Airplane! (1980)
Seen it? Rate it in one tap.
FavoriteLoved itLiked itIt was OKNot for me
Rate 5 films and ThumbScore predicts your score for every other one. Not seen it? Get your predicted score →
Cast
Is Airplane! good?
Where it ranks on ThumbScore
By audience score, among films with 500 or more votes.
Overview
About the Film
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 — 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 — "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley" — reinvented the actor's career from dramatic leading man to comedy icon.
