. She spent a lot of time and asked a lot of questions to ensure she understood it. So I thought that spoke volumes about her as an actress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boden said the stories Leavitt shared helped a great deal to shape the main character\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a behind-the-scenes video released in January, Larson said her time at Nellis helped her understand where Danvers was coming from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing I found so unique about this character was that sense of humor, mixed with total capability in whatever challenge comes her way, which, I realized after going to the Air Force base, is really what Air Force pilots are like.\u201d Larson said in the video, which also showed her flying in an F-16 at Nellis.<\/p>\n\n\n\t