Airport (1970 film)

Plot

Chicago is paralyzed by a snowstorm affecting Lincoln International Airport. A Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Boeing 707 flight crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway, becoming stuck in the snow and closing that runway. Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his wife, Cindy (Dana Wynter). A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with a co-worker, TGA customer relations agent Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).

Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) is a TGA captain scheduled to be the checkride captain for the airline to evaluate Captain Anson Harris (Barry Nelson) during its Flight 2 to Rome. TGA's flagship international service, named The Golden Argosy, is being operated with a Boeing 707. Although Demerest is married to Bakersfeld's sister, Sarah (Barbara Hale), he is secretly having an affair with Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), chief stewardess on the flight, who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child.

Bakersfeld borrows TWA mechanic Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) to assist with moving TGA's disabled plane blocking Runway 29. Bakersfeld and Livingston also deal with Mrs. Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), an elderly lady from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway on various airlines.

Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys both a one-way TGA ticket aboard The Golden Argosy and a large life insurance policy with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up the plane. He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic Ocean so that his wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton), will collect the insurance money of $225,000. His erratic behavior at the airport, including using his last cash to buy the insurance policy and mistaking a U.S. Customs officer for an airline ramp agent, attracts airport officials' attention. Guerrero's wife finds a Special Delivery envelope from a travel agency and, realizing her husband might be doing something desperate, goes to the airport to try to dissuade him. She informs airport officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation was desperate.

Mrs. Quonsett manages to evade the TGA employee assigned the task of putting her on a flight back to San Diego, talks her way past the gate agent (passenger security screening did not yet exist), boards Flight 2, and happens to sit next to Guerrero. When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of Guerrero's presence and possible intentions, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers. Once Quonsett is discovered, her help is enlisted by the crew to get to Guerrero's briefcase, but the ploy fails when a would-be helpful male passenger unwittingly returns the case to Guerrero.

Captain Demerest goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy will be useless. Guerrero briefly considers giving Demerest the bomb, but just then another passenger exits the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft, and the same would-be helpful passenger yells out that Guerrero has a bomb. Guerrero runs into the lavatory, locks it, and sets off the device. Guerrero dies instantly and is sucked out through the hole blown in the fuselage by the explosion. Gwen, just outside the door, is injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the airplane.

With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, they return to Lincoln International for an emergency landing. Due to the bomb damage, Captain Demerest demands the airport's longest runway—Runway 29, which is still closed due to the stuck airliner. Eventually Bakersfeld orders the plane to be pushed off the runway by snowplows, despite the costly damage they would do to it. Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on Boeing 707s, has been trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the Boeing 707's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet without damage, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled Golden Argosy to land.

In a brief epilogue, Ada Quonsett is enjoying her reward of free first-class travel on TGA. But as she arrives at the gate, she laments that it was "much more fun the other way."

Cast

Box office

Airport was released on March 5, 1970. It made $100,489,151, and adjusted for inflation this was equivalent to $558 million in 2010, the 42nd highest-grossing film of all time.

Critical response

Variety magazine wrote: "Based on the novel by Arthur Hailey, over-produced by Ross Hunter with a cast of stars as long as a jet runway, and adapted and directed by George Seaton in a glossy, slick style, Airport is a handsome, often dramatically involving $10 million epitaph to a bygone brand of filmmaking" but added that the film "does not create suspense because the audience knows how it's going to end."

Film critic Pauline Kael gave Airport one of its worst contemporaneous reviews, scornfully dismissing it as "bland entertainment of the old school." "There's no electricity in it," she wrote; "every stereotyped action is followed by a stereotyped reaction."

Some modern critics have been similarly negative, including Roger Ebert, with the most generous reviews complimenting the film's influence on the disaster genre and its "camp value." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 80%, based on 15 reviews.

Awards

Nominations

Score

This film was the final project for composer Alfred Newman. His health was failing and he was unable to conduct the sessions for his music's recording. The job was handled by Stanley Wilson, although the cover of the 1993 Varèse Sarabande CD issue credits Newman. Newman did conduct the music heard in the film. He died before the film's release. Newman received his 45th Academy Award nomination posthumously for this film, the most received by a composer at that time.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack album listing:

1. Airport (Main Title) (3:11)
2. Airport Love Theme (3:30)
3. Inez' Theme (1:29)
4. Guerrero's Goodbye (2:37)
5. Ada Quonsett, Stowaway (1:26)
6. Mel And Tanya (2:27)
7. Airport Love Theme #2 (2:40)
8. Joe Patroni Plane Or Plows? (2:22)
9. Triangle! (3:50)
10. Inez-Lost Forever (1:45)
11. Emergency Landing! (1:38)
12. Airport (End Title) (2:36)

Sequels

Airport had three sequels, the first two of which were hits in the Airport film series.

The only actor to appear in all four films is George Kennedy as Joe Patroni. Patroni's character evolves and he goes from a chief mechanic in Airport to a vice president of operations in Airport 1975, a consultant in Airport '77, and an experienced pilot in The Concorde ... Airport '79.