# Airport '77

Airport '77 is a 1977 American air disaster film, the third installment of the Airport film series. The film stars an ensemble cast of veteran actors including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, and Brenda Vaccaro as well as the return of George Kennedy from the two previous Airport films. It is directed by Jerry Jameson, produced by William Frye, executive produced by Jennings Lang with a screenplay by Michael Scheff and David Spector.
The plot concerns a private Boeing 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art that is hijacked before crashing into the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle, forcing the survivors into a desperate struggle for survival.
Despite mixed critical reviews, Airport '77 was a box-office hit, grossing $91.1 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Academy Awards.

## Plot

Wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens is having invited guests flown in his luxurious privately-owned Boeing 747-100, Stevens Flight 23, to his Palm Beach, Florida estate. Aboard are his estranged adult daughter and her young son, whom he hopes to reconnect with, as he is secretly dying. Priceless artwork from Stevens' private collection destined for his new museum is also on the jetliner. The collection has motivated a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft.
Mid-flight, Captain Don Gallagher is lured from the cockpit and knocked unconscious. A sleeping gas secretly installed pre-flight is released into the cabin, rendering unprotected crew and passengers unconscious. Chambers, flying to a small deserted island to offload the art treasures, drops the plane below radar range causing Stevens Flight 23 to "disappear" in the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtually wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility. Minutes later, a large offshore platform emerges from the haze, and Flight 23's wing clips the platform's tower, igniting an engine. Chambers extinguishes the fire, but due to a sudden loss of airspeed, the plane stalls and crashes into the water, floating momentarily before sinking below the surface.
The plane settles in relatively shallow water that is above the plane's crush depth, though water pressure gradually compromises the fuselage. Many passengers are injured, some seriously. Chambers, the only surviving hijacker, reveals the plane is two hundred miles off course, meaning search and rescue efforts will be focused in the wrong area. As a search for the missing plane is launched, veteran aeronautics expert Joe Patroni joins the rescue operation as a technical adviser, joined by Philip Stevens. Meanwhile, the trapped crew can only contact rescuers by getting a signal buoy to the surface. Captain Gallagher and a professional diver, Martin Wallace, enter the main cargo preparing to swim to the surface using air masks. The hatch door malfunctions, forcing Wallace to open it manually. The sudden onrush of water kills him, but Gallagher is able to make it to the surface and activate the emergency beacon. The signal is detected and a rescue operation is launched. Meanwhile, the plane's fuselage is steadily leaking, and on top of that, air is running out.
The Navy dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga, USS Agerholm and a flotilla of other vessels to the crash site, rescuing Gallagher. Stevens, meanwhile, has joined the Cayuga via helicopter while Patroni stays on the mainland to study the aircraft's risks of imploding underwater, which he warns Gallagher about over the phone. Guided by Gallagher, Navy divers rig the plane with balloons and inflate them, slowly raising the aircraft. Just before the plane reaches the surface, a balloon breaks loose and pressure is reduced to stabilize the aircraft. A cargo hold door inside the plane bursts open and seawater swamps the cabin; Chambers and Wallace's widow Karen drown, while Emily’s injured friend Dorothy dies from her injuries. With time running out, air pressure is increased, raising the plane to the surface, and all survivors are quickly evacuated. Captain Gallagher and Stevens' assistant, Eve (whom Gallagher is in love with), become trapped inside and escape through the upper deck where they are fished out of the ocean by a Navy helicopter, as the 747 sinks under the waves for the last time. Stevens reunites with his daughter and tearfully hugs his grandson, while the helicopter carrying Gallagher and Eve lands aboard the Agerholm, where they are both met by the grateful survivors.

## Cast

* Jack Lemmon as Capt. Don Gallagher
* Lee Grant as Karen Wallace
* Brenda Vaccaro as Eve Clayton
* Joseph Cotten as Nicholas St. Downs III
* Olivia de Havilland as Emily Livingston
* James Stewart as Philip Stevens
* George Kennedy as Joseph "Joe" Patroni
* Darren McGavin as Stan Buchek
* Christopher Lee as Martin Wallace
* Robert Foxworth as Bob Chambers
* Robert Hooks as Eddie
* Monte Markham as Banker
* Kathleen Quinlan as Julie
* Gil Gerard as Frank Powers
* James Booth as Ralph Crawford
* Monica Lewis as Anne
* Maidie Norman as Dorothy
* Pamela Bellwood as Lisa Stevens
* Arlene Golonka as Mrs. Jane Stern
* Tom Sullivan as Steve
* M. Emmet Walsh as Dr. Harvard Williams
* Michael Pataki as Wilson
* George Furth as Gerald Lucas
* Richard Venture as Commander Guay
* Elizabeth Cheshire as Bonnie Stern
* Anthony Battaglia as Benjy Stevens

## Production note

Although the disaster portrayed in the film is fictional, rescue operations depicted in the movie are actual rescue operations utilized by the Navy in the event of similar emergencies or disasters, as indicated at the end of the film prior to the closing credits. The disaster itself—a hard water landing as shown in the film, and an intact sinking—would not be likely given the hard tailstrike, which would have demolished the aircraft.
For its initial broadcast on NBC-TV in September 1978, an additional 70 minutes of outtakes and new footage shot especially for network TV was added.

## Reception
### Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 40% of 10 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.4/10. On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Variety wrote, "The story's formula banality is credible most of the time and there's some good actual US Navy search and rescue procedure interjected in the plot." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and wrote, "The movie's a big, slick entertainment, relentlessly ridiculous and therefore never boring for long." The New York Times wrote, "Airport '77 looks less like the work of a director and writers than like a corporate decision."

### Box office

The film grossed $30 million in the United States and Canada and $61 million internationally for a worldwide total of $91.1 million.

## Award nominations

| Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
| Academy Awards | Best Art Direction | George C. Webb and Mickey S. Michaels | Nominated |
| Academy Awards | Best Costume Design | Edith Head and Burton Miller | Nominated |

## Theme park attraction

From late 1977 until the early 1980s, the Universal Studios Tour in California featured the "Airport '77" Screen Test Theater as part of the tour. Several sets were recreated, and members of the audience were chosen to play various parts. The audience would watch as these scenes were filmed. Key scenes such as the hijacking, crash and rescue were recreated, and the footage was then incorporated into a brief digest version of the film and screened for the audience on monitors. Each show's mini-film was made available for audience members to purchase on 8 mm film and videotape.