Airport '77 (1977)

Director:

Jerry Jameson

Writers:

H.A.L. Craig (story)
Charles Kuenstle (story)

Release Date:

11 March 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle... passengers still alive, trapped underwater...

Plot:

Art thieves hijack a 747, hit fog and crash into the ocean, trapping them and the passengers under 100 feet of water.

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Underwater | Bermuda Triangle | Millionaire | Pilot

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Jack Lemmon	...	Capt. Don Gallagher
Lee Grant	...	Karen Wallace
Brenda Vaccaro	...	Eve Clayton
Joseph Cotten	...	Nicholas St. Downs III
Olivia de Havilland	...	Emily Livingston
James Stewart	...	Philip Stevens
George Kennedy	...	Joe Patroni
Darren McGavin	...	Stan Buchek
Christopher Lee	...	Martin Wallace
Robert Foxworth	...	Chambers
Robert Hooks	...	Eddie
Monte Markham	...	Banker
Kathleen Quinlan	...	Julie
Gil Gerard	...	Frank Powers
James Booth	...	Ralph Crawford

Also Known As:

Airport 1977 (International: English title) (informal title)

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hungarian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (1987) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:12 (original rating) | USA:PG (Certificate #24803) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1977) | Sweden:15 | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Bob Hope Airport - 2627 Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Jack Lemmon later said accepting the film had been a big mistake.

Goofs:

Factual errors: After submerging in the Atlantic, the captain said the airplane is "Pressurized". Of course, an airliner only pressurizes when the engines are running or when external air is plugged in, which is not the case underwater. It would fill with water in minutes after submerging.

Quotes:

Steve: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Skydivers (#7.9)" (1994)

Mid Air Ocean Caper Gone Awry

Gazillionaire James Stewart is shipping his collection of art to a museum and he's using his private jet to fly the collection and a few friends down to meet him in Florida.

Of course this attracts the attention of a few crooks who have a pretty well thought out plan and the copilot, Robert Foxworth, working with them. Of course all good plans go awry and they go down in the Bermuda Triangle into some relatively shallow area of the Atlantic.

Hey they could have gone down and been lost for decades like the Titanic was.

That's essentially the plot here and in true Seventies disaster film tradition you load the screen with big names, dress them fashionably and put them in harm's way. The rest of the film is devoted to their rescue.

Incidentally the footage devoted to the air sea rescue is the best thing about Airport 77. No member of the audience will not go away impressed with the U.S. Navy's capabilities in that regard.

Jack Lemmon is the pilot and in an action role which is normally against type for him, he does quite well. Almost twenty years before he supported James Stewart in Bell, Book,and Candle and now the billing is most definitely reversed.

My favorites in the film are Joseph Cotten and Olivia DeHavilland, a classy and elegant pair of passengers who so typify the glamor of old Hollywood.

Christopher Lee also performs against type, he's not the villain here in fact he turns out quite the hero among the passengers. Lee Grant is his trollop of a wife and I remember seeing this in theaters and the shouts for joy from the audience when Brenda Vaccaro punches her out.

I'm not sure which is a wilder rescue this one or that other James Stewart film The Flight of the Phoenix. There's no way any of them should survive.

But this is a Hollywood disaster epic, so all things are possible.