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Airplane!

  • 1980
  • PG
  • 1h 28m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
274K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
520
37
Airplane! (1980)
Watch Trailer
Play trailer3:30
2 Videos
99+ Photos
Dark ComedyFarceParodySatireSlapstickComedy

After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.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
  • Writers
    • Jim Abrahams
    • David Zucker
    • Jerry Zucker
  • Stars
    • Robert Hays
    • Julie Hagerty
    • Leslie Nielsen
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    274K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    520
    37
    • Directors
      • Jim Abrahams
      • David Zucker
      • Jerry Zucker
    • Writers
      • Jim Abrahams
      • David Zucker
      • Jerry Zucker
    • Stars
      • Robert Hays
      • Julie Hagerty
      • Leslie Nielsen
    • 640User reviews
    • 134Critic reviews
    • 78Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 3 wins & 7 nominations total

    Videos2

    Trailer
    Trailer 3:30
    Trailer
    Trailer 2
    Trailer 1:46
    Trailer 2
    Trailer 2
    Trailer 1:46
    Trailer 2

    Photos182

    View Poster
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    + 176
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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Robert Hays
    Robert Hays
    • Ted Striker
    Julie Hagerty
    Julie Hagerty
    • Elaine Dickinson
    Leslie Nielsen
    Leslie Nielsen
    • Dr. Rumack
    Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    • Roger Murdock
    • (as Kareem Abdul-Jabaar)
    Lloyd Bridges
    Lloyd Bridges
    • Steve McCroskey
    Peter Graves
    Peter Graves
    • Captain Clarence Oveur
    Lorna Patterson
    Lorna Patterson
    • Randy
    Robert Stack
    Robert Stack
    • Captain Rex Kramer
    Stephen Stucker
    • Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs
    Otto
    Otto
    • Otto
    Jim Abrahams
    Jim Abrahams
    • Religious Zealot #6
    Frank Ashmore
    Frank Ashmore
    • Victor Basta
    Jonathan Banks
    Jonathan Banks
    • Gunderson
    Craig Berenson
    • Paul Carey
    Barbara Billingsley
    Barbara Billingsley
    • Jive Lady
    Lee Bryant
    Lee Bryant
    • Mrs. Hammen
    Joyce Bulifant
    Joyce Bulifant
    • Mrs. Davis
    Mae E. Campbell
    • Security Lady
    • Directors
      • Jim Abrahams
      • David Zucker
      • Jerry Zucker
    • Writers
      • Jim Abrahams
      • David Zucker
      • Jerry Zucker
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews640

    7.7274K
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    Summary

    Reviewers say 'Airplane!' is celebrated for its relentless humor and rapid-fire jokes, effectively spoofing disaster movies. Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan performance adds charm. The film’s clever wordplay, puns, and visual gags are often praised. Despite some dated jokes, its humor remains largely universal. Iconic one-liners and memorable scenes enhance its appeal. However, a few find certain jokes less effective, noting uneven humor. Overall, it’s a classic comedy cherished for decades.
    AI-generated from the text of user reviews

    Featured reviews

    10Mister-6

    We have clearance, Clarence....

    It is my understanding that there are still a few people in the world that haven't seen "Airplane!" yet.

    Those people probably are still waiting for electricity, indoor plumbing and all the other great advances in humanity, too.

    To see "Airplane!" is to take part in the great move to subvert all self-importance in movies, which this film does with great relish (and plenty of corn).

    You get a chance to see such "serious" actors as Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen subvert themselves and their own personnae into near oblivion thanks to the writing/directing team of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. Not to mention visual and verbal send-ups of darn near every movie that ever took place in the air, and a few that didn't, but should have.

    Kudos to Leslie Nielsen, who with this movie gave himself the greatest reinvention of any actor this century. At one time, he was the very model of stoic sensibility.

    I swear. Seriously.

    A looooong time ago.

    Ten stars. A laugh riot.

    And I STILL think this would make a great in-flight movie.
    9mjw2305

    An Undoubted Classic

    Still one of funniest spoof movies ever made, Airplane is one of the first and one of the best around.

    Hot Shots, Loaded Weapon even Naked Gun have tried to follow in its footsteps, but they have failed to hit the mark. That's not to say that they are bad movies, just that its difficult to follow a movie of this calibre.

    Spoof movies definitely have there place in everyone's collection, but this is probably the best you'll ever see in the genre, if you have never seen it and you fancy a laugh, I can't recommend a better film, even though it has dated; it's still hilarious 9/10
    10Prismark10

    Comedy heights

    Disaster films were the rage in the 1970s. As the decade wore on the films got even more star studded and the stakes get higher. The scripts flabbier and our square jawed heroes getting even more po faced with each impending disaster.

    Surely this could not continue and after Airplane it did not. It burst the disaster film bubble and stop calling me Shirley!

    Airplane with its deadpan humour, jokes with double meanings and risqué gags. Both visual and spoken broke the mould when it came to comedy pastiche movies.

    Even more than 30 years later it entices a new generation even though some of the topical references (Gerald Ford, Ethel Merman) might be meaningless to many new viewers.

    The real beauty of Airplane was getting solid actors to play their part straight. Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen shine in their roles, totally ignoring the mayhem around them.

    For Neilsen a man known for playing solid drama roles, it gave him a lucrative extension in his career as a slapstick comedy actor.

    Airplane is just plane crazy.
    10MovieAddict2016

    Arguably one of the funniest films ever made

    "Airplane!" is, was and always shall be the master of spoof movies. It is single-handedly responsible for literally inventing a sub-genre of comedy. It is the ultimate Silly Movie. A satire of the disaster movies of the 1970s, particularly the "Airport" series, nothing makes sense and it doesn't need to. There's no real plot. Just laughs - and plenty of 'em.

    It was helmed by the ZAZ trio (Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker), whose dedication to making the audience laugh is surprisingly adamant. Recent spoofs may have left a bad aftertaste in your mouth, but it seems to be a universal agreement: "Airplane" is the funniest film of its genre ever made. (Closely followed by "The Naked Gun" - also penned by the ZAZ trio - perhaps.)

    The plot: Ted Striker (Robert Hays) is a war veteran-turned-cab-driver who decides to chase after his girlfriend, an airline stewardess named Elaine (Julie Hagerty), who has dumped him in order to pursue a new life. Right before her plane takes off, Ted climbs aboard, hitching a ride in order to woo her back into a relationship again.

    When the aircraft is in midflight, both pilots become very ill after eating their meals. Eventually many passengers begin to show symptoms of a rare disease, apparently transmitted by the food. Onboard, Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen) takes care of the sick passengers as Ted - an ex-fighter pilot from the war - decides to try and land the plane. If he messes up they will all die, and in a particularly funny scene, the pressure becomes so unbearable that he begins to literally sweat gallons in the cockpit.

    That is essentially all the film is about, but most of its duration is spent cracking jokes. Spoof films are entirely different from other movies because normally we would criticize a film if it considered its plot to be the least important element. Not so here. This is a truly brainless piece of celluloid - a movie that doesn't try to be anything that it isn't. From the opening credits - that cleverly spoof "JAWS" - to the closing we realize that this is an altogether unique film going experience.

    The movie's biggest laughs come through unexpected flashbacks, such as when Ted remembers where he first met Elaine in a crummy bar ("...it was worse than Detroit..."), and begins to disco-dance a la John Travolta from "Saturday Night Fever" (complete with Bee Gees soundtrack blaring in the background and the famous Travolta pose). Then, later, we are taken back to when Ted was hospitalized after the war, and finds out that he was responsible for the death of six men. "Seven, actually," he is informed, which adds to the pain of the moment for him.

    Though this movie is very funny, many jokes misfire. If you're not pop culture savvy and you don't remember Mrs. Cleaver from TV's "Leave it to Beaver", the humor is going to go over your head. But unlike many comedies, "Airplane!" offers something unique for each person. I know that as a film lover, I picked up on many movie in-jokes that some people might not recognize. And then there were the gags that I first missed but picked up after a second viewing, or when someone explained them to me, or both. And I'm sure there are many yet that I'm not aware of. It seems that every time I watch it, there's something else to laugh at that I missed previously.

    "Airplane!" not only was a huge success in 1980 (the year of its release), spinning off a horde of imitators and one sequel - it was also responsible for crowning Leslie Nielsen "The King of Spoof." Prior to "Airplane!" Nielsen had been a veteran of more serious productions, stemming back to playing cowboys on "The Mickey Mouse Club" and other embarrassing attempts at acting. However, Nielsen later claimed that he had always wanted to do a comedy, even when he first started acting seriously with projects such as the classic "Forbidden Planet" (one of the best science-fiction films ever made). He later reunited with the ZAZ trio for "The Naked Gun" trilogy, appeared in similar spoof films over the years such as "Wrongfully Accused" and "Scary Movie 3," and had his iconic comedy shtick ripped off by many screen veterans - most noticeably by George Gaynes in the unbearable "Police Academy" (1984).

    When it comes down to a single evaluation, "Airplane" is simply the best spoof film ever made. It's like a MAD Magazine parody come to life. There are the occasional misfires, but unlike many other spoof film imitators, this one contains far more hits. The deadpan acting is genius and everything else fits into place, resulting in what may arguably be one of the absolute funniest films ever conceived and put on the big screen. And if you decide to watch the movie, don't blink - you might miss a gag or two. The "Police Academies" will come and go but "Airplane!" will never be forgotten.
    8ryan_kuhn

    "I am serious... and don't call me Shirley."

    In a tense moment where Ted Striker (Robert Hays) needs to land an airplane where the pilots (Peter Graves and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) have fallen sick, and several passengers need to get off the airplane for various reasons, all Striker can think to himself (with an echo in his mind, of course) is "I've got to concentrate... concentrate... concentrate... I've got to concentrate... concentrate... concentrate... Hello?... hello... hello... Echo... echo... echo... Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon... Manny Mota... Mota... Mota..." That pretty much sums up the seriousness of Airplane!, the lampoon of the 1970s Airport movies, and pretty much every other disaster movie pumped out by Hollywood. The same guys who pieced together the Naked Gun movies write and direct this silly movie. Most of the jokes need to be seen to be properly experienced, the first rate actors are what brings the laughs. Robert Stack plays it straight, over-the-top straight, as a problem solver for the airline who happens to wear 2 pairs of sunglasses at all times. Stack's comedic timing and deadpan delivery bring out some of the biggest laughs of the film. Lloyd Bridges is the over-worked, over-stressed traffic controller who has picked the wrong week to stop drinking, smoking, and sniffing glue. And Leslie Neilson plays a doctor who has an acute sense for the obvious, surely one who could save the passengers and airline crew if they land safely, just don't call him Shirley. A few cheap laughs, a few misses, but over all, a pretty funny movie. If you like The Naked Gun, you'll like Airplane!

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      For the argument between announcers concerning the white and red zones at the airport, the producers hired the same voice artists who had made the real-world announcements at Los Angeles International Airport. At the real airport, the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only, and there's no stopping in the red zone (except for transit buses). They were also married to each other in real life.
    • Goofs
      During the disco-dance scene, when Elaine tosses Ted up in the air and he (his stunt double) flies into the audience, Robert Hays (Ted) is clearly visible among the spectators, waiting to run back onto the dance floor.
    • Quotes

      Rumack: You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.

      Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it?

      Rumack: It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.

    • Crazy credits
      Author of A Tale of Two Cities ... Charles Dickens
    • Alternate versions
      Some versions do not have subtitles on a part where the Jive Dudes are talking. The original theatrical release had subtitles.
    • Connections
      Edited into The A-Team: The Beast from the Belly of a Boeing (1983)
    • Soundtracks
      Stayin' Alive
      Written by Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb

      Performed by The Bee Gees

      Courtesy of RSO Records

      Published by Stigwood Music, Inc.

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    FAQ21

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 2, 1980 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Facebook
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • ¿Y dónde está el piloto?
    • Filming locations
      • Los Angeles International Airport - 1 World Way, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Paramount Pictures
      • Howard W. Koch Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $3,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $83,453,539
    • Gross worldwide
      • $83,455,874
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 28 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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