Unfriendly Skies: Airline Disasters!...
by azathothpwiggins | created - 03 Mar 2023 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicEspecially popular in the 1970s, these films have actually thrilled audiences for decades. Here's a list of some good ones, in no particular order...
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1. Airport 1975 (1974)
PG | 107 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A 747 in flight collides with a small plane, and is rendered pilotless. Somehow the control tower must get a pilot aboard so the jet can land.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Votes: 11,867 | Gross: $47.29M
2. Skyjacked (1972)
PG | 101 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crazed Vietnam vet bomber hijacks a Boeing 707 in this disaster film filled with the usual early '70s stereotypes, and demands to be taken to Russia.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Charlton Heston, James Brolin, Yvette Mimieux, Claude Akins
Votes: 2,342 | Gross: $2.50M
3. Zero Hour! (1957)
Passed | 81 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
Director: Hall Bartlett | Stars: Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Sterling Hayden, Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch
Votes: 2,297
4. Airport '77 (1977)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Art thieves hijack a 747, hit fog and crash into the ocean, trapping them and the passengers under one hundred feet of water.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland
Votes: 12,323 | Gross: $30.00M
5. The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)
PG | 113 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A supersonic airborne disaster. In order to survive a flight headed for the Moscow Olympics, passengers of the Concorde must endure aerial acrobatics to dodge missiles and survive a device that decompresses the plane.
Director: David Lowell Rich | Stars: Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, George Kennedy
Votes: 6,957 | Gross: $13.00M
6. Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A reporter tries to stop the crash of an aircraft after uncovering an airline's plot to save their business by sabotaging Concorde flights and have them decommissioned.
Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Venantino Venantini, Fiamma Maglione
Votes: 632
7. Mayday at 40, 000 Feet! (1976 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
The co-pilot and engineer of a passenger jet struggle to keep the plane airborne until it can reach an open airfield after a killer aboard the plane fires a gun at an engine and pilot of the plane.
Director: Robert Butler | Stars: David Janssen, Don Meredith, Christopher George, Ray Milland
Votes: 362
8. Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 115 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
On the maiden flight of the first hypersonic commercial plane which can make the flight from New York City to London in four hours, a minor disaster occurs resulting in the plane actually ... See full summary »
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Lee Majors, Hal Linden, Lauren Hutton, Ray Milland
Votes: 1,296
9. The Doomsday Flight (1966 TV Movie)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Thriller
A bomb on board an airliner has an altitude-sensitive trigger. Unless a ransom is paid, it will explode when the plane descends to land.
Director: William A. Graham | Stars: Jack Lord, Edmond O'Brien, Katherine Crawford, John Saxon
Votes: 397
10. Crash (1978 TV Movie)
95 min | Drama
On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Florida Everglades, resulting in 101 fatalities.
Director: Barry Shear | Stars: William Shatner, Adrienne Barbeau, Brooke Bundy, Christopher Connelly
Votes: 303
11. The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 73 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
An invisible demon in the cargo hold of a jet airliner terrorizes the passengers.
Director: David Lowell Rich | Stars: Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, Tammy Grimes, Lynn Loring
Votes: 1,263
12. Turbulence (1997)
R | 100 min | Action, Thriller
After a shootout on a flight transporting prisoners, a flight attendant must outwit a smooth-talking serial killer and land the plane herself.
Director: Robert Butler | Stars: Ray Liotta, Lauren Holly, Brendan Gleeson, Hector Elizondo
Votes: 12,614 | Gross: $11.47M
13. Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying (1999)
R | 101 min | Action, Thriller
A passenger of a hijacked airliner who happens to be an airplane engineer works to deactivate a chemical weapons bomb after the hijackers kill the pilot and threaten to kill all the passengers on the plane.
Director: David Mackay | Stars: Craig Sheffer, Tom Berenger, Jennifer Beals, Jeffrey Nordling
Votes: 2,368
14. Airport (1970)
G | 137 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Directors: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg
Votes: 21,697 | Gross: $100.49M
15. Interceptor (1992)
R | 92 min | Action, Sci-Fi
A U.S. Air Force officer tries to stop a murderous group of terrorists who are trying to steal two top secret F-117A Stealth Fighters from the cargo hold of a gigantic C-5 Galaxy Transport flying at 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.
Director: Michael Cohn | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Andrew Divoff, Elizabeth Morehead, J. Kenneth Campbell
Votes: 737
16. Back from Eternity (1956)
Approved | 97 min | Adventure, Drama
After a commercial plane crash lands in a South American jungle, the passengers and pilots must patch up the engines and escape the cannibal-infested area.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger, Phyllis Kirk
Votes: 1,636
17. Five Came Back (1939)
Passed | 75 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A plane has engine trouble while flying over a jungle inhabited by cannibals.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine
Votes: 2,359
18. Red Eye (2005)
PG-13 | 85 min | Thriller
A woman is kidnapped by a stranger on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father, she is pulled into a plot to assist her captor in a political assassination.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Laura Johnson
Votes: 140,729 | Gross: $57.89M
19. Flightplan (2005)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Kate Beahan
Votes: 171,867 | Gross: $89.71M
20. Flight That Disappeared (1961)
Approved | 71 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A cross-country airliner, whose passengers include a nuclear physicist, a rocket expert, and a mathematical genius, is drawn beyond radar range by an unknown, unbreakable force.
Director: Reginald Le Borg | Stars: Craig Hill, Paula Raymond, Dayton Lummis, Gregory Morton
Votes: 829
21. Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
Approved | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An airline executive refuses to believe that pilot error, by his friend, caused a fatal crash and persists in looking for another reason.
Director: Ralph Nelson | Stars: Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette
Votes: 1,899
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