Airport 77 1977

[Shameka Cretsinger]

Airport77 is a 1977 American air disaster film, and the third installment of the Airport film series. The film stars an ensemble cast of veteran actors including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, and Brenda Vaccaro as well as the return of George Kennedy from the two previous Airport films. It is directed by Jerry Jameson, produced by William Frye, executive produced by Jennings Lang with a screenplay by Michael Scheff and David Spector.[1]

The plot concerns a private Boeing 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art that is hijacked before crashing into the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle, prompting the survivors to undertake a desperate struggle for survival.[2][3]

Wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens is having invited guests flown in his luxurious privately-owned Boeing 747-100, Stevens's Flight 23, to his Palm Beach, Florida estate. Aboard are his estranged adult daughter and her young son, whom he hopes to reconnect with, as he is secretly dying. Priceless artwork from Stevens's private collection destined for his new museum is also on the jetliner. The collection has motivated a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft.

Mid-flight, Captain Don Gallagher is lured from the cockpit and rendered unconscious. A sleeping gas secretly installed pre-flight is released into the cabin, knocking out unprotected crew and passengers. Chambers, flying to a small deserted island to offload the art treasures, drops the plane below radar range causing Stevens' Flight 23 to "disappear" in the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtual wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, and Flight 23 is headed straight for it.

Chambers attempts to avert a collision, but the wing clips the structure's tower, igniting an engine. Chambers extinguishes the fire but a sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As he struggles to maintain control, the passengers begin waking up to the unfolding disaster. Chambers is unable to maintain his airspeed; the plane stalls and crashes into the water, floating momentarily before quietly slipping below the surface.

The plane settles in relatively shallow water that is above the plane's crush depth, though water pressure gradually compromises the fuselage. Many passengers are injured, some seriously. Chambers, the only surviving hijacker, reveals the plane is two hundred miles off course, meaning search and rescue efforts will be focused in the wrong area. As a search for the missing plane is launched, veteran aeronautics expert Joe Patroni joins the rescue operation as a technical adviser, joined by Philip Stevens. Meanwhile, the trapped crew can only contact rescuers by getting a signal buoy to the surface. Captain Gallagher and a professional diver and passenger, Martin Wallace, enter the main cargo preparing to swim to the surface using air masks. The hatch door malfunctions, forcing Wallace to open it manually. The sudden onrush of water kills him, but Gallagher is able to make it to the surface and activate the emergency beacon. The signal is detected and a rescue operation is launched. Meanwhile, the plane's fuselage is steadily leaking.

Although the disaster portrayed in the film is fictional, rescue operations depicted in the movie are actual rescue operations utilized by the Navy in the event of similar emergencies or disasters, as indicated at the end of the film prior to the closing credits.

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 40% of 10 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.4/10.[6] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7] Variety wrote, "The story's formula banality is credible most of the time and there's some good actual US Navy search and rescue procedure interjected in the plot."[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and wrote, "The movie's a big, slick entertainment, relentlessly ridiculous and therefore never boring for long."[9] The New York Times wrote, "Airport '77 looks less like the work of a director and writers than like a corporate decision."[10]

From late 1977 until the early 1980s, the Universal Studios Tour in California featured the "Airport '77" Screen Test Theater as part of the tour.[14] Several sets were recreated, and members of the audience were chosen to play various parts. The audience would watch as these scenes were filmed. Key scenes such as the hijacking, crash and rescue were recreated, and the footage was then incorporated into a brief digest version of the film and screened for the audience on monitors. Each show's mini-film was made available to audience members to purchase on 8mm and videotape.

None of the sequels can approach the original Airport of course but of the three this is by far the best.

I don't know why Jack Lemmon talked this down. He certainly wasn't adverse to doing commercial films and had even stated in an interview I saw that while he didn't think much of Under the Yum Yum Tree (he's right it's stupid) and Good Neighbor Sam (inoffensive but cute)he was glad he made them since they made him number one at the box office the year of their release. Perhaps once he won the second Oscar for that snoozefest Save the Tiger he only wanted to do elevated projects, if that was so the films he did between it and Airport '77 were a ragged lot. He did much better post '77 with China Syndrome coming next and distinguished pictures for years after.

I quite agree that Lee Grant is everything in this movie consuming whole pieces of scenery whenever she pops into the frame! Even her glowering is over the top! Usually a fine and subtle actress in this film to paraphrase that old quote about Bette Davis "Nobody's as good as Lee when she's bad!"

It would have been interesting to see Joan in Olivia's role, anything to keep Trog from being her last film!, but since she died in 1977 she might have been too frail to make it through the rigorous filming, let's face it Livvy gets put through the mill and has lost her stylish appearance by the end. That picture you used of Crawford is a bit disturbing, she looks positively unwell and airbrushed almost beyond recognition!

Greer would have been a hardy fellow but truly this doesn't seem like her kind of thing at all. She steered clear of all the usual material for fading Ladies of the Silver Screen except for perhaps her one appearance on The Love Boat.

Owning the humorously named Airport Terminal pack of all four films I confess that only this and the original have gotten more than one view. I only watched the other two once to confirm my memory of how bad they were, it was correct.

Airport '75 was always my favorite installment. I saw the Airport '77 attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. I was not tapped ot participate in the video shoot - rather I was an audience member who got to watch "how the movie was made". If I recall correctly, they spliced footage from the reshoot in with actual film footage for the replay. It was fun to watch.

I love this movie and have seen it 100 times. Other than the Maidie Norman and Brenda Vaccaro scenes, my heart still skips a little whenever Gil Gerard shows up. I've never been a big de Havilland fan having always preferred her sister, Joan Fontaine.

I wish I knew the ins and outs of that relationship!

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!

I'm with Scooter. Airport 1975 has always been my personal favorite of the series (thanks to the late-great Karen Black, whom I've always loved)...but, I would be more than ecstatic to re-edit the movie so that it also includes the amazing Lee Grant and Brenda Vaccaro...and, while we're re-editing, we might as well throw in Charo from The Concorde: Airport 79(who had way too small a role if you ask me)...

As for dreamboat Gil Gerard, I still have fantasies of him appearing shirtless in Little House on the Prairie.

Oh, what fun, you've brought me back to my childhood. '77 was my very first Airport film, and it was a spectacle to see on the big screen. As a South Florida resident, I was always amused to see Jimmy Stewart's "Palm Beach" mansion which was actually Miami's famed Vizcaya (more than 60 miles south of Palm Beach County).

I did not remember until you reminded us of the 4-HOUR TV VERSION with all the added footage!

You nailed my favorite moment in the whole movie--Olivia deH sitting down to play that friendly game of poker.

Thanks for the memories as always.

Hello, loyal Underworld friends! Thank you so much for your comments about this post.

Joel, I recall Burt Lancaster putting "Airport" down (a blockbuster and Best Picture nominee) and Paul Newman saying that "that damned fire" was the real star of "The Towering Inferno," so perhaps Jack was just following a fashionable trend of not being too proud of blatantly commercial movies like this. (How beaming could one really be about something called "Airport '77," not that I wouldn't horsewhip my own mother to have been a stuntperson/extra passenger! LOL)

Scooter, I like "Airport 1975," warts and all, too. I used to think it was even more shoddy when all I had was my $5.99 grainy, pan 'n scan, Goodtimes VHS, but after seeing it cleaned-up and in its proper ratio, my affection for it grew. I am a sucker for anything all-star, though. (PS - Did you catch the links I posted to a couple of clips from the A77 attraction at Universal?)

NotFelix, I "knew" Olivia first through things like this and "The Swarm" and didn't "meet" Joan until much later when I finally saw "Rebecca." I like them both, though Liv's projects probably have a softer spot in my heart (and lord knows there are more of them!) I almost always enjoy Joan too, though, and love to hear her talk (especially candidly on old chatfests, etc...)

Knuckles, you owe me 45 minutes of my life!

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