"We have clearance, Clarence." "Roger, Roger."

Airplane!

With a hit cast including Peter Graves, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty and Leslie Nielson, this film was expected to be funny. It wasn't, however, expected to be rated #6 on Bravo's funniest 100 movies. Years later, this movie remains one of the funniest ever.

When stewardess Elaine (Hagerty) tries to leave her boyfriend Ted (Hays) because it's just not working out, he decides he won't give up. He follows her on to the plane for the first time since he was a war pilot. After everyone gets sick from eating the food on board, including the flight crew, Ted is forced to fly the plane and land it safely so the sick passengers will survive. This brings back bad memories for him, as he was a failure in the war. He knows that Elaine needs him now more than ever, but is he really the best one to fly the plane? Or would the passengers be better off with the autopilot flying?

This film is by far one of the funniest ever, but I was surprised at how blunt everyone is in the film. It's obvious that Abrahams and Zucker are not afraid of telling it like it is. There are so many sarcastic and aggressive remarks throughout this movie that it's almost offensive. There are quite a few times that the characters have miscommunications so they'll end up saying stupid things to answer questions.

For example, when Dr. Rumack tells Elaine to have the pilot land the plane as soon as possible because a women needs to get to a hospital, Elaine says, "A hospital? What is it?" I'm sure she meant 'what's wrong with the lady?' but instead Rumack answers, "It's a big bulding with patients, but that's not important right now." This type of comedy runs throughout the film. It was funny and made me laugh, but sometimes I wanted to cringe at the things that were said. It's a movie that will make people laugh ... but I wonder if they're laughing WITH the movie or AT it?!

Fun trivia
* The film was made in only 34 days.
* Rumack's last lines, which are repeated three times in the movie (right before they land, during the land, and a few minutes after they land), "I just want to tell you both good luck. We are all counting on you," would later return as his final line in Scary Movie 3, which is also a Zucker film.
* Jim Abrahams in one of the many religious zealot characters seen throughout the film.

Other websites:
www.awesomefilm.com/script/airplane.txt
www. imdb.com/title/tt0080339