1980 Movie Airplane! Isn't the original you thought it was

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
Many of us, including me, thought it was a satire making fun of the disaster movies in the 70's.

It actually is a near scene for scene parody of Arthur Haley's movie "Zero Hour"

Here is something that compares the two.

 
And all the ambient engine noise soundtrack in Airplane is the propeller engine noise from Zero Hour, too.
Airplane! was a brilliant movie in so many ways. It's tough to show it to young folks since they say "Oh, there's nothing new in there," failing to realize Airplane! was the first place so many of those bits were used.
 
I knew that because being an Arthur Hailey fan, I had read Runway08 upon which both movies were based. They did pick up a lot of schlock directly from Zero Hour, but the dialog often comes straight out of the book.

Hailey went on for the much better book and movie Airport, which wasn't bad until the sequels started.
 
I've watched Airplane countless times. Still never learned to speak jive, though. I never knew it was based on an older movie. I though the same thing about it being a parody of the airplane disaster movies of the time.
 
See a broad who get all booty eyed, lay 'er down an' smack-em yack-em!
 
Recently watched Airport which was sort of the father of 70s disaster movies (as discussed in a recent thread here). Was surprised to see the connection to Zero Hour.

Airport really tried to get a lot of aviation stuff right along with a whole lot of schlocky drama. Me and my flying buddy were pretty excited about seeing it at the time. The mighty B707!


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I want to go Macho Grande!
 
Unit74 said:
I want to go Macho Grande!
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Just north of Austin... 41XS. I always want to call up Austin Approach and report:
27K: Navion 5327K, 5000' near 41XS.
AUS: Over Macho Grande?
27K: No I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande.

But all that's from the sequel.
 
flyingron said:
Just north of Austin... 41XS. I always want to call up Austin Approach and report:
27K: Navion 5327K, 5000' near 41XS.
AUS: Over Macho Grande?
27K: No I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande.

But all that's from the sequel.
Click to expand...
But did the controller get the joke?
 
Um, Zero Hour may be historically significant, but it's relative obscurity in the cinematic lexicon seems deserved.
 
You can download the full movie for a couple of bucks.

I always liked Dana Andrews as "I Was a Communist for the FBI" on radio. He also had parts in aviation movies The Crowded Sky and Airport 1975 and the John Wayne war movie In Harms Way.

Of course, Sterling Hayden went on to be General Ripper in Dr. Strangelove and the police captain in the Godfather.
 
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flyingron said:
Of course, Sterling Hayden went on to be General Ripper in Dr. Strangelove and the police captain in the Godfather.
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That’s General Jack D. Ripper you Vodka drinking commies!

I think I spent a year or two trying to decode General Ripper’s rant. Opened up a whole new world.





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
flyingron said:
...I always liked Dana Andrews as "I Was a Communist for the FBI" on radio. He also had parts in aviation movies The Crowded Sky...
Click to expand...

The Crowded Sky...now there's another obscure movie I didn't think anybody else had ever seen.
 
Sort of cliffhanger with Efrem Zimbalist as the fighter pilot and Dana Andrews as the airliner pilot.
 
Well folks, today be the 39 anniversary of the release of Airplane!
 
Don't_call_me_shirley.jpg
 
I went to it several times when it first came out. One time, there was an elderly couple in front of me in the ticket line who asked the ticket seller what the movie was about. "It's an aviation disaster movie, like ' Airport'."

Would have liked to have heard their review, afterwards....

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
I went to it several times when it first came out. One time, there was an elderly couple in front of me in the ticket line who asked the ticket seller what the movie was about. "It's an aviation disaster movie, like ' Airport'."

Would have liked to have heard their review, afterwards....
Click to expand...
Years ago, my father dragged my mother to see Young Frankenstein in it's first run in theaters. She wasn't sure why he wanted to go see this horror movie. It was about five minutes in when she said "You didn't tell me it was supposed to be funny."

QANTAS 72 when finally setting up for their approach given the airbus giving a bunch of uncommanded pitchdowns, had the pilot announce to the crew: "It looks like I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue."
 
At the time Airplane was being made, Paramount also owned the rights to Zero Hour, so they were able to copy as much as they wanted from the earlier script.
 
I stumbled into zero hour several years ago. I was always amazed at the dialogue in Airplane and always thought it was original. I’m even more amazed the Airplane cast pulled it off.
 
Getting the actors to play it straight was a big part of what made it work, as I understand it.
 
There a couple of youtube videos which shows a lot of the scenes side by side.


Even reading Arthur Hailey's original Runway 08 (which both are based on) has a lot of the recognizable dialog (including the classic "It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether."
 
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