The Big Bus (1976)

Director:

James Frawley

Writers:

Lawrence J. Cohen (writer)
Fred Freeman (writer)

Release Date:

22 October 1976 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Action

Tagline:

Join the passengers on The Big Bus - the craziest spoof movie of them all

Plot:

The ultimate disaster film parody. A nuclear powered bus is going Non-stop from New York to Denver and...

Plot Keywords:

Disaster | Bus | Bowling | Pool | Cannibalism

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Joseph Bologna	...	Dan Torrance
Stockard Channing	...	Kitty Baxter
John Beck	...	Shoulders O'Brien
Rene Auberjonois	...	Father Kudos
Ned Beatty	...	Shorty Scotty
Bob Dishy	...	Dr. Kurtz
José Ferrer	...	Ironman
Ruth Gordon	...	Old Woman
Harold Gould	...	Professor Baxter
Larry Hagman	...	Doctor in parking lot
Sally Kellerman	...	Sybil Crane
Richard Mulligan	...	Claude Crane
Lynn Redgrave	...	Camille Levy
Richard B. Shull	...	Emery Bush
Stuart Margolin	...	Alex

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Netherlands:AL (orginal rating) | UK:PG | Finland:S | USA:PG | Australia:PG | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

On the news van that appears near the beginning of the film, the call letters are WZAZ. These call letters also appear in many comedies from what's known as the "ZAZ" team - Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker - though they had nothing to do with this film. See Airplane! (1980).

Goofs:

Errors in geography: During the entire trip from New York to Denver, the only scenery we see is that along mountain roads east of Los Angeles.

Quotes:

Dan: Now I know it looked like I fell... but it was all part of my plan.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Speed (1994/I)

Soundtrack:

Six Months to Live

A spoof B.A. (Before "Airplane!")....

The sight gags are all there, there's silliness to spare and there's not a ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker - the creators of "Airplane!") member in sight.

Yep, "The Big Bus" was the predecessor to the long and luxuriant line of disaster spoofs you see lining the video shelves today. And to tell the truth, as a groundbreaker in this field, this movie is pretty funny.

Bologna is a down-and-out bus driver who is given one shot at redemption by being picked to man the Cyclops, the biggest single bus ever created, driving it coast to coast.

His old girlfriend (Channing) is a kind of bus stewardess on board and an old driving buddy (Beck) is also by his side. But so are a load of passengers as diverse as your average "Airport" or "Poseidon Adventure" movie, not to mention an inept terrorist (Margolin) trying to sabotage the bus at every turn while whining to his brother, "Why did YOU get the iron lung?".

It's that kind of movie.

You'll have a lot of fun picking out every star you can imagine from the '70s here, as well as discovering the jibes at every major convention of disaster movies, even the digs at the huge Cyclops bus itself ("The coyote is on backwards." Never mind, you'll see.)

Definitely a funny and fun movie. Get on this "Bus".

Ten stars for being one of the first on this bandwagon, as well as for some big laughs. And if you have a co-pilot for a huge bus, make sure he stays conscious.