Airport (1970-1979)

Airport (1970)

The most interesting thing in this movie is when an old lady called Ada Quonsett, played by Helen Hayes, tells the management of Trans Global Airlines how she can board a plane without any ticket. No wonder that she won an Oscar for this. The 2 main plots of this movie are how the manager tries to keep his airport open during a snowstorm and a desperate man who wants to commit suicide in a flight over the Atlantic with a bomb in his suitcase so that his wife can get the insurance money. The moment when the bomb exploded is very exciting and scary, mainly because a beautiful stewardess played by Jacqueline Bisset is hurt.

Airport 1975
Among the four movies in this series, this is the one I like less. The disaster on the movie poster look great, and it is. Can you imagine a plane with passengers without a pilot? Columbia Airlines's Flight is en route from Washington to Los Angeles, but a weather trouble makes them diverted to Salt Lake City. A smaller plane, piloted by a business man who suddenly suffers a heart attack, hit the Boeing's cockpit, killed 2 pilots and leave the captain blind and unconscious. Nancy the stewardess takes over the plane with the help from the tower. She cannot land the plane, though, so a new pilot must come to the rescue by entering through the hole in the cockpit. I find it impossible to believe how Nancy saves the plane. Good thing I like from this movie: Helen Reddy plays a guitar and sings a song for a sick little girl.

Airport 1977

James Steward plays a millionaire who will open a museum. His private luxury Boeing will carry his guests and his precious collections. On its way, the plane unfortunately is hijacked. The plane flies under radar, but it is too low that it hits an offshore drilling platform. The plane falls into the ocean. The SAR team cannot find them as they are 200 miles off course, and the only way out is someone must send a signal from the surface, before the survived passengers are drown. It's nice to see Olivia de Havilland; while Lee Grant's character, Karen Wallace, a wife who is angry to every body, is very irritating. I think none misses her after her death.

The Concorde ... Airport '79

I have written before that I liked this movie. I read this was a disaster, but I've seen worse movies. An arms dealer, played by Robert Wagner, plans to destroy The Concorde on its flight after learning that one of its passengers, his girlfriend, a reporter, knows about his illegal activity. The side plots about its passengers are a bit annoying and not interesting at all (but perhaps such things were popular in the time the movie was made), but I like the stories about the pilots and the manoeuvres when the Concorde is trying to avoid the missiles and fighter aircraft. This supersonic aircraft has ceased to operate since 2003.