Movies: Sky Trouble
by qempyrean | created - 31 Dec 2013 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicVarious aircraft "disaster" movies à la Airport. Several I've seen, but not all.
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1. Airport (1970)
G | 137 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Directors: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg
Votes: 21,660 | Gross: $100.49M
2. Airplane! (1980)
PG | 88 min | Comedy
After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Votes: 260,732 | Gross: $83.40M
3. The High and the Mighty (1954)
Not Rated | 147 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When a commercial airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific flight and the pilot loses his nerve, it is up to the washed-up co-pilot Dan Roman to bring the plane in safely.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack
Votes: 6,541
4. Jet Storm (1959)
88 min | Thriller
Sir Richard Attenborough plays Ernest Tilley, a man who lost his daughter in a hit-and-run accident. He tracks down the man responsible for the accident and boards the same plane, ... See full summary »
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, Hermione Baddeley, Bernard Braden
Votes: 526
5. Julie (1956)
Approved | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A terrified wife tries to escape from her insanely jealous husband who is bent on killing her.
Director: Andrew L. Stone | Stars: Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan, Frank Lovejoy
Votes: 2,221
6. The Crowded Sky (1960)
Not Rated | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Disaster movie about a Navy jet and a commercial airliner heading for a mid air collision.
Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., John Kerr
Votes: 962
A blast-from-the-past entry in one of my favorite sub-genres: the all-star airplane-disaster thriller/melodrama! The fictional airline is named "Trans States" in this one.
7. The Doomsday Flight (1966 TV Movie)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Thriller
A bomb on board an airliner has an altitude-sensitive trigger. Unless a ransom is paid, it will explode when the plane descends to land.
Director: William A. Graham | Stars: Jack Lord, Edmond O'Brien, Katherine Crawford, John Saxon
Votes: 396
8. Crash Landing (1958)
Approved | 76 min | Drama, War
Airplane passengers prepare for a crash landing in the ocean.
Director: Fred F. Sears | Stars: Gary Merrill, Nancy Reagan, Irene Hervey, Roger Smith
Votes: 212
9. Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
Approved | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An airline executive refuses to believe that pilot error, by his friend, caused a fatal crash and persists in looking for another reason.
Director: Ralph Nelson | Stars: Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette
Votes: 1,891
10. The Hindenburg (1975)
Approved | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, History
A chronicle of the Hindenburg disaster in which a zeppelin burst into flames.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, William Atherton, Roy Thinnes
Votes: 6,580 | Gross: $27.95M
11. Zero Hour! (1957)
Passed | 81 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
Director: Hall Bartlett | Stars: Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Sterling Hayden, Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch
Votes: 2,292
12. Skyjacked (1972)
PG | 101 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crazed Vietnam vet bomber hijacks a Boeing 707 in this disaster film filled with the usual early '70s stereotypes, and demands to be taken to Russia.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Charlton Heston, James Brolin, Yvette Mimieux, Claude Akins
Votes: 2,340 | Gross: $2.50M
13. No Highway in the Sky (1951)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Thriller
An aeronautical engineer predicts that a new model of plane will fail catastrophically and in a novel manner after a specific number flying hours.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 4,448
14. The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story (1988 TV Movie)
100 min | Drama
This made-for-television film documents the takeover of the TWA airliner in flight from Athens to Rome in 1985. The focus is on the flight attendant, Uli Derickson, whose courage and hope ... See full summary »
Director: Paul Wendkos | Stars: Lindsay Wagner, Eli Danker, Sandy McPeak, Ray Wise
Votes: 383
15. The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978 TV Movie)
100 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An aircraft crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 passengers. After the wreckage is removed, salvageable parts from the plane are used to repair other aircraft. Soon passengers and... See full summary »
Director: Steven Hilliard Stern | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Gary Lockwood, Tina Chen, Kim Basinger
Votes: 681
16. Hostage Flight (1985 TV Movie)
100 min | Thriller
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 | Stars: Ned Beatty, Barbara Bosson, René Enríquez, Jack Gilford
Votes: 193
17. Flightplan (2005)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Kate Beahan
Votes: 171,717 | Gross: $89.71M
18. Flight (I) (2012)
R | 138 min | Drama, Thriller
Troubling questions arise after airline pilot Whip Whitaker makes a miracle landing after a mid-air catastrophe.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Denzel Washington, Nadine Velazquez, Don Cheadle, John Goodman
Votes: 375,917 | Gross: $93.77M
19. Non-Stop (2014)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages demanding $150 million into an off-shore account, or someone will die every 20 minutes.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, Michelle Dockery
Votes: 276,443 | Gross: $92.17M
20. Airport 1975 (1974)
PG | 107 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A 747 in flight collides with a small plane, and is rendered pilotless. Somehow the control tower must get a pilot aboard so the jet can land.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Votes: 11,843 | Gross: $47.29M
21. Airport '77 (1977)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Art thieves hijack a 747, hit fog and crash into the ocean, trapping them and the passengers under one hundred feet of water.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland
Votes: 12,299 | Gross: $30.00M
22. The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)
PG | 113 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A supersonic airborne disaster. In order to survive a flight headed for the Moscow Olympics, passengers of the Concorde must endure aerial acrobatics to dodge missiles and survive a device that decompresses the plane.
Director: David Lowell Rich | Stars: Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, George Kennedy
Votes: 6,947 | Gross: $13.00M
23. United 93 (2006)
R | 111 min | Action, Drama, History
A real-time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11th, 2001 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: David Alan Basche, Olivia Thirlby, Liza Colón-Zayas, J.J. Johnson
Votes: 110,902 | Gross: $31.57M
24. Sully (2016)
PG-13 | 96 min | Biography, Drama
When pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger lands his damaged plane on the Hudson River in order to save the flight's passengers and crew, some consider him a hero while others think he was reckless.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Valerie Mahaffey
Votes: 297,748 | Gross: $125.07M
25. Crash (1978 TV Movie)
95 min | Drama
On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Florida Everglades, resulting in 101 fatalities.
Director: Barry Shear | Stars: William Shatner, Adrienne Barbeau, Brooke Bundy, Christopher Connelly
Votes: 303
26. SST: Death Flight (1977 TV Movie)
89 min | Adventure, Drama
On its maiden flight, the crew of America's first supersonic transport learns that it may not be able to land, due to an act of sabotage and a deadly flu on-board.
Director: David Lowell Rich | Stars: Barbara Anderson, Bert Convy, Peter Graves, Lorne Greene
Votes: 670
27. Crash: The Mystery of Flight 1501 (1990 TV Movie)
120 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
When a passenger plane crashes after a bomb scare, there are many unanswered questions, which can only be attributed to "pilot error". The pilot's wife, Diane Halstead, is convinced her ... See full summary »
Director: Philip Saville | Stars: Cheryl Ladd, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frederick Coffin, Peter Jurasik
Votes: 332
28. Blackout Effect (1998 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 96 min | Drama, Thriller
There has been a mid-air collision involving a passenger jet and a cargo flight, killing everyone aboard the two planes. The NTSB investigator in charge, whose girlfriend died in the crash,... See full summary »
Director: Jeff Bleckner | Stars: Eric Stoltz, Charles Martin Smith, Denis Arndt, Leslie Hope
Votes: 555
29. Mayday (2005 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 87 min | Action, Drama
Twelve miles above the Pacific Ocean, an errant missile strikes a state of the art passenger jet. The flight crew is crippled or dead. Now, defying both nature and man, a handful of survivors must achieve the impossible: Land the airplane.
Director: T.J. Scott | Stars: Aidan Quinn, Dean Cain, Kelly Hu, Charles S. Dutton
Votes: 689
30. Terror in the Sky (1971 TV Movie)
74 min | Drama, Thriller
On a transcontinental flight, the flight crew suffer from food poisioning and become incapacitated. To save the aircraft, the cabin crew locate a passenger with flying experience. He is coached by an experienced pilot on the ground.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski | Stars: Leif Erickson, Doug McClure, Roddy McDowall, Lois Nettleton
Votes: 213
31. Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1992 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 95 min | Action, Drama
The captain of a crippled jet steers toward tri-state rescue-team experts waiting in Sioux City, Iowa.
Director: Lamont Johnson | Stars: Charlton Heston, James Coburn, Richard Thomas, Leon Russom
Votes: 768
32.
Encounter (1952–1961)
Episode:
Flight Into Danger
(1956)
60 min | Drama
A small planes pilot must take the controls of a large passenger plane when the pilots fall victim to food poisoning.
Director: Gabriel Axel | Stars: James Doohan, Larry Beattie, Elizabeth Cole, Corinne Conley
Votes: 37
33. The Captain (2019)
111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When the windshield of his commercial airplane shatters at 30,000 feet in the air, a pilot and his flight crew work to ensure the safety of the passengers and land the plane.
Director: Andrew Lau | Stars: Hanyu Zhang, Hao Ou, Jiang Du, Quan Yuan
Votes: 2,449 | Gross: $0.71M
34. International Airport (1985 TV Movie)
90 min | Drama
Manager of a large metropolitan airport tries to deal with the stress of his job, and the various characters that work for him.
Directors: Don Chaffey, Charles S. Dubin | Stars: Gil Gerard, Berlinda Tolbert, Pat Crowley, Katherine Moffat
Votes: 151
35. Mayday at 40, 000 Feet! (1976 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
The co-pilot and engineer of a passenger jet struggle to keep the plane airborne until it can reach an open airfield after a killer aboard the plane fires a gun at an engine and pilot of the plane.
Director: Robert Butler | Stars: David Janssen, Don Meredith, Christopher George, Ray Milland
Votes: 361
36. Miracle Landing (1990 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
A passenger jet loses a portion of its fuselage in flight over Hawaii and is forced to make an emergency landing.
Director: Dick Lowry | Stars: Connie Sellecca, Wayne Rogers, Ana Alicia, Nancy Kwan
Votes: 647
37. Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac (1984 TV Movie)
120 min | Drama
On January 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., resulting in 78 fatalities.
Director: Robert Michael Lewis | Stars: Jeannetta Arnette, Barry Corbin, Stephen Macht, Dinah Manoff
Votes: 415
38. Red Eye (2005)
PG-13 | 85 min | Thriller
A woman is kidnapped by a stranger on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father, she is pulled into a plot to assist her captor in a political assassination.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Laura Johnson
Votes: 139,539 | Gross: $57.89M
39. Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A reporter tries to stop the crash of an aircraft after uncovering an airline's plot to save their business by sabotaging Concorde flights and have them decommissioned.
Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Venantino Venantini, Fiamma Maglione
Votes: 630
40. Trouble in the Sky (1960)
92 min | Drama, Thriller
In Britain, at the dawn of jet-powered commercial aviation, an aircraft manufacturer tries to shift the blame from mechanical failure to pilot error when its newest jet airliner has a series of accidents.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Michael Craig, Peter Cushing, Bernard Lee, Elizabeth Seal
Votes: 412
41. Flight That Disappeared (1961)
Approved | 71 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A cross-country airliner, whose passengers include a nuclear physicist, a rocket expert, and a mathematical genius, is drawn beyond radar range by an unknown, unbreakable force.
Director: Reginald Le Borg | Stars: Craig Hill, Paula Raymond, Dayton Lummis, Gregory Morton
Votes: 827
42. Final Descent (1997 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Thriller
A commercial pilot is forced to keep a plane aloft that was struck in midair by another plane to keep it from ripping apart even as the fuel is running out and the air and cabin pressure is dropping.
Director: Mike Robe | Stars: Robert Urich, Annette O'Toole, John de Lancie, Jim Byrnes
Votes: 944
43. The Pilot (1980)
PG | 92 min | Action, Drama
Mike Hagan is a pilot in passenger service and candidate for the honor "Best Pilot of the Year". Nobody knows that he's got private sorrows - he's an alcoholic. A stewardess notices his regular visits of the toilet and reports it.
Director: Cliff Robertson | Stars: Cliff Robertson, Diane Baker, Frank Converse, Milo O'Shea
Votes: 264
44. Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 115 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
On the maiden flight of the first hypersonic commercial plane which can make the flight from New York City to London in four hours, a minor disaster occurs resulting in the plane actually ... See full summary »
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Lee Majors, Hal Linden, Lauren Hutton, Ray Milland
Votes: 1,294
45. This Is a Hijack (1973)
PG | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A man feels obligated to hijack the plane his boss is on after he has gambled himself into overwhelming debt.
Director: Barry Pollack | Stars: Adam Roarke, Neville Brand, Jay Robinson, Lynn Borden
Votes: 147
46. The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper (1981)
PG | 100 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
D.B. Cooper parachutes with his stolen money and proceeds to contact his wife. Meanwhile, his former army sergeant, who now works as an insurance investigator, manages to identify him and decides to track him down.
Directors: Roger Spottiswoode, Buzz Kulik | Stars: Robert Duvall, Treat Williams, Kathryn Harrold, Ed Flanders
Votes: 1,420 | Gross: $3.70M
47. Passenger 57 (1992)
R | 84 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
An airline security expert must take action when he finds himself trapped on a passenger jet when terrorists seize control of it.
Director: Kevin Hooks | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne, Tom Sizemore, Alex Datcher
Votes: 50,678 | Gross: $44.07M
48. Hijacked: Flight 285 (1996 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 90 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A convicted murderer is escorted by marshals on a regular flight from Phoenix to Dallas. Shortly after take-off, two of his aides, traveling as ordinary passengers, take control of the ... See full summary »
Director: Charles Correll | Stars: Susan Batten, James Brolin, Michael Gross, Anthony Michael Hall
Votes: 602
49. Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 (1995 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 93 min | Drama
True story of a brand-new Canadian airliner running out of fuel in-flight and forced to glide to the nearest airfield.
Director: Jorge Montesi | Stars: William Devane, Scott Hylands, Shelley Hack, Kevin McNulty
Votes: 997
50. Nowhere to Land (2000 TV Movie)
90 min | Thriller
A pilot must safely land a 747 on which deadly nerve gas has been planted.
Director: Armand Mastroianni | Stars: Jack Wagner, Christine Elise, James Sikking, Mark Lee
Votes: 940
51. Ground Control (1998)
PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A disgraced former air traffic controller is called back into service when the airport's traffic control system malfunctions.
Director: Richard Howard | Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Robert Sean Leonard, Bruce McGill, Kristy Swanson
Votes: 2,716
52. Hijacked: Flight 73 (2023)
94 min | Documentary, Drama
Before 9/11 and Lockerbie, one brutal attack shook the world and inspired a new era of global terrorism. The hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi in 1986 is a story of terror and ... See full summary »
Director: Ben Anthony | Stars: Ali Afzal, Altaf Ali, Malek Alkoni, Nathan Altai
Votes: 283
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