Hostage Flight (1985)

Trans Allied Flight 136 is hijacked in flight and diverted by its four captors to New York's JFK Airport. When the plane departs for London and the terrorists begin murdering hostages, the passengers begin to fight back.

Director:

Steven Hilliard Stern (as Steven Hillard Stern)

Writers:

Felix Culver (teleplay), Stephen Zito (teleplay)

Stars:

Ned Beatty, Barbara Bosson, René Enríquez

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ned Beatty	...	Art Hofstadter
Barbara Bosson	...	Roberta Spooner
René Enríquez	...	Hector (as René Enriquez)
Jack Gilford	...	Mr. Singer
John Karlen	...	DiSalvo
Frank McRae	...	Bart Cooper
Mitchell Ryan	...	Captain Malone
Dee Wallace	...	Laura Kenrick (as Dee Wallace Stone)
Kristina Wayborn	...	Ilsa Beck
Ina Balin	...	Rita
Kim Johnston Ulrich	...	Jane (as Kim Ulrich)
Frank M. Benard	...	Jean Batiste Ronet
Frank Annese	...	Nasrallah
Michael Alldredge	...	Bradigan
Allan Miller	...	Lawyer

Storyline

Four terrorists of different ethnicities and without an obvious common link take hold of an American jetliner and demand release of their leader from a British prison. They murder a stewardess to prove they mean business and threaten to pick off more if their demands are not met. But surprises await the hijackers: an armed policeman is aboard, and the passengers manage to begin a whispered plot to fight back. After a bloody shootout with further casualties on both sides, the mood of the film shifts sharply as the plot devolves to a single question: do the passengers wait till the plane lanes and turn the surviving terrorists over to the authorities, or do they "try" them themselves aboard the plane?

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Genres:

Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 November 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Horas de Angústia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Telepictures Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original ending had the terrorists hanged. But an ending that had them shot when they broke free aired in the US. The other ending was shown in internationally.

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Goofs

Flight 136 is shown to be a DC-10 from the exterior shots and reference from a character. The interior of the cabin and the flight deck is clearly that of a 747. The flight deck has four throttle levers and four sets of engine instruments versus the DC-10's three. The forward end of the cabin curves sharply in as does a 747 and the inside of the exit doors match a 747.

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Quotes

Bart Cooper: I'm not going easy... a man doesn't have much in life, but at least he can choose when to die.

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Connections

Edited from Airplane! (1980)

User Reviews

Fighting Back

This 1985 made-for-TV suspense drama about Mideast terrorists who hijack a flight from New York to London, only to eventually find themselves at the mercy of the very people they've held hostage, seems now to be very much like the 1998 feature film THE SIEGE.

Truth tends to be stranger than fiction, but somehow, from what we know so far, there may have been HOSTAGE FLIGHT-type struggles for retaking control of the passenger jets that rammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. I have the uneasy feeling that this film, though it might have gone unnoticed but for its theme of hostages fighting back, may be quite prescient now.