Snakes on a Plane (2006)

An FBI agent takes on a plane full of deadly venomous snakes, deliberately released to kill a witness being flown from Honolulu to Los Angeles to testify against a mob boss.

Director:

David R. Ellis

Writers:

John Heffernan (screenplay), Sebastian Gutierrez (screenplay)

Stars:

Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips

3 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Neville Flynn
Julianna Margulies	...	Claire Miller
Nathan Phillips	...	Sean Jones
Rachel Blanchard	...	Mercedes
Flex Alexander	...	Three G's
Kenan Thompson	...	Troy
Keith Dallas	...	Big Leroy (as Keith [Blackman] Dallas)
Lin Shaye	...	Grace
Bruce James	...	Ken
Sunny Mabrey	...	Tiffany
Casey Dubois	...	Curtis
Daniel Hogarth	...	Tommy
Gerard Plunkett	...	Paul
Terry Chen	...	Chen Leong
Elsa Pataky	...	Maria

Storyline

While practicing motocross in Hawaii, Sean Jones witnesses the brutal murder of an important American prosecutor by the powerful mobster Eddie Kim. FBI agent Neville Flynn persuades him to testify against Eddie in Los Angeles. They board the red-eye Flight 121 of Pacific Air, occupying the entire first-class section. However, Eddie dispatches hundred of different species of snakes airborne with a time-operated device in the luggage to release the snakes into the flight with the intent of crashing the plane. Neville and the passengers must struggle with the snakes to survive.

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Plot Keywords:

naked dead woman | murder of a nude woman | pantyhose | short skirt | interrupted sex | 

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Taglines:

On August 18th Summer Really Begins

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, a scene of sexuality and drug use, and intense sequences of terror and violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around forty-four minutes) When the male flight attendant puts the snake in the microwave, he can be seen hitting the "snake" preset button on that microwave, a somewhat unusual preset for a microwave.

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Goofs

(at around 20 mins) The crew would not give an abbreviated briefing as shown, as it would violate Federal Aviation Regulations. Briefings must actually demonstrate the use of seat belts, must point out all of the exits and not just state there are "several emergency exits", must reference oxygen use for self and those that need assistance, and must ask that the passengers follow along on the briefing card. Also, they must state what type of aircraft the passengers are in. None of this was done in the briefing.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Daniel Hayes: [to Sean] Go, get outta here. Go!

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Crazy Credits

Film title appears with plane warning audio as end credits finish

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Alternate Versions

The DVD contains some deleted scenes:

• A scene where Mercedes talks to the newlywed couple in the airport.
• The scene where Eddie Kim fights his opponent is prolonged.
• A scene where you see all the passengers board the plane.
• The dialog between Three Gs and Mercedes is prolonged.
• More dialogs in the first meeting between Agent Flynn and Claire.
• The attack on Mrs. Bova is prolonged.
• A scene where Three Gs and Mercedes talk about a music video.
• The newlywed woman complains that she never will have children.
• A short scene between the newlyweds when they prepare to crash.
• More dialog in the final scene between Flynn and Claire.

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Connections

Referenced in Bob's Burgers: Bob Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins (2012)

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Soundtracks

Henehene Kou'aka
Traditional
Performed by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (as Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole)
Courtesy of The Mountain Apple Company

User Reviews

More Zzzzz than Sssss

I was quite looking forward to this film as I enjoyed David R. Ellis' previous film Cellular and the poster and idea for Snakes on a Plane is just pure high-concept trash. I could have been great, but I was surprisingly bored through-out. I do like popcorn movies, but the popcorn has to taste good and this bucket just has far too much venom in it for me.

After Final Destination 2 and Cellular, David R. Ellis seems to be New Line Cinema's king of B-movies. Since the departure of Ronny Yu from this project, he seemed like the most logical choice. And while he does use some innovative ideas (such as the pretty cool 'snake vision') the film is too darkly shot and edited like a blur. I don't find death to be funny and expected a stronger 'man vs nature' subtext to it. What we get is a man being bitten on the penis and stoners bitten while joining the Mile High Club. And the sudden, stinging attacks never seem to frighten. The first few kills are crass and exploitative and it spoils the mood for the rest of the film.

I know I am being ridiculous criticising a no-brainer film such as this in such a way but even low-grade B-movies like Anaconda and it's sequel managed to be more scary and exciting than this. The characters are set-up in the typical horror film way and it's obvious which ones are going to die one by one. And while their deaths appear to violent, you never REALLY see anything shocking. A film with such an eccentric title really should have gone to crazy, far-fetched extremities and delivered loads of gore. But it never truly seems like it does. The majority of the film seems taped together from various different writers ideas and some scenes definitely feel tacked on after principal photography.

Films set on panic-stricken planes are abundant (Exec Dec, Passenger 57, United 93, Con Air, Die Hard 2) and scenes of crash landings and decompression are nothing new to audiences. The presence of Snakes doesn't make it much different.

Plus, Trevor Rabin's score is total crap. Plain and simple. Uninspired, generic rubbish completely without theme, melody, excitement our even coherence in it's endless bombasticness. I had great hopes for him when he did such brilliant work (actually co-composing) on Con Air and Armageddon, but he's fast proving to be talentless.

Samuel L. Jackson is brilliant as always and the under-rated Julianna Margulies is quite bloody gorgeous, more so than more popular Hollywood actresses. Lin Shaye (a popular New Line actress, since her husband runs the studio) has more to do than usual in the role of a heroic stewardess and those of you who like her more comedic roles will find this a welcome change. Though there's not much else I can recommend.

After all the internet-nerd hype surrounding this film, it fails to live up to potential and expectations. Quite a disappointment!

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 August 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anaconda 3

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$33,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,850,000, 20 August 2006

Gross USA:

$34,020,814

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$62,022,014

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Mutual Film Company, Meradin Zweite Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1