Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | ... | Roger Murdock (as Kareem Abdul-Jabaar) | |
Lloyd Bridges | ... | Steve McCroskey | |
Peter Graves | ... | Captain Clarence Oveur | |
Julie Hagerty | ... | Elaine Dickinson | |
Robert Hays | ... | Ted Striker | |
Leslie Nielsen | ... | Dr. Rumack | |
Lorna Patterson | ... | Randy | |
Robert Stack | ... | Captain Rex Kramer | |
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Stephen Stucker | ... | Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs |
Otto | ... | Otto | |
Jim Abrahams | ... | Religious Zealot #6 | |
Frank Ashmore | ... | Victor Basta | |
Jonathan Banks | ... | Gunderson | |
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Craig Berenson | ... | Paul Carey |
Barbara Billingsley | ... | Jive Lady |
Drowning his sorrows after that botched mission during WWII, the traumatised former fighter pilot with a fear of flying, Ted Striker, still hasn't got over his old flame and flight attendant, Elaine Dickinson. Determined to win her back, Ted boards a domestic flight from Los Angeles to Chicago, only to come face-to-face with a severe case of in-flight food poisoning that is threatening everyone's lives. Now, with most of the passengers and the entire cockpit crew down with the food-borne illness, Striker has no other choice but to confront his inner demons and take over the control of the ungovernable aircraft with the help of a gruff air-traffic controller and his former commander. Can Ted land the plane and save them all? Written by Nick Riganas
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.