The plot concerns a private Boeing 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art that is hijacked before crashing into the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle, forcing the survivors into a desperate struggle for survival.[2][3]
Despite mixed critical reviews, Airport '77 was a box-office hit, grossing $91.1 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Academy Awards.
Plot
Wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens is having invited guests flown in his luxurious privately-owned Boeing 747-100, Stevens Flight 23, to his Palm Beach, Florida estate. Aboard are his estranged adult daughter and her young son, whom he hopes to reconnect with, as he is secretly dying. Priceless artwork from Stevens's private collection destined for his new museum is also on the jetliner. The collection has motivated a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft.
Mid-flight, Captain Don Gallagher is lured from the cockpit and rendered unconscious. A sleeping gas secretly installed pre-flight is released into the cabin, knocking out unprotected crew and passengers. Chambers, flying to a small deserted island to offload the art treasures, drops the plane below radar range causing Stevens Flight 23 to "disappear" in the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtually wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, and Flight 23 is headed straight for it.
Chambers attempts to avert a collision, but a wing clips the structure's tower, igniting an engine. Chambers extinguishes the fire but a sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As he struggles to maintain control, the passengers begin waking up to the unfolding disaster. Chambers is unable to maintain his airspeed; the plane stalls and crashes into the water, floating momentarily before quietly slipping below the surface.
The plane settles in relatively shallow water that is above the plane's crush depth, though water pressure gradually compromises the fuselage. Many passengers are injured, some seriously. Chambers, the only surviving hijacker, reveals the plane is two hundred miles off course, meaning search and rescue efforts will be focused in the wrong area. As a search for the missing plane is launched, veteran aeronautics expert Joe Patroni joins the rescue operation as a technical adviser, joined by Philip Stevens. Meanwhile, the trapped crew can only contact rescuers by getting a signal buoy to the surface. Captain Gallagher and a professional diver and passenger, Martin Wallace, enter the main cargo preparing to swim to the surface using air masks. The hatch door malfunctions, forcing Wallace to open it manually. The sudden onrush of water kills him, but Gallagher is able to make it to the surface and activate the emergency beacon. The signal is detected and a rescue operation is launched. Meanwhile, the plane's fuselage is steadily leaking.
The Navy dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga, and a flotilla of other vessels to the crash site, rescuing Gallagher. Stevens, meanwhile, has joined the Cayuga via helicopter while Patroni stays on the mainland to study the aircraft's risks of imploding underwater, which he warns Gallagher about over the phone. Guided by Gallagher, Navy divers rig the plane with balloons and inflate them, slowly raising the aircraft, which could split apart. Just before the plane reaches the surface, a balloon breaks loose and pressure is reduced to stabilize the aircraft. A cargo hold door inside the plane bursts open and seawater swamps the cabin; Chambers, pinned under a sofa, drowns. Emily’s injured friend Dorothy dies from her injuries; Wallace's widow Karen and a stewardess drown. With time running out, air pressure is increased, raising the plane to the surface. All survivors are quickly evacuated. Captain Gallagher and Stevens's assistant, Eve (whom Gallagher is in love with), get trapped inside and escape through the upper deck where they are fished out of the ocean by a Navy helicopter. All buoyancy is lost and the 747 slips under the waves for the last time. The survivors are unloaded on a nearby rescue ship. Stevens reunites with his daughter and tearfully hugs his grandson. The helicopter carrying Gallagher and Eve lands aboard the Agerholm, where they are both met by the grateful survivors.
Although the disaster portrayed in the film is fictional, rescue operations depicted in the movie are actual rescue operations utilized by the Navy in the event of similar emergencies or disasters, as indicated at the end of the film prior to the closing credits.
The disaster itself—a hard water landing as shown in the film, and an intact sinking—would not be likely given the hard tail strike, which would have demolished the aircraft.
For its initial broadcast on NBC-TV in September 1978, an additional 70 minutes of outtakes and new footage shot especially for network TV was added.[5]
Reception
Critical reception
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 40% of 10 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.4/10.[6] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7]Variety wrote, "The story's formula banality is credible most of the time and there's some good actual US Navy search and rescue procedure interjected in the plot."[8]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and wrote, "The movie's a big, slick entertainment, relentlessly ridiculous and therefore never boring for long."[9]The New York Times wrote, "Airport '77 looks less like the work of a director and writers than like a corporate decision."[10]
Box office
The film grossed $30 million in the United States and Canada and $61 million internationally for a worldwide total of $91.1 million.[11][12]
From late 1977 until the early 1980s, the Universal Studios Tour in California featured the "Airport '77" Screen Test Theater as part of the tour.[14] Several sets were recreated, and members of the audience were chosen to play various parts. The audience would watch as these scenes were filmed. Key scenes such as the hijacking, crash and rescue were recreated, and the footage was then incorporated into a brief digest version of the film and screened for the audience on monitors. Each show's mini-film was made available for audience members to purchase on 8 mm film and videotape.
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