Airport 1975 (1974)

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

Writers:

Arthur Hailey (novel), Don Ingalls

Stars:

Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlton Heston	...	Alan Murdock
Karen Black	...	Nancy Pryor
George Kennedy	...	Joe Patroni
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	...	Captain Stacy
Susan Clark	...	Helen Patroni
Helen Reddy	...	Sister Ruth
Linda Blair	...	Janice Abbott
Dana Andrews	...	Scott Freeman
Roy Thinnes	...	Urias
Sid Caesar	...	Barney
Myrna Loy	...	Mrs. Devaney
Ed Nelson	...	Major John Alexander
Nancy Olson	...	Mrs. Abbott
Larry Storch	...	Glenn Purcell
Martha Scott	...	Sister Beatrice

Storyline

When the pilot of a small aircraft has a heart attack and crashes his plane into the cockpit of a Boeing 747, several members of the flight crew are killed and the pilot is blinded. Miraculously, the 747 stays in the air on auto-pilot with flight attendant Nancy Prior at the controls. Ground controllers, including her boyfriend Alan Murdock, try to teach her the basics but they soon realize they will have to get a trained pilot into the cockpit. Their first attempt fails and Murdock realizes he will have to do it. Meanwhile, various passengers have their own problems including a young girl who is destined to a life saving operation.

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Plot Keywords:

hare krishna | repeat sequel | fire truck | kiss | engineer | 

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Taglines:

Star-studded cast trapped in a plunging airplane... And only a death-defying rescue mission can save them!

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 October 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Airport 1975

Filming Locations:

Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some of the footage was used as stock footage on The Incredible Hulk (1977), season one, episode nine, "747", which had an "Airport"-style plot.

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Goofs

Shortly after the 747 takes off, Mrs. Petroni hands her son a book and says "Study this chapter and don't move until I get back." The book she hands the boy is the 1963 edition of "Hoyle's Rules of Games", an unlikely source of study material for a pre-teen child.

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Quotes

[Barney attracts the attention of a woman sewing]
Barney: Pardon me. Don't your hands ever get tired?
Passenger: Idle hands...
Barney: By the time we land you'll probably have a rug!
Passenger: [confused] A rug?

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Connections

Referenced in Two Senoritas (1975)

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Soundtracks

Best Friend
Lyrics and Music by Helen Reddy and Ray Burton (as R. Burton)
Sung by Helen Reddy

User Reviews

Not as bad as you may think

A mid-air collision leaves a 747 without a pilot. Charlton Heston, Karen Black and George Kennedy star in this campy far fetched adventure. Acting is wooden and unconvincing and the plot ranges from strange to absurd but the air sequences are by far the best in any air disaster film and well worth a look. It is a typical disaster film for it's time but is thankfully one of the good ones unlike The Concorde or The Swarm. People give it a hard time claiming it to be one of the worst films ever made but it obviously isn't as there are many millions of mainstream films worse than this and many worse disaster movies if you want proof watch any of Irwin Allen's late 70's productions.