The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper

The true hijacker, of which this movie is based upon, never used the alias D.B. Cooper. Instead he used "Dan Cooper". D.B. Cooper was the name of a person the police checked out, in case the hijacker had stupidly used his own name. The media got hold of the information, that the police were checking out the rap sheet of a D.B. Cooper, and the name has stuck ever since.

During the opening scene, the narrator says, "On Wednesday, November 24, 1971 at 6:27 p.m. aboard flight 305 from Portland to Seattle, the following event actually took place," then it shows D.B. Cooper jumping from the plane. D.B. Cooper did hijack Northwest Orient flight 305 en route from Portland to Seattle on that date as stated, but it then landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and then took off again headed south (no longer as flight 305) and he didn't actually jump until around 8 p.m. More to the point, as shown on screen, it was clearly daylight or perhaps twilight at various points during this scene, but the sun set around 4:30 p.m. in western Washington (where the jump occurred) on November 24, 1971 so it would have been pitch black at 6:27 p.m. and at 8 p.m.

The end credits says Possum - Marsoupial

Featured in Sneak Previews: Time Bandits, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper, The Woman Next Door, Man of Iron (1981)