Synopsis: A commercial flight to the moon is disrupted when computer failure sends them on a course for the sun. Oh, and one of the passengers has a b~. I mean a bomb!
Reaction: Silly and zany may not go far enough to describe this movie. There are gags enough thrown around here to satisfy just about any sense of humor.
Personal Rating: 7/10
Highlights "Where am I supposed to find a small piece of metal? ... here? ... in space? ... at this hour?"
The fast repeated electronic bleeping noise, used several times during the movie, is the sound of an Atari home computer loading from a disk drive.
William ShatnerWilliam Shatner's character orders a profile on everyone who's seen The Sound of Music more than four times. That film was directed by Robert WiseRobert Wise, who also directed Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which starred William ShatnerWilliam Shatner three years earlier.
The window behind the "Transcendental Air" desk shows the cityscape from Logan's Run.
The hanging lady in the first airplane movie reprises her role as the first victim of Striker's anecdotes as the vomiting lady.
The music played during the shuttle launch is from the 'Nova of Madagon' sequence in Battlestar Galactica. The navigator is played by Kent McCordKent McCord who played Captain Troy on Galactica 1980.
The Zucker/Abrahams directing trio (Jerry ZuckerJerry Zucker, David ZuckerDavid Zucker & Jim AbrahamsJim Abrahams) claim (on the audio commentary on the DVD release of Airplane!) never to have seen this film. They initially agreed to a sequel and then balked at the idea at a later date. The movie went ahead without their permission and despite their protests - thus, they refused to watch a single frame of it upon its release - and still haven't over 20 years later.
Sonny BonoSonny Bono's briefcase is covered with stickers from his previous destinations, which are all cities destroyed by bombs: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Pearl Harbor, and Dresden.
This film was created with the obligation that its creative team return for a third installment. Expectations were so high that the next film was promised at the end of the credits of this one. When the film was released to mediocre box office plans for Airplane III were cancelled but the ad remains in most prints.
At one point Stryker, speaking to William ShatnerWilliam Shatner's character Buck Murdoch, says "Roger, Murdoch..." Roger Murdoch was the co-pilot in the first film played by Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar.
