Skyjacked (1972)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

John Guillermin

Writers:

David Harper (novel)
Stanley R. Greenberg (writer)

Release Date:

8 September 1972 (Finland)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The Sky's The Limit For Suspense

Plot:

A crazed Vietnam vet bomber hijacks a Boeing 707 in this disaster film filled with the usual early '70s stereotypes...

Plot Keywords:

Disaster Film | Disaster | Vietnam | Suspense | Airplane

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Capt. Henry 'Hank' O'Hara
Yvette Mimieux	...	Angela Thacher
James Brolin	...	Jerome K. Weber
Claude Akins	...	Sgt. Ben Puzo
Jeanne Crain	...	Mrs. Clara Shaw
Susan Dey	...	Elly Brewster
Roosevelt Grier	...	Gary Brown
Mariette Hartley	...	Harriet Stevens
Walter Pidgeon	...	Sen. Arne Lindner
Ken Swofford	...	John Bimonte
Leslie Uggams	...	Lovejoy Wells
Ross Elliott	...	Harold Shaw
Nicholas Hammond	...	Peter Lindner
Mike Henry	...	Sam Allen
Jayson Kane	...	William Reading (as Jayson William Kane)

Also Known As:

Sky Terror (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The 'Global Airways' plane used in the movie was a World Airways Boeing 707 (N374WA). World Airways home base at the time was Oakland Metropolitan Airport, where just about all of the airport scenes in the movie were filmed.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The aircraft they exit from at the end of the film is a cargo aircraft. The aircraft is a Boeing 707-300C, which contains a large cargo door on the left side. The aircraft serves a dual purpose and can be converted to cargo use from a passenger aircraft.

Quotes:

[first lines]
John Bimonte: [Hank is doing his walk-around the aircraft] Hey, Hank! Ready to go.
Capt. Henry 'Hank' O'Hara: Wrong! You got a broken cowling latch here.
John Bimonte: What the hell? I'll get right on it.
Capt. Henry 'Hank' O'Hara: Take all the time you want, John. You got 10 minutes.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Drive-In (1976)

Quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. . .

Skyjacked has no real characters, nary a coherent plotline, little suspense, and absolutely nothing to offer beyond cardboard acting, inconsistent direction, and jarring editing. From the opening sequence, designed to introduce the main players in clever or amusing ways as they board a plane for Minneapolis, the film is static and confusing. The thirty seconds or less devoted to each character is not enough to get a feel for their personality. Furthermore, a few second-person, "to the camera" shots, designed to introduce the "skyjacker," are confusing and poorly handled so as to throw the viewer out of the film's continuity. Later as the suspense is supposed to build, jump cuts abound and the action is otherwise so static as to be boring. One might think that Anchoarge is a routine stop on the way to Minneapolis rather than a forced destination by a crazed bomber for all of the concern that the actors display. The film is hardly worth following to its cryptic conclusion, a series of mindframe fantasies, the significance of which is never fully explained. There are some impressive "live airplane" exterior shots in what is otherwise a benign "aircraft fight sequence" but in comparison to the poorly designed set of the interior of the aircraft, serve to do little more than throw a disenchanted viewer even farther out of what little story there is. I viewed Skyjacked as part of a "disaster movie weekend" among such other 70's disaster fare as The Swarm, Fire!, Juggernaut, and Rollercoaster. The films were selected by a random sampling of second tier disaster flicks, and Skyjacked was picked by it's close proximity on the shelf to Rollercoaster and The Swarm. The 2002 Movie Guide had no review for Skyjacked, although it did give ratings of no stars to The Swarm, Fire!, and Rollercoaster. Obviously, the ommitting of Skyjacked was certainly on purpose; it was showing the proper opinion that the film should never have been made.