This movie is FULL of references to things of that time. One that almost no one notices (because it was so of the moment that it went past audiences even just a couple of years later): The guy who was stranded in the tax was Howard Jarvis. He was responsible for the passing of Proposition 13 in California, a property tax initiative that gutted the state budget. All kinds of services were affected, state college tuition skyrocketed, and a lot of people were angry. (I'm still pissed at the guy.) Seeing him sitting there stranded brought on a LOT of laughter in the audience, believe me! It was cathartic to see him get a piece of his own medicine! 😂
@@nickreacts6394 Yeah, they auditioned other actors but couldn't find anyone who sounded right, so they approached the couple who were happy to oblige!
The biggest shock to the 1980 audience was probably seeing June Cleaver, the all-American wife and mother from the 1950s TV sitcom Leave It to Beaver, speaking jive. Those of us who remembered that show were shocked. The actress was Barbara Billingsley.
I always loved the episode of Roseann where Barbera Billingsly, June Lockheart, Isabella Sanford, Alley Mills, and Patricia Crowley, are the TV Moms confronting Roseanne about what type of TV Mom she was.
The "Jim won't have a second cup" scene was from a commercial from that period. Now you need to watch Top Secret, starring Val Kilmer, by the same people. The "win one for the Zipper" is a reference to a Ronald Reagan movie, where he played the real-life George Gipp, a player for Notre Dame, who died in the middle of the season, and he told the team to "Win one for the Gipper."
_Knute Rockne, All American._ Reagan was in it and played Gipp, but his was a minor role, it wasn't "a Ronald Reagan movie" until he ran for President. That's similar to saying that _Home Alone 2: Lost in New York_ is "a Donald Trump movie" because Trump is in it for 5 seconds.
There's an amazing sight gag which I missed for years. Robert Stack is in two places at once. His wife is handing him a coat off screen while Stack's reflection is in the mirror. Once dressed, Stack walks through the mirror towards his off screen self.
Two things that took many watchings for me to notice. The baby yeeted into the air when the plane crashes into the terminal. Straight after the iconic "have you seen a grown man naked" line, Rodger asks captain Oveur whether he wants Rodger to check something and Captain Oveur says no, why don't you do it" As a bonus, one thing I didn't notice til this reaction, during the bar flashback, as the striped top guy gets up to dance, he upends a bowl of popcorn for no reason at all.
I've watched this movie a dozen times and just noticed during this react video the guy on the phone "he's a menace to everyone in the air, yes birds too." is talking to someone four feet away. Does anyone else see the ice-cream cone among the microphones during the interview "oh it's a pretty white plane with red stripes...." ?
This was the first movie to have Leslie Nielsen in a comedic role. Up until this film he had been a serious and dramatic actor. He did such a great job with the straight dead-pan comedy that it opened the door for him to star in the Police Squad and Naked Gun movies.
Not just Leslie Nielson-- almost all the major players in the movie were known as completely straight, dramatic actors. That's what the creative team wanted, actors who'd play the absurdities completely straight, rather than treating them as jokes (which just about every comedy before this would have).
@@nickreacts6394 Nielsen's favorite role was in the classic and influential FORBIDDEN PLANET. Based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and an SF must-see. Airplane wasn't shocking and was a hit. People weren't as thin-skinned as today, offended by everything. People loved it. What shocks people today didn't shock people in decades past.
@@nickreacts6394firstly I’m psyched to see you react to this one, it’s a fantastic parody movie and a classic, regarding his serious roles, you should really check out someday maybe (hopefully) Forbidden Planet. For three reasons, two of them are that it not only inspired a young Gene Roddenberry to make Star Trek it also hugely inspired a young George Lucas with his making Star Wars… the third reason is because of a more personal recommendation I; that it’s fantastic movie and fantastic sci fi adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Also I wish more people reacted to classic sci fi cinema, but I’m sort of biased.
@@nickreacts6394 comedic film debut, to be precise. 7 years before this, Leslie Nielsen was in a Season 1 episode of M*A*S*H entitled The Ringbanger, where he first showed his natural comedic talent by simply playing things straight.
A lot of things went into making this movie so iconic. First was that if you take away all the jokes, you still have a movie with a plot and serious stakes (actually, the movie is called "Zero Hour!" lol). Second is that it's written so that the characters don't know they're in a comedy and they hired really famous, dramatic actors for all the supporting roles. That was an innovation. And then there hard been a really long string of "natural disaster" movies that were getting stale, and this movie lambasted them so brutally that it single-handedly ended that movie genre for a decade. And then there were tons of deep cuts, like recreating a coffee commercial where the flight crew sets up a man to offer a woman coffee (the thing with the boy and girl was a parody) or hiring the woman from the other famous coffee commercial ("Jim never has a second cup at home") to redo that gag. So between tons and tons of relevant, modern cultural references, the utter roasting of the yet-another-disaster films, the amazing novelty of a comedy movie where EVERYONE is the 'straight man' in the gags, and the fact that the jokes are all super funny, but if you don't like one, there'll be another along in about 8 seconds to take its place, and the fact that it's not a mean parody-just a happy love letter to those kinds of films... well, the movie still endures today because it really is a classic! :)
I saw this theatrically with my parents right before my 13th birthday. I have never seen a theater packed with people laughing so much throughout before or since.😂
Airplane! is a parody of a 1957 drama called Zero Hour. The movie Zero Hour was an adaptation of a Canadian telepicture that started James Doohan from Star Trek as Ted Striker.
Absolutly correct. So close to Zero Hour they were afraid they would be sued by the owners of Zero Hour. So they bought the rights to Zero Hour, before releasing Airplane! Solved that problem.
@@mrtim5363 kind of like how the sitcom "Bewitched" is just the movie "Bell, Book, and Candle" with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novack. Someone warned the creator of Bewitched about the similarity and was told I own Bell, Book, and Candle.
The line "Win for the Zipper" was in reference to Knute Rockne, a college football star known as 'The Gipper'. The line was also made famous by Ronald Reagon in the bio movie.
The Mechanic checking the oil was Comedic Actor Jimmy "JJ" Walker from the hit sitcom Good Times. Also if you didn't notice that the Pilot paid for the mechanic work with his own credit card
There were jokes hidden all through the credits, too, and a post-credits scene with the guy still waiting in the taxi. Some of the jokes are specific to the time. Aeroplane disaster movies were a genre (the plot is taken from one called 'Zero Hour').
Nobody I’ve seen so far know who the passenger in taxi was. Howard Jarvis I was too little at the time to know a lot about him but associate him with taxes in California namely property tax. My parents got mail from his “Tax Association” all the time. So spending all that time in taxi with meter running was even funnier
The woman putting on the makeup is the mother of two of the writers/producers. She's in all of their movies doing something ridiculous, and clearly has a wonderful sense of humor. My favorite film of theirs is Top Secret with Val Kilmer. It has such wonderfully dumb moments, and Val Kilmer was so funny in it!
Including watching reactors' first time watches, I have seen this movie more times than years I've been alive, and this very video I caught a very subtle joke: the path the plane takes.
🤣🤣Why were you so convinced there was going to be a tragic ending? Two things: You should have watched to the very end. There was an after credits gag. Also, watch this at least a couple more times. I think I watched it half a dozen times before I stopped catching things I missed before! Thank you for doing this one. It's one of my top 5 all time favorite films
And the closing credits themselves had jokes hidden in them as well, such as naming the best boy, followed by the worst boy (Adolf Hitler) and a recipe. And of course, the guy in the cab saying, “I’ll give him 20 minutes…but that’s it.”
The film was actually based on an actual film with a similar plot, including the sick girl on the plane! I can't remember its name but I did see it once while flicking through various channels and saw all the things that Airplane was parodying! Made me love Airplane all the more.
Zero Hour! Never forget the exclamation point. Ha ha. Fun fact: Zero Hour! takes place on a Canadian airplane over Canada with the Zero Hour! version of Stryker being an ex Battle of Britain pilot.
There's at least one video on UA-cam displaying key scenes from _Airplane!_ and _Zero Hour!_ side-by-side, showing that _Airplane!_ only had to toss in a few wacky jokes and modern cultural references; _Zero Hour!_ was _already_ comically overwrought in its dramatics. _Airplane!_ takes inspiration from multiple other sources (the beach scene is straight out of the war classic _From Here to Eternity)_ and the nun with the guitar comes from _Airport 1975,_ except the nun (Helen Reddy!) does the singing to the ill girl (Linda Blair!). The _Airport_ franchise fell into self-parody with its final entry, _The Concorde...Airport '79,_ which features poor award-winning Cicely Tyson as the _mother_ of a transplant recipient, accompanying the transplant heart itself rather than the child. This means she frets a lot and screams when the locker containing the encased organ briefly pops open during shenanigans.
The two guys ("Hey Larry, where's the forklift?") on the tarmac were 2 of the 3 directors, Jerry (Crewman #1) and David Zucker (Crewman #2), and Jim Abrahams (Religious Zealot #6) was the 3rd director. Charlotte Zucker, Jerry and David Zucker's mom played the "makeup lady" (the one streaking eye makeup and lipstick all over her face). I think you missed it when Captain Oveur was on the phone to "The Mayo Clinic", all of the shelves behind him were filled with large jars of mayonnaise. However, right before that, you didn't show it, so I wonder if you caught that all the magazines in the area Captain Oveur was going through was in a section called, "Whacking Material" and there were magazines there like, "Rear Finder", "Dominant Females", (and when he moves, you can see) 1 called, "Box Lunch", and of course, the one he was reading was, "Modern Sperm". Also, I noticed that they are flying on "TA", which I can only assume stands for "Tits and Ass" Airlines (probably a reference to the old TWA airlines, dead as of December 1st, 2001). Later, when Johnny was talking to the press, 1 of the microphones used was actually NOT a microphone, but was, in fact, an ice cream cone, and the ice cream was dripping down.
I think this was Leslie Nielsen's first comedic role, that's why he didn't have a bigger part. But you can definitely see why they started casting him after this!
Before Airplane, Leslie Nielsen was chiefly a dramatic actor. One of his best dramatic roles was in the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet, something you might consider reacting to. It has several factors to recommend it. It was one of the first sci-fi "A" pictures with a sizable budget. It's the first movie with a completely electronic score. It inspired Gene Roddenberry to create Star Trek and many modern directors to get into making movies. And it introduced one of sci-fi's most iconic and enduring characters, Robbie the Robot. Next time you're in the mood for a beloved sci-fi classic, you'd be hard pressed to find anything better from that era.
Not just Leslie Neilson. Basically, every older man was a star from the 50s and 60s that recreated their on screen persona. In Other words they played themselves but over the top. The guy sniffing glue is Lloyd Bridges. He was a bis star in the 50s and he is Beux and Jeff Bridges dad. Striker is Robert Stack, mostly known for playing Elliot Ness in the old Untochables tv show. Peter Graves the pilot was the star of the mission Impossible tv show from the 60s. Also ,the woman who spoke Jive is June Cleaver. From Leave it to Beaver. She was Beavers mom. Jimmy JJ Walker from Good Times was the guy checking the oil of the plane. The young girl with the IV was on Love Boat and I think Fantasy Island a lot.
It has never been done before that's why it's so famous. Many famous movie scenes being spoofed by serious actors and airplane disaster movies and books. Lloyd Bridges and Rod Sterling were also very serious actors seen in their first comedic roles besides Leslie Nielson. The movie "From Here to Eternity" was where the kissing on the beach scene came from for example.
This is a spoof of some airplane disaster movies that were made in the 70’s, they were called Airport, Airport 75, Airport 77 and Airport 79 the concorde. The couple doing the airport announcements apparently worked at LAX doing them and were a couple in real life. The lady who is shocked her husband asked for a second cup of coffee is a reference to a famous coffee commercial from the 70’s, couples would be at a friends house or a restaurant and the wife would always be shocked that her man asked for a second cup. I saw this when it came out and I was 9, I obviously didn’t get the more sexual jokes.
Airplane is the perfect example of how Mad magazine would work on big screen (instead of the flop "Up the Academy"). It's a sequence of jokes that comes like a snowball and even if a joke doesn't work, another one comes like a punch
Little known fact: Other than some of the side-skits, like the Saturday Night Fever scene, this movie is actually a direct parody of a 1957 film called "Zero Hour". The plot of this film is virtually identical to Zero Hour. In ZH, a traumatized WW2 veteran pilot has to take over flying an airliner after the flight crew gets incapacitated by food poisoning, and a helpful doctor onboard the plane helps lead him through the process. Also, one of the pilots in Zero Hour was played by NFL star Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hersch, and this was parodied by having Kareem Abdul-Jabber play one of the pilots in this movie (The joke being that no one is supposed to notice that the pilot is Jabbar, just as no one was supposed to notice that Hersch was playing a pilot in the original film). You should check out the movie Zero Hour some day. The similarities between it and Airplane really are shocking.
one of the absolute best gags in the movie is post credits when it cuts all the way back to LAX and the guy is still sitting in the Taxi that Ted flpped the meter on and abandoned. the guy is looking at his watch... "Okay! I'll give him another 20 minutes! but THATS IT!"
Most people don't notice that the war footage is from WWII, which would mean Ted Stryker was too young to be in WWII. Also, comedies from the 70s and 80s were usually rated R and featured nudity, as well as all horror films and most dramas, and many included racial commentary and stereotypes (Mel Brooks). Ah the good old days.
I actually saw Airplane in the theater in 1980 when it came out. While I was watching it we experienced an earthquake and no one noticed because we were laughing constantly. One thing I would like to mention, that every reactor has missed that I have seen react to Airplane on UA-cam, is that there is an after credit's scene, one of the very first that I know of.
This film would NEVER be made today. It would be shot down before it even made it to paper. It is my all time favorite comedies, I have quoted it more times than I can count (My favorite is the "What is it?" bit). A classic, a masterpiece, call it what you want, it's amazing
The red zone, white zone shtick is so much better than anyone realizes. The two announcers are actual real PA airport announcers AND are really a married couple. They’re a married couple, in real life, who work at LAX as PA announcers. That makes their whole interaction like 100X more funny.
This and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are the two funniest movies in my book. The pilot, Peter Graves, was the younger brother of James Arness, better known as Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. Graves also starred in 1957's Beginning of the End, a sci-fi story about giant veggies and locusts that was riffed in the 1990s by the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Even though I was four years old at the time, I have vivid memories of my family going to see this on opening night in theaters. Mainly because we had dinner out at a restaurant first. A SEAFOOD restaurant, and yes, four-year-old me "had the fish." (It was the early 80s, there wasn't as much information available on plot details of new movies coming out, so my parents had no way of knowing what a bad choice this was.) Everyone in the family got a powerful object lesson on the suggestibility of little kids' minds, because as soon as I got home I was projectile vomiting.
The joke of the questions the pilot asked the boy came from an incident the actor had in real life. He had been in a gladiator movie that had been a fairly big hit from what I remember and he had gone grocery shopping. While waiting in line for the cashier, there was a mother and a boy ahead of him and the boy kept staring at him. He figured the boy probably recognized him from a movie and asked the boy if he liked gladiator movies, since that was his most recent big movie. The mother shot him a look that could kill and he figured how bad that had to have sounded. He told the story on set and they added the questions into the script after that.
If you've seen this movie, you can't stop watching Top Secret, they're like sister movies, everyone who reacted to this movie, also reacted to Top Secret within a few days.
The biggest shock with this movie was that it was a hit. Everyone was expecting Animal House to be the big comedy blockbuster that year, and then this came along, with no big stars and blew everybody away. It was a party in the theater, and we would go back over and over and over again and bring friends. It made a fortune as the sleeper hit smash of 1980.
@@Beehindblueyes …I take your point. I guess what I meant to say was, no bankable hot stars. Bridges, Nielsen, Stack, and Graves hadn’t headlined a movie in decades. And it was the first feature film for the two leads, Hays and Haggerty.
All of the male principals in this film are leads from dramatic action movies and TV (and basketball) who had never done an ensemble before, nor comedy. The woman who speaks jive is Barbara Billingsley, who played the wholesome, naive mother on Leave it to Beaver. There were a number of Airport! disaster movies in the '70's which this movie parodies. As well, there are memes from ads and pop culture that have to be explained to be appreciated. This movie is a great movie, rising above and commenting on its own moment in time, but it's more "of its time" than "timeless."
At last! 😂Absolute classic movie in my opinion! Although it makes many pop cultural references you might hardly understand today. But the comedy is mostly created by the characters which are totally serious in totally absurd situations, except Johnny 😂 The guy in the tower with the drug problem is Lloyd Bridges, also a former actor of character roles like Nielsen. He later became more popular in his roles in the "Hot Shots!" movies by the same team, which I of course recommend to you 😉 And you missed the after credit scene 😉 Oh, and if you like absurd humor, have a look at "Attack of the killer tomatoes" 😂
Absolute comedy classic. Utterly changed the trajectory of Leslie Nielsen’s previously dramatic acting career, and absolutely started this spoof comedy film craze. (And anyone who doesn’t blur the(great) boobs shot gets an immediate thumbs up either way.)
This was the second movie from the trio of Zucker/Zucker and Abrams. They previously wrote the movie Kentucky Fried Movie, which is a collection sketches from their theater show "Kentucky Fried Theater", which most aptly can be described as "A day in the life of a TV station". Though some of the jokes fall outside of that framework. It is very un-PC and probably couldn't be made today due to some of the jokes being very sexual and racial in nature. Between Airplane! and The Naked Gun they also made a Spy/Elvis movie spoof called Top Secret!, starring Val Kilmer in his first movie role that is highly recommended as well.
The guy who picked the wrong week to quit everything is Lloyd Bridges, Jeff's father. He's had a pretty good career in his own right but if you liked him here, you gotta see the two Hot Shots! movies. He's one of the funniest parts of both.
“Planes are a lot like cars, aren’t they?” No. There’s no engine in the nose. No “under the hood”. The engines are jets (in the film they sound like propellers) under the wing. The fact he was checking oil “under the hood” itself was the joke. :-)
The dance club scene: "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) The beach scene: "From Here to Eternity" (1953) Dr. Rumacks' rousing speech quoting George "the Zipper" Zip: "Knute Rockne: All-American" (1940), quoting George "the Gipper" Gip. Most of the movie is technically a remake of "Zero Hour" (1957) Yuban coffee ads circa 1979.
This was one of my first non-animated comedy movies when I was a kid (it was on VHS). Another great set of comedy movies is the Police Academy series (about 7-8 movies in total), you should totally watch them
In the 70’s and 80’s, there were a number of airplane disaster movies that were popular, many of them made for TV, that this movie is directly parodying. I used to watch them on my VHS as a kid, my grandfather was a pilot and had them all.
He said he was in the Air Force, but he's wearing a Navy officer's uniform. The jive-talking woman is Barbara Billingsly who played the mother in Leave it to Beaver. People like me who saw this in 1980 watched that program as children and were in on this joke. There was a coffee commercial in the 60s of a woman who remarks about her husband wanting a second cup of coffee at a dinner party.
Absolute comedy classic. Utterly changed the trajectory of Leslie Nielsen’s previously dramatic acting career, and absolutely started this spoof comedy film craze.
There were a series of “Airport…” movies in the 70’s “Airport 79” for example, and a lot of the jokes were reference to that. It was very rare for a slapstick comedy to be played straight at the time. I went to see it as a kid and it was the film everyone talked about that year. Great to see it still makes folk laugh even if some of the references are a little shocking now we’re a bit more enlightened!
This film has been rated to have the most laughs per minute. It’s a comedic remake of an original movie from 1957 called ZERO HOUR - ua-cam.com/video/8-v2BHNBVCs/v-deo.html BTW, the producers bought the rights to ZERO HOUR just to avoid being sued. References: Opening plane in clouds mimicking the movie JAWS. Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home (coffee commercial spoof) - ua-cam.com/video/MJ4kCF22O2w-/v-deo.html same actress in real coffee commercial Boy/Girl Coffee Scene: The Original and the Spoof - ua-cam.com/video/yH6KW6eMWJI/v-deo.html From Here to Eternity- Beach Scene - ua-cam.com/video/7TlDNMc_hFk/v-deo.html Also: He walked out from the mirror at Captain Kramer’s house. A lot of people don’t catch that joke. A lot of people miss the jokes throughout the credits and afterwards the man in the cab says he’s going to give him another 20 minutes but that’s it. - ua-cam.com/video/DPeYFD-vVHg/v-deo.html
As others have commented, this movie is a spoof of a drama called "Zero Hour!" That movie was filmed in 1957, twelve years after World War 2 ended, so it made sense that a guy in his 30s could have fought in that war. Some of the jokes in "Airplane!" don't make sense unless you know they're in reference to this older movie, such as having the sound of propeller engines for the passenger jetliner and having Ted and Elaine meet during WW2 in a 1940s bar that plays 1970s disco.
Leslie Nielsen was the captain of the Poseidon. He kept being cast a a dramatic actor when really he was a comedian. "Airplane!" was his comedy break out role.
Fun fact - The auto pilot has his own IMDB page as Otto. Also, if you like classics, and TRULY outrageous comedies and being the Mel Brooks fan yo MUST see History of the World Part 1. Also, if you want to see something even FAR more outrageous than Airplane from the same directors, The Kentucky Fried Movie. An older movie they made.
There is enough general funny stuff to fun at any time. There are some really hidden funny parts that if you didn't know about it.. probably would not get. Howard Jarvis was the guy sitting in the taxi.. an American businessman and politician who lowered California’s property taxes by spearheading Proposition 13. And that’s the joke. Jarvis, who was primarily known for his strong views on fiscal responsibility and limited spending. There are other sort of hidden jokes in the movie too. You can do some google searches to find out about them.
Dude, whomever edited this cut out the funniest bit in the whole movie, The women who speaks jive to the black dudes bit, unbelievable! This movie is so absurd, silly, literal, pun-filled, dumb, that all you can do is laugh your ass off! Also this movie would not have been made today because everybody in some way or another would be offended by it! This movie is a classic and is still hilarious to this day!
Wanna see something that you'll never be able to unsee every single time you watch this movie? At around 7:44, you can notice Robert Hayes, who plays Ted, waiting in the background just about ready to pop out of the crowd after the stunt man lands out of sight.
the problem is most reactors don't get the movie references in this film. from 1977's "saturday night fever' to 1953's "from here to eternity." and about 100 more. the "... leave a note for the milk man... no more cheese!" is from 1939's "destry rides again" starring jimmy stewart. its one of my favorite jokes in the whole movie but no one gets it. thanks for the video.
]20:26] [Spear hits cork board] YOU: "What was that?" ALL OF US: "It's a throwing weapon meant for piercing things over long distances, but that's not important right now."
The movie that the directors/writers were parodying was “Zero Hour”…and the lady on the plane trying to put makeup on was the directors Zucker’s mother.
11:08 (thinking to herself) "Jim never has a second cup of coffee.". This references a series of "Yuban Coffee" commercials in the early 1970s: ua-cam.com/video/MJ4kCF22O2w/v-deo.html
Given how much you like this style of humour, might I suggest Hot Shots? I have been seeing this movie on and off for over 40 years, and am still noticing little things they put in it. For example, it was only a couple of year ago I noticed all the jars of mayonnaise on the shelves behind the doctor at the Mayo Clinic. To be fair, your attention is naturally draw to the beating heart jumping on the table, but still a nice detail. Similarly, the scene later where Captain Kramer comes down the stairs and is getting ready in front of a big mirror, with his wife handing him his jacket and hat. while someone is being mauled by the family dog in the background. Or so it appears, until Kramer appears to step through the mirror and leaves the house. Still trying to work out how they did that.
12:50 James Hong is the Japanese general committing suicide and is a veteran actor who recently was in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "Kung Fu Panda" but has been acting since 1954.
Landis directed "The Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977) which is largely unconnected sketches that parody various film genres. The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who subsequently wrote and directed Airplane! I'll suggest another film that isn't as well known, "Amazon Women on the Moon". A spoof of low budget 1950s science-fiction movies, interspersed with various comedy sketches and fake commercials making fun of late-night television for a reaction possibility.
Great review. The reaction from what I recall was just a lot of loud laughing in theatre, especially my dad who made everyone laugh even louder! That's what I remember as a kid growing up.
Wasn't a federal offense to smoke on a plane then. Had smoking sections. Which is silly with recirculated air. Staying Alive sequence is a parody of Saturday Night Fever, where the song originally came from.
This movie is FULL of references to things of that time. One that almost no one notices (because it was so of the moment that it went past audiences even just a couple of years later): The guy who was stranded in the tax was Howard Jarvis. He was responsible for the passing of Proposition 13 in California, a property tax initiative that gutted the state budget. All kinds of services were affected, state college tuition skyrocketed, and a lot of people were angry. (I'm still pissed at the guy.) Seeing him sitting there stranded brought on a LOT of laughter in the audience, believe me! It was cathartic to see him get a piece of his own medicine! 😂
I love that the airport announcers were the two actual announcers for LAX at the time, and they apparently were actually married IRL too.
That's just awesome!
@@nickreacts6394 Yeah, they auditioned other actors but couldn't find anyone who sounded right, so they approached the couple who were happy to oblige!
I was today years old when I learned that
The biggest shock to the 1980 audience was probably seeing June Cleaver, the all-American wife and mother from the 1950s TV sitcom Leave It to Beaver, speaking jive. Those of us who remembered that show were shocked. The actress was Barbara Billingsley.
I always loved the episode of Roseann where Barbera Billingsly, June Lockheart, Isabella Sanford, Alley Mills, and Patricia Crowley, are the TV Moms confronting Roseanne about what type of TV Mom she was.
What is jive after all
That part btw was one of the least funny in dubbed versions of the movie in other countries
@@rogeriopenna9014 Jive, aka Ebonics, is Inner City Vernacular English
@@wesdog8975 that IS English?
And as a non native speaker, I thought English from New Zealand was the most difficult to understand
@@rogeriopenna9014 look it up for yourself if you are that bewildered
The "Jim won't have a second cup" scene was from a commercial from that period.
Now you need to watch Top Secret, starring Val Kilmer, by the same people.
The "win one for the Zipper" is a reference to a Ronald Reagan movie, where he played the real-life George Gipp, a player for Notre Dame, who died in the middle of the season, and he told the team to "Win one for the Gipper."
The commercial seemed to be on constantly in the seventies:
ua-cam.com/video/MJ4kCF22O2w/v-deo.html
Hence the Notre Dame fight song! 🏈
A mark of a great joke is that the "second cup" joke still sort-of works if you don't know the context.
That's the last comedy cut from this cloth
_Knute Rockne, All American._ Reagan was in it and played Gipp, but his was a minor role, it wasn't "a Ronald Reagan movie" until he ran for President. That's similar to saying that _Home Alone 2: Lost in New York_ is "a Donald Trump movie" because Trump is in it for 5 seconds.
There's an amazing sight gag which I missed for years. Robert Stack is in two places at once. His wife is handing him a coat off screen while Stack's reflection is in the mirror. Once dressed, Stack walks through the mirror towards his off screen self.
A lot of people miss that gag. I didn’t notice it until after seeing it about five times!
Most people are paying attention to the family dog brutally attacking that poor guy in the other room to notice it the first time.
Two things that took many watchings for me to notice.
The baby yeeted into the air when the plane crashes into the terminal.
Straight after the iconic "have you seen a grown man naked" line, Rodger asks captain Oveur whether he wants Rodger to check something and Captain Oveur says no, why don't you do it"
As a bonus, one thing I didn't notice til this reaction, during the bar flashback, as the striped top guy gets up to dance, he upends a bowl of popcorn for no reason at all.
@@richardrobbins387 Exactly! And Stack walks right towards them after he passes thru the looking glass. Mind bending stuff.
I've watched this movie a dozen times and just noticed during this react video the guy on the phone "he's a menace to everyone in the air, yes birds too." is talking to someone four feet away.
Does anyone else see the ice-cream cone among the microphones during the interview "oh it's a pretty white plane with red stripes...." ?
This was the first movie to have Leslie Nielsen in a comedic role. Up until this film he had been a serious and dramatic actor. He did such a great job with the straight dead-pan comedy that it opened the door for him to star in the Police Squad and Naked Gun movies.
Not just Leslie Nielson-- almost all the major players in the movie were known as completely straight, dramatic actors. That's what the creative team wanted, actors who'd play the absurdities completely straight, rather than treating them as jokes (which just about every comedy before this would have).
What an amazing comedic debut!
@@nickreacts6394 Nielsen's favorite role was in the classic and influential FORBIDDEN PLANET. Based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and an SF must-see.
Airplane wasn't shocking and was a hit. People weren't as thin-skinned as today, offended by everything. People loved it. What shocks people today didn't shock people in decades past.
@@nickreacts6394firstly I’m psyched to see you react to this one, it’s a fantastic parody movie and a classic, regarding his serious roles, you should really check out someday maybe (hopefully) Forbidden Planet. For three reasons, two of them are that it not only inspired a young Gene Roddenberry to make Star Trek it also hugely inspired a young George Lucas with his making Star Wars… the third reason is because of a more personal recommendation I; that it’s fantastic movie and fantastic sci fi adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Also I wish more people reacted to classic sci fi cinema, but I’m sort of biased.
@@nickreacts6394 comedic film debut, to be precise. 7 years before this, Leslie Nielsen was in a Season 1 episode of M*A*S*H entitled The Ringbanger, where he first showed his natural comedic talent by simply playing things straight.
A lot of things went into making this movie so iconic. First was that if you take away all the jokes, you still have a movie with a plot and serious stakes (actually, the movie is called "Zero Hour!" lol). Second is that it's written so that the characters don't know they're in a comedy and they hired really famous, dramatic actors for all the supporting roles. That was an innovation. And then there hard been a really long string of "natural disaster" movies that were getting stale, and this movie lambasted them so brutally that it single-handedly ended that movie genre for a decade. And then there were tons of deep cuts, like recreating a coffee commercial where the flight crew sets up a man to offer a woman coffee (the thing with the boy and girl was a parody) or hiring the woman from the other famous coffee commercial ("Jim never has a second cup at home") to redo that gag.
So between tons and tons of relevant, modern cultural references, the utter roasting of the yet-another-disaster films, the amazing novelty of a comedy movie where EVERYONE is the 'straight man' in the gags, and the fact that the jokes are all super funny, but if you don't like one, there'll be another along in about 8 seconds to take its place, and the fact that it's not a mean parody-just a happy love letter to those kinds of films... well, the movie still endures today because it really is a classic! :)
Nice post
It's amazing how they almost completely copied Zero Hour and made it hilarious
I saw this theatrically with my parents right before my 13th birthday. I have never seen a theater packed with people laughing so much throughout before or since.😂
Galaxy Quest came close. Packed out audiences laughing their heads off. But Airplane takes the prize for successful jokes per minute.
Airplane! is a parody of a 1957 drama called Zero Hour. The movie Zero Hour was an adaptation of a Canadian telepicture that started James Doohan from Star Trek as Ted Striker.
Absolutly correct. So close to Zero Hour they were afraid they would be sued by the owners of Zero Hour. So they bought the rights to Zero Hour, before releasing Airplane! Solved that problem.
@@mrtim5363
They didn’t even have to do that because of the parody laws. But yeah, it was basically “Airplane!” without the jokes.
@@mrtim5363 kind of like how the sitcom "Bewitched" is just the movie "Bell, Book, and Candle" with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novack. Someone warned the creator of Bewitched about the similarity and was told I own Bell, Book, and Candle.
The line "Win for the Zipper" was in reference to Knute Rockne, a college football star known as 'The Gipper'. The line was also made famous by Ronald Reagon in the bio movie.
Rockne apparently gave the speech, but the Gipper was George Gipp
@@markhutton6465 Thank you for the correction. I didn't know that.
because of this movie, airlines require that the pilot and copilot eat different meals
The Mechanic checking the oil was Comedic Actor Jimmy "JJ" Walker from the hit sitcom Good Times. Also if you didn't notice that the Pilot paid for the mechanic work with his own credit card
No one ever gets this joke but in the flashbacks Stryker says he's in the Air Force yet wears a navy uniform yet is being treated at an army hospital.
There were jokes hidden all through the credits, too, and a post-credits scene with the guy still waiting in the taxi.
Some of the jokes are specific to the time. Aeroplane disaster movies were a genre (the plot is taken from one called 'Zero Hour').
Nobody I’ve seen so far know who the passenger in taxi was. Howard Jarvis I was too little at the time to know a lot about him but associate him with taxes in California namely property tax. My parents got mail from his “Tax Association” all the time. So spending all that time in taxi with meter running was even funnier
This is the first time I realized that we never do get the answer to whether Joey likes movies about gladiators
About this reaction, I just want to tell you “ good luck, we’re all counting on you.”
The woman putting on the makeup is the mother of two of the writers/producers. She's in all of their movies doing something ridiculous, and clearly has a wonderful sense of humor.
My favorite film of theirs is Top Secret with Val Kilmer. It has such wonderfully dumb moments, and Val Kilmer was so funny in it!
Every time you see it, you'll see something that you missed. The jokes are too many to catch in one sitting. This movie is brilliant!
Including watching reactors' first time watches, I have seen this movie more times than years I've been alive, and this very video I caught a very subtle joke: the path the plane takes.
🤣🤣Why were you so convinced there was going to be a tragic ending? Two things: You should have watched to the very end. There was an after credits gag. Also, watch this at least a couple more times. I think I watched it half a dozen times before I stopped catching things I missed before! Thank you for doing this one. It's one of my top 5 all time favorite films
He wasn't content with the happy ending, so the ambulance ended up crashing...
And the closing credits themselves had jokes hidden in them as well, such as naming the best boy, followed by the worst boy (Adolf Hitler) and a recipe. And of course, the guy in the cab saying, “I’ll give him 20 minutes…but that’s it.”
The film was actually based on an actual film with a similar plot, including the sick girl on the plane! I can't remember its name but I did see it once while flicking through various channels and saw all the things that Airplane was parodying! Made me love Airplane all the more.
Zero Hour
@@c12friedman Thank you. Couldn't remember what it was called at all! Thank you!
@@c12friedman To be extremely precise it was Zero Hour! Don't forget the exclamation point.
Zero Hour! Never forget the exclamation point. Ha ha. Fun fact: Zero Hour! takes place on a Canadian airplane over Canada with the Zero Hour! version of Stryker being an ex Battle of Britain pilot.
There's at least one video on UA-cam displaying key scenes from _Airplane!_ and _Zero Hour!_ side-by-side, showing that _Airplane!_ only had to toss in a few wacky jokes and modern cultural references; _Zero Hour!_ was _already_ comically overwrought in its dramatics.
_Airplane!_ takes inspiration from multiple other sources (the beach scene is straight out of the war classic _From Here to Eternity)_ and the nun with the guitar comes from _Airport 1975,_ except the nun (Helen Reddy!) does the singing to the ill girl (Linda Blair!). The _Airport_ franchise fell into self-parody with its final entry, _The Concorde...Airport '79,_ which features poor award-winning Cicely Tyson as the _mother_ of a transplant recipient, accompanying the transplant heart itself rather than the child. This means she frets a lot and screams when the locker containing the encased organ briefly pops open during shenanigans.
The two guys ("Hey Larry, where's the forklift?") on the tarmac were 2 of the 3 directors, Jerry (Crewman #1) and David Zucker (Crewman #2), and Jim Abrahams (Religious Zealot #6) was the 3rd director. Charlotte Zucker, Jerry and David Zucker's mom played the "makeup lady" (the one streaking eye makeup and lipstick all over her face).
I think you missed it when Captain Oveur was on the phone to "The Mayo Clinic", all of the shelves behind him were filled with large jars of mayonnaise. However, right before that, you didn't show it, so I wonder if you caught that all the magazines in the area Captain Oveur was going through was in a section called, "Whacking Material" and there were magazines there like, "Rear Finder", "Dominant Females", (and when he moves, you can see) 1 called, "Box Lunch", and of course, the one he was reading was, "Modern Sperm".
Also, I noticed that they are flying on "TA", which I can only assume stands for "Tits and Ass" Airlines (probably a reference to the old TWA airlines, dead as of December 1st, 2001). Later, when Johnny was talking to the press, 1 of the microphones used was actually NOT a microphone, but was, in fact, an ice cream cone, and the ice cream was dripping down.
I think this was Leslie Nielsen's first comedic role, that's why he didn't have a bigger part. But you can definitely see why they started casting him after this!
Same with Lloyd Bridges, hilarious in the Hot Shots movies. Both had a crazy talent for delivering ridiculous lines with complete seriousness.
And Robert Stack (The Untouchables) and Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible).
@@Dystopia1111 he picked the right week to stop dramatic roles
Before Airplane, Leslie Nielsen was chiefly a dramatic actor. One of his best dramatic roles was in the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet, something you might consider reacting to. It has several factors to recommend it. It was one of the first sci-fi "A" pictures with a sizable budget. It's the first movie with a completely electronic score. It inspired Gene Roddenberry to create Star Trek and many modern directors to get into making movies. And it introduced one of sci-fi's most iconic and enduring characters, Robbie the Robot. Next time you're in the mood for a beloved sci-fi classic, you'd be hard pressed to find anything better from that era.
He was also the captain in “The Poseidon Adventure”.
Not just Leslie Neilson. Basically, every older man was a star from the 50s and 60s that recreated their on screen persona. In Other words they played themselves but over the top. The guy sniffing glue is Lloyd Bridges. He was a bis star in the 50s and he is Beux and Jeff Bridges dad. Striker is Robert Stack, mostly known for playing Elliot Ness in the old Untochables tv show. Peter Graves the pilot was the star of the mission Impossible tv show from the 60s. Also ,the woman who spoke Jive is June Cleaver. From Leave it to Beaver. She was Beavers mom. Jimmy JJ Walker from Good Times was the guy checking the oil of the plane. The young girl with the IV was on Love Boat and I think Fantasy Island a lot.
@@boki1693
Robert Stack was Rex Kramer, but yeah, these guys were all legends.
@@mattslupek7988 LOL, I know that but I literally make that mistake every single time! Thanks for catching me. :)
It has never been done before that's why it's so famous.
Many famous movie scenes being spoofed by serious actors and airplane disaster movies and books.
Lloyd Bridges and Rod Sterling were also very serious actors seen in their first comedic roles besides Leslie Nielson. The movie "From Here to Eternity" was where the kissing on the beach scene came from for example.
Well in 1974 _The Carol Burnett Show_ spoofed _Airport 1975_ (which came out in 1974). ua-cam.com/video/Lrkri4AnwFg/v-deo.html
This is a spoof of some airplane disaster movies that were made in the 70’s, they were called Airport, Airport 75, Airport 77 and Airport 79 the concorde.
The couple doing the airport announcements apparently worked at LAX doing them and were a couple in real life.
The lady who is shocked her husband asked for a second cup of coffee is a reference to a famous coffee commercial from the 70’s, couples would be at a friends house or a restaurant and the wife would always be shocked that her man asked for a second cup.
I saw this when it came out and I was 9, I obviously didn’t get the more sexual jokes.
This was like 1980 I think, we'd never seen anything so ridiculous in our lives, that's why it's a classic!
Airplane is the perfect example of how Mad magazine would work on big screen (instead of the flop "Up the Academy"). It's a sequence of jokes that comes like a snowball and even if a joke doesn't work, another one comes like a punch
You appear not to have caught the references to Saturday Night Fever (1977), so that classic needs to be added to your viewing list.
Little known fact: Other than some of the side-skits, like the Saturday Night Fever scene, this movie is actually a direct parody of a 1957 film called "Zero Hour". The plot of this film is virtually identical to Zero Hour. In ZH, a traumatized WW2 veteran pilot has to take over flying an airliner after the flight crew gets incapacitated by food poisoning, and a helpful doctor onboard the plane helps lead him through the process. Also, one of the pilots in Zero Hour was played by NFL star Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hersch, and this was parodied by having Kareem Abdul-Jabber play one of the pilots in this movie (The joke being that no one is supposed to notice that the pilot is Jabbar, just as no one was supposed to notice that Hersch was playing a pilot in the original film).
You should check out the movie Zero Hour some day. The similarities between it and Airplane really are shocking.
one of the absolute best gags in the movie is post credits when it cuts all the way back to LAX and the guy is still sitting in the Taxi that Ted flpped the meter on and abandoned. the guy is looking at his watch... "Okay! I'll give him another 20 minutes! but THATS IT!"
Most people don't notice that the war footage is from WWII, which would mean Ted Stryker was too young to be in WWII. Also, comedies from the 70s and 80s were usually rated R and featured nudity, as well as all horror films and most dramas, and many included racial commentary and stereotypes (Mel Brooks). Ah the good old days.
I actually saw Airplane in the theater in 1980 when it came out. While I was watching it we experienced an earthquake and no one noticed because we were laughing constantly. One thing I would like to mention, that every reactor has missed that I have seen react to Airplane on UA-cam, is that there is an after credit's scene, one of the very first that I know of.
This film would NEVER be made today. It would be shot down before it even made it to paper. It is my all time favorite comedies, I have quoted it more times than I can count (My favorite is the "What is it?" bit). A classic, a masterpiece, call it what you want, it's amazing
The red zone, white zone shtick is so much better than anyone realizes. The two announcers are actual real PA airport announcers AND are really a married couple. They’re a married couple, in real life, who work at LAX as PA announcers. That makes their whole interaction like 100X more funny.
This and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are the two funniest movies in my book. The pilot, Peter Graves, was the younger brother of James Arness, better known as Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. Graves also starred in 1957's Beginning of the End, a sci-fi story about giant veggies and locusts that was riffed in the 1990s by the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000.
And in the original tv series Mission Impossible.
Even though I was four years old at the time, I have vivid memories of my family going to see this on opening night in theaters. Mainly because we had dinner out at a restaurant first. A SEAFOOD restaurant, and yes, four-year-old me "had the fish." (It was the early 80s, there wasn't as much information available on plot details of new movies coming out, so my parents had no way of knowing what a bad choice this was.) Everyone in the family got a powerful object lesson on the suggestibility of little kids' minds, because as soon as I got home I was projectile vomiting.
The joke of the questions the pilot asked the boy came from an incident the actor had in real life. He had been in a gladiator movie that had been a fairly big hit from what I remember and he had gone grocery shopping. While waiting in line for the cashier, there was a mother and a boy ahead of him and the boy kept staring at him. He figured the boy probably recognized him from a movie and asked the boy if he liked gladiator movies, since that was his most recent big movie. The mother shot him a look that could kill and he figured how bad that had to have sounded. He told the story on set and they added the questions into the script after that.
If you've seen this movie, you can't stop watching Top Secret, they're like sister movies, everyone who reacted to this movie, also reacted to Top Secret within a few days.
The biggest shock with this movie was that it was a hit. Everyone was expecting Animal House to be the big comedy blockbuster that year, and then this came along, with no big stars and blew everybody away. It was a party in the theater, and we would go back over and over and over again and bring friends. It made a fortune as the sleeper hit smash of 1980.
No big stars? All big stars.
@@Beehindblueyes …I take your point. I guess what I meant to say was, no bankable hot stars. Bridges, Nielsen, Stack, and Graves hadn’t headlined a movie in decades. And it was the first feature film for the two leads, Hays and Haggerty.
If you want to see Leslie Nielsen in a serious role watch Forbidden Planet from 1956. A science fiction Classic!!!
Also “The Poseidon Adventure”.
All of the male principals in this film are leads from dramatic action movies and TV (and basketball) who had never done an ensemble before, nor comedy. The woman who speaks jive is Barbara Billingsley, who played the wholesome, naive mother on Leave it to Beaver. There were a number of Airport! disaster movies in the '70's which this movie parodies. As well, there are memes from ads and pop culture that have to be explained to be appreciated. This movie is a great movie, rising above and commenting on its own moment in time, but it's more "of its time" than "timeless."
So glad you're watching this. This is probably my favorite comedies. If you haven't done Top Secret, you should do that one as well. Very similar.
At last! 😂Absolute classic movie in my opinion! Although it makes many pop cultural references you might hardly understand today. But the comedy is mostly created by the characters which are totally serious in totally absurd situations, except Johnny 😂
The guy in the tower with the drug problem is Lloyd Bridges, also a former actor of character roles like Nielsen. He later became more popular in his roles in the "Hot Shots!" movies by the same team, which I of course recommend to you 😉
And you missed the after credit scene 😉
Oh, and if you like absurd humor, have a look at "Attack of the killer tomatoes" 😂
Don’t forget about Robert Stack (The Untouchables) and Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible).
Absolute comedy classic. Utterly changed the trajectory of Leslie Nielsen’s previously dramatic acting career, and absolutely started this spoof comedy film craze.
(And anyone who doesn’t blur the(great) boobs shot gets an immediate thumbs up either way.)
Leslie Nielsen was a dramatic actor for much of his life...this film gave him new life for his career and far eclipsed his previous work
A lot of people miss it but they are on a jet but the engine sound effect is for a propeller plane.
The review I have been waiting for!!! Merry Christmas to us!
This was the second movie from the trio of Zucker/Zucker and Abrams. They previously wrote the movie Kentucky Fried Movie, which is a collection sketches from their theater show "Kentucky Fried Theater", which most aptly can be described as "A day in the life of a TV station". Though some of the jokes fall outside of that framework. It is very un-PC and probably couldn't be made today due to some of the jokes being very sexual and racial in nature. Between Airplane! and The Naked Gun they also made a Spy/Elvis movie spoof called Top Secret!, starring Val Kilmer in his first movie role that is highly recommended as well.
The guy who picked the wrong week to quit everything is Lloyd Bridges, Jeff's father. He's had a pretty good career in his own right but if you liked him here, you gotta see the two Hot Shots! movies. He's one of the funniest parts of both.
“Planes are a lot like cars, aren’t they?”
No. There’s no engine in the nose. No “under the hood”. The engines are jets (in the film they sound like propellers) under the wing.
The fact he was checking oil “under the hood” itself was the joke. :-)
The dance club scene: "Saturday Night Fever" (1977)
The beach scene: "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
Dr. Rumacks' rousing speech quoting George "the Zipper" Zip: "Knute Rockne: All-American" (1940), quoting George "the Gipper" Gip.
Most of the movie is technically a remake of "Zero Hour" (1957)
Yuban coffee ads circa 1979.
This was one of my first non-animated comedy movies when I was a kid (it was on VHS). Another great set of comedy movies is the Police Academy series (about 7-8 movies in total), you should totally watch them
In the 70’s and 80’s, there were a number of airplane disaster movies that were popular, many of them made for TV, that this movie is directly parodying. I used to watch them on my VHS as a kid, my grandfather was a pilot and had them all.
the dude that says the line "looks like i picked the wrong week to quit ____" is Lloyd Bridges father of Jeff Bridges both bloody good actors ^_^
He said he was in the Air Force, but he's wearing a Navy officer's uniform. The jive-talking woman is Barbara Billingsly who played the mother in Leave it to Beaver. People like me who saw this in 1980 watched that program as children and were in on this joke. There was a coffee commercial in the 60s of a woman who remarks about her husband wanting a second cup of coffee at a dinner party.
Absolute comedy classic. Utterly changed the trajectory of Leslie Nielsen’s previously dramatic acting career, and absolutely started this spoof comedy film craze.
There were a series of “Airport…” movies in the 70’s “Airport 79” for example, and a lot of the jokes were reference to that. It was very rare for a slapstick comedy to be played straight at the time. I went to see it as a kid and it was the film everyone talked about that year. Great to see it still makes folk laugh even if some of the references are a little shocking now we’re a bit more enlightened!
This film has been rated to have the most laughs per minute.
It’s a comedic remake of an original movie from 1957 called ZERO HOUR - ua-cam.com/video/8-v2BHNBVCs/v-deo.html
BTW, the producers bought the rights to ZERO HOUR just to avoid being sued.
References:
Opening plane in clouds mimicking the movie JAWS.
Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home (coffee commercial spoof) - ua-cam.com/video/MJ4kCF22O2w-/v-deo.html same actress in real coffee commercial
Boy/Girl Coffee Scene: The Original and the Spoof - ua-cam.com/video/yH6KW6eMWJI/v-deo.html
From Here to Eternity- Beach Scene - ua-cam.com/video/7TlDNMc_hFk/v-deo.html
Also:
He walked out from the mirror at Captain Kramer’s house. A lot of people don’t catch that joke.
A lot of people miss the jokes throughout the credits and afterwards the man in the cab says he’s going to give him another 20 minutes but that’s it. - ua-cam.com/video/DPeYFD-vVHg/v-deo.html
In Australia this movie was called
Flying High.
This movie is so over the top and extra. Legitimately insane. The writing is just so damn funny. So many jokes just would not fly today.
As others have commented, this movie is a spoof of a drama called "Zero Hour!" That movie was filmed in 1957, twelve years after World War 2 ended, so it made sense that a guy in his 30s could have fought in that war. Some of the jokes in "Airplane!" don't make sense unless you know they're in reference to this older movie, such as having the sound of propeller engines for the passenger jetliner and having Ted and Elaine meet during WW2 in a 1940s bar that plays 1970s disco.
Leslie Nielsen was the captain of the Poseidon. He kept being cast a a dramatic actor when really he was a comedian. "Airplane!" was his comedy break out role.
Tootsie, 9-5, Arthur, and Seems Like Old Times are early 80’s comedies that are great.
Fun fact - The auto pilot has his own IMDB page as Otto. Also, if you like classics, and TRULY outrageous comedies and being the Mel Brooks fan yo MUST see History of the World Part 1.
Also, if you want to see something even FAR more outrageous than Airplane from the same directors, The Kentucky Fried Movie. An older movie they made.
There is enough general funny stuff to fun at any time. There are some really hidden funny parts that if you didn't know about it.. probably would not get. Howard Jarvis was the guy sitting in the taxi.. an American businessman and politician who lowered California’s property taxes by spearheading Proposition 13. And that’s the joke. Jarvis, who was primarily known for his strong views on fiscal responsibility and limited spending.
There are other sort of hidden jokes in the movie too. You can do some google searches to find out about them.
Try the "Hot Shots!" movies for more laughs! Lloyd Bridges is so funny as Admiral Benson...
Dude, whomever edited this cut out the funniest bit in the whole movie, The women who speaks jive to the black dudes bit, unbelievable! This movie is so absurd, silly, literal, pun-filled, dumb, that all you can do is laugh your ass off! Also this movie would not have been made today because everybody in some way or another would be offended by it! This movie is a classic and is still hilarious to this day!
Leslie Nielsen had probably the best lines,also was almost like Thor,every time he wanted to say something dramitic,the lightning striked :)
The story, with food poisoned pilots, is from Arthur Hailey's book Flight into Danger first published 1958.
Dracula Dead and Loving it is another comedy with Leslie Neilson and Mel Brooks that is very funny.
Coming soon!
The 'this was a bad week to stop sniffing glue' guy is Lloyd Bridges, who's Jeff Bridges' dad
Wanna see something that you'll never be able to unsee every single time you watch this movie? At around 7:44, you can notice Robert Hayes, who plays Ted, waiting in the background just about ready to pop out of the crowd after the stunt man lands out of sight.
the problem is most reactors don't get the movie references in this film. from 1977's "saturday night fever' to 1953's "from here to eternity." and about 100 more. the "... leave a note for the milk man... no more cheese!" is from 1939's "destry rides again" starring jimmy stewart. its one of my favorite jokes in the whole movie but no one gets it. thanks for the video.
]20:26]
[Spear hits cork board]
YOU: "What was that?"
ALL OF US: "It's a throwing weapon meant for piercing things over long distances, but that's not important right now."
The movie that the directors/writers were parodying was “Zero Hour”…and the lady on the plane trying to put makeup on was the directors Zucker’s mother.
Your reaction to the old woman hanging herself after Ted’s story had me laughing out loud - literally.
11:08 (thinking to herself) "Jim never has a second cup of coffee.".
This references a series of "Yuban Coffee" commercials in the early 1970s: ua-cam.com/video/MJ4kCF22O2w/v-deo.html
Remember this came out before alot of the movies and TV shows.I seen it in a theater everyone loved it
This movie takes the phrase "bored to death" way to literally 😄
The doctor taking eggs out of the patient's mouth and releasing a bird is a reference to some magic tricks of the time
Given how much you like this style of humour, might I suggest Hot Shots?
I have been seeing this movie on and off for over 40 years, and am still noticing little things they put in it. For example, it was only a couple of year ago I noticed all the jars of mayonnaise on the shelves behind the doctor at the Mayo Clinic. To be fair, your attention is naturally draw to the beating heart jumping on the table, but still a nice detail. Similarly, the scene later where Captain Kramer comes down the stairs and is getting ready in front of a big mirror, with his wife handing him his jacket and hat. while someone is being mauled by the family dog in the background. Or so it appears, until Kramer appears to step through the mirror and leaves the house. Still trying to work out how they did that.
Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves were highly-regarded dramatic actors. Casting them in a comedy was a stroke of genius.
4:14 "Planes really are like cars aren't they"
*screams in CPL*
If you watch carefully when Elaine flips him over, you can see Robert Hays in the background waiting to enter the scene.
The film succeeds by having the actors play it straight while the humor is in the background
The musical score is vastly underrated. It is perfect for a disaster movie.
One of the funniest, if not, the greatest disaster comedy movies ever made!
When I first saw it, a couple years before it came off, I saw and edited TV version. I laughed my head off.
12:50 James Hong is the Japanese general committing suicide and is a veteran actor who recently was in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "Kung Fu Panda" but has been acting since 1954.
The biggest shock and therefore the biggest laugh for me as a teenager when I saw this was the "I speak Jive" scene.
The nose thing reminded me of Roxanne, that might be a fun one to watch if you haven't already!
Landis directed "The Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977) which is largely unconnected sketches that parody various film genres. The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who subsequently wrote and directed Airplane! I'll suggest another film that isn't as well known, "Amazon Women on the Moon". A spoof of low budget 1950s science-fiction movies, interspersed with various comedy sketches and fake commercials making fun of late-night television for a reaction possibility.
Watch the sequel. It has 'The Shat' in it. Also Top Secret, it's by the same people.
Um, you may want to edit the nudity at 17:06.
Don't get a strike lol
Great review. The reaction from what I recall was just a lot of loud laughing in theatre, especially my dad who made everyone laugh even louder! That's what I remember as a kid growing up.
Wasn't a federal offense to smoke on a plane then. Had smoking sections. Which is silly with recirculated air.
Staying Alive sequence is a parody of Saturday Night Fever, where the song originally came from.
Just dropping by to say...we're all counting on you.
This movie predates naked gun by 8 years. It's the one that started it all.
In the movie Ted there was the same dance scene where Mark met Mile,Mark tells about the same scene.
Excellent thanks for the reaction!