Worst2First: My Top Ten Airplane Films
Worst2First:
My Top Ten Airplane Films
Here are my top ten airplane films, worst2first...
**THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS**
#10
Snakes on a Plane
There are some movies out there that are so bad they're good. That's the case with "Snakes on a Plane," a film that shouldn't make any sense on the outside, yet it's something truly enjoyable and funny to watch. Samuel L. Jackson stars as an FBI agent tasked to protect a trial witness on his way to Los Angeles when a terrorist unleashes hundreds of snakes on the plane in hopes of silencing the witness. What ensues is Jackson in his element - all his glorious F-bombs - and a totally farcical adventure that needs to be seen to believed.
#9
Red Eye
Wes Craven was best known for his horror series "A Nightmare on Elm Street," but here he directs a tense, claustrophobic thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy. Here, McAdams is a hotel manager who becomes a pawn in Murphy's terrorist plan, and she has to use her wits and cunning to stop him before he succeeds in his plan. It's a top-notch thriller with two fantastic leads, and you'll never see a stranger on a plane the same way again.
#8
Air Force One
Harrison Ford stars as the President, who is taken captive aboard Air Force One by Kazakh terrorists, but they don't know this President. He fights his way through the terrorists to protect others on board, and shows himself to be a real action hero. Co-starring Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, William H. Macy, Xander Berkeley and Dean Stockwell, "Air Force One" is a thrilling 90s action film filled with suspense and excitement.
#7
The Aviator
Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanckett, Kate Beckinsale, Ian Holm, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Gwen Stefani and Willem Dafoe, "The Aviator" was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and earned Cate Blanckett the statuette for Best Supporting Actress. The film is a biopic of Howard Hughes, an aviation pioneer and creator of the Spruce Goose, a man who had all the wealth and popularity in the world but slowly succumbed to his obsessive compulsive disorder. DiCaprio plays Hughes brilliantly, and delivers a solid, headstrong performance.
#6
Con Air
Before he would literally do any script that fell in front of him, Nicolas Cage was a very sought-after actor, especially with big budget action flicks like "The Rock" and "Con Air." Here, he stars as a man recently paroled after spending ten years in prison for attacking a man who was going after his pregnant wife. Aboard a cargo plane holding other inmates, they stage a coup and take over the airplane, in hopes of escaping. Co-starring John Cusack, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi and John Malkovich in a deliciously evil role, "Con Air" has all the action and spectacle you'd see in any late 90s action film, plus a decent story to boot.
#5
Catch Me If You Can
Leonardo DiCaprio returns to the friendly skies with Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," telling the real story of Frank Abagnale who, before the age of nineteen, successfully posed as a Pan Am pilot along with a doctor and a prosecutor. Tom Hanks stars as an FBI agent tasked to track him down, and the film also stars Christopher Walken, Amy Adams and Martin Sheen. It's an exciting cat-and-mouse film where Frank always stays one step ahead of the FBI, and it's entertaining and fun to watch, especially seeing two masterclass actors in DiCaprio and Hanks play off each other.
#4
Flight
Denzel Washington plays William Whitaker, a pilot who suffered from alcoholism and drugs who miraculously lands a plane after it malfunctions, resulting in minimal cost of life. He vows to get back on the straight and narrow, but an investigation is launched into the landing that puts his freedom at risk. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and co-starring John Goodman, Don Cheadle and Melissa Leo, "Flight" also earned two Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Washington himself.
#3
Sully
Pretty much everyone knows his name - Sully Sullenberger - the pilot who achieved the impossible: landing an airplane on the Huson River without a single fatality. This is the untold story of how he did it, the demons he faced because of it, and the investigation that followed. Tom Hanks gives a commanding performance as Sully, and shows why he's one of the best actors of our generation. It's poignant, exciting, interesting, and most of all true. It's a real miracle.
#2
Airplane!
The most light-hearted film lands at #2, featuring an all-star cast including Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hays, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The film is a spoof of disaster airplane movies where it finds an airplane in the air in danger of crashing, and the hilarious hijinks that ensue. It's withstood the test of time and lived to be one of the most humorous films in modern history, thanks in no small part to Nielsen's eccentric performance. Just don't call him Shirley. It's also filled with hilarious sight gags, quips, one liners and slapstick that'll have you laughing from start to finish.
#1
Top Gun
Do you feel the need? The need for speed? Directed by Tony Scott, the film stars Tom Cruise (back in his hayday) as a hotshot fighter pilot whose cocky attitude and demeanor rubs the other Naval Fighter Weapons School cadets the wrong way, yet he backs up his attitude with stealthy flying, and earns the respect of his peers. Co-starring Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis, the film is a classic action/comedy with some top-notch flight action sequences and career-defining performances by Cruise, Kilmer and McGillis, along with being included in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Not to mention the amazing soundtrack, which earned an Oscar for "Take My Breath Away," and also classic tunes like "Danger Zone."
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