The 1980 movie Airplane! is probably the best comedy ever
produced Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker admit
that this is a low budget movie and every precaution was
taken to avoid spending too much money. It is a lampoon of
practically every disaster movie ever made but it mostly
intended to be a parody of the movie Zero Hour. Many of the
lines in the film are directly from Zero Hour.

Brothers Jerry and David Zucker wrote the film with Jim
Abrahams, who also directed a cast that included Lloyd
Bridges, Robert Stack, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara
Billingsley and Julie Hagerty. The budget for Airplane was
about US$3.5 Million

Because of the low budget the writers and directors show up
in a number of cameos as do members of their family. David
and Jerry Zucker appear as two ground crew members who
accidentally direct a plane into a terminal. Jim Abrahams is
one of the many religious zealot characters scattered
throughout the film. Charlotte Zucker, who is David and
Jerry's mother, is the woman attempting to apply makeup in
the plane as it violently shifts while their sister, Susan
Breslau, is the second ticket agent at the airport. Jim
Abraham's mother is the woman initially sitting next to Dr.
Rumack.


The movie starts out at Los Angeles International Airport
where there are many sight and voice gags. We meet one of
the stars of the show, Robert Hays, who plays an ex-fighter
pilot who lost most of his squadron during a raid. He's now
a cab driver who's afraid of airplanes. We also meet his
girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hagerty) who is a stewardess and
had decided to move out of their apartment and leave Ted
forever. Captain Oveur (Peter Graves) is also introduced. He
is the pilot of the airplane and, as we discover later, has
an unusual appreciation for little boys.

After the meal is served, many of the passengers become ill.
The stewardesses search for a doctor and eventually find one
in Dr. Rumack who is played by Leslie Nielsen. He diagnosis
food poisoning and concludes that anyone who had the fish
for dinner will eventually become violently ill. The food
poisoning incapacitates the pilot, co-pilot and navigator
and the only one left to fly the plane is our reluctant
hero, Ted Striker.

The head of Chicago Flight Control, Steve McCroskey (played
by Lloyd Bridges) calls in a veteran pilot, Rex Kramer
(played by Robert Stack) to talk Ted Striker through flying
the plane. It turns out that Rex Kramer was Ted Striker's
commanding officer during the war and there is no love lost
between the two.As a matter of fact,Rex Kramer has no faith
in Stricker's ability to ever land the plane

Elaine is in the cockpit[with that famous scene with the
inflatable pilot] trying to figure out what's going to
happen next. Stricker somehow finds the courage to come in
and take over the controls and lands the plane.

The antics and one liners that prevail throughout this film
will leave you laughing in you seats. A really healthy dose
of laughter makes this movie one of the best comedy movies
ever.