Airport 1975

"Something hit us... The crew is dead... Help us, please, please help us!"

1974 1h 47m EN

😐

5.8

MID

🥫

32%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.8

IMDB

★5.8TMDB · 305🥫32%Rotten Tomatoes●50Metacritic★5.8IMDB · 13,729

DramaThrillerAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.

“Something hit us... The crew is dead... Help us, please, please help us!”

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Cast

Charlton Heston
Alan Murdock
Karen Black
Nancy Pryor
George Kennedy
Joe Patroni
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Captain Stacy
Susan Clark
Helen Patroni
Helen Reddy
Sister Ruth
Linda Blair
Janice Abbott
Dana Andrews
Scott Freeman

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jack Smight
Writers: Don Ingalls
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $103M — a 34.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

52 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Airport Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jack Smight, shot by Philip H. Lathrop. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Cacavas. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor J. Terry Williams shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Charlton Heston and Karen Black and George Kennedy carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jack Smight directs. Philip H. Lathrop behind the camera. John Cacavas scores. J. Terry Williams cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $103M — a 34.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
352 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Part of the "Airport Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Jack Smight, shot by Philip H. Lathrop. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by John Cacavas. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor J. Terry Williams shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Charlton Heston and Karen Black and George Kennedy carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Something hit us... The crew is dead... Help us, please, please help us!".
10IMDB entry: tt0071110 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 19 themes, including "helicopter", "husband wife relationship", "airplane", "cataclysm".

The technical file

Cinematography: Philip H. Lathrop
Original score: John Cacavas
Editing: J. Terry Williams
Costume design: Edith Head
Makeup / hair: Jack Freeman
Stunt coordinator: Joe Canutt
Runtime: 107 min · 1h 47m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $102,985,152
Return: 3433% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Airport 1975 (1974)
Rotten Tomatoes: 32% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 50/100
IMDB rating: 5.8/10 · 13,729 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

1 nomination total

Part of

Airport Collection

"Airport", based on the best selling novel by Arthur Hailey is an Academy Award nominated disaster film that spawned three sequels: Airport '75, Airport '77, and the campy Airport '79 (The Concorde).

Also by

Jack Smight

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-11-17
★ 5/10
There's just a hole where the pilots usually sit! A 747 in flight collides with a small plane and is rendered pilotless. With one of the cabin crew stewardesses forced to take the helm, the control tower must try to get a pilot aboard so the jet can land safely... With the disaster genre of film now in full effect by the mid 70s, it was inevitable that we would see a follow up to the forerunner that was Airport (1970). One again we get a star cast list, this time thrust into mid-air peril where standard genre conventions apply. Unfortunately this is one of the weakest genre entries of the decade, where suspense is hard to find, and in fact it often comes off like unintentional comedy. Draw card actor Charlton Heston is wasted, as is George Kennedy, while the predictability factor of how it will pan out sort of kills hope of a thrilling finale. Not a total stinker, there's some nice aerial sequences, some rich characterisations, and Karen Black as the under duress cabin crew member trying to fly the plane, is at least convincing enough to sell the terror of the situation. But really it's a tough sell, especially when you consider that genre highlight "The Towering Inferno" was released this same year. 5/10
JPV8522021-03-30
★ 7/10
Really solid action-thriller disaster flick that in some ways is better than the first, especially being leaner and going away from the overly long soap opera storyline that took up half the running time. Some impressive aerial footage and the performances, for the kind of movie this is, wasn't bad. Is it convoluted with the actual disaster? For sure, but I was entertainined. 3.75/5