History Main / StuckAtTheAirportPlot

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* ''Film/TheTerminal'' is basically this trope: TheMovie. The main character is stuck in an airport after his [[{{Ruritania}} home country]] breaks out in civil war. His passport is revoked and he isn't allowed to leave the airport or fly home.

* ''WesternAnimation/LittleBill'': The main problem of the Christmas Episode, where Alice the Great is stuck at the Cincinnati airport and is unable to come home for Christmas due to the big snowstorm there. Luckily, Little Bill saves the day by asking Santa Claus to pick her up and bring her home.

* The subplot of ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'' involves Brenda, the best friend of Creator/ElisabethShue's character Chris, being stuck at the Greyhound bus station in Chicago after trying to run away because she didn't bring enough money (or even plan) for a return trip. While the main characters keep running into one obstacle after another, the action keeps cutting back to her travails with [[AcceptableTargets homeless people]] and other annoyances in the bus station.

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR6xbulUmsg one of the first Microsoft "Cloud" commercials]] a couple is stuck in the airport. The man declares "[[ToTheBatNoun To the Cloud!]]" and they pass the time by watching their favorite shows which have been recorded to the cloud.

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* ''Film/DieHard2'': John [=McClane=] is at Dulles Int'l Airport on a very snowy Christmas Eve, waiting for his wife's (civillian) flight to arrive when a Central American drug lord hijacks the (military) plane carrying him to his trial.

* The introductory adventure to ''TabletopGame/{{DarkMatter1999}}'' revolved around a group of characters who get stuck at a highway rest stop during a huge snowstorm, and given the genre of the game, there's a monster lurking around in the snow and hints that the snowstorm itself might not be natural.

!!Works where the characters get stuck at an airport:

But the science of flight that keeps aircraft that make airports necessary in the air is a delicately balanced dance. Mechanical breakdowns can leave a plane grounded for hours or months waiting for repairs. Weather from a thin, misty [[OminousFog fog bank]], a few [[SnowedIn fluffy flakes of snow]], to [[HostileWeather mighty storms miles across]] can shut down runways for dozens, hundreds or even thousands of miles in all directions. The shutdown could also be caused by a major crime or, scarier still, a terrorist attack. Alternately, simply leaving the destination airport can be prevented by miles of bureaucratic red tape.

* ''Film/DieHard2'': John [=McClane=] is at Dulles Int'l Airport on a very snowy Christmas Eve, waiting for his wife's flight to arrive when a Central American drug lord hijacks the plane carrying her.

* ''Film/DieHard2'': John [=McClane=] is at Dulles Int'l Airport on a very snowy Christmas Eve, waiting for his wife's flight to arrive when a Central American drug lord hijacks the plane carrying him.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible This trope is not limited to airports]]. The kinds of chaos that can close an airport or ground flights can leave buses and trains parked as well. It can even happen to the occasional [[SubwaysSuck subway]]. Not surprisingly, a lot of these episodes like to set up a RoadTripPlot as a reason for the characters to be in such a place [[BaitAndSwitch only for it to fly]] screaming off the proverbial rails.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible This trope is not limited to airports]]. The kinds of chaos that can close an airport or ground flights can leave buses and trains parked as well. It can even happen to the occasional [[SubwaysSuck subway]]. Not surprisingly, a lot of these episodes like to set up a RoadTripPlot as a reason for the characters to be in such a place [[BaitAndSwitch only for it to hit]] the proverbial wall screaming.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible This trope is not limited to airports]]. The kinds of chaos that can close an airport or ground flights can leave buses and trains parked as well. It can even happen to the occasional [[SubwaysSuck subway]].

Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease This plot has happened to '''''[=FAR=]''''' too many [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real travelers]] to entertain the idea of listing even a fraction of the RealLife examples. [[noreallife]]

Suddenly our hero(es) is/are stuck in an airport. Now the real story begins. Now the real drama and/or action begins. This is where a Type 2 [[RoadTripPlot Road Trip Episode]] goes screaming off the rails.

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* The ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Happy Hank's Giving" has this happening to the Hills, the Gribbles, the Souphaniousinphones along with Bill and Boomhauer over Thanksgiving (which involves the destruction of Hank's propane-smoked turkey when a bomb-sniffing dog barks at his luggage). After everyone misses their flights, the families eventually settle with eating dinner at the airport with whatever they can scrape together.

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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/ImInMarsportWithoutHilda": Max has a layover at the space station around {{UsefulNotes/Mars}} for three days while he waits for the next shuttle to take him to Earth. He plans to spend them in Flora's apartment, but Rog Crinton has a job for him. He must investigate three [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney untouchably rich corporate executives]] while they're having their own layover between [[RaceAgainstTheClock 8pm and 11pm local time]].

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%%ZeroContextExample
%%* ''Literature/TheStatisticalProbabilityOfLoveAtFirstSight'', by Creator/JenniferBrown: The basis of the plotline.

* The basis of the plotline for ''The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight'', by Jennifer Brown.

* In ''Literature/{{Station Eleven}}'' [[spoiler:Clark]] boards a plane that is redirected to Severn City Airport due to the [[ThePlague Georgia Flu]] pandemic. The passengers are then stranded there for the next ''two decades''. Seeing as 99% of the population has died, and the world has become a [[AFterTheEnd post-apocalyptic wasteland]], it's not like they have anywhere else to go.

* ''Series/{{TheAmazingRace}}'' had a bit of this with NFL Teammates Chester and Ebrahim. They got stuck in an airport in Argentina and the episode would occasionally switch to them trying to deal with thier travel delays. By the time they finally got to their destination in Portugal, night had fallen and Phil was already there at the airport to eliminate them.

* The subplot of ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'' involves Brenda, the best friend of Elisabeth Shue's character, being stuck at the Greyhound bus station in Chicago after trying to run away because she didn't bring enough money (or even plan) for a return trip. While the main characters keep running into one obstacle after another, the action keeps cutting back to her travails with [[AcceptableTargets homeless people]] and other annoyances in the bus station.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible This trope is not limited to airports]]. The kinds of chaos that can close an airport or ground flights can leave buses and trains parked as well. It can even happen to the occasional [[SinisterSubway subway]].