This is probably my favorite "Airport" movie of the bunch, although admittedly I have yet to see "The Concorde: Airport 1979". Like it ought to be with sequels, the events and accidents are much more disastrous, the rescue operations are much more spectacular and the characters are much more stereotypical. In the first film there was just a tiny sub plot about a suicide bomber on a transcontinental flight, the second was more straightforward with a mid-air collision, but this third film unfolds an ambitious – albeit slightly grotesque – plot involving an attempted hijacking, a crash into the Bermuda Triangle and the trapped passengers either drowning or suffocating 100ft below the water surface. Multi-millionaire Philip Stevens gathered a whole posse of eminent people to come to the grand opening of his new museum and arranges for them to travel all together with his private and ultra-luxurious Boeing 747. There are also plenty of valuable paintings and art treasures aboard, which naturally interests a trio of crooks posing as cabin personnel. They sedate the passengers with gas and disappear from the radar, but their plan backfires when the massive aircraft hits an oil rig and crashes into the water. By the time Captain Gallagher comes to his senses, the plane completely sunk and there isn't a control tower that can locate them. Naturally there are several more additional intrigues between the characters aboard the plane, and this time they are actually interesting to behold thanks to the vivid and enthusiast performances. In fact, the top cast prevents the film from resembling too much like an episode of "The Love Boat". Speaking of which, every single one of the "Airport" movies boosts a deeply impressive cast of famous names, but "Aiport '77" definitely has my favorite ensemble cast. In a random order of importance, we have Christopher Lee, Joseph Cotton, M. Emmet Walsh, James Stewart, Darren McGavin, Kathleen Quinlan, Jack Lemmon, Robert Foxworth, Olivia De Havilland and Michael Pataki. The role of George Kennedy, the thread running through all four episodes, has been downsized to a cameo appearance, but it's always fun to see him. Some of the players appear in really unusual roles, like horror legends Christopher Lee and Joseph Cotton as honorable and unselfish millionaires. The special effects are also remarkably better than those in the previous installment (1975) and the images of the large inescapable plane slowly filling up with water through cracks and holes are effectively claustrophobic. The "Airport" cycle has a bad reputation among critics and wannabe intellectual film students, but at least they all guarantee sheer thrills and entertainment.
Review of Airport '77
