The Terminal (2004)

An eastern immigrant finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Andrew Niccol (story), Sacha Gervasi (story),

Stars:

Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chi McBride

5 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hanks	...	Viktor Navorski
Catherine Zeta-Jones	...	Amelia Warren
Stanley Tucci	...	Frank Dixon
Chi McBride	...	Mulroy
Diego Luna	...	Enrique Cruz
Barry Shabaka Henley	...	Thurman
Kumar Pallana	...	Gupta Rajan
Zoe Saldana	...	Dolores Torres (as Zoë Saldana)
Eddie Jones	...	Salchak
Jude Ciccolella	...	Karl Iverson
Corey Reynolds	...	Waylin
Guillermo Díaz	...	Bobby Alima (as Guillermo Diaz)
Honorine Bell	...	Nadia (as Rini Bell)
Stephen Mendel	...	First Class Steward
Valeriy Nikolaev	...	Milodragovich (as Valera Nikolaev)

Storyline

Viktor Navorski, a man from an Eastern European country arrives in New York. However after he left his country war broke out. Suddenly Navorski is a man without a country - or one that the U.S. cannot recognize, thus he is denied entrance to the U.S. However, he also can't be deported so he is told by the Security Manager that he has to remain in the airport until his status can be fixed. And also Navorski doesn't speak English very well, so he cannot talk to or understand anyone. But he somehow adapts and sets up residence in the airport, which makes the man who placed him there unhappy, as it seems he is in line for a promotion but Navroski's presence might complicate that. So he tries to get Navorski to leave but Navorski remains where he is. Navorski makes friends with some of the people who work in the airport and is attracted to a flight attendant he runs into whenever she comes in.

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Plot Keywords:

airport | flight attendant | promotion | jfk airport | english | 

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Taglines:

Life is waiting.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks UIP [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Russian Bulgarian Spanish

Release Date:

18 June 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le terminal

Filming Locations:

Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,305,442 (Japan) (17 December 2004)

Gross:

$14,076,317 (Japan) (4 February 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Amblin Entertainment, Parkes/MacDonald Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although Viktor comes from the fictional country of Krakozhia, the language he speaks in the movie is Bulgarian. The written material shown (the Fodor's guide and the magazine page with the jazz greats) is in bad Russian. The label on the Planters peanuts can is neither in Bulgarian nor in Russian. Viktor's driving license is issued in Homel, Republic of Belarus, and has a woman's name on it (written in Cyrillic) - Gulnara Gulina. Gulnara is a Persian name of Arabic origin, which would be quite rare in Belarus. It was a real license provided by a real Gulnara Gulina, a woman from Belarus who was working in American movie industry, although the license, issued in 1995, was already invalid at the time of filming. The filmmakers just added Viktor Navorski's name in English and his photo.

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Goofs

The stamp that officer Torres puts on the form filled out by the Colombian couple says September 4, 2003. However later that same day, the stamp she puts on Navorski's form is dated January 17, 2004.

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Quotes

[first lines]
PA announcer: United Airlines announcing the arrival of Flight 9435 from Beijing. Customer service representative, please report to gate C42.

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are unususally short, with just the studio name and the name of the film.

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Connections

Featured in Boarding: The People of 'The Terminal' (2004)

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Soundtracks

I Love New York
Written by Steve Karmen

User Reviews

fun film

Although I should not have been surprised, Spielberg and Hanks, had greatness written all over it. But I got suckered into a lot of the bad press around the film and suppose I judged it before I had watched it. Anyway, I have now watched it and I liked it.

I thought the first half of the film was absolutely fantastic, the humor, the acting, the character development - they were all good. I thought the second half of the film suffered a little from becoming a bit over emotional, the love story seemed out of sorts and the way the entire airport staff seemed to know every thing about everyone else was a bit far fetched, I worked in an airport for many years and knew virtually no-one from outside the people I worked with on a daily basis, but maybe that's just me! But I forgave the film these slight nuances and allowed myself to enjoy it. I don't think Hanks or Spielberg will win any more Oscars, but it was a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday night!!