Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Airplane!

Tonight I saw Airplane! starring Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty.

Ted (Hays) is heartbroken because Elaine (Hagerty) is leaving him. She's a stewardess (that's what they called flight attendants in 1980) and he's a former soldier turned cab driver. Distraught at the thought of losing her, he spontaneously purchases a ticket on one of her flights and soon exhausts his fellow passengers retelling their love story.

Meanwhile, everyone on board (including the captain and co-pilot) who had fish for dinner is getting violently ill, and they need medical attention, fast. In a matter of minutes, when the crew passes out, they also need someone to land the plane. Ted is the only one on board qualified to do it.

If you've never seen this 80s classic, you may think all of the above sounds like an intense thriller, but really it's one of the most ridiculously wonderful, hilariously quotable films in existence.

Growing up watching this, I understood about 1/3 of the jokes; as an adult I realized how filthy it really is and that makes it 75 times more genius.

I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must have been to write this screenplay, but my hat is off to the clever trio who did.

33 years later the jokes are still funny, the characters still fresh and the ending still satisfying.

I'm so glad I finally got to experience it in the theater.


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