Harman Patil (Editor)

LAX airport in popular culture

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Numerous films and television shows have been set or filmed partially at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), at least partly due to the airport's proximity to Hollywood studios. Film shoots at the Los Angeles airports, including LAX, produced $590 million for the Los Angeles region from 2002 to 2005.

Contents

1960s – 1980s

  • In the 1966 musical film Hold On! there is a riot of teenage girls swarming aspiring starlet Cecilie Bannister at LAX.
  • In the opening credit sequence to 1967's The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's character is filmed passing wearily through an LAX concourse connection tunnel to "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel. In the 1997 film Jackie Brown, Pam Grier walks past the same spot to soaring soul music by Bobby Womack.
  • "L.A. International Airport", a song written by Leanne Scott and first recorded by David Frizzell in 1970, was covered in 1971 by Susan Raye and this version reached No. 9 on the Billboard Country Singles chart (and No. 54 on the Hot 100 singles chart). The song was re-recorded with updated lyrics in 2003 by Shirley Myers for the 75th anniversary of LAX.
  • The 1976 Walt Disney comedy film No Deposit, No Return has scenes shown around the interior and the exterior of the LAX terminal.
  • The 1980 Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker comedy Airplane! begins at LAX. Additionally, a twist on the iconic public announcement regarding the "white zone" is parodied in the film's opening scene.
  • Several scenes of the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger motion picture Commando were filmed at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, on the airfield, and in an LAX parking deck.
  • The 1985 film To Live and Die in L.A. featured a stunt in a terminal at LAX of Petersen running along the top of the dividers between the terminal's moving sidewalk.

    • 1990s

  • Stephen King's 1990 horror novella The Langoliers and its 1995 movie adaptation feature LAX as the starting point and ending destination for the protagonists.
  • The opening sequence of the 1991 television series Going Places begins with the side-view of an airplane landing at the Los Angeles International Airport, followed by the view of a "Welcome to Los Angeles" sign under a highway bridge.
  • The 1994 film Speed, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, was filmed in part on the runways of LAX.
  • The 1995 film Heat starring Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer and Al Pacino has its ending scenes filmed at LAX.
  • The 1995 Sandra Bullock film The Net, Bullock's character finds her car missing from an LAX parking lot.
  • The 1997 film Liar Liar starring Jim Carrey features a climatic scene where Fletcher Reede (Carrey) struggles to keep his son. He hurries to LAX, but his son's plane has already left the terminal. Desperate, he hijacks a mobile stairway and pursues the plane onto the runway.
  • The 1997 film Face/Off, a chartered plane crashes into an LAX hangar in the beginning of the film.
  • The 1997 film Turbulence starring Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly features a landing attempt by Holly's character on an LAX runway.
  • The 1997 Michael Crichton novel Airframe starts with a fictional airline from Hong Kong to Denver making an emergency landing at LAX.
  • The 1999 Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon film Anywhere but Here was partly filmed at LAX.
  • The 1999 PlayStation video game Driver contains a mission featuring Los Angeles International.
  • The 1999 film Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton feature an opening scene where the two arrive at LAX on the same flight.
  • The music video of Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" was filmed and is set mostly at the airport. The Tom Bradley International Terminal is seen in shots and also appears as the band sings and dances to the chorus. The scene where they are greeted by fans was filmed in one of the hangars of LAX. The plane in the video is a Boeing 727.

    • 2000s

  • The 2000 film Charlie's Angels feature a scene in LAX.
  • The 2001 Denzel Washington film Training Day concludes with Alonzo Harris fleeing to LAX.
  • The 2002 comedy-drama film Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale, Jr., starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, was partly filmed at LAX and nearby Ontario International Airport.
  • The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Volume 1 starring Uma Thurman featured a scene in an LAX terminal before her departure to Japan.
  • The 2004 Tom Hanks film The Terminal had pre-production shooting done at LAX.
  • The 2004 comedy Soul Plane features the NWA's first flight from Los Angeles International Airport.
  • The 2004 & 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V featured and parodied the airport as Los Santos International Airport or LSX and was commonly called as Los Santos International. The Theme Building, light towers, and the control tower of LAX were also featured.
  • The 2005 television series LAX starring Heather Locklear was a fictionalized drama of several operation managers working at LAX. Though most of the series was filmed at the nearby Ontario International Airport, LAX was used in several establishing shots.
  • The 2005 PlayStation 2 video game, L.A. Rush by Midway Games, features LAX.
  • The reality 2005 TV series Airline features the stories of Southwest Airlines employees and passengers originating from LAX, Chicago Midway International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Airport and William P. Hobby Airport.
  • The 2006 Samuel L. Jackson film, Snakes on a Plane featured a flight heading towards LAX from Honolulu, Hawaii.
  • In the episode, "The Woman at the Airport" from the television series Bones, FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and Dr. Temerance Brennan's investigate a woman's remains found at several locations around LAX.
  • In the 2007 Jerry Seinfeld film Bee Movie, Barry and Vanessa fly flowers as luggage on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport to re-pollinate the world.
  • Susan Raye, who has been retired from the music industry since 1986, made a rare public appearance to sing her classic hit at a concert at the celebration and to be on hand when a proclamation was issued to make the song the official song of LAX.
  • Los Angeles Rapper Game had a 2008 album titled LAX.
  • The airport is mentioned in the opening lines of Miley Cyrus's 2009 hit "Party in the U.S.A.", with the lyrics "I hopped off the plane at LAX..."
  • The music video for American Idol Season 7 winner David Cook's song "Come Back to Me" was filmed at LAX.

    • 2010 – present

  • In a 2010 History Channel episode of Life After People, the Theme Building and LAX Control Tower are shown what would happen to them after years of neglect.
  • The 2011 episode titled "The Middle Men" from the British science fiction television show Torchwood: Miracle Day, featured LAX.
  • In the final season premiere of Lost, notably titled "LA X", the alternate timeline sequences are mostly set in LAX, which was the intended destination of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.
  • L.A. International Airport also featured in the Brett Ratner film Rush Hour where Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) board a United Airlines Boeing 747-400 bound for Hong Kong.
  • The LAX Theme Building influenced the stage set up for the U2 360 Tour.
  • In the video game Destroy All Humans!, a majestic base appears to be similar to LAX.
  • LAX was featured as a playable stage in the 2003 video game Midnight Club II.
  • In the second Splinter Cell game, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the last mission takes place in LAX where Sam Fisher infiltrates LAX via the parking garage, takes out terrorists disguised as LAX employees and rogue CIA agent Norman Soth, and disarms the ND133.
  • In 2015 science fiction action film Terminator Genisys, in the post apocalyptic future setting, the ruins of LAX airport becomes one of Skynet's concentration camps, where it also houses its prototype time machine.

    • References

    LAX airport in popular culture Wikipedia
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