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.