Airport '77

Airport '77
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jerry Jameson
Screenplay by	Michael Scheff David Spector
Story by	H. A. L. Craig Charles Kuenstle
Produced by	Jennings Lang William Frye
Starring	Jack Lemmon Lee Grant James Stewart George Kennedy Brenda Vaccaro Christopher Lee Darren McGavin Joseph Cotten Olivia de Havilland
Cinematography	Philip H. Lathrop Rexford Metz
Edited by	Robert Watts J. Terry Williams
Music by	John Cacavas
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	March 11, 1977 (1977-03-11)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million
Box office	$30 million

Airport '77 is a 1977 American air disaster film, and the third installment of the Airport film series. The film stars a number of veteran actors including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, and Brenda Vaccaro as well as the return of George Kennedy from the two previous Airport films. It is directed by Jerry Jameson, produced by Jennings Lang and William Frye, with a screenplay by Michael Scheff and David Spector.

The plot concerns a private Boeing 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art that is hijacked before crashing into the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle, prompting the survivors to undertake a desperate struggle for survival.

Despite mixed critical reviews, Airport '77 was a box-office hit with earnings of $30 million, making the film the 19th-highest-grossing picture of 1977. It was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Plot

A privately owned luxury Boeing 747-100, Stevens' Flight 23, flies invited guests to an estate in Palm Beach, Florida, owned by wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens, who also owns the jetliner. Valuable artwork from Stevens's private collection is also on board the jetliner, to be eventually displayed in his new museum. Such a collection motivates a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft.

Once Captain Don Gallagher leaves the cockpit and is knocked unconscious, the hijackers' plans go into action. A sleeping gas, which one of the hijackers secretly installed before the flight, is released into the cabin and the passengers lose consciousness. Knocking out the flight engineer, Chambers moves forward with the hijacking, and Stevens' Flight 23 "disappears" into the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtual wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility to less than a mile. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, and Flight 23 heading straight for it at 200 knots.

Chambers pulls back on the yoke in a banking left turn, but an engine clips the derrick and catches fire. Chambers immediately hits the fire extinguishing button, and the flames are momentarily extinguished. The sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As the engine reignites, Chambers is forced to use another fire suppression bottle. But by this time, the aircraft stall alarm is activated and the aircraft's tail hits the water. All the passengers wake up, and realizing what is happening, most panic. Chambers is able to pull up, but the plane's right wing hits the water again. The plane lifts into the air for a moment, then hits the water. At the same time, a huge crate blows a hole in the forward cargo hold. Because of the hard impact, the plane ditches and begins to sink.

The ocean floor is above the crush depth of the fuselage. Many of the passengers are injured, some seriously, while Chambers is the only survivor of the hijackers. Chambers informs the captain of how they are so far off course. And because of this, search and rescue efforts are focused in the wrong area. Involved in these efforts are Phillip Stevens and Joe Patroni. The only way to signal rescue efforts to the proper region is to get a signal buoy out of the plane, and to the surface in a small dinghy. Captain Gallagher and professional diver and passenger Martin Wallace enter the main cargo, but Wallace is crushed to death by the hatch. Gallagher, out of oxygen, swims out of the cargo hold and to the surface and activates the beacon after he climbs into the dinghy. Getting a fix on the new signal, a S-3 Viking overflies the crash site, confirming the location of Flight 23.

The Navy dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga, the destroyer USS Agerholm, and a flotilla of other vessels. The aircraft is ringed with balloons, and once inflated, the aircraft rises from the bottom of the seafloor. Just before the plane breaks surface, one of the balloons breaks loose, prompting the Navy captain to reduce the air pressure of the remaining balloons, thus keeping the plane just beneath the waves. One of the doors in the cargo hold bursts open, causing the plane to flood. The cascade of sea water sweeps through the passengers; Chambers dies when he is pinned under a sofa. Wallace's widow Karen, Dorothy and a stewardess drown as the Navy captain orders more air pressure into the balloons, finally raising the plane successfully. Once on the surface, the remaining passengers are evacuated. With the survivors on their way to waiting ships, Captain Gallagher and Stevens' assistant, Eve, are evacuated from the aircraft after escaping through the 747's upper deck after they both fell back inside the plane. After they escape, they are both rescued by a helicopter. Meanwhile, all buoyancy is lost and the 747 then slips under the waves for the last time.

Cast

• Jack Lemmon as Capt. Don Gallagher
• Lee Grant as Karen Wallace
• Brenda Vaccaro as Eve Clayton
• Joseph Cotten as Nicholas St. Downs III
• Olivia de Havilland as Emily Livingston
• James Stewart as Philip Stevens
• George Kennedy as Joseph "Joe" Patroni
• Darren McGavin as Stan Buchek
• Christopher Lee as Martin Wallace
• Robert Foxworth as Chambers
• Robert Hooks as Eddie
• Monte Markham as Banker
• Kathleen Quinlan as Julie
• Gil Gerard as Frank Powers
• James Booth as Ralph Crawford
• Monica Lewis as Anne
• Maidie Norman as Dorothy
• Pamela Bellwood as Lisa Stevens
• Arlene Golonka as Mrs. Jane Stern
• Tom Sullivan as Steve
• M. Emmet Walsh as Dr. Williams
• Michael Pataki as Wilson
• George Furth as Gerald Lucas
• Richard Venture as Commander Guay
• Elizabeth Cheshire as Bonnie Stern
• Anthony Battaglia as Benjy

Awards nominations

Award	Category	Recipient	Result
Academy Awards	Best Costume Design	Edith Head, Burton Miller	Nominated
	Best Art Direction	George C. Webb, Mickey S. Michaels	Nominated

Production note

Although the disaster portrayed in the film is fictional, rescue operations depicted in the movie are actual rescue operations utilized by the Navy in the event of similar emergencies or disasters, as indicated at the end of the film prior to the closing credits.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 38% of eight surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.1/10. On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Variety wrote, "The story's formula banality is credible most of the time and there's some good actual US Navy search and rescue procedure interjected in the plot." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and wrote, "The movie's a big, slick entertainment, relentlessly ridiculous and therefore never boring for long." The New York Times wrote, "Airport '77 looks less like the work of a director and writers than like a corporate decision."

Theme Park attraction

From late 1977 until the early 1980s, the Universal Studios Tour in California featured the "Airport '77" Screen Test Theater as part of the tour. Several sets were recreated, and members of the audience were chosen to play various parts. The audience would watch as these scenes were filmed. Key scenes such as the hijacking, crash and rescue were recreated, and the footage was then incorporated into a brief digest version of the film and screened for the audience on monitors. Each show's mini-film was made available to audience members to purchase on 8mm and videotape.

External links

• Airport '77 at IMDb 
• Airport '77 at the TCM Movie Database
• Airport '77 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Airport '77 at AllMovie