Airplane! (1980)
- During the filming of Airplane!, Robert Hays improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Before Robert Hays was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
Airplane! is a 1980 American parody comedy directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, one of the most influential and endlessly quotable comedies in cinema history. The film parodies the disaster movie genre, particularly the 1957 film Zero Hour! (whose plot it follows almost scene for scene), following an ex-fighter pilot with a drinking problem, played by Robert Hays, who must land a commercial aircraft after the crew is incapacitated by food poisoning, while his flight attendant ex-girlfriend, played by Julie Hagerty, keeps the passengers calm. Airplane! delivered jokes at a density that had never been attempted in mainstream cinema โ visual gags, wordplay, sight gags, non-sequiturs, and deadpan absurdity arrived multiple times per minute, with many jokes hidden in the background of scenes.
Leslie Nielsen's performance as the gravely serious Dr. Rumack โ "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley" โ reinvented the actor's career from dramatic leading man to comedy icon.
The film earned $83 million worldwide on a $3.5 million budget and established the parody film genre that would dominate comedy for the next decade.
