Snakes on a Plane
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| Directed by | David R. Ellis |
| Written by | Sheldon Turner Sebastian Gutierrez John Heffernan David Dalessandro |
| Produced by | Craig Berenson Stokely Chaffin Toby Emmerich Penny Finkelman Cox Don Granger Justis Greene Jeff Katz Gary Levinsohn Sandra Rabins George Waud David J. Taylor |
| Starring | Samuel L. Jackson Nathan Phillips Rachel Blanchard Mark Houghton |
| Cinematography | Adam Greenberg |
| Edited by | Howard E. Smith |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release dates | August 18, 2006 (US) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35,000,000 |
Snakes on a Plane is a high concept action/horror film scheduled to be released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006. The David R. Ellis-helmed film was written by David Dalessandro, John Heffernan, Sheldon Turner and stars Samuel L. Jackson. Although the film is now completed, the film wrapped up principal photography in September of 2005 including five days of additional re-shooting to raise the MPAA film rating system rating from a PG-13 to an R[1], although the MPAA has not given the movie an official rating yet. Though initially speculated to be a dark, absurdist, or surreal comedy, its genre is officially designated as action/horror. Ronny Yu was originally slated to direct and spoke enthusiastically about the project before leaving due to budget disputes and "creative differences." He was replaced by Ellis.
Main characters
Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) – A 17-year-old surfer "dude" who witnessed a murder by Triad gangster Eddie Kim.
Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) – FBI agent who is escorting Sean to LA to testify against Eddie Kim. (Samuel L Jackson)
Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson)– Triad gangster who has killed countless people, and is one of the most wanted people in America.
Three G's – Famous rapper who happens to be on the same plane that Sean and Flynn are riding on. He has OCD and cannot stand to be touched.
Troy (Kenan Thompson) and Leroy (Keith Dallas) – Three G's' two bodyguards. Have been friends with each other and Three G's since elementary school.
Arch – Co-pilot of the plane. Texan accent and a pervert.
Claire/Tiffany/Ken – The main flight attendants. Ken is a metrosexual.
Tommy and Curtis – Two young boys riding on the plane alone.
Plot
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Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The story starts off with Sean riding his dirtbike through the Hawaiian jungles, going to a surf spot. As he is riding down, he stops by a bridge to take a rest and drink some Red Bull. He looks up over the bridge and sees three Triads beating up a tourist who is dangling by his ankles. Sean is terrified, but continues to watch. One of these Triads is Eddie Kim. After the tourist dies, Sean flees the scene. He made one huge mistake though. He dropped his can of Red Bull on the ground. The Triads scan the fingerprints, and find out that it is Sean that witnessed the murder. Back at Sean's house, Sean meets up with Neville Flynn. They book a flight to LA to testify against Eddie Kim and shut him down. The Triads find out about this, and decide to take action.
Sean and Flynn board the plane, completely booking out First Class. First Class takes up the second floor, while the main cabin is on the bottom. The plane is delayed numerous times, but eventually takes off. About a half an hour into the flight, one very teenage couple decide to go and have some fun in the bathroom. They start taking each other's clothes off, when all of a sudden they see about five snakes dangling down from the vents. They both get bitten, and start to cry out in distress. The flight attendants mistook those cries for cries of delight. The couple dies. As the snakes begin to take over the cargo hold and the electrical and vental shafts, one snake's weight knocks out a bunch of wires. The control panel at the flight deck becomes completely frozen and useless. The captain goes up to the electrical panels to find out what's wrong, but falls out once he got completely up. He was bitten in the head, but the crew mistook it as a heart attack. The flight continues on auto-pilot, when all of a sudden the oxygen masks fly open.
The snakes start pouring out of the holes in the ceiling, killing dozens of people. The are over fifty snakes now crawling around the main cabin. All of the snakes are extremely poisonous. About half of the passengers manage to run up to the front of the plane and take cover. They then build a makeshift barrier out of luggage. The other side of the barrier is complete chaos and hell, with dead bodies everywhere and snakes covering the ground. Some passengers have been bit, but now killed. 7-year-old Tommy has been bit in the arm, Leroy on the ass, and Arch on the shoulder. Arch managed to recover the flight panel, and is now flying the plane smoothly.
The flight continues, with all the passengers huddled up in the front of the plane. The plane is now suffering major turbulence, and insane drops. Their altitude is dangerously low as well. They go over to the flight deck to find out what's wrong. After managing to pry open the door, Arch falls into a dead heap onto the ground in front of them. No one is flying the plane now. They find out that Troy is actually a pilot, and decide that he should now commandeer the plane. The barrier of luggage is now long gone, and the passengers have rushed up to First Class with Sean and Flynn. The stairs up to First Class have been destroyed from the pressure of people running up them. Flynn joins Troy in flying the plane as they begin to get nearer and nearer to LAX.
Up in First Class, the smell of rotting flesh and sweat is starting to take it's toll on the passengers. The air conditioning is broken, and it is starting to make the air unbreathable. Three G's pulls out a gun from Flynn and almost shoots some passengers as he slowly starts to go insane from the smell and the fact that there are dead bodies on the plane. Eventually he puts down the gun and tries to take control of himself. Flynn decides to go down into the cargo hold with the snakes and fix the ventilation. As he makes his way down the shaft into the cargo hold, he is met by numerous snakes which he fends off with some hairspray and a lighter. As soon as he flips the switch and the vents start working, Flynn's radio cuts off as he runs out of hairspray. As all hope felt lost, Flynn stumbled out of the cargo hold saying "Sorry, snake ate my radio."
They are now extremely close to LAX. Troy now confesses that he was never a pilot, but has only played flight simulators. They fly into LAX missing a crash by inches (literally) and the surviving passengers are met with family, friends, and antivenin. The book ended with Eddie Kim getting "punished" by a female Triad. Template:Endspoilers
History
The film's title and premise generated a lot of pre-release interest on the Internet. Much of the initial publicity came from a blog entry made by screenwriter Josh Friedman, who had been offered a chance to work on the script[2]. The casting of popular actor Samuel L. Jackson further increased anticipation. At one point, the film's working title was altered to Pacific Air Flight 121. In August 2005, a perturbed Samuel L. Jackson told an interviewer, "We're totally changing that back. That's the only reason I took the job: I read the title."[3] In another interview in early 2006, Jackson claimed that once he learned about the movie title being changed he said: "What are you doing here? It's not Gone with the Wind. It's not On the Waterfront. It's Snakes on a Plane!"[4] On March 2, 2006, the studio reverted the title to Snakes on a Plane.
In recognition of the unprecedented Internet buzz for what had been a minor movie in their 2006 line-up, New Line Cinema ordered five days of additional shooting in early March 2006[5] (principal photography had wrapped in September 2005). While re-shoots normally imply problems with a film, the producers opted to add new scenes to the film to take the movie from PG-13 into R-rated territory and bring the movie in line with the growing fan expectation. Among the reported additions is a line that originated as an Internet parody of Samuel L. Jackson's traditional movie persona: "That's it! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!".
On June 3, 2006, Samuel L. Jackson said, while presenting the award for best movie at the MTV Movie Awards, "I'm here tonight to present the award everyone's been waiting for: best movie. This award holds a special place in my heart because next year I'll be winning it for Snakes on a Plane. Now I know, I know that sounds cocky, but I don't give a damn. I'm guaranteeing that Snakes on a Plane will win best movie next year. Does not matter what else is coming out. New James Bond... no snakes in that! Ocean's 13... where my snakes at? Shrek the Third... green, but not a snake. No movie shall triumph over Snakes on a Plane. Unless I happen to feel like making a movie called Mo' Motha-fuckin' Snakes on Mo' Motha-fuckin' Planes."
Media coverage
In mid-July 2006, New Line Cinema revealed that it would not be showing any advance screenings for critics. Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com claimed that "These kind of movies are marketing-driven, not critic-driven. So the only thing the critics could do is hurt it. And even if the reviews are good, they wouldn't mean much." Producers plan for the film to debut on August 18 with some late-night screenings on August 17.[6] Despite the lack of advance screenings, the movie has garnered much publicity in various media.
During a July 21, 2006 panel discussion at the Comic-Con Convention in San Diego, California, a ten-minute clip from the film was shown to a crowd of more than 6,500 people. The panel included actors Samuel L. Jackson and Kenan Thompson, director David R. Ellis, and snake handler Jules Sylvester. Afterwards, fans were allowed to ask the panelists questions.[7]
Black Flame is publishing the novelization to the film. It is written by Christa Faust, a cult horror writer with fans such as Quentin Tarantino. On June 13, 2006, comic book writer Chuck Dixon announced on his web site that he would be writing the comic book adaptation of Snakes on a Plane. DC Comics has since announced that their Wildstorm imprint will release a two issue miniseries on August 16th and August 30th [1]. In January 2006, Wired featured the film as "The best worst film of 2006," based solely on the title and concept of the movie.[8]
An illustrated book is forthcoming from Thunder's Mouth Press detailing the internet phenomenon, entitled Snakes on a Plane : The Guide to the Internet Ssssssensation by David Waldon. Waldon details various viral videos relating to the SoaP craze, and interviewed their producers to find out what about the movie captured their attention. The book is scheduled to be in stores just before the theatrical release of the film.
Music and audio
On March 16, 2006, New Line Cinema publicly announced a contest on TagWorld[9] and a website promoting the film.[10] The contest allowed artists on TagWorld to have their music featured on the movie. A flood of S.O.A.P themed songs by artists like Captain Ahab, Louden Swain, the Former fat boys, Nispy, and others are now available because of the TagWorld contest. In addition, a music video for the film, released July 10, 2006 on MTV2's Unleashed, has also generated publicity toward the movie. The video is for the first song on the soundtrack CD, Cobra Starship's "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)".
In October of 2005, Nathanial Perry and Chris Rohan recorded an audio trailer spoof, which helped fuel the internet buzz. Perry and Rohan recorded the "motherfucking snakes" line in the audio trailer which was added to the film during the week of re-shoots [11] . In July of 2006, New Line Cinema hired the Cutting Corporation to produce an audiobook of the film.
Television and video
Beginning in May 2006, episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its sister show The Colbert Report contained references to Snakes on a Plane's title, famous line, and general premise. Colbert usually accompanies the references with an imitation of Samuel L. Jackson saying something like "We've got motherfucking snakes on this plane." Keith Olbermann has featured stories about the movie and Internet buzz several times on his MSNBC news program Countdown. In addition, G4's Attack of the Show features a semi-regular segment entitled "Snakes on a Plane: An Attack of the Show Investigation."
In June 2006, New Line Cinema commissioned famed UK audio-visual film remixers and chop-up artists Addictive TV to cut and sample Snakes on a Plane to create trailers for the US television networks.
Internet
Snakes on a Plane quickly became an Internet phenomenon soon after Josh Friedman's blog entry [2] and mentions on several Internet portals. The title inspired bloggers to create songs, apparel, poster art, pages of fan fiction, parody films, and mock movie trailers.
The phrase "Snakes on a Plane" has been used on Internet forums to indicate that a given topic is nonsensical. With creative uses of capital letters, bold or italic text, and punctuation the title has been manipulated to reflect surprise, horror, or absurdity, among other things. The meme is often interspersed with images of Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Mace Windu and quoting lines recalling his roles from both the Star Wars series and Pulp Fiction. The slang form "SoaP" is used in place of "Shit happens" or "Oh well, what'cha gonna do?"
A viral video entitled "Snakes on a Plane Early Auditions" features comedian Dave Coyne doing impressions of actors Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro, and muppet, Beaker, doing casting auditions for the movie.[12] The film has been featured on Digg, iFilm, and YouTube. Dave's voice acting talent can be heard in the audiobook dramatization of Snakes on a Plane.
Many of the early false trailers and other viral videos circulated via YouTube, and captured media attention there, such as:
- Snakes on a Plane Fake Trailer
- Snakes on a Plane: How Hollywood Really Works
- Snakes on a Plane Rap
- All Your Snakes Are Belong To Us
On July 6, 2006, the official Snakes on a Plane website started a promotional sweepstakes called the "The #1 Fan King Cobra Sweepstakes." The contest makes innovative use of the publicity-generating potential of the Internet, requiring contestants to post links on forums, blogs, and websites and collecting votes from the users of those sites.
And, as the film's mid-summer 2006 release date approached, the studio launched more traditional online advertising.
Merchandising
Several independent T-shirt manufacturers have made T-shirts with graphics illustrating various humorous representations of the film. One, created by Jeffrey Rowland, depicts a frontal exterior view of a plane cockpit, with the pilot and copilot depicted as snakes. Another uses vintage road signs to formulate "Snakes + Plane = Snakes on a Plane". A third showed a cartoon representation of Jackson's Mace Windu character from the Star Wars series cutting down snakes with a lightsaber. It was pulled, presumably for copyright reasons. A Snakes on a Plane t-shirt is also now available at Hot Topic retail stores. Samuel L. Jackson was dressed in the snakes in cockpit fanshirt in the official music video "Snakes on a Plane", though this is only readily obvious from still photos from the day of the shoot, and only a fraction of the shirt is visible in the video. It is unknown if he chose the shirt himself, or if someone working on wardrobe selected it.
Cast
- Samuel L. Jackson as Neville Flynn
- Nathan Phillips as Sean Jones
- Mark Houghton as John Saunders
- Byron Lawson as Eddie Kim
- Sunny Mabrey as Tiffany
- Todd Louiso as Price
- Kenan Thompson as Troy
- James Hibbert as Tim
- Bruce James as Ken
- David Koechner as Rick
- Rachel Blanchard as Mercedes Harbont
- Bobby Cannavale as Hank Harris
![[icon]](/enwiki/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. |
Trailers
- The official teaser trailer premiered before X-Men 3: The Last Stand. and the first official trailer appeared online on June 26, 2006.[13] Another trailer circulated in July 2006, showing several of the snake attacks and a missing pilot and co-pilot.[14] In addition, New Line Cinema commissioned famed UK audio-visual film remixers and chop-up artists Addictive TV to cut and sample the film to create trailers for the US television networks. Rotten Tomatoes has video clips of the official trailers, as well as fan-made trailers.[15]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack will be released on August 15, 2006 as a joint project between New Line Records and Decaydance Records. [16]
Trivia
- In February of 1998, a similar plot was undertaken by Saturday Night Live in a sketch called "When Cobras Attack" during an episode hosted by John Goodman.
- The title image is a reference to the Caduceus, a staff belonging to Hermes in Greek mythology.
- The phrase “snakes in the cockpit” is used by pilots and refers to the high number of complex tasks they have to accomplish.
- In June of 2006, a pilot had a run in with a real snake on his plane.[17]
- No United States based airline currently allows snakes in the main cabin area. However, some airlines allow snakes to travel as cargo.
- If you look carefully at the caduceus poster, you will see that both snake bodies arrive at the same tail.
References
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417148/trivia
- ^ a b Friedman, Josh (2005). "I find your lack of faith disturbing: Snakes on a Motherfucking Plane". Retrieved 2006-03-18.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Snakes on a Plane News at IMDB". Retrieved 2006-07-30.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Wloszczyna, Susan (2006). "'Snakes on a Plane' sssssssays it all". Retrieved 2006-04-18.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Borys Kit (2006). "The Hollywood Reporter.com: Fan frenzy for 'Snakes' is on a different plane". Retrieved 2006-03-24.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Ryan, Joal (2006). ""Snakes" Deplanes Critics". Retrieved 2006-07-20.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Matheson, Whitney (2006). "Can't stop the 'Snakes'". Retrieved 2006-07-22.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Steuer, Eric. "The Best Worst Movie of the Year". Wired. January 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
- ^ "TagWorld and New Line Cinema Team for Snakes on a Plane Soundtrack Contest" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-03-18.
- ^ "TagWorld :: snakesonaplane's - Home". Retrieved 2006-03-18.
- ^ Fan frenzy for 'Snakes' is on a different plane Hollywood Reporter. March 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
- ^ "Snakes on a Plane Early Auditions" YouTube. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
- ^ Official Trailer. Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
- ^ "Snakes on a Plane." Alliance Atlantis & Odeon Films. Retrieved July 22, 2006.]
- ^ "Snakes on a Plane trailers". RottenTomatoes.com. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
- ^ Amazon.com: Snakes on a Plane: The Album: Music: Original Soundtrack. Retrieved July 21, 2006.
- ^ Foxnews.com: Pilot Fights Black Snake Stowaway on Plane." Retrieved July 22, 2006.
External links
- Official Site
- Template:Ymovies title
- Snakes on a Plane at Rottentomatoes.com
- Snakes on a Plane Cast Interview at yourMovies.com.au
- Black Flame, publishers of the tie-in novel
- Interview with Dylan Innes, Production Assistant on Snakes On A Plane
- NPR Story About "Snakes on a Plane"
- Snakes on a Plane at Salon.com