Airplane!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Airplane! is an
American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by
Paramount Pictures. It stars
Robert Hays and
Julie Hagerty and features
Leslie Nielsen,
Robert Stack,
Lloyd Bridges,
Peter Graves,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and
Lorna Patterson. The film is a
spoof of the
disaster film genre, and is essentially a remake of the
1957 Paramount film
Zero Hour!. In Australia and New Zealand the film is known as
Flying High.
Airplane! was a huge financial success, grossing over
US$83 million in North America alone, against a budget of just $3.5 million.
[1] The film's creators received the
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Comedy, and nominations for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy) and a
BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay.
[3]
In the years since its release,
Airplane!'s reputation has grown substantially beyond its modest comic intentions. The film was voted the 10th-funniest American comedy in
AFI's "
100 Years... 100 Laughs" list, and ranked 6th on
Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". The film has a 98% "fresh" rating at
Rotten Tomatoes. In a major 2007 survey by
Channel 4 in the
United Kingdom, it was judged the second greatest comedy film of all time.
[4]
Ex-
fighter pilot Ted Striker became traumatized after an incident during the war, leading to his
fear of flying. Recovering his courage, Striker attempts to regain the love of his life from the war, Elaine, now a
stewardess. In order to win her love, Striker overcomes his fear and buys a ticket on a flight she is serving on, from
Los Angeles to
Chicago. However, during the flight, Elaine rebuffs his attempts.
After dinner is served, many of the passengers fall ill, and Dr. Rumack quickly realizes that one of the meal options gave the passengers
food poisoning. The stewards discover that the pilot crew, including Captain Oveur and Roger Murdock, have all come down with food poisoning, leaving no one aboard to fly the plane. Elaine is instructed by the Chicago control tower supervisor Steve McCroskey to activate the plane's autopilot – a large blow-up doll named "Otto" – which will get them to Chicago but will not be able to land the plane. Elaine realizes that Striker is their only chance, and he is convinced to fly the plane, though he still feels his trauma will prevent him from safely landing the plane.
McCroskey, after hearing Striker's name on the radio, sends for Striker's former commander, Rex Kramer, to help talk him down. As the plane nears Chicago, Striker neglects to check the oil temperature which damages one of the engines while a bad thunderstorm reduces visibility, making the landing even more difficult. Thanks to Kramer's endless stream of advice, Striker is able to overcome his fears and safely land the plane with only minor injuries to some passengers. Striker's courage rekindles Elaine's love for him, and the two share a kiss while Otto takes off in the evacuated plane after inflating a female autopilot doll.
Cast
- Robert Hays as Ted Striker
- Julie Hagerty as Elaine Dickinson
- Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Alan Rumack
- Peter Graves as Captain Clarence Oveur
- Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey
- Robert Stack as Captain Rex Kramer
- Lorna Patterson as Randy
- Stephen Stucker as Johnny Henshaw
- Frank Ashmore as Victor Basta
- Jonathan Banks as Gunderson
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Roger Murdock
- Craig Berenson as Paul Carey
- Barbara Billingsley as Jive Lady
- Lee Bryant as Mrs. Hammen
- Nicholas Pryor as Mr. Jim Hammen
- Joyce Bulifant as Mrs. Davis
- Marcy Goldman as Mrs. Geline
- Barbara Stuart as Mrs. Kramer
- Ross Harris as Joey Hammen
- James Hong as a Japanese General
- Al White as Second Jive Dude
Production
Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker (also known as ZAZ) wrote
Airplane! while they were performing with the Kentucky Fried Theatre, a successful small theatre they had founded in 1971. The ZAZ came to the idea of spoofing airplane films when they accidentally taped the 1957 film
Zero Hour!, while they were looking for commercials to spoof. Abrahams later described
Zero Hour! as "... the serious version of
Airplane!". It was the first film script they wrote, and was originally called
The Late Show. The original script contained spoofs of television commercials, however, people who proofread the script for them advised them to shorten the commercials, and, eventually, they removed them. When their script was finished they were unable to sell it.
[5]
The trio had gotten to know director John Landis, who encouraged them to write film based on their theatre sketches. They managed to put the film, called
The Kentucky Fried Movie, in production in the late 1970s, and entered a movie set for the first time; David Zucker explains: "[...] It was the first time we had ever been on a movie set. We learned a lot. We learned that if you really wanted a movie to come out the way you wanted it to, you had to direct. So on the next movie,
Airplane!, we insisted on directing."
Filming took 34 days, mostly during August 1979. The plane used throughout the film was a TWA Boeing 707 model; the plane taking off with "The End" credit is not a 707 (which has four engines), but a Boeing 727 tri-jet. The ambient noise of the plane is not that of a jet but a propeller driven plane (possibly piston engines); it was taken from the soundtrack of
Zero Hour!, making it the longest running gag in the film.
Casting
David Zucker explained that "the trick was to cast actors like Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, and Lloyd Bridges. These were people, who up to that time, had never done comedy. We thought they were much funnier than the comedians of that time were." David Zucker felt Stack was the most important actor to be cast, since he was the "linchpin" to the film's plot.
[5] Stack initially played his role differently from what the directors had in mind. They showed him a tape of impressionist John Byner impersonating Robert Stack. According to the producers, Stack was "doing an impression of John Byner doing an impression of Stack." Stack was not initially interested in the part, but was persuaded by ZAZ. Bridges was advised by his children to take the part.
The film's writers and directors, as well as members of their family, showed up in cameo appearances. David and Jerry appear as two ground crew members who accidentally direct a 747 to taxi through a terminal window. Abrahams is one of many religious zealots scattered throughout the film. Charlotte Zucker (David and Jerry's mother) is the woman attempting to apply makeup in the plane as it violently shifts. Their sister Susan Breslau is the second ticket agent at the airport. Jim Abraham's mother is the woman initially sitting next to Dr. Rumack.
Several other cameos add to the humor by casting actors against type. Ethel Merman, in her last film appearance, plays a male soldier who is convinced he is Ethel Merman. Barbara Billingsley, best known as June Cleaver from
Leave It to Beaver, makes an appearance as a woman who announces she "speaks jive" and can translate for two African-American passengers. Maureen McGovern appears as Sister Angelina, a spoof of the nun in
Airport 1975, and a poke at her involvement as the singer of the Oscar-winning songs for the disaster films
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and
The Towering Inferno (1974). Jimmie Walker cameos as the man opening the hood of the plane and checking the oil before takeoff; Walker also had a minor role in the air disaster film,
The Concorde: Airport '79.
Howard Jarvis, the property tax rebel and author of California Proposition 13, plays the taxi passenger who is left at the curb with the meter running in the film's opening and closing scene. Finally, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar has a significant role as himself, apparently living an incognito double life as co-pilot Murdock.
Score
In 1980, an LP soundtrack for the film was released by Regency Records, and included dialog and songs from the film. It was also narrated by Shadoe Stevens, and only featured one score track, the "Love Theme from
Airplane" composed by Elmer Bernstein.
On April 28, 2009, La-La Land Records announced that they would release the first official score album for
Airplane!, containing Bernstein's complete score.
Release
Prior to its release, the directors had been apprehensive due to a mediocre response at one of the pre-screenings. However, the film made back its entire budget of about $3.5 million in its first weekend of release. Overall, it earned more than $80 million at the box office and another $40 million in rentals, making it a tremendous financial success.
Reception
Julie Haggerty and Leslie Nielsen in the cockpit. The autopilot "Otto" on the left is typical of the film's sense of humor, as is Nielsen repeatedly popping in to the cockpit at inopportune moments with good luck wishes.
MaximOnline.com named the airplane crash in
Airplane! number four on its list of "Most Horrific Movie Plane Crashes."
[7] Leslie Nielsen's line, "I am serious...and don't call me Shirley," was 79th on AFI's list of the best 100 movie quotes. In 2000, the American Film Institute listed
Airplane! as number ten on its list of the 100 funniest American films. In the same year, readers of
Total Film voted it the second greatest comedy film of all time. It also came second in the British 50 Greatest Comedy Films poll on Channel 4, beaten by
Monty Python's The Life of Brian. Some critics claim the film's most important achievement was ending the
Airport series of film, which could no longer be taken seriously.
[citation needed] Entertainment Weekly voted the film the "Funniest movie on video" in their list of the 100 funniest movies on video.
[8]
Several actors were cast to spoof their established images: Nielsen, Stack, and Bridges were known for adventurous, no-nonsense tough-guy characters. Stack's role as the captain who loses his nerve in one of the earliest airline "disaster" films,
The High and the Mighty (1954), is spoofed in
Airplane!, as is Lloyd Bridges's 1970–1971 television role as airport manager Jim Conrad in
San Francisco International Airport. Peter Graves was in the made-for-TV-movie
SST: Death Flight, in which an SST was unable to land due to an emergency.
Nielsen saw a major boost to his career after the release of
Airplane!, and the film marked a significant change in his film persona: since then he has specialized in playing clueless deadpan bumblers, notably in the six-episode television series
Police Squad! and its film follow-ups, the three
Naked Gun films. This also led to his casting, many years later, in Mel Brooks'
Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Brooks had wanted to make that film for a long time, but put it off because, as he said, "I just could not find the right Dracula." Brooks claimed to have never seen
Airplane! until years after its release. When he did, he knew Nielsen would be right for the part. Stack and Bridges saw similar shifts in their public image, though to lesser extents.
Several members of the cast in minor roles went on to better known parts. Gregory Itzin, who appears as one of the religious zealots, played President Charles Logan in the Fox series
24. David Leisure, who played one of the Hare Krishna, went on to fame as Joe Isuzu before appearing as Charlie Dietz in the sitcom
Empty Nest.
