Blue Thunder

The pilot episode of the ABC spin-off of the 1983 film *Blue Thunder* follows the titular Blue Thunder Unit as they confront a vengeful pilot known as "P.V.C.," who has been attacking police helicopters in Los Angeles. P.V.C. seeks revenge against Frank Chaney, the unit's leader, for an incident a year earlier in which Chaney, as a police officer, destroyed P.V.C.'s aircraft with a shotgun during a botched drug raid. P.V.C. also aims to ensure the successful transport of a drug shipment across the Mexican border.

A paramilitary group known as the "Posse Magistratus" is suspected of a string of bank robberies, including one involving a modified World War II fighter plane. Chaney and Wonderlove track the plane based on police reports, but the evidence they gather is insufficient to charge the sheriff who owns it. Meanwhile, Ski goes undercover as a mechanic, and the team learns the group plans to assassinate a city councilman aboard the Queen Mary.

Aggie Mills, a former lover of Chaney from the Vietnam War, seeks FBI assistance in dismantling an expanding drug and gun smuggling network that spans beyond Los Angeles. Bubba and Ski go undercover as truck mechanics but uncover that Aggie is linked to the operation's leader, Harold Longstreet. When Bubba and Ski are caught planting a tracking device on a truck, Chaney and Wonderlove must act quickly to rescue them and stop Longstreet and Mills from evading capture.

An F-86 Sabre jet is stolen from an airfield by KGB mercenaries, eluding security during a failed pursuit. The next day, FBI agent Bruce Walsh calls on Captain Braddock, Chaney, and the Blue Thunder team to assist in tracking down the stolen aircraft before it can be modified into an unstoppable weapon and lost to government control.

A key witness and Lassiter's former secretary, who could have sent him to prison, is rescued by the Blue Thunder unit from an estate where she had been held hostage by kidnappers. Richard J. Lassiter, a corrupt financier, has been sentenced to 25 years for fraud, extortion, and intimidation. He is set to be transferred to Greenlake Penitentiary, a medium-security prison in the central part of the state.

Madame Eva Parada, the president of Sumora, seeks to attract major U.S. corporations by offering them lease agreements to establish operations in the country, but her efforts face opposition from a small rebel group known as "The Revolutionary Forces of Sumora.

Chaney is reassigned following his decision to abandon a drug stakeout in pursuit of kidnappers, allowing his arch-rival to take command of Blue Thunder. Tensions rise as Chaney's judgment and loyalty come into question.

A privately funded space shuttle, the Argo, faces danger from armed dealers concerned about the impact of its successful gene-splicing experiment in space. The experiment threatens to disrupt the trade of biological weapons. As the shuttle prepares to re-enter orbit, the situation becomes increasingly precarious.

Chaney works to persuade the granddaughter of a deceased mobster to hand over her grandfather's business records to the FBI before his former associates attempt to retrieve them by force.

Two hitmen, posing as highway patrol officers and linked to organized crime, attempt to assassinate Lisa Ritchie at a high-end restaurant near Farrow Beach on the Pacific Coast Highway, but the attack fails.

The Blue Thunder team travels to a small Caribbean island to stop American mercenaries, working on behalf of the KGB, from assassinating the Prime Minister.