The Horror At 37,000 Feet (1973) William Shatner considers this the worst film he ever made.Įxcept for the airplane-horror angle, the only similarity this film bears to the infamous Twilight Zone episode “Terror at 20,000 Feet” is that they both star William Shatner, who has publicly called this the worst film he has ever made. Burt Lancaster famously called the film a “piece of junk” despite it being the most commercially successful film of his career. Airport is based on a 1968 novel of the same name by Arthur Halley and stars Dean Martin and Burt Lancaster as, respectively, an airplane pilot dealing with a bomb threat and an air-traffic controller at a Chicago airport who’s trying to keep his facility open in the midst of a brutal snowstorm.
It also spawned three sequels in the 1970s, none of which were as successful or as lauded as the original. In what is probably the most lucrative and Oscar-nominated disaster film of all time-it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture- Airport ushered in the 1970s craze of “disaster” films. Airport (1970) Airport is one of the original disaster films. Crash Landing was also released as Rescue at Sea and marked the final film of actress Nancy Davis, who would go on to be better known as First Lady Nancy Reagan. The film was based on the real-life disaster of Pan Am Flight 6 in October of 1956, which left 24 passengers dead. The crew and passengers, in prototypical “disaster” movie style, work out their personal squabbles as they attempt to avoid falling into the ocean before reaching their destination.
Sears-who died of a heart attack before the movie’s release-two engines fail on a transatlantic flight from New York City to Lisbon, Portugal. In what would be the final film of “quickie” exploitation director Fred F. Crash Landing (1958) Like many airplane horror movies, Crash Landing was based on a real-life incident. What follows is a list of some of the best airplane horror movies ever made. Therefore, airplanes and horror are a natural match.Īirplanes are one of the staples of “disaster movies,” a genre that not only involves some kind of impending catastrophe, but usually a plot line that involves passengers who are incompatible and constantly quarreling with one another.
It’s terrifying enough being that high up in the air the possibility that something can go wrong only compounds the terror. There’s a certain claustrophobic vulnerability to flying 30,000 feet above the ground-or, especially, the sea-that makes airplanes a natural setting for horror movies. Still from The Langoliers a horror miniseries about people mystically disappearing on airplane.īut large-scale commercial airline flights of the type depicted in the films below didn’t start until much later, which is why this list begins with a film made in 1958. Aviation and horror movies were birthed only five years apart from one another-the short fantasy films of Georges Méliès first appeared in 1898, and the Wright Brothers flew their historic plane at Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903.
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