Airport '77

Infobox_Film
name = Airport '77


amg_id = 1:1310
imdb_id = 0075648
producer = Jennings Lang
William Frye
director = Jerry Jameson
writer = Charles Kuenstle (story)
Michael Scheff
David Spector (screenplay)
starring = Jack Lemmon
Lee Grant
James Stewart
music = John Cacavas (score)
Tom Sullivan
cinematography = Philip H. Lathrop
Rexford Metz
editing = Robert Watts
J. Terry Williams
distributor = Universal
released = March 11, 1977
runtime = 113 min.
language = English
followed_by = "The Concorde...Airport '79"| preceded_by = "Airport 1975"|

"Airport '77" is a 1977 disaster film and second sequel in the "Airport" franchise. The film is generally consideredWho|date=September 2008 the best of the sequels due to the quality of the writing and acting, even if the technical feasibility of the ditching and subsequent submersion of a fully pressurized 747 might be questioned.Fact|date=September 2008 The film starred a number of veteran actors, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland. Like its predecessors, "Airport '77" was a box office hit earning US$30 million [ [http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/Airport.php Airport - Box Office History ] ] but marked the series' progression into increasingly unlikely plots.

Plot

A privately owned luxury Boeing 747, Stevens' Flight 23 (call sign two-three sierra heavy) complete with piano bar, office, and bedroom, is used to ferry invited guests to an estate owned by wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens (James Stewart). Valuable artwork of the Stevens' private collection is also onboard the jetliner, to be eventually displayed in his new museum. Such a collection motivates a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers (Robert Foxworth) to hijack the aircraft in the hopes of landing it on an abandoned airfield on St. George Island.

Once pilot Don Gallagher leaves the cockpit, the hijackers' plans go into motion. A sleeping gas is released into the cabin and the passengers lose consciousness. Knocking out the flight engineer, Chambers puts the plan in motion, and Stevens' Flight 23 "disappears" into the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtual wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility to less than a mile. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, Flight 23 heading straight for it at close to 600 knots.

Chambers pulls back on the stick in a banking left turn but the Number 4 engine clips the derrick, causing the engine to catch fire. Chambers immediately hits the fire extinguishing button and flames are momentarily extinguished. However, because the aircraft is at such a low altitude, the sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As the engine reignites, Chambers is forced to use another fire-suppression bottle. But by this time, the aircraft stall alarm goes off and the aircraft is not recoverable. The aircraft impacts the water, ripping off all four engines from their pylons, and eventually comes to a halt, then beginning to slip beneath the waves.

The ocean bottom is fortunately above the crush-depth of the fuselage. Many of the passengers are injured with some seriously. Two of the would-be thieves are killed in the initial crash. (Monte Markham) is killed in the hold securing the art for the transfer when a cargo container causes a breach of the outer skin, for the compartment floods and (Markham) is drowned. The second fatality is (Michael Pataki) who is on the flight deck with Chambers who is killed when he is slammed into the flight panel on impact.

Since the aircraft was off course, search and rescue efforts are focused in the wrong area. Involved in these efforts is Phillip Stevens and Joe Patroni (George Kennedy, who is in all "Airport" movies). The only way to signal rescue efforts to the proper region is to get a signal buoy to the surface in a small dinghy. Captain Gallagher and diver Martin Wallace (Christopher Lee) enter the main cargo in the attempt, but an unexpected triggering of the hatch crushes Wallace. Gallagher, out of oxygen provided by the dive gear, makes it to the surface, and activates the beacon after he climbs into the dinghy. Getting a fix on the new signal, an S-3 Viking overflies the crash site, confirming the location of Flight 23.

The navy then dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga (LST-1186) with a flotilla of other vessels. The aircraft is ringed with balloons and once inflated, the aircraft rises from the bottom of the seafloor. Once on the surface, the passengers are evacuated. First Officer Chambers is killed on the way up when he is pinned under a sofa. With the survivors on their way to waiting ships, Captain Gallagher and the head stewardess (Brenda Vacarro) are the last to evacuate from the aircraft as it slips under the waves for the last time.

Cast

* Jack Lemmon "as" Capt. Don Gallagher
* Lee Grant "as" Karen Wallace
* Brenda Vaccaro "as" Eve Clayton
* Joseph Cotten "as" Nicholas St. Downs, III
* Olivia de Havilland "as" Emily Livingston
* James Stewart "as" Philip Stevens
* Darren McGavin "as" Stan Buchek
* Christopher Lee "as" Martin Wallace
* Robert Foxworth "as" Chambers
* George Kennedy "as" Joe Patroni
* Kathleen Quinlan "as" Julie
* Monte Markham "as" Banker
* Gil Gerard "as" Frank Powers
* James Booth "as" Ralph Crawford
* Monica Lewis "as" Anne
* Maidie Norman "as" Dorothy
* Pamela Bellwood "as" Lisa Stevens
* Arlene Golonka "as" Mrs. Stern
* M. Emmet Walsh "as" Dr. Williams
* Anthony Battagila "as" Benjy

equels

* "The Concorde...Airport '79"

Trivia

* During this film's developmental stages, Alfred Hitchcock was considered to direct it; the climax in Hitchcock's film "Foreign Correspondent" features a plane that is shot down by enemy fire, ditches in the ocean and quickly floods.

* This film's story is very loosely based on the novel and 1965 film adaptation of "The Flight of the Phoenix" in which a military aircraft is accidentally ditched into the Sahara Desert (instead of the Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic Ocean); actors James Stewart and George Kennedy appear in both films.

*Footage of "Airport '77" was used in an episode of the television program "Airwolf". [Flight #093 Is Missing ("Airwolf", Season #2, Episode #21, Nov. 17, 1984)]

* Footage of the 747 crashing in the ocean was also used on two episodes of "Days of our Lives" in 2005.

* A water landing, especially the hard "tail strike" landing depicted in the film, would certainly break up the fuselage of a 747.

* When NBC-TV first aired Airport 77 in September 1978, 70 mins of deleted footage was added to the broadcast most of the deleted footage consisted of the main characters having flash backs to previous events in their lives prior to boarding their ill fated flight, as well as additional footage on the plane. The first 3 minutes of the television broadcast version was newly filmed footage showing how the terrorists stole from a warehouse, the gas used to knock out the passengers and crew on the 747. Because of this extended version NBC aired the movie as a 4 hour two-night event (similar to what was done with "Earthquake" two years earlier).
* Although Turner Broadcasting Service (TBS) frequently aired the "long version" during the 1990s, subsequent broadcasts on cable television and all VHS and DVD releases have been the original 113 min theatrical version.

*Airport '77 is often shown on Sky Movies Modern Greats.

References

External links

*imdb title | id=0075648 | title=Airport '77