The U.S. Navy's premier aeronautical acrobatical demonstration team known as the Blue Angels has been wowing air-show audiences around the world for nearly 80 years. But for viewers at home, Amazon MGM new documentary "The Blue Angels" provides an inside look at more than the squad's Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets -- it reveals what it takes to get behind the stick of those vaunted flying machines.
Filmed in IMAX, the new documentary from producers JJ Abrams ("Lost") and Glen Powell ("Top Gun: Maverick") perfectly captures the up-close aerial choreography of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, offering a cockpit view of the Angels' precision flying. We also meet the daring Navy and Marine Corps aviators who want to wear the distinctive blue and gold uniforms and find out what it takes to be part of one of the U.S. military's most elite demonstration teams.
Even for seasoned fighter pilots, becoming one of the Blue Angels is not an easy goal to meet, and things don't get any easier after you finally make the team. Following a painstaking selection process, the naval aviators undergo a rigorous physical and flight training regimen, one they continue for the entirety of an eight-month show season. Between March and November, the team travels across the United States and Canada to perform for an estimated 11 million people annually.