| 1 | %% Zero-context examples have been commented out. Please add context to the entries before uncommenting them. Names and quotes do not count as context. |
| 2 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/airplane_8.jpg]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ''[[JustForFun/DescribeTopicHere Airplane!? What is it?]]''\ |
| 5 | [[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's a big metal thing with wings, but that's not important right now.]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | The film that solidified the team of Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker as comedy icons. [[Creator/ZuckerAbrahamsAndZucker ZAZ]]'s directorial debut,[[note]]They previously wrote ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'', but Creator/JohnLandis directed[[/note]] ''Airplane!'' (1980) -- titled ''Flying High!'' [[MarketBasedTitle in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and the Philippines]] -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-v2BHNBVCs is a comedic remake]] of the 1957 disaster film ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'' (itself based on the TV movie ''Flight into Danger'' written by Creator/ArthurHailey).[[note]]In fact, even though lawyers assured the creative team that they were protected under parody, they went ahead and ''bought'' the ''Zero Hour!'' script and license for $2500 just to be sure![[/note]] Subplots from ''Film/{{Airport}}'' (1975) also appear, such as an airline stewardess (or flight attendant) having to keep the plane under control for a while, a singing Nun, and a [[LittlestCancerPatient little girl on-board in need of an organ transplant]]. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | The plot: Ted Striker (Stryker in ''Zero Hour!''), an ex-military pilot, has to get over his personal traumas to pilot a commercial plane after the crew is stricken by food poisoning, and reconcile with his estranged girlfriend at the same time. HilarityEnsues. Take that basic plot, and have a silly joke every three seconds. In fact, that is partly what makes the film work: [[RapidFireComedy if a joke falls flat, move on to the next one]]. Of course, [[DontExplainTheJoke further analysis of the jokes will just hurt the humor of it all]]. Just see the film for yourself. Along the way, it [[GenreKiller singlehandedly destroyed]] the DisasterMovie as a serious genre for over a decade, and some say the "commercial airliner needs to be landed by amateurs" subgenre never recovered to this day. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | This film started Creator/LeslieNielsen (Dr. Rumack) out on a whole new career starring in silly comedies. In fact, Nielsen's subsequent LeslieNielsenSyndrome kind of ruined the main joke of his casting, which was to have a deadly serious leading man (he'd been in ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''!) saying utterly ridiculous lines. The same happened to Creator/LloydBridges (Steve [=McCrosky=]), but ''not'' Creator/RobertStack (Rex Kramer). In fact, for Stack, the [[TomHanksSyndrome reverse]] happened -- he became the host of ''Series/UnsolvedMysteries'', which required a serious man to say ridiculous lines while remaining dignified. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ''Airplane!'' was hardly the TropeMaker, but it's often viewed, even today, as a major TropeCodifier of the {{parody}} film. It was followed by a sequel called ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'' in 1982, which didn't have any involvement from ZAZ, who collectively claim neither to have seen it nor have any interest in seeing it. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | In 2023 a book of the making of the movie was released, titled ''Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!'' |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ---- |
| 18 | !!"Surely these aren't examples!" "They ''are'' examples, and don't call us Shirley.": |
| 19 | |
| 20 | * TenMinuteRetirement: After accidentally overhearing Kramer discussing how hopeless it is for him to land the plane, Ted puts the autopilot back in charge and gives up. Dr. Rumack brings him out of it with the [[EpiphanyTherapy revelation]] that George Zipp, a deceased member of Striker's squadron during the war, didn't blame him for [[MyGreatestFailure their failed mission]]. |
| 21 | * AbortionFalloutDrama: PlayedForLaughs. The two P.A. announcers Vernon and Betty arguing over him wanting her to get an abortion. |
| 22 | * AccidentalDanceCraze: |
| 23 | ** Elaine mimics the gestures of a fellow dancer in the tough-guy bar without realizing he's trying to draw attention to the knife in his back. |
| 24 | ** The two girl scouts fighting each other. One of them accidentally goes crashing into a jukebox that starts playing "Stayin' Alive" by Music/TheBeeGees, which gets everyone in the tough-guy bar dancing. |
| 25 | * AccidentalMurder: As Randy sings "River of Jordan", she accidentally knocks out a heart patient's IV. Twice. |
| 26 | * AcousticLicense: Bill and his girlfriend continue to have a perfectly audible conversation as one is standing in the doorway of a plane in the midst of takeoff and the other is running along on the ground beside it (and knocking over the steel towers in her way). |
| 27 | ** For that matter, the plane itself takes on the acoustics of a steam engine slowly leaving a train station. |
| 28 | * ActorAllusion: |
| 29 | ** Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar plays a pilot mistaken for Abdul-Jabbar who actually ''is'' Abdul-Jabbar, and admits as much when criticized for his lack of effort in the NBA by a young passenger. As he is later dragged unconscious from the cockpit, he's wearing Kareem's goggles, Lakers shorts, and sneakers. |
| 30 | ** Robert Stack, forgetting that he's not playing [[Series/TheUntouchables Eliot Ness]]: |
| 31 | --->'''Air Traffic Controller:''' Captain, maybe we oughtta turn on the searchlights ''now!''\ |
| 32 | '''Kramer:''' No... that's just what they'll be ''expecting'' us to do... |
| 33 | ** Captain Oveur's gag line, "Joey, have you ever..." appears to be a throwback to the series ''[[Series/FuryTheBraveStallion Fury]]'', in which Creator/PeterGraves played Jim Newton, Joey's adoptive father. The line appears word-for-word in the pilot episode. [[note]] Well he does not complete the sentence the same way in the movie as the TV show.[[/note]] |
| 34 | ** Creator/LloydBridges is basically playing his Jim Conrad character from the short-lived ''Film/SanFranciscoInternationalAirport'' TV series. |
| 35 | ** Lee Bryant plays Mrs. Hammen. The scene in which she muses that her husband Jim "never has a second cup of coffee at home" directly alludes to her role in a well-known 1970s Yuban coffee commercial. |
| 36 | * AdamWesting: Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, and Robert Stack played parodies of their typical roles, in a stilted, hammy fashion. In the case of Bridges and Nielsen, this movie [[LeslieNielsenSyndrome led to a career change]]. |
| 37 | * AdaptationNameChange: Most characters were given totally new names from their counterparts in ''Zero Hour!'', with only a few exceptions: |
| 38 | ** Ted, although the spelling of his surname is changed from ''Str'''y'''ker'' to ''Str'''i'''ker''. |
| 39 | ** Ellen's name is changed to ''Elaine'', and not being the estranged wife of Ted in this adaptation, uses the maiden name ''Dickinson''. |
| 40 | ** Joey ''Stryker'' becomes Joey ''Hammen'', as he is made the son of Mr. and Mrs. Hammen since Ted and Ellen/Elaine are younger and unmarried in this version of the story. |
| 41 | * AdaptationalNationality: Ted and the other Canadian characters from ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'' become American here, which turns Creator/LeslieNielsen into a FakeAmerican. |
| 42 | * AffectionateParody: Disaster movies in general and airplane disaster movies in particular. And especially of ''Zero Hour!'', whose story is actually played quite straight underneath all the gags.[[note]]The filmmakers have openly admitted they knew nothing about story structure and were indebted to the original film for giving them a good story to work from.[[/note]] |
| 43 | * AirstrikeImpossible: All tropes are fair game for parody, and Striker's problems all stem from his experiences with a tough mission during "the war." |
| 44 | * AllPartOfTheShow: While dancing, a guy is stabbed in the back. His partner Elaine confuses his pointing at the knife for dance moves. |
| 45 | * AllThereInTheScript: The little boy and little girl who drink coffee together are named Milton and Bernice in the shooting script. |
| 46 | * AmbiguousSyntax: |
| 47 | ** "Ambiguous Syntax? What is it?" "It's a RunningGag that's derived from the confusion between inquiring about a problem with something and asking for its definition, but that's not important right now." |
| 48 | --->'''Randy:''' There's a little problem in the cockpit.\ |
| 49 | '''Striker:''' The cockpit! What is it?\ |
| 50 | '''Randy:''' It's a little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit, but that's not important right now. |
| 51 | ** There are a few other examples that don't use that specific gag, as well: |
| 52 | --->'''Old Lady:''' Nervous?\ |
| 53 | '''Striker:''' Yes.\ |
| 54 | '''Old Lady:''' First time?\ |
| 55 | '''Striker:''' No, I've been nervous lots of times. |
| 56 | ** Also the double example in this exchange between Rumack and Oveur: |
| 57 | --->'''Dr. Rumack:''' Captain, how soon can we land?\ |
| 58 | '''Oveur:''' I can't tell.\ |
| 59 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' You can tell me, I'm a doctor.\ |
| 60 | '''Oveur:''' No, I mean I'm not sure.\ |
| 61 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' Can't you take a guess?\ |
| 62 | '''Oveur:''' Well... not for another two hours.\ |
| 63 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' You can't take a guess for another two hours? |
| 64 | * AnachronismStew: News reporters apparently still wear fedoras and use press cameras in 1979-1980. The passengers still wear formal clothing, and a pair of nuns is seen in traditional garb. The jet's [[WackySoundEffect prop engine effect]] may fall into this as well. Most jarringly, Striker's flashbacks to what would logically be the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar include shots of World War I triplanes and even a pre-Wright Brothers whirligig, but these can be chalked up to RuleOfFunny. Furthermore, the jukebox in his flashback plays a sped up "Stayin' Alive" by Music/TheBeeGees. |
| 65 | * AndTheAdventureContinues: For whatever reason, Otto and his "girlfriend" relaunch the crashed plane and fly off into the night. |
| 66 | * AndStarring: Parodied in the ending credits: "And introducing Otto [the autopilot] [[CharacterAsHimself as himself]]." It's a joke considering he's a balloon but still gets credits with the other actors. |
| 67 | * AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering: Dr. Rumack, Elaine, Randy and some of the flight crew aboard start to worry about any illness outbreaks when some of the passengers start to become ill after their meals. After careful examination of the passengers and their food intake and symptoms, Dr. Rumack realizes that everyone who has had fish will become violently ill. Then the flight crew becomes ill. |
| 68 | * ArsonMurderAndLifeSaving: In one of the many non-joke lines taken directly from ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'' and played straight, Rex Kramer tells Stryker at the end that "that was probably the worst landing in the history of this airport" before offering to buy him a drink and shake his hand. |
| 69 | * ArtisticLicenseGeography: As everything else, played for laughs. Striker says he was stationed off the Barbary coast, but also that the Drambuie bar was populated with every reject and cutthroat from Bombay to Calcutta. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast The Barbary Coast]] is on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, while [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai Bombay]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata Calcutta]] are on ''opposite sides'' of India. Meanwhile, all the bar patrons are white. |
| 70 | * ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Dr. Rumack is about to perform what looks to be a pap smear on a female patient on a very crowded plane. |
| 71 | * ArtisticLicenseMilitary |
| 72 | ** Ted Striker says that he was in the Air Force, but the flashback in the Magumba bar in Drambuie has him wearing a US Navy dress uniform (and soldiers aren't supposed to wear their dress uniforms in bars anyway). Of course, had he been wearing the dark blue USAF dress uniform, the subsequent ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' joke [[RuleOfFunny wouldn't have worked.]] He later shows up in an Army hospital, although that could've been justified if he was in WWII, in which he would've been part of the US Army Air Corps, but he's too young[[note]]''Zero Hour!'', the movie that ''Airplane!'' is a parody of, was made in the 1950s, and the Ted in that movie did explicitly serve as a pilot in WWII[[/note]], and they didn't have disco back then... |
| 73 | ** While co-pilot Roger Murdock (Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar) is on the radio to flight controllers, he says "over and out". |
| 74 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: More RuleOfFunny, with the in-flight plane casually knocking over WZAZ's transmission tower without any damage to itself. |
| 75 | * AsHimself: |
| 76 | ** Otto the autopilot is credited as himself. |
| 77 | ** One of the weirdest ones put to film, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is ''actually'' playing co-pilot Roger Murdock, but the boy touring the cockpit [[ActorAllusion recognizes him]], leading to his SuspiciouslySpecificDenial. |
| 78 | ** A soldier is suffering psychotic episodes because "he" thinks he's Ethel Merman, even to getting out of bed and bursting into the song "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The soldier is played by Ethel Merman (in her last film role before her death). |
| 79 | * AsideComment: Early in the movie after Elaine has rejected Ted, Ted turns to the camera and says "What a pisser." |
| 80 | * AsideGlance |
| 81 | ** Victor the navigator smiles at the camera when Randy sings "River of Jordan". |
| 82 | ** In the last scene, Otto the Autopilot turns his head to face the audience and salutes. A short time later, after he gets an inflatable female companion he turns his head to the audience again and winks. |
| 83 | * AttackAttackAttack: The attitude of the donation-seekers in the airport to Rex Kramer's FoeTossingCharge. One unusually dense fellow tries no less than [[RuleOfThree three times]], with different pitches. "How about Buddhism?" "Scientologyyyyyyy!" |
| 84 | * {{Autocannibalism}}: The SpinningNewspaper segment includes the gag headline "Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot". |
| 85 | * AwkwardCollarPull: When Striker sits down in the pilot's seat to land the plane, he assesses the situation and slowly tugs at his collar when he realizes how grave it is. |
| 86 | * BadassBoast: In the climax, Kramer tries to talk Ted out of landing straight away, as his altitude is too erratic, endangering the passengers, and has enough fuel for two hours of flight. Ted, having gotten his confidence back, has this to say: |
| 87 | -->'''Ted Striker:''' Listen to me, Kramer. We have people up here who will die in less than an hour, let alone two. I may bend your precious airplane, but I'll get it down. I'm putting the landing gear down now. |
| 88 | * BadGuyBar: The Magumba bar in Drambuie, featuring fighting Girl Scouts and disco dancing. Ted only gets a dance with his one true love because the schmuck she'd been dancing with gets knifed. |
| 89 | * BarBrawl: Between card-playing Girl Scouts, no less... but nobody pays them any attention. |
| 90 | * BarSlide: During the BarBrawl, a Girl Scout is thrown down the bar and crashes headfirst into a jukebox, which starts playing "Stayin' Alive". |
| 91 | * BeatStillMyHeart: Played for laughs as a transplant heart hops off a table while Dr. Brody is calling from the [[VisualPun Mayo Clinic]]. |
| 92 | * BedmateReveal: Captain Oveur's wife... with a [[BestialityIsDepraved horse]]. |
| 93 | * BellyScrapingFlight: Coming into Chicago, the airliner slices off the rooftop aerial of radio station WZAZ, "Where disco lives forever!" |
| 94 | * BerserkButton: Whatever you do, don't tell Karee--uh, sorry, Roger Murdock--that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doesn't play his best in every game. |
| 95 | * BestialityIsDepraved: Mrs. Oveur cheats on her husband... with a horse. |
| 96 | * BiggerIsBetterInBed: The reveal that Mrs. Oveur is cheating on her husband with a horse. |
| 97 | * BillionsOfButtons: A slow pan across an endless array of buttons, knobs and switches, which [[TruthInTelevision is a control panel from a real four-engine jet]]. |
| 98 | * BlandNameProduct: |
| 99 | ** Trans American Airlines isn't TWA. Nope. Nothing like it at all. It doesn't have a W in its name for a start! Nor is it AA. |
| 100 | ** In one flashback, Elaine demonstrates "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupperware Supperware]]" to some African villagers. |
| 101 | * BlatantLies: Dr. Rumack's "[[PinocchioNose reassurances]]" to the passengers about the health of the pilots. |
| 102 | * BloodlessCarnage: A few people die humorously, but there's no blood or gory detail. |
| 103 | * BluntMetaphorsTrauma: When he first meets Elaine in the Magumba Bar, he's so lovestruck that he asks the longshoreman next to him to pinch him. The longshoreman became visibly uncomfortable and slides away. |
| 104 | * {{Bookends}}: |
| 105 | ** As with all other aviation disaster films, the movie begins with a plane taking off at an airport and ends with the plane (crash) landing at an airport. |
| 106 | ** The music, by Music/ElmerBernstein, is fittingly played "straight" throughout the film, but there are two gags: one at the very beginning of the film (the ''Jaws'' quotation) and one at the very end (the choir missing the high note). |
| 107 | * TheBore: Ted Striker. Whenever he comes out of one of the {{Flashback}}s into his past, the person he's sitting next to is [[DrivenToSuicide dousing themselves in gasoline, committing harakiri, or hanging themselves]]. |
| 108 | * BreadEggsMilkSquick: Three newspapers about the plane in trouble are shown spinning. The last one reads "Boy Trapped In Refrigerator Eats Own Foot". |
| 109 | * BreakingTheFourthWall: At least two characters do this: Stryker turns to the camera and says "What a pisser," and later in the film, Johnny laughs at the audience after he jokingly unplugs the runway lights. |
| 110 | * BrickJoke: |
| 111 | ** Ted's cab's passenger, who is left with the meter running at the beginning of the film, shows up again after the credits. |
| 112 | ** The donation-seekers at the airport who accost Elaine and Ted try again with Kramer, with much less fortunate outcomes. |
| 113 | ** As [=McCrosky=] and Kramer are speaking after Kramer first arrives, a Native spear hits the wall next to him, from the ones who were chasing him earlier. |
| 114 | ** The Girl Scouts are ''still'' fighting long after the disco bar has closed. |
| 115 | ** When Ted throws off his clothes while dancing, they keep getting thrown back at him. |
| 116 | * ButtMonkey: The hysterical woman who gets hit by nuns, with nearly everyone on the plane lining up to knock some sense into her. |
| 117 | * TheCameo: |
| 118 | ** Creator/EthelMerman as the ShellShockedVeteran who thinks he's Ethel Merman. It was Merman's final film appearance. |
| 119 | ** Howard Jarvis, the California anti-tax activist who spearheaded the passage of property-tax limiting Proposition 13 in 1978, is the passenger in Ted Striker's taxi. |
| 120 | ** [[Creator/JimmieWalker Jimmie "JJ" Walker]] of ''Series/GoodTimes'' fame is the window washer. According to the director's commentary, Walker was the only "comedy cameo" they accepted; Paramount wanted many more. It may have helped Walker's chances that he was in a ''straightforward'' airplane disaster movie the previous year (''The Concorde: Airport '79'') as one of several comic relief characters. |
| 121 | ** Abrahams' mother, Louise Abrahams Yaffe, plays the passenger who introduces Elaine to Dr Rumack. |
| 122 | ** The Zuckers' mother is the woman attempting to put on lipstick during the crash landing. |
| 123 | * CameraAbuse: During the girl scout fight, one of the girls is slammed into the camera. |
| 124 | * CampGay: Johnny is exaggeratedly campy in mannerisms and speech, PlayedForLaughs because nobody else seems to notice. Actor Stephen Stucker, who played Johnny, was actually like that in real life. He once described himself as being "so flamingly gay" that one could light cigarettes off of him. |
| 125 | * CaptainObvious: |
| 126 | ** When Elaine asks Dr. Rumack if he's a doctor, the camera cuts to him answering her while wearing a stethoscope, with the ear tubes in place as though he's listening to the plane's headphones. |
| 127 | ** One passenger begins to suspect something is wrong with her husband when he starts vomiting. |
| 128 | --->'''Woman:''' ''[thinking]'' Jim never vomits at home. |
| 129 | * CastingGag: |
| 130 | ** Like in ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'', a RealLife Los Angeles-area sports star plays a pilot, but in the earlier film [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elroy_Hirsch Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch]] played the captain, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays the co-pilot. |
| 131 | ** Creator/EthelMerman, in her final film role no less, plays a male lieutenant who's shell-shocked into thinking he's Ethel Merman. |
| 132 | ** Lloyd Bridges played the same role in ''Film/SanFranciscoInternationalAirport''. |
| 133 | ** [[Series/LeaveItToBeaver Barbara Billingsley!]] as the [[JiveTurkey jive lady]]. |
| 134 | ** Robert Stack played the role of the nervous pilot dealing with a midair crisis in 1954's ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_and_the_Mighty_(film) The High and the Mighty]]'', the UrExample of the "troubled airliner" DisasterMovie subgenre. |
| 135 | * CelebrityParadox: |
| 136 | ** {{Lampshaded}} and PlayedForLaughs with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who keeps insisting to Joey that he's ''not'' Jabbar. He's ''Roger Murdock''. Until... |
| 137 | --->'''Joey:''' I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs.\ |
| 138 | '''Roger Murdock:''' '''[[BerserkButton The hell I don't!]]''' ''[pulls Joey close and seethes]'' Listen, kid, I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes! |
| 139 | ** Topped off by his wearing Lakers shorts, sneakers, and goggles when being dragged out of the cockpit. |
| 140 | * CharacterAsHimself: Otto the Autopilot. |
| 141 | * ChekhovsGunman: George Zipp. He is first mentioned during the flashback when Striker was in the hospital after he screwed up in the mission, when Elaine corrects Striker by telling him Zipp just died. Later, it turns out that Dr. Rumack was the doctor attending Zipp when he died and heard his last words praising Striker's call, [[WinOneForTheGipper which gives Striker]] an EpiphanyTherapy. |
| 142 | * CigaretteOfAnxiety: Steve [=McCroskey=], ground support, picked the wrong week to quit smoking (which he says as he lights up a butt)... and also the wrong week to quit drinking, taking amphetamines, and sniffing glue. |
| 143 | * CirclingVultures: They're not circling, but a bunch of vultures perches over the heroes as they prepare to crashland. |
| 144 | * CircularDrive: Used to multiply the emergency vehicles. The circle is obvious, the film is sped up, and as it goes on, more and more incongruous vehicles (including a beer truck and a farm tractor) get added in. |
| 145 | * ClosestThingWeGot: Ted Striker is the only pilot on the plane who isn't sick, even though he a) only ever learned to fly a single-engine fighter jet, which is "an entirely different type of flying altogether!" [[note]]"It's an entirely different type of flying."[[/note]] and b) hasn't flown in years. |
| 146 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Johnny, who always has a... different... take on the action than the people around him. He's the only character who seems to realize that he's in a comedy. |
| 147 | * ComicallyMissingThePoint: |
| 148 | ** The RunningGag of people [[AmbiguousSyntax misunderstanding the question]], "What is it?" |
| 149 | ** [[RunningGag But that's not important]]. |
| 150 | ** The RunningGag where [=McCroskey=] and others ask Johnny to fetch some coffee by asking "How about some coffee?" to which he always replies, "No, thanks!" |
| 151 | * TheComicallySerious: |
| 152 | ** The key to the movie's charm. David Zucker has said that the basic concept of the movie was "a comedy without comedians," so they cast two non-stars in the lead roles (it was ex-model Julie Hagerty's film debut, while Robert Hays was best known as the handsome love interest on the {{sitcom}} ''Angie''), and gave supporting roles to actors famous for playing serious, tough-guy characters: Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and, believe it or not, Leslie Nielsen, who at the time was considered the handsome, leading man prototype. Then they had them all play as though they were in a serious DisasterMovie. |
| 153 | ** Similarly, Music/ElmerBernstein approached the score as though he wasn't in on the joke and thought he was writing music for a straightfaced (albeit corny and overwrought) {{Melodrama}}. |
| 154 | * ComingInHot: Twice. In the opening, when the plane crashes through an airport glass window and causes people to scream and run away, and towards the end, when Ted and Elaine attempt to carefully land their out-of-control airplane. |
| 155 | * CompanionCube: Otto the automatic pilot, who's a (sapient) inflatable blow-up doll. |
| 156 | * ConjoinedTwins: Stan and Terry, who [=McCrosky=] tells to go upstairs to the tower to retrieve a map and check on the emergency equipment on the field, respectively. |
| 157 | * ContaminationSituation: The mysterious sickness gets both the pilot and copilot, as well as everyone else who ate fish for dinner on the flight. |
| 158 | ** In real life, it's for this reason that many airlines require that a plane's pilot and copilot be served different meals. |
| 159 | * CoolOldLady: The "I speak jive" lady. Made even ''cooler'' by the fact she's played by Barbara Billingsley — AKA ''[[Series/LeaveItToBeaver June Cleaver]]''. |
| 160 | * CovertPervert: |
| 161 | ** Captain Oveur's wife Mrs. Oveur can't resist feeling up Kramer as he gives the orders to lower the plane for its emergency landing. That's not even to mention her secret interspecies affair. |
| 162 | ** Not to mention Captain Oveur's increasingly less stealthy questions to Joey, or his browsing a copy of ''Modern Sperm'' magazine at the airport newsstand. |
| 163 | ** Prim {{Ingenue}} Elaine wistfully reminisces with Ted about oral sex, plus she's ''very'' enthusiastic in her inflation of Otto the Automatic Pilot. |
| 164 | * CrashCourseLanding: Even though Ted is a pilot, he's a fighter pilot, so he still needs help with a commercial airliner. |
| 165 | -->'''Ted:''' It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether!\ |
| 166 | '''Dr. Rumack and Randy:''' ''[in unison]'' It's an entirely different kind of flying! |
| 167 | * CrazyCulturalComparison: |
| 168 | ** Parodied when Ted Striker, upon meeting the African tribesmen he and Elaine would be working with for their time in the Peace Corps, teaches them how to shake hands. This being accepted, he goes for a "gimme five" and gets punched out for his trouble. |
| 169 | ** Later, as media outlets around the world are reporting on the runaway aircraft, a stereotypically Polynesian reporter with very little technology at his disposal relays his story by drumbeat. There is ''a crude, child-like drawing of an airplane'' on the drawing board behind him, instead of a newsroom graphic. Then he's handed a different pair of drumsticks for his next news report and turns to a different camera. |
| 170 | * CreatorCameo: David Zucker and Jerry Zucker are the ground crewmen who inadvertently misdirect a plane and cause it to crash into the terminal. Jim Abrahams is one of the solicitors that attempts to harass Kramer when he enters the airport (he's the one who has the close-up with the horrified expression). |
| 171 | * CreditsGag: Many: |
| 172 | ** Pete Papanickolas did the "gripology". |
| 173 | ** Creator/CharlesDickens is the author of ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities''. |
| 174 | ** Mike Fennell was "Generally in charge of a lot of things". |
| 175 | ** "This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution, or exhibition may result in civil liability or criminal prosecution. So there." |
| 176 | ** After the legitimate credit for Best Boy is a credit for Worst Boy, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. |
| 177 | * CreepyChangingPainting: A comedic version of the inflatable "Otto" pilot doll, although the face of an inflatable doll receiving a blowjob is still fairly creepy. |
| 178 | * CrewOfOne: Ted Striker flies (and lands) a modern jet airliner by himself, with radio support. |
| 179 | * CrosscastRole: |
| 180 | ** The surfing nun on the cover of ''Nun's Life'' was actually Jim Zucker. |
| 181 | ** The two girl scouts at the bar fighting from the flashback of Striker are actually two men. |
| 182 | ** Lieutenant Hurwitz, the soldier who [[NapoleonDelusion thinks he's Ethel Merman]] is played by Creator/EthelMerman in her final film role. |
| 183 | * CulturalTranslation: Foreign language dubs often gave the Jive speakers a thick local regional dialect, which was subtitled as the formal national language (like Bavarian subtitled as standard German). |
| 184 | * CondemnedByHistory: {{Invoked}}. The plane symbolically kills off the entire genre of disco by crashing through a Chicago radio tower [[DiscoSucks (hilariously, right after the deejay has just boasted that disco will live forever)]]. |
| 185 | * DecompositeCharacter: Some changes between ''Zero Hour!'' and ''Airplane!'' fall into this. |
| 186 | ** Steve [=McCroskey=] and Rex Kramer are based on Harry Burdick and Martin Treleaven, respectively, but Creator/SterlingHayden as Treleaven chewed so much scenery that ZAZ had enough leftover LargeHam to give some of Treleaven's bits to [=McCroskey=], like his impatience, and his picking the wrong week to quit smoking. By contrast, Burdick is the more levelheaded of the two in ''Zero Hour!'' (though still hammy). |
| 187 | ** Captain Wilson becomes Captain Oveur, but his being played by a pro sports star (NFL great Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch) is transferred to Murdock (played by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar). |
| 188 | * {{Deconstruction}}: Of a sort; the Zuckers stated that they found the dead-serious disaster movies they had grown up with (and made fun of) deeply pretentious, and set about to make a film that played most of the cliches absurdly straight and pointing out how ''bizarre'' they really were -- ''Zero Hour!'''s plot of fish poisoning the passengers is turned into an absurdist joke, for example. |
| 189 | * DeconstructorFleet: ''Airplane!'' put an end to the genre of disaster movies for several years.[[note]]The critical and box-office failure of ''Film/WhenTimeRanOut'', a serious disaster movie released the same year as ''Airplane!'', helped.[[/note]] |
| 190 | * DeconstructedTrope: Somehow, this movie still manages to have an example PlayedForDrama. Ted may be the closest thing to a pilot that they have, but even without taking his PTSD into account, Ted’s only ever flown a single engine plane before and hasn't flown anything in years. So, even though he was a pilot in the war, he still has to be talked down by a pilot who’s actually experienced with a multi-engine plane, and even with all possible help it’s still a close call. |
| 191 | * DeletedScenes: Comparing the shooting script with the film as released reveals a number of scenes or subplots were trimmed or outright cut. |
| 192 | ** Bernice, the seven-year-old girl who likes her coffee (and her men) black, and Milton Ettenhenim ("But my friends call me 'Bubbles'."), the eight-year-old boy wearing a conservative coat and tie, were meant to have a number of scenes together, where they would discuss their respective occupations (a teacher in the New York School District and a lobbyist for the Small Businessmen's Association) and strike up a relationship. |
| 193 | ** Mrs Schiff, the jive-talking lady, was meant to have several scenes in which she literally nurses a soft drink. |
| 194 | ** Randy's song was meant to be longer, finishing with Mrs. Davis being knocked out by the guitar. |
| 195 | ** When examining Shirley, Rumack was supposed to pull on her tongue until it became obviously too long, then produce multi-colored magician's scarves, a bouquet of flowers, and a white dove. Only the dove was retained. |
| 196 | ** Captain Oveur's reassuring announcement to the passengers ("we're just now passing over the Hoover Dam...") was meant to be followed by a scene showing the passengers panicking. |
| 197 | ** The panic scene following Elaine's query, "Is there anyone on Âboard who knows how to fly a plane?" was meant to end with a Spanish-speaking lady waiting for her husband to translate the announcement before panicking. |
| 198 | ** Kramer versus the religious enthusiasts at the airport: the scene was meant to end with him shooting the last zealot twenty feet away with a .44 Magnum. |
| 199 | ** Mrs Hammen was meant to have an additional short hysterical scene, in which she mistakenly thinks Jack has died. |
| 200 | ** A dispatcher at Chicago Airport was meant to have a running gag in which he struggles with his typewriter. |
| 201 | ** A long cut scene would have featured [=McCroskey=] and Kramer discussing covering the runway with foam, to allow the plane to land without using its wheels. |
| 202 | ** A scene from the landing, in which Randy offers to arrange hotel accommodation and car rental for a passenger, was cut. |
| 203 | ** A couple recognizing a passenger from their last flight and waving to him. The passenger responds "Hi, Jack!", to which alarms blare and security officers drag him away. As a bonus, the gag was immediately foreshadowed by the couple standing next to a sign reading "WARNING: Hijacking is a Federal Offense." |
| 204 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: The film enjoys playing with how social conventions had changed since ''Zero Hour!'' had been filmed. |
| 205 | * DirtyOldMan: Captain Oveur's inappropriate questions to Joey. "You ever been in a cockpit before?" "You ever seen a grown man naked?" "Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?" "Do you like movies about gladiators?". |
| 206 | * DirtyOldWoman: |
| 207 | ** One scene shows a nun reading a Boy's Life magazine. |
| 208 | ** Mrs. Oveur briefly gropes Kramer while he gives the orders for the plane to land. |
| 209 | * DisasterMovie: It's a parody of the genre with elements of the ''Airport'' movies, but it's heavily based on ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'', which plays it straight (and which was also written by the creator of ''Airport''.) |
| 210 | * DiscoSucks: A radio announcer triumphantly proclaims that WZAZ is "[[TemptingFate where disco lives forever!]]" just before the plane knocks down its rooftop transmitting antenna. This film came out in 1980, so the joke was extremely timely--the creators note on the DVD commentary that they witnessed this joke being met with applause in theaters. |
| 211 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: |
| 212 | ** The look on Otto the Autopilot's face as he's being "re-inflated". (And the head bob.) |
| 213 | ** Followed by Elaine and Otto smoking cigarettes afterwards. |
| 214 | * DoctorDoctorDoctor: Spoofed: |
| 215 | -->'''Tower referee:''' We're all ready, sir. This is Captain [=McCrosky=], Captain Roberts, Captain Kramer, Captain Kolosomo. Captain Henshaw, this is Captain Gatz. Captain Kramer, Captain Gatz. Captain Henshaw, Captain Roberts... |
| 216 | * DoorFocus: Creator/LeslieNielsen's famous RunningGag of sticking his head into the cockpit repeatedly and declaring "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you." {{Subverted}} once as well with a NotWhatItLooksLike moment late in the film. |
| 217 | * DressedToHeal: Dr. Rumack is introduced wearing a stethoscope for no reason, first shown right after he's asked if he's a doctor. (At the time, airplane headsets looked not unlike stethoscopes, so this was a sight gag that's missed by modern audiences.) In a later scene, he's giving an OB-GYN exam for no apparent reason -- yes, in-flight... with stirrups... and holding a vaginal speculum at the ready. |
| 218 | * DrugsAreBad: [=McCroskey=] saying "he's picked the wrong week to quit smoking/taking amphetamines/sniffing glue". |
| 219 | * DrivenToSuicide: [[RuleOfThree Three people]] choose to commit suicide rather than continue to listen to Ted Striker's rambling reminiscing. |
| 220 | ** The elderly woman hangs herself. |
| 221 | ** A Japanese man commits [[{{Seppuku}} harakiri]]. |
| 222 | ** Double subverted with the third case. The man [[GasolineDousing drenches himself in gasoline]] and lights a match, then blows it out in relief when Ted leaves his seat, only to [[MadeOfExplodium inexplicably explode anyway]]. |
| 223 | * DrivingADesk: Rex Kramer's drive to the airport. Parodied viciously as he runs over a bicyclist and passes everything from traffic accidents to [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext raiding Indians on horseback]], with only his terrified passenger reacting to what's notionally going on. During another portion, the background shows fast-motion footage of a drive down a winding, hilly road, while Kramer holds the wheel completely straight and still the whole time. |
| 224 | * DrosteImage: [=McCroskey=] stands in front of a framed photograph of himself, striking the exact same pose as in the photograph, which itself contains the same framed photograph in its background. |
| 225 | * DrowningMySorrows: Ted having a "drinking problem" -- the only difference is none of the liquids can ever hit his mouth. |
| 226 | * EvenTheGirlsWantHer: As Ted reminisces about his relationship with Elaine to an old lady, she gets rather intimate in her appraisal. |
| 227 | -->'''Old Woman:''' No wonder you're so upset. She's lovely! [[MaleGaze And a darling figure. Supple pouting breasts. Firm thighs.]] It's a shame you don't get along. |
| 228 | * EpiphanyTherapy: A rare case of a typically dramatic trope ''not'' being parodied in a film that otherwise parodies every dramatic trope it can. Ted Striker is cured of his fear of flying and saves the day after a RousingSpeech by Dr. Rumack, absolving him of his guilt over his failed Air Force mission during the war. |
| 229 | * EscalatingPunchline: The parody of GetAholdOfYourselfMan. |
| 230 | * ExactWords: |
| 231 | ** Ted Striker has a drinking problem: he always misses his mouth. |
| 232 | ** Also his exchange with a fellow passenger: "Nervous?" "Yes." "First time?" "No, I've been nervous lots of times." |
| 233 | ** "That's impossible, they're on instruments!" Cut to everyone in the cockpit jamming a jazz tune on musical instruments. |
| 234 | ** One of the reporters tells his colleagues, "Alright boys, let's take some pictures." The reporters then proceed to literally take the pictures off of the walls. |
| 235 | ** Rex Kramer says he wants every light they have on that runway, [=McCrosky=] says it's being done. Cut to a shot of a dump truck pouring lamps onto it. |
| 236 | ** Ted asks for a "smoking" ticket and gets a ticket with smoke coming off it. |
| 237 | * ExtremelyShortTimespan: The film takes place over less than six hours, from flight pre-boarding in Los Angeles to just after landing in Chicago, though there are also several flashbacks. |
| 238 | * FaceCam: Elaine and Ted Striker during the dance scene in the bar. |
| 239 | * FailedASpotCheck: As Captain Oveur is explaining that the plane is flying over the Hoover Dam, none of the passengers see two stewardesses dragging the unconscious Roger and Victor through the cabin. Later on, Randy is able to drag Captain Oveur through in much the same way and, once again, no one notices. |
| 240 | * FallingIntoTheCockpit: Striker is the only person on board with flying experience after the crew is incapacitated, so he has no choice but to attempt to land the airliner. |
| 241 | * {{Fanservice}}: During the panic scene there comes, out of nowhere, a random topless woman who gets *really* close to the camera and disappears. |
| 242 | * FanserviceExtra: |
| 243 | ** The buxom [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001563/ Francesca "Kitten" Natividad]] pulls uncredited duty here as the jiggling passenger in the white T-shirt. |
| 244 | ** Then the topless lady who bounds into the camera frame in a similar way. Long thought to also be Kitten Natividad, but she later said that it isn't her. |
| 245 | * FantasticRacism: During the mass plane panic, a nun and a Buddhist can be seen fighting each other. |
| 246 | * TheFantasticTropeOfWonderousTitles: The [[ForeignLanguageTitle German title]] is ''Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrĂĽckten Flugzeug'' (''The Incredible Journey on a Crazy Airplane''). |
| 247 | * FateWorseThanDeath: Listening to Ted's exposition flashbacks about his guilt and failed relationship with Elaine drives two different passengers to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] and one to attempt it before stopping; he fails to stop it and succeeds in dying anyway. |
| 248 | * FireForgedFriends: Striker and Kramer. |
| 249 | * FiveSecondForeshadowing: One can already determine that Striker's "drinking problem" isn't anything alcohol related by the fact that in the flashback where it began, Ted was pouring himself a glass of Gatorade. |
| 250 | * {{Flashback}}: Ted and Elaine (meeting in [[Film/SaturdayNightFever the bar]], [[Film/FromHereToEternity rolling on]] [[BeachKiss the beach]], in the hospital, in the Peace Corps), Ted's war memories. |
| 251 | * FlashbackStares: Characters just stare straight ahead as ripples lead into the flashbacks. |
| 252 | * FoeTossingCharge: When Kramer arrives at the airport he's accosted by donation-seekers, much like Ted and Elaine confront earlier. He proceeds to beat the crap out of every single one of them. |
| 253 | * FoodAndBodyComparison: As the plane flies through a patch of rough turbulence, there's a shot of a gelatin dessert jiggling wildly from the plane's movements. Then the camera pans over to a busty woman, whose chest is bouncing and jiggling just as much.] |
| 254 | * ForTheEvulz: The runway lights abruptly go out during the landing attempt. It turns out to be Johnny messing with the equipment. |
| 255 | -->'''Johnny:''' Just kidding! ''[plugs cord back in, followed by EvilLaugh]'' |
| 256 | * FreezeFrameBonus: A brief close-up shot of a naked woman's jiggling boobs when the passengers go into a panic. |
| 257 | * FreeWheel: Played for laughs when we see a hubcap rolling across the tarmac after an ambulance crashes off-screen. |
| 258 | * FromTheMouthsOfBabes: When a well-dressed young girl and boy strike up a well-mannered, adult conversation in their seats, it seems charming, until we learn that she's... been around. |
| 259 | -->'''Girl:''' I take [my coffee] black. Like my men. |
| 260 | * FunnyBackgroundEvent: |
| 261 | ** After Ted introduces basketball to Africans, they're pulling off Harlem Globetrotter tricks in the background when he's talking to Elaine. |
| 262 | ** The ''white zone/red zone'' argument over the PA, coupled with that baggage behind the cars that nobody actually gives a damn about. Yeah, many jokes are really that hard to catch. |
| 263 | ** Shortly after that, Ted runs into the airport and through security. It's on-screen for maybe three-tenths of a second: the security X-ray screen shows a chest X-ray. |
| 264 | ** At the beginning of the movie, a magazine rack is labeled "whacking material." Oveur picks up from it the latest edition of ''Modern Sperm''. |
| 265 | ** The beating heart at the Mayo Clinic, which jumps off the desk and goes hopping around the table while Dr. Brody talks to Oveur. |
| 266 | *** Behind Dr. Brody, you'll notice that there is [[VisualPun an entire wall filled with jars of mayonnaise]]. |
| 267 | ** The technician [[RuleOfFunny checking the oil under the airplane's hood]], then falls off the ladder trying to pop it shut, as the pilots are discussing the weather in the cockpit. Then we have Oveur being handed the bill for the repairs and him paying it on the spot. For those too young to remember, the payment transaction plays out exactly the way a full-service gas station transaction would have played out at the time, with the attendant handing the old-style [[https://www.business.com/articles/what-are-credit-card-imprinters/ credit card imprinter]] to the driver through the window (this was before magnetic stripes and swiping your card were possible). |
| 268 | ** When Dr. Rumack is removing eggs from the woman's mouth and cracks one open to release a bird, the bird nearly hits a passenger in the face as it flies off. |
| 269 | ** Amongst the procession of rescue vehicles going out to the runway is a cement mixer, an ice cream truck, a tractor, and a Budweiser truck. [[StealthPun They are possibly meant to be part of the "civilian equipment" that was asked to be driven to the airport]]. |
| 270 | ** During the ThisIsNoTimeToPanic moment, the nun and the Hare Krishna are trying to strangle each other. |
| 271 | ** In the radar room, someone is briefly seen unloading or loading a washing machine which resembles a radar. |
| 272 | * FunWithSubtitles: |
| 273 | ** The scene with the two jive dudes helpfully "translates" their conversation into English: |
| 274 | --->'''Jive Dude:''' I say hey, sky -- subba say I wan' see -- pray to J I did the same-ol', same-ol'! \ |
| 275 | [Subtitle: I KNEW A MAN IN A SIMILAR PREDICAMENT, AND HE ENDED UP BEING SORRY] |
| 276 | ** For some bonus humor, in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkZdz4Vz10 this "making of" clip]], when the two actors are speaking about the role, some hilarious "jive" subtitles are added to their dialogue. |
| 277 | * GamblingBrawl: Parodied (of course). During Striker's first flashback, there's a close-up of two people playing poker, with only their hands visible. Suddenly one of them pulls out a knife and they start fighting. [[CloseUpOnHead The camera pulls back]] to reveal that the players are Girl Scouts. |
| 278 | * GasolineDousing: One of the people Ted tells his story to does this, then lights a match just before Ted is called away. He sighs in relief, blows out the match... and explodes anyway. |
| 279 | * GenderBlenderName: One of the stewardesses is named Randy. |
| 280 | * GenreSavvy: Stephen Stucker's 'Johnny' is the only character who realizes he's in a whacky comedy rather than a serious drama and acts accordingly. |
| 281 | * GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: An ExaggeratedTrope. Everyone lines up to slap/punch/club/shoot a hysterical woman, with increasingly lethal weapons as the camera pans down the line. |
| 282 | * GirlScoutsAreEvil: During the BarBrawl two girl scouts fight each other, which [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight nobody else seems to care about]]. |
| 283 | * GivingThemTheStrip: As Ted Stryker is going through the airport, he's accosted by a religious donation seeker. He slips out of his jacket and continues on, leaving his jacket in the guy's hand. |
| 284 | * GladIThoughtOfIt: Oveur makes Murdock's idea his own. |
| 285 | -->'''Murdock:''' You want me to check the weather, Clarence?\ |
| 286 | '''Oveur:''' No, why don't you take care of it? |
| 287 | * GlassesPull: Captain Rex Kramer and his sunglasses. ''Two pairs'', that is. |
| 288 | * GoshDangItToHeck: In the jive subtitles, "sheeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiit" gets translated as "golly." |
| 289 | * GratuitousDiscoSequence: During the bar flashback, the fighting girl scouts crash into a jukebox, it starts playing "Stayin' Alive," and everyone gets on the floor. |
| 290 | * GreatOffscreenWar: The war that Ted Striker was involved in, which is very vague. It's some weird mashup of [=WW2=], Korea, and Vietnam, and is played for laughs when Ted winds up talking to an annoyed Japanese soldier. |
| 291 | * HashHouseLingo: The film goes a ''long'' way just to get this kind of joke. |
| 292 | -->'''Operator:''' ''[on the phone with the [[https://www.mayoclinic.org/ Mayo Clinic]]]'' Excuse me, Captain Oveur, but I have an emergency call on line five from a Mr. Hamm.\ |
| 293 | '''Oveur:''' Alright, give me a Hamm on five, hold the Mayo. |
| 294 | * HeadSmashesScreen: Two Girl Scouts fight each other in a bar, and one throws the other girl to [[BarSlide slide across the bar top]] and lands head-first into a jukebox, which starts playing "[[Music/TheBeeGees Stayin' Alive]]". |
| 295 | * HollywoodNatives: Invoked twice. |
| 296 | ** In one of his flashbacks, Ted talks about working with the Malombo tribe in the Peace Corps. Everyone is dark-skinned and wear cloth wraps and beads, and the men brandish spears and wear feathered headdresses and face paint. |
| 297 | ** One appears briefly during the "news bulletin" montage, wearing a necklace of beads and horns while using JungleDrums to deliver a news report. |
| 298 | * HurricaneOfPuns: The ''entire film''. |
| 299 | ** The most famous example: "Surely you can't be serious!" "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." |
| 300 | ** "Smoking or nonsmoking?" "Smoking, please," He's then handed a ticket that literally has smoke coming off of it. |
| 301 | ** Ted: "It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether!" Dr. Rumack and Randy, all together: "It's an entirely different kind of flying!" |
| 302 | ** "Boys, let's take some pictures!" The reporters then take photographs off of the wall. |
| 303 | ** Roger Murdock: "You got clearance, Clarence." Clarance Oveur: "Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?" |
| 304 | * {{Hypocrite}}: An old lady rejects a man's offer of whiskey, then snorts cocaine afterwards. |
| 305 | * HypocriticalHumor: |
| 306 | ** A prim old lady is aghast when a fellow passenger offers her whiskey to keep calm ("Certainly ''not''!"). She then immediately proceeds to snort ''cocaine''. |
| 307 | ** Elaine's oblivious complaints about Ted (not laying down roots in place, living in the past) all seem to apply to her as well, as her job requires her to always be traveling, and she fondly reminiscences about the first time she and Ted met and when they were deeply in love. |
| 308 | * HystericalWoman: One of the passengers starts to freak out. A guy tries slapping sense into her, but she still panics. This results in a line of people to slap her, which then becomes a line of people waiting to injure her with sequentially more severe weaponry. |
| 309 | * IdentityDenial: Roger Murdock (played by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) spends much of a scene denying that he's actually Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- until Joey repeats some insulting things that his father said about his basketball playing, at which point Roger/Kareem drops the act. |
| 310 | * ILikeMyXLikeILikeMyY: The young girl likes her coffee black... like her men. |
| 311 | * INeedAFreakingDrink: |
| 312 | ** Plane full of sick people and out-of-commission pilots? Looks like [=McCroskey=] picked the wrong week to quit smoking... and drinking... and amphetamines... and sniffing glue. (''sniff'') |
| 313 | ** Played with, with Ted's drinking problem. He keeps ''trying'' to invoke this trope, but the liquor keeps missing his mouth. [[ExactWords Or that his drinking problem is literally that he has a problem with being unable to drink.]] |
| 314 | * IWasJustJoking: Johnny temporarily unplugs the runway lights as the plane is beginning to land. |
| 315 | * InnerMonologue: From Mrs Hammen: "Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home." Later mocked when Ted realizes how echo-y his own monologue sounds: "Pinch hitting for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Borb%C3%B3n Pedro BorbĂłn]] -- [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Mota Manny Mota]]!" |
| 316 | * InsultingFromBehindTheLanguageBarrier: Inverted. The two black characters speak primarily in slang and are often heard saying offensive things, but the subtitles show they are not saying anything offensive in "Jive". |
| 317 | * IsThereADoctorInTheHouse: Randy goes looking for one among the passengers and finds Dr. Rumack -- whom she can instantly identify as a doctor because he's wearing a stethoscope. |
| 318 | * IsThisThingStillOn: |
| 319 | ** Rex Kramer launches into a rant about how poorly suited Striker is to fly the plane, not realizing that his microphone button is pressed. This causes Ted to go into his TenMinuteRetirement. |
| 320 | ** Elaine, pressed into service to handle the microphone while Ted flies, relays a statement that Ted didn't really intend her to. |
| 321 | --->'''Ted:''' It's a damn good thing he doesn't know how much I hate his guts.\ |
| 322 | '''Elaine:''' ''[into microphone]'' It's a damn good thing you don't know how much he hates your guts. |
| 323 | ** Kramer continues rambling to Ted long after the crash is over and everyone's left the plane -- less of a "Is this still on?" and more of a "Is anyone still listening to me?" |
| 324 | --->'''Kramer:''' Municipal bonds, Ted. Triple-A rating, best investment in the book! |
| 325 | * ItsQuietTooQuiet: While awaiting the Trans American airlines flight to make its emergency landing, [=McCrosky=] and Kramer say "it's quiet, too quiet." |
| 326 | * {{Jerkass}} |
| 327 | ** The "Counterpoint" anchorman. |
| 328 | --->'''"Counterpoint" anchorman:''' Shana, they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash! |
| 329 | ** Played with with the role of Rex Kramer, who is familiar with Striker's war history and is belittling of Ted at first, culminating with him accidentally suggesting they should just crash the plane somewhere remotely so Ted doesn't kill anyone on the ground. They become FireForgedFriends by the end. |
| 330 | * JiveTurkey: The two black men and the white woman ([[Series/LeaveItToBeaver Barbara]] [[WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984 Billingsley!]]) who interprets for them. "Cut me some slack, Jack!" |
| 331 | * JungleDrums: During a newscasters montage, African drum signals are used to convey all the news. |
| 332 | * JustPlaneWrong: |
| 333 | ** [[RuleOfFunny On purpose]], the jet airliner has the sound of prop engines. |
| 334 | ** When it comes to flight protocol, normally pilots are not allowed to eat the same food (in the film all three pilots ate fish) to prevent the possibility of everyone getting sick. Though like the above example, it's played for laughs. |
| 335 | * JustTheIntroductionToTheOpposites: A nun is shown reading a Boy's Life magazine, cut to a boy reading a Nun's Life magazine. |
| 336 | * JumpPhysics: During the dance sequence, Ted throws Elaine up into the air. She stays airborne for far too long before landing sideways, much to everyone's confusion. |
| 337 | * LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: Ted has a flashback to his time in the Air Force when he used to hang out in a seedy bar. The scene has sleazy trombone music playing over it as Ted sits at the bar and is looking at the legs of a table dancer; the camera then pans up to reveal said table dancer being the one playing the trombone. |
| 338 | * LiteralMinded: A ''constant'' source of humor, including the film's RunningGag of "X? What is it?" "It's <literal description of X>, but that's not important right now." |
| 339 | * LiteralMetaphor: Striker's drinking problem doesn't involve alcohol. He literally has problems getting liquid into his mouth. |
| 340 | * LittlestCancerPatient: The little girl who needs a heart transplant. A horrific moment of BlackComedy (not to mention SoundtrackDissonance) occurs when Randy sings "River of Jordan" to cheer her up and knocks out her IV with her guitar. Twice. The first time, everyone including her mother is so wrapped up in singing that she nearly flatlines, but she manages to pop the IV back in herself. The second time, her mother actually notices and frantically goes to her daughter's aid. |
| 341 | * MajorInjuryUnderreaction: The cyclist who Rex Kramer hits with his car bounces right back up and seems more annoyed than hurt, shouting an indignant "asshole!" back at Kramer. |
| 342 | * MaleGaze: |
| 343 | ** The film includes a "cameo" from a pair of ridiculously bouncy breasts. |
| 344 | ** The older lady who is seated next to Ted understands why he's longing for Elaine, all while describing her in very sexual terms. |
| 345 | * MadeOfExplodium: Two instances: |
| 346 | ** While Ted is [[TheBore telling another one of his lethally boring stories]], the man next to him [[GasolineDousing drenches himself in gasoline]] and lights a match. He blows the match out when Ted leaves his seat, only to explode anyway. |
| 347 | ** On the ground, Kramer throws a cigar out of the window next to him. [=McCroskey=] covers his ears as [[RuleOfFunny it explodes like a grenade for no apparent reason.]] |
| 348 | * MarketBasedTitle: It was retitled to ''Flying High'' in most English-speaking markets outside North America, as part of an agreement between Creator/{{Paramount}} and Creator/{{Universal}}, the home of the ''Film/{{Airport}}'' franchise, after Universal accused the film of trademark infringement. |
| 349 | * MirrorRoutine: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag has Rex Kramer dressing in front of a mirror. In the next shot, we see him seemingly step ''out of'' the reflection; between shots, the mirror is switched with a doorway and Robert Stack switches positions. |
| 350 | * MistakenForGay: In the tough guy bar flashback, Ted is awestruck by the sight of Elaine and he asks a tough guy next to him to pinch him (to make sure he's not dreaming). The guy gets freaked out and leaves from this (apparently he got the wrong idea about Ted). |
| 351 | * MisplacedWildlife: An Asian elephant in the Africa flashback. |
| 352 | * MissionControlIsOffItsMeds: A sort of strange example, as [[MissionControl Mission Control's]] strangeness is a result of him going back ''on'' his meds. |
| 353 | * MixedMetaphor: "I guess the foot's on the other hand now!" |
| 354 | * {{Narm}}:[[invoked]] The line from ''Zero Hour!'', "We need to find someone who can not only fly this plane but who didn't have fish for dinner," convinced the Zuckers to make ''Airplane!'' |
| 355 | * NeverTrustATrailer: The scene in the trailer showing the nose of a plane crashing through an air terminal's window is not from the climax of the film or some other major scene, and doesn't involve the titular vehicle at all. It is just part of a brief, non-plot-related sight gag that takes place during a 30-second sequence within the first five minutes of the film. |
| 356 | * NoAntagonist: The plot deals with most of the passengers and the entire flight crew succumbing to food poisoning that, at least in the case of the flight crew, renders them unconscious, just like UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. |
| 357 | * NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Hilariously averted with Lieutenant Horwitz, who still thinks he's Creator/EthelMerman. Of course, it actually ''is'' Ethel Merman. |
| 358 | * NotWhatItLooksLike: When Elaine has to re-inflate the deflating autopilot "Otto the Pilot", Dr. Rumack looks in and it looks as if she's "blowing him". |
| 359 | * ObliviousGuiltSlinging: |
| 360 | ** In the hospital flashback, when Ted is struggling with the SurvivorsGuilt from getting six men killed on a failed mission: |
| 361 | --->'''Elaine:''' Seven. Lieutenant Zipp died this morning. |
| 362 | ** Also when Dr. Rumack is talking with Randy, who's worried about being already 26 [[OldMaid and still unmarried.]] A middle-aged woman pops into the cabin to talk with Dr. Rumack and notes that things might look grim on the plane, but "at least I have a husband." Cue Randy bursting into tears. |
| 363 | * OffhandBackhand: Striker does this to one of the religious donation-seekers in the airport. |
| 364 | * OffscreenCrash: The stewardess's accident after leaving the cockpit, and the ambulance at the end. |
| 365 | * OffscreenInertia: Ted ditches his taxi with a passenger still inside it at the beginning of the movie. Halfway through the movie, we cut back to see the passenger still waiting for him to return. We see him one last time after the end credits, where he vows to give him only twenty more minutes to come back. |
| 366 | * OhCrap: |
| 367 | ** Captain Oveur, listening to Dr. Rumack explain that everyone on the plane who ate fish is going to become violently ill, glances down at his plate with a fish skeleton on it, then in the background, Dr. Rumack starts describing the symptoms... which Oveur begins to suffer as they are being described. |
| 368 | ** Ted and Elaine exchange a horrified look when the runway lights go out. |
| 369 | ** The oil pressure. Ted forgot to check the oil pressure. |
| 370 | ** Elaine plays with this when Ted begins his TenMinuteRetirement. |
| 371 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Parodied and PlayedForLaughs twice. Mrs. Hammen notices that her husband Jim orders a second cup of coffee, then he gets ill and vomits, both things he's never done at home. |
| 372 | * OldMaid: Randy is worried about her age and not being married just yet. |
| 373 | -->'''Randy:''' I'm 26 years old and I'm not married! |
| 374 | * OneWordTitle: The title of the film is just the word "Airplane". |
| 375 | * OrbitalKiss: Ted and Elaine at the end, accompanied by an EtherealChoir that goes ''way'' out of tune. |
| 376 | * OrigamiGag: Alluded to when air traffic control officer Steve [=McCroskey=] asks {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Johnny to interpret a weather report. Johnny grabs the printout and proceeds to excitedly [[LiteralMinded list the various objects he can make]] with it. |
| 377 | -->'''[=McCroskey=]:''' Johnny, what can you make out of this? [hands him the weather printout]\ |
| 378 | '''Johnny:''' This? Well, I can make a hat! I can make a brooch! I can make a pterodactyl-- |
| 379 | * OverlyLongGag: Endlessly. Perhaps the most notable examples: |
| 380 | ** "The (fill-in-the-blank)? What is it?" "It's a (fill-in-the-blank)--but that's not important right now." |
| 381 | ** The "projected-road" images become this as the movie ''keeps'' cutting back to the two men in the car. |
| 382 | * OverlyNervousFlopSweat: PlayedForLaughs during the landing by having Striker's forehead ''gushing'' a literal waterfall of sweat. |
| 383 | * ParentalAbandonment: Though it's a far sight, one woman inside the terminal can be seen tossing her baby straight up in the air while running away as the plane crashes through the terminal windows. |
| 384 | * ParentService: Fellatio, cunnilingus, bestiality, pedophilia, topless women, a young girl who takes her coffee black (like her men), pornographic magazines, suicides, and repeated drug use, and it gets a PG rating? (Granted, PG-13 didn't exist back then...) In an interview on ''Later With Bob Costas'', Robert Stack was amazed A) that ZAZ got away with the "shit hits the fan" joke and B) that it made him laugh a lot. |
| 385 | * PrecisionFStrike: When Kramer accidentally runs over a bicyclist on his way to the airport, the cyclist can briefly be heard calling him an asshole. |
| 386 | * PieInTheFace: A stewardess is carrying plates of food along the aisle when the plane hits turbulence, causing her to stumble and smash one plate into a passenger's face. |
| 387 | * PinocchioNose: While Dr. Rumack is talking to the passengers, he lies so blatantly that his nose starts to grow, Pinocchio style. |
| 388 | -->'''Rumack:''' There is no reason to panic. It's true the pilot is ill. Slightly ill. The others are doing just fine and they are handling the controls, free to live a life of religious fulfillment. |
| 389 | * PlaneAwfulFlight: Half the passengers on a plane flight succumb to food poisoning, including the flight crew, forcing a former fighter pilot to take the controls and land the plane. |
| 390 | * PlotTime: The movie takes place on one night over the few (four or five, tops) hours it takes to fly from Los Angeles to Chicago. However, that amount of time is enough for a pre-Internet world to air TV shows and run newspaper articles about the plight. |
| 391 | * PluckyComicRelief: Johnny is a parody of the comic relief characters common in [[DisasterMovie Disaster Movies]] of TheSeventies. Just as their presence was often jarring and inappropriate in the face of the high-stakes drama unfolding, so too is Johnny, who does absolutely nothing to help resolve the disaster. [[YouGetMeCoffee He even refuses to fetch coffee for his boss!]] This is also why he's the only character who acts silly and goofy which, in the face of [[TheComicallySerious everybody else remaining dead serious]], is even funnier. |
| 392 | * PornStash: PlayedForLaughs in a public airport. Near the stack of pornographic magazines, Captain Oveur picks up and reads one of the boy's magazines titled "Modern Sperm" from the section marked "Whacking material". |
| 393 | * PrisonRape: Captain Oveur has some rather unusual conversation starters while talking to a little boy. |
| 394 | -->'''Oveur:''' Joey, have you ever been in a [[Film/MidnightExpress Turkish prison]]?\ |
| 395 | '''Oveur:''' Have you ever seen a grown man naked? |
| 396 | * ProportionalArticleImportance: When [=McCroskey=] and the other air control captains pass around a newspaper reading the negative reports, Johnny reads it and exclaims, "There's a sale at Penney's!" |
| 397 | * RandomEventsPlot: Well, there ''is'' a plot, but it mostly exists as a framework on which to hang a [[RapidFireComedy never-ending stream of ridiculous gags]] with little or no relation to the plot, characters, or [[RuleOfFunny the laws of physics]] for as long as possible. ZAZ thought that their next film (''Film/TopSecret'') suffered from having less of a plot than even ''Airplane!'' As they said on the DVD commentary, ''Airplane!'''s plot is a little ancient and boring (as the film it's based on was 23 years old already), but it IS an actual plot. |
| 398 | * RaceForYourLove: Ted boards the airplane Elaine is on in order to stop her from leaving for Chicago and to try to reconcile with her. |
| 399 | * RapidFireComedy: Often summed up by critics with the line "Don't worry if you didn't like the last joke. Another one will be along in thirty seconds." |
| 400 | * RealMenTakeItBlack: "I like my coffee black. [[RaceFetish Like my men.]]" [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes Spoken by a six-year-old girl]] to the boy who sits next to her (for laughs, obviously.) |
| 401 | * RefugeInAudacity: Basically the absurdity and silliness of the entire movie. This movie knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to disguise that for even a single second, leaving it free to just go all out. |
| 402 | * RelationshipSalvagingDisaster: The experience ultimately brings Ted and Elaine back together. |
| 403 | * TheRemake: The plot, the names of several characters, and much of the "straight" dialogue was taken from ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]''; which the producers officially acquired the rights for. Here's [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/zero_hour.html the dialog script]], so you can see for yourself. The lines that also appear in ''Airplane!'' are in boldface. |
| 404 | * RiddleForTheAges: Quite why Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar is posing as the co-pilot is never explained. |
| 405 | * RightOnQueue: The GetAHoldOfYourselfMan scene, with passengers lining up to slap/club/shoot a hysterical woman. |
| 406 | * RousingSpeech: Played sort of straight, except that it's also a parody of the famous "WinOneForTheGipper" speech. (UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was elected the same year the movie was released.) |
| 407 | * RuleOfFunny: {{Exaggerated}} to almost cartoonish levels, most commonly in the form of sight gags and double meanings. |
| 408 | * RuleOfThree: Dr. Rumack's repeated comment to Ted and Elaine, "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you." The third time comes after the plane has come to a full stop. |
| 409 | * RunningGag: The page quote, Ted's drinking problem, Ted's suicidal {{Flashback}} confidants, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit (drinking, smoking, amphetamines, sniffing glue)," "The red/white zone is for the loading and unloading..." etc. There are so many threads of repeating gag loops, fading in and out throughout the film, that it's like a comedy movie written as techno music. "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you." |
| 410 | * SequentialSymptomSyndrome: Dr. Rumack describes the effects of the food poisoning in exhaustive detail in the background, while Captain Oveur suffers from them in the foreground in the precise sequence listed. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight Nobody notices]], however, until the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering, wasted piece of jelly. |
| 411 | -->'''Dr. Rumack:''' Extremely serious. It starts with a slight fever and dryness of the throat.\ |
| 412 | ''[Oveur starts suffering from these]''\ |
| 413 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' When the virus penetrates the red blood cells, the victim becomes dizzy, begins to experience an itchy rash...\ |
| 414 | ''[Oveur starts becoming dizzy and starts scratching his arm]''\ |
| 415 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' ...then the poison goes to work on the central nervous system, severe muscle spasms followed by the inevitable drooling...\ |
| 416 | ''[Oveur begins to have spasms in his right shoulder and then spits something out of his mouth]''\ |
| 417 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' At this point, the entire digestive system collapses accompanied by uncontrollable flatulence...\ |
| 418 | ''[Oveur begins to fart noisily]''\ |
| 419 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' ...until finally, the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering wasted piece of jelly.\ |
| 420 | ''[Oveur collapses at the controls]'' |
| 421 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Parodied with the two black passengers, whose otherwise-incomprehensible JiveTurkey speech is subtitled as overly formal and impersonal, antiquated English. |
| 422 | * SexyStewardess: Elaine and Randy, who are both attractive and appealing to both the plane passengers and the audience. Elaine gets a heavy lampshade thanks to the lady sitting next to Ted on the plane. |
| 423 | * ShellShockedVeteran: |
| 424 | ** Ted Striker's experiences during the war left him emotionally distant, without personal confidence, and with a "drinking problem." (slosh!) |
| 425 | ** And as already noted, the tragic case of Lt. Hurwitz, played by Creator/EthelMerman, who thinks he's Ethel Merman. |
| 426 | * ShoutOut: |
| 427 | ** A self-referential one. The names "Rex Kramer" and "Steve(n) [=McCroskey=]" were first used in ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'', as was the TakeThat to UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}. |
| 428 | ** The opening shot is a parody of the film ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', complete with Music/JohnWilliams's iconic theme. |
| 429 | ** [[Film/TheWizardOfOz AUNTIE EM! UNCLE HENRY! TOTO! IT'S A TWISTER! IT'S A TWISTER!]] |
| 430 | ** [[Film/KnuteRockneAllAmerican "Do it for the Zipper."]] ''(Notre Dame fight march plays)'' |
| 431 | ** The argument about abortion between the airport PA announcers is lifted largely verbatim from ''Film/ZeroHour'' creator Arthur Hailey's original ''Airport'' novel, as is the name of the male PA announcer, Vernon. |
| 432 | ** The boy and girl drinking coffee together (and most of their dialogue) is lifted from a scene between two adult passengers in another "plane in danger" film from ''Zero Hour!'''s era, 1958's ''Crash Landing''.[[note]]A film best-known for being Nancy Reagan's last major acting role, though the coffee scene involves another female character.[[/note]] |
| 433 | * ShownTheirWork: It's a gag of all of a few seconds, but the Japanese soldier that Ted talks to commits [[{{Seppuku}} harakiri]] in the proper fashion: thrust blade into the belly, drag across, then up. |
| 434 | * SmashedEggsHatching: Dr. Rumack pulls eggs from a sick lady's mouth, cracks one open, and a bird flies out of it. |
| 435 | * SmokingHotSex: After the DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything scene of Elaine blowing... air into Otto the autopilot's air tube located on his waist, we next see them resting and smoking cigarettes (with a contented grin on Otto's lips). |
| 436 | * SomethingWeForgot: In TheStinger, the guy that Stryker left in the taxi with the meter running is still there, still waiting. |
| 437 | * SorryToInterrupt: During the autopilot reinflation scene, Dr. Rumack opens the door, sees what's going on, and turns right around. |
| 438 | * SoundtrackDissonance: |
| 439 | ** Randy belts out "River of Jordan" while the heart transplant patient frantically tries to plug her own IV back in. May qualify as adult fear, although the ambulance scene at the end implies she survives (at least until we hear [[OffscreenCrash it crash]] and see a hubcap roll by). |
| 440 | ** "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees plays as two girl scouts are fighting in the tough guy bar. In the 1940s. |
| 441 | * SoUnfunnyItsFunny: A lot of the film's humor relies on this. Some of the gags are so eye-rollingly obvious and corny that it crosses back over into hilarious. "Don't call me Shirley" is probably the epitome of the film's usage of this trope. |
| 442 | * ElSpanishO: There are two lighted signs in the aircraft where the Spanish is just phonetic English. "Fasten Seatbelt" and "No Smoking" are written in English in one shot. Underneath them are "Putana da Seatbeltz" ("put on the seatbelts") and "El No A You Smoko". Then during a dive, there's "Return to Seat" / "Gobacken Sidonna" ("Go back and sit down"), which is more like a stereotypical ''Italian'' accent. |
| 443 | * SpannerInTheWorks: A rare positive example. If Ted hadn't gotten a ticket at the last minute to try and reconcile with Elaine, it's likely there wouldn't have been anyone to help her fly the plane and things would've turned out much worse. |
| 444 | * SpinningPaper: Played straight when two spinning newspapers about the flight appear, then parodied when [[TheTriple a third, unrelated spinning newspaper appears]], and parodied again with a spinning ''television'' showing a newscast about the flight. |
| 445 | * SpitTake: In the hospital {{flashback}}: |
| 446 | -->'''Elaine:''' Seven. Lieutenant Zipp died this morning.\ |
| 447 | '''Ted:''' ''spfffft'' |
| 448 | * SpoofedWithTheirOwnWords: It's largely quoted word-for-word directly from the film ''Zero Hour!'', but with the serious deadpan delivery taking place in absurd surroundings. |
| 449 | * StalkingIsLove: Ted follows Elaine onto the plane she boards, hoping to reconcile with her. |
| 450 | * TheStinger: The guy left in Ted Striker's cab at the very beginning of the movie says, "I'll give him another twenty minutes... but that's it!" after sitting there for the ''entire movie'' (which is probably even longer in-universe). |
| 451 | * StockFootage: Ted Striker's memories of "the war" which appears, for RuleOfFunny, to be UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, but goes even further back in time to the turn of the century's strange flying experiments. |
| 452 | * StockSoundEffects: |
| 453 | ** Castle Thunder is used when lightning flashes. |
| 454 | ** Jet engines sound no different from propellers despite their different mechanical structures. |
| 455 | ** Ever hear a real airplane go "chuff... chuff... chuff... chuff" like a steam locomotive while taxiing? |
| 456 | * StraightMan: Every actor (except for Johnny) acts as if they are not speaking hilarious lines, which is one of the main reasons why this movie is so great. One of the reasons for avoiding "comedy cameos", according to the directors, was to keep everything seemingly serious. |
| 457 | * SuckinessIsPainful: |
| 458 | ** The lines "I haven't felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film" and "I haven't seen anything like this [violent illness] since the Anita Bryant concert" both carry the premise that terrible entertainment induces physical ailments. |
| 459 | ** The shooting script was more plausible, if darker. The lines were, "I haven't felt this awful since we saw that Lina Wertmuller film" and "I haven't seen anything like this since the Lina Wertmuller Film Festival." These are probably references to Wertmuller's divisive 1975 film "Seven Beauties", which was nominated for four Academy Awards, but which shocked audiences through its graphic depiction of Nazi concentration camps. |
| 460 | ** All the people killing themselves because of how boring Striker's flashbacks are. |
| 461 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the midst of all the wacky hijinks, putting Ted (trained to fly a single engine plane) behind the wheel of a four-engine jumbo jet is played very straight. He accidentally blows out an engine because he isn't watching the oil flow, and while he successfully lands the plane without significantly injuring the passengers, he has to be talked through it over the radio, and he ends up missing the gate by a huge distance and ripping off the landing gear. |
| 462 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Roger Murdock denies he's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as though he doesn't even know who Kareem is. He then breaks character when Joey starts to criticize his supposed lack of effort on the court. |
| 463 | * SustainedMisunderstanding: The conversation between Doctor Rumack and Captain Oveur, persists for about a half-minute. |
| 464 | -->'''Rumack:''' Captain, how soon can you land?\ |
| 465 | '''Oveur:''' I can't tell.\ |
| 466 | '''Rumack:''' You can tell me, I'm a doctor.\ |
| 467 | '''Oveur:''' No. I mean I'm just not sure.\ |
| 468 | '''Rumack:''' Can't you take a guess?\ |
| 469 | '''Oveur:''' Well, not for another two hours.\ |
| 470 | '''Rumack:''' You can't take a guess for another two hours? |
| 471 | * TakeThat: |
| 472 | ** There is a shot over a radio tower, and we hear "WZAZ in Chicago, where [[TemptingFate disco lives forever]]!" The plane immediately flies overhead and slices the radio antenna clean off, stopping the signal. (This apparently got actual applause from audiences when the film was in theaters.) |
| 473 | ** This is said to Capt. Oveur's wife: |
| 474 | --->'''[=McCroskey=]:''' Your husband is alive, but unconscious.\ |
| 475 | '''Johnny:''' Just like UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. |
| 476 | ** "I haven't felt this awful since we saw that UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan film." (Probably even Reagan would have admitted most of his movies were terrible.) |
| 477 | ** "I haven't seen anything like this [all the passengers getting violently ill] since the Anita Bryant concert." [[note]]Anita Bryant was a singer who made headlines in the late 1970s for her crusade against gay rights.[[/note]] |
| 478 | * TakeAThirdOption: Rumack probably brought his own food on board. |
| 479 | -->'''Rumack:''' What did the passengers have for dinner?\ |
| 480 | '''Elaine:''' Well, we had steak or fish.\ |
| 481 | '''Rumack:''' Yes, I remember. I had lasagna. |
| 482 | * TalkAboutTheWeather: Between Captain Oveur and Clarence as they prepare for takeoff (and Jimmy Walker washes the windows and checks the oil). Not only is their discussion somewhat TruthInTelevision (weather conditions obviously being of great importance to ''any'' aircraft), but when Roger arrives it becomes plot-relevant as he informs them of the bad weather that forces the plane to only be able to land in Chicago. |
| 483 | * TemptingFate: "WZAZ in Chicago, where Disco lives forever!" |
| 484 | * ThatRussianSquatDance: During the disco-dance flashback, Ted ends up dancing the ''kazatzsky''. |
| 485 | * ThanksForTheMammary: As Ted attempts to regain control of the plane, Otto the Autopilot is seen briefly groping Elaine's breasts. And possibly humping her. |
| 486 | * ThisIsNoTimeToPanic: As the unconscious pilot and co-pilot are dragged down the aisle, and when Elaine asks if there's anyone on board who can fly a plane. |
| 487 | * TooMuchInformation: Elaine casually going into descriptive details of her past romance with Ted, briefly mentioning how she "used to sit on his face and wriggle". |
| 488 | * TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Averted and lampshaded. The trailers prominently featured a spectacular moment where the front end of a passenger plane smashes through a terminal window as people scatter. Similar in nature to the climactic finale of the recent movie ''Film/SilverStreak'', the use of this scene in the trailer suggests a similarly epic finale. In fact, the scene takes place within the first few minutes of the film as the payoff to a minor sight gag and is never referenced again. |
| 489 | * TrainStationGoodbye: Parodied as the plane takes off, complete with an "All aboard!" call and the sound of a steam train. It does double-duty as a parody of war movies where the heroic soldier gets a sendoff from his girl -- specifically, the TropeMaker, ''Film/SinceYouWentAway''. |
| 490 | * TransparentCloset: Capt. Oveur likes to read "Modern Sperm" and hits on young boys while his wife is cheating (with a [[BestialityIsDepraved horse]]); sexual deviancy may be the one thing they have in common. |
| 491 | * TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: The plane is on a couple-hour flight, but in no time the press is aware of the debacle and newspaper stories are published and TV shows are aired about it. |
| 492 | * TheTriple: |
| 493 | ** In the newspaper segment, the first two newspaper headlines are related to the flight, but the third one that appears is completely unrelated ("Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot"). |
| 494 | ** The airport staff reading news about the flight: |
| 495 | --->'''Rex Kramer:''' Passengers certain to die!\ |
| 496 | '''Steve [=McCroskey=]:''' Airline negligent.\ |
| 497 | '''Johnny:''' There's a sale at Penney's! |
| 498 | * TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: |
| 499 | ** The little girl who takes her coffee like she takes her men -- black. |
| 500 | ** The first time we see the very mature boy reading a serious magazine and checking out the girl passenger. |
| 501 | ** One smash cut shows a little boy reading a Nun's Life magazine. |
| 502 | * TwoDecadesBehind: PlayedForLaughs. News reporters still wear fedoras in 1979-1980, everyone in the plane wears formal clothing, a pair of nuns is seen in traditional (pre-Vatican II, which concluded in ''1965'') garb, a character tells his wife over the phone to stop having the milkman deliver cheese to their doorstep (milkmen having become scarce since the 1960s, when supermarkets took over American life), and a number of male characters display embarrassingly sexist attitudes that, while undoubtedly still present in the late '70s, were nowhere ''near'' as socially appropriate as the movie makes them seem. To top that, in 1980 a commercial flight with that many crew and passengers makes a propeller sound! Most jarringly, Striker's flashbacks to what would logically be the Vietnam War include shots of World War I triplanes and even a pre-Wright-Brothers whirligig. Despite that, the jukebox in his flashback plays Music/TheBeeGees. A lot of this is a result of ''Airplane!'' being a pseudo-remake of 1957 ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'' ("the war", while not specified, was obviously World War II). The very outdated script was kept almost intact, with all the hilarity that entailed. |
| 503 | * UndiscriminatingAddict: Steve [=McCroskey=], as revealed in a RunningGag (although at least he's trying to quit): |
| 504 | -->'''Steve [=McCroskey=]:''' Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop smoking.\ |
| 505 | ''[later]''\ |
| 506 | '''[=McCroskey=]:''' Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop taking amphetamines.\ |
| 507 | ''[later]''\ |
| 508 | '''[=McCroskey=]:''' Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. |
| 509 | * UniversalDriversLicense: Averted. While Ted ''is'' a pilot, his only experience is with single-engine fighter planes, which handle very differently from the passenger airliner he's asked to fly in the movie. He does manage to land the craft, but not without help from people on the ground, and even then it's a close call. |
| 510 | * UnrelatedInTheAdaptation: In ''Zero Hour!'', Ted is married to, but separated from, Ellen (Elaine's equivalent), and Joey is their son. Here, Ted and Elaine are just unmarried ex-lovers and Joey is the son of the Hammens. |
| 511 | * UnusuallyUninterestingSight: |
| 512 | ** Girl Scouts brawling in a bar (only Ted seems to be concerned by this, though given that he identifies the bar as a WretchedHive, it's probably a routine occurrence), a man being stabbed and killed in a bar (Elaine likewise is the only one who notices, but still can't figure out he's actually been stabbed, and isn't dancing), the plane's pilots being dragged down the aisle by the stewardesses, [=McCroskey=] jumping out a window... the list goes on. |
| 513 | ** ''Everyone'' ignores Johnny's antics and treats him like a serious, focused airport employee. |
| 514 | * VideoCredits: Video of all the main players over the end credits, finishing with Otto the inflatable automatic pilot AsHimself. |
| 515 | * VisualPun: "Smoking or non-smoking?", "The shit's going to hit the fan," "Okay, boys, let's take some pictures," "Steve, I want every light you can get poured onto that field," "They're on instruments," and "We'll get him down safe," The Air Israel jet having a beard and a Yarmulke, among others. The "check the radar range" pun hasn't aged well, though -- although Amana still makes [=RadarRange=] microwave ovens, it's no longer the best-known brand (and most people nowadays don't know that microwaves were originally known as [=RadarRanges=] because microwave cooking was an accidental discovery made by people developing radars). |
| 516 | * VisualInnuendo: |
| 517 | ** The plane warnings depicting "No smoking, no sex" in symbols for about 5 seconds. |
| 518 | ** When the flight crew passes out from illness and the plane goes into turbulence, a shot shows a gelatin dessert (shaped like a breast) wiggling on a tray below a female passenger's jiggling breasts. |
| 519 | ** The literal "Shit hitting the fan". |
| 520 | * WackySoundEffect: The jetliner takes off and sounds like a steam train, then sounds like a propeller plane in flight. |
| 521 | * WalkieTalkieGagOver: "Over" and "Roger" are the names of Captain Oveur and co-pilot Roger Murdock, causing confusion while requesting their take-off clearance. To make matters worse, the Captain's first name is Clarence, which sounds similar to "clearance". At the same time, navigator Victor is looking for the proper vector. |
| 522 | -->'''Roger Murdock:''' We have clearance, Clarence.\ |
| 523 | '''Capt. Clarence Oveur:''' Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor? |
| 524 | * WatchOutForThatTree: A woman is chasing after her fiancé who's going into the military, and he is standing in the doorway of the moving plane. As she chases it the same way someone might follow a train, she keeps crashing into things, like a lamp post, a steel crane, a telephone pole... |
| 525 | * WhamLine: |
| 526 | ** "Every passenger on this plane who had fish for dinner will become violently ill in the next half hour." Capt. Oveur ate fish. Dr. Rumack had lasagna. |
| 527 | ** Elaine delivers one to the passengers aboard the plane as the entire flight crew has fallen ill. |
| 528 | --->'''Elaine:''' Ladies and gentlemen, this is your stewardess speaking. We regret any inconvenience the sudden cabin movement might have caused. This is due to periodic air pockets we encountered. There's no reason to become alarmed and we hope you enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane? ''[cue panic from the passengers]'' |
| 529 | %%* WhatsAHenway: There are several jokes like this. - ZCE |
| 530 | * WhatTheHellCostumingDepartment: InUniverse when Johnny "consoles" Oveur's wife. |
| 531 | -->'''Johnny:''' ''[disgusted]'' Where did you get that dress, it's awful, and those shoes and that coat, jeeeeez! |
| 532 | * WhosOnFirst: The flight crew's names: Captain Clarence Oveur, Co-pilot Roger Murdock, and Navigator Victor Basta. |
| 533 | -->'''Roger Murdock:''' Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.\ |
| 534 | '''Capt. Clarence Oveur:''' Roger!\ |
| 535 | '''Murdock:''' Huh?\ |
| 536 | '''Tower voice:''' L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.\ |
| 537 | '''Oveur:''' Roger!\ |
| 538 | '''Murdock:''' Huh?\ |
| 539 | '''Victor Basta:''' Request vector, over.\ |
| 540 | '''Oveur:''' What?\ |
| 541 | '''Tower:''' Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.\ |
| 542 | '''Murdock:''' We have clearance, Clarence.\ |
| 543 | '''Oveur:''' Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?\ |
| 544 | '''Tower:''' Tower's radio clearance, over!\ |
| 545 | '''Oveur:''' That's ''Clarence'' Oveur. Over.\ |
| 546 | '''Tower:''' Over.\ |
| 547 | '''Oveur:''' Roger.\ |
| 548 | '''Murdock:''' Huh?\ |
| 549 | '''Tower:''' Roger, over!\ |
| 550 | '''Murdock:''' What?\ |
| 551 | '''Oveur:''' Huh?\ |
| 552 | '''Basta:''' Who? |
| 553 | * WorldsShortestBook: ''Famous Jewish Sports Legends'' is just a leaflet. |
| 554 | * WorldOfPun: The page quote, Ted's drinking problem, smoking section tickets, etc. |
| 555 | * WorstNewsJudgmentEver: The plane crisis makes headlines ''internationally'', in an era before the 24-hour news cycle. All PlayedForLaughs, of course. |
| 556 | * YouGetMeCoffee |
| 557 | -->'''Steve [=McCroskey=]:''' How 'bout some coffee, Johnny?\ |
| 558 | '''Johnny:''' No thanks!\ |
| 559 | (in a later scene)\ |
| 560 | '''Steve [=McCroskey=]:''' Johnny, how 'bout some more coffee?\ |
| 561 | '''Johnny:''' No, thanks! |
| 562 | * YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: |
| 563 | -->'''Stryker:''' Surely you can't be serious.\ |
| 564 | '''Dr. Rumack:''' I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. |
| 565 | * YouNeverDidThatForMe: PlayedForLaughs. When her husband has a second cup of coffee, we hear the thoughts of the wife (listed in the credits as "Mrs. Hammen") echoing in her head: "Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home." Later, when he's sick and hurling into the barf bag, she thinks, "Jim never vomits at home..." This was a parody of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ4kCF22O2w a Yuban coffee commercial from the late 1970s]] ([[ParodyAssistance with the same actress playing the wife]]). |
| 566 | ---- |
| 567 | ->[[TheStinger "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you."]] |
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