Airways Top 15 Airplane Movies
With these films, you'll be inspired to host an airplane-themed movie binge during the holidays!
With these films, you'll be inspired to host an airplane-themed movie binge during the holidays!
DALLAS — Planning an airplane-movie binge for the holidays? We got you covered! Our top 15 airplane movies take into account films whose plot takes place mostly in flight (except for a few that are a must for aviation fans), their critical and audience reception, as well as their overall popularity.
Some films may not have performed well at the box office, but they remain popular nonetheless. We think these movies are some of the best titles for an aviation enthusiast. We omitted documentaries and historical films such as “Kitty Hawk: The Wright Brothers' Journey of Invention.”
Warning: All of the films on this list feature air travel as a major plot point and are not necessarily suitable for viewing on flights.
Get the popcorn out and fasten your seatbelts!
https://youtu.be/kwQF_eALPDI
Liam Neeson plays an alcoholic US Marshal who is tasked with finding a killer after receiving text messages threatening another passenger's death if the killer's demands are not met.
It's one of the action thrillers viewers have come to expect from Neeson. It's also a fun airplane ride if you're willing to look past the plot holes and obvious inconsistencies.
https://youtu.be/KaxcWDmXbBs
Donna, a small-town girl, wishes to escape her current situation and make a name for herself in the world. Becoming a flight attendant brings her one step closer to her goal.
In this film, Gweneth Paltrow stars as a trailer park girl who dreams of being a classy flight attendant — and she has the brains and the drive to achieve it. You'll also see the likes of Mike Myers, Christina Applegate, and Candice Bergen.
https://youtu.be/cqftFJdAvtQ
Before 9/11, there were plenty of terrorist-on-planes films. In this 1992 movie, when a master terrorist escapes his captors and takes control of the plane, an ordinary flight from Florida to Los Angeles becomes a nightmare.
Only an anti-terrorist expert (Wesley Snipes) who is a passenger on the hijacked plane can stop him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taI7WIfukvY
Cameron, played by nonother than Nicolas Cage in this cult film, is a wrongfully convicted prisoner soon to be freed when his plane is hijacked by other criminals.
He attempts to wrest control of the plane and return home while they seize control. You can guess the rest the plot of this 1997 action flick.
https://youtu.be/vkckhcqiwM8
Sean Jones, a witness, is on his way to Los Angeles to testify against Eddie Kim, a mob boss. Flynn, the FBI agent accompanying Sean, must, however, save the passengers from a disaster caused by loose snakes.
According to Hollywood rumors, Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the FBI agent, wanted to be in the film because of its ridiculous title. Fun fact, a snake did fall from an overhead bin in real life; it happened in 2016.
https://youtu.be/OHukIo3qVy4
Kyle Pratt, a recently widowed American aviation engineer living in Berlin, returns to the United States with her 6-year-old daughter Julia aboard an aircraft she helped design, a brand new Elgin E-474 (loosely based on the Airbus A380) operated by Aalto Airlines.
What's the catch? The sky marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) and captain (Sean Bean) on board inform her that her child did not board the aircraft. It's a great 2005 mystery psychological thriller film whose plot takes place in the air.
https://youtu.be/yQdjDtlK3uQ
Paul Greengrass wrote and directed this 2006 docudrama thriller film. The film follows the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, one of four hijacked flights during the September 11 attacks and the only one that did not hit its intended target due to passenger and crew intervention.
The performances are nuanced and unsentimental for such a film of a very real-life event that shocked commercial aviation and the world, changing our reality for ever on that fateful morning.
https://youtu.be/CvHp7xJZ4_U
John McClane returned to the big screen to save Dulles International Airport. This sequel picks up one year after the events of the first film, but this time terrorists have taken over the Washington D.C. airport and only McClane can stop them. If he can't, they'll deliberately crash planes.
If you like high stakes and lots of fight scenes, this is the movie for you. It's also a great holiday movie, much like the first in the series —you did know "Die Hard" was a Chrismas movie, right?
https://youtu.be/lN6Irv9tnYI
Leonardo DiCaprio plays real-life FBI fraudster, Frank Abagnale Jr., in this Steven Spielberg film. Impersonating a Pan-Am pilot is one of Abagnale's clever ways of evading FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) (despite being 17 and having no flight experience).
Along with the unexpected friendship between an FBI agent and a bank forger, the film is packed with vintage 1960s aviation details that will please any fan of that golden age of aviation, a more innocent time.
https://youtu.be/FebPJlmgldE
Martin Scorsese directed and wrote the 2004 American biographical drama film, The Aviator. We see Leonardo DiCaprio again in this list, now in the role of Howard Hughes, Cate Blanchett in the role of Katharine Hepburn, and Kate Beckinsale in the role of Ava Gardner.
The film is based on Charles Higham's nonfiction book “Howard Hughes: The Secret Life,” published in 1993. It depicts the life of Howard Hughes, an aviation pioneer, and director of the film Hell's Angels, from 1927 to 1947.
Don't miss our history brief on the life of Hughes, whose birthday anniversary is today.
https://youtu.be/Aqn2L6kQQt8
Denzel Washington stars in this Robert Zemeckis film as an alcoholic pilot who manages to avoid a plane crash with some pretty physics-defying maneuvers.
While he's praised for saving so many lives (the crash only had a few casualties), an investigation makes him and everyone around him question his state of mind and unorthodox life-saving actions.
https://youtu.be/1YdzfduyXIA
Red Eye is a 2005 American psychological thriller film directed by Wes Craven. The film follows a hotel manager (Rachel Adams) who becomes involved in a terrorist assassination plot while on a red-eye flight to Miami.
It's one of those highly psychological horror films that build just the right amount of tension and never let up. It's not the most realistic film, but it's certainly entertaining, especially with Cylian Murphy as the main antagonist.
https://youtu.be/mjKEXxO2KNE
We've covered the incredible story of US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. In Clint Eastwood's "Sully," we see Tom Hanks play Sullenberger, who was hailed a hero after making an emergency landing in the Hudson River with no casualties.
This biopic is a fairly nuanced portrait of the pilot that neither reveres nor condemns him for the events that transpired. Worth the watch.
https://youtu.be/Tej_U8rBh2U
"Airport" is a 1970 American air disaster drama film written and directed by George Seaton and starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. It established the 1970s disaster film genre, based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel of the same name. It is also the first of four films in the Airport film series. It earned more than US$128m despite having a US$10 budget.
The first sequel to the successful 1970 film, Airport 1975 (also known as "Airport '75"), would come out in 1974. Both films are campy and a bit long in the tooth, but the first one is essential watching for aviation fans.
https://youtu.be/07pPmCfKi3U
As you can see from the trailer, " some of the jokes and gags in "Airplane" wouldn't fly in today's cancel culture environment, but for the time it came out, the film is comedy gold at its finest.
The 1980 film is a parody of the disaster film genre, specifically the 1957 Paramount film Zero Hour!, from which the plot, central characters, and some dialogue are lifted. It also incorporates many elements from Airport 1975 and other Airport films.
Surreal humor and fast-paced slapstick comedy, including visual and verbal puns, gags, running jokes, and obscure humor, are trademarks of the show.
https://youtu.be/En0DYdjMVoY
This romcom of corporate employees who live out of their suitcases stars George Clooney, Anna Kendrick, and Vera Farmiga.
Clooney is a man who is just a few thousand miles away from achieving one of his life goals —10 million frequent flyer miles— when his company cuts his travel budget —a taste of his own medicine, as the story is centered on the traveling corporate "downsizer” played by Clooney.
Less action-packed and more character-driven, the film is well-acted and has an excellent, entertaining script that gives us a peek at what frequent flying is all about.
https://youtu.be/TK9qs5pOI4c
"The High and the Mighty" is a 1954 WarnerColor American "disaster" film in CinemaScope directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann, who also wrote the 1953 novel that inspired his screenplay.
The film's cast was led by John Wayne, who also served as co-producer. Dimitri Tiomkin, the film's composer, won an Academy Award for his original score, and his title song was nominated for an Oscar as well.
We know we missed a few, like "Alive," the first installment of the "Final Destination" series, or the classic Thanksgiving movie, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," so if you want us to add more films to this list, perhaps from an international roster, be sure to leave us your comments on our social media channels.
Happy Holidays from Airways!
Featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures via Youtube (under Fair Use).
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David H. Stringer, the History Editor for AIRWAYS Magazine, has chronicled the story of the commercial aviation industry with his airline history articles that have appeared in AIRWAYS over two decades. Here, for the first time, is a compilation of those articles.
Subjects A through C are presented in this first of three volumes. Covering topics such as the airlines of Alaska at the time of statehood and Canada's regional airlines of the 1960s, the individual histories of such carriers as Allegheny, American, Braniff, and Continental are also included in Volume One. Get your copy today!
