Airplane!

What's slower than a speeding bullet, and able to hit tall buildings at a single bound?

1980 • 88 min • Comedy

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Synopsis

An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.

Our family guide

Best from age 12

Movie Knight Score

5164 reviews

100 Reviewers · 4 · 60%
73 Audience · 5160 · 40%

When a passenger plane’s crew falls ill, a traumatized ex-fighter pilot must overcome his fear of flying to land the aircraft safely. This spoof movie is packed with rapid-fire gags, visual puns, and absurd humor.

Violence & peril: 2/10
Language: 4/10
Drinking, drugs & smoking: 4/10
Romance & sensuality: 3/10
Scary moments: 3/10

Heads up

Frequent slapstick and absurd situations
Some suggestive innuendo and visual gags
Alcohol consumption by adults

What it models well

Overcoming fear
Teamwork in a crisis
Self-sacrifice

Talk about it after

Understanding satire and parody
The effects of trauma
Responsible decision-making under pressure

Written by the Movie Knight editorial team for Airplane!. Our own words, our own scoring — always double-check against your family's standards.

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Top billed cast

Director: Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams • Crew: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

Trailers & clips

Leslie Nielsen On Dr. Rumack In AIRPLANE!

Airplane! (1980) Original Trailer [FHD]

Airplane! - Trailer

Reviewer notes

Recommended
**A memorable comedy that deserves to be revisited occasionally.** I can't say how innovative this film was in its time because I'm not one of those cinema experts who know almost everything (I'd like to know more, and I always learn more, but I'm reduced to the insignificance of knowing little).…
Filipe Manuel Neto, TMDB Community

Recommended
Surely, this is hilarious. Surely. A film that never saw the word "Surely" in the same light again. This is a total parody, not just of disaster movies, but of all social mores. The "excuse" for the comedy is a plane where the entire flight crew is too sick to fly, so a nerve racked ex pilot needs to fly the plane.…
drystyx, TMDB Community

RecommendedTrusted family reviewers
Right from the "Jaws" (1975) inspired opening titles, this is a treat of comedy that sends up just about every genre of cinema as poor old "Ted" (Robert Hays) has to stave off an airborne disaster aboard his aircraft. Half the folks travelling have been stricken with food poisoning and when the cockpit it wiped-out, it falls to him to bravely take the joystick and try to land in Chicago.…
CinemaSerf, TMDB Community

RecommendedTrusted family reviewers
An American Comedy _**Classic**_ - Everything about this film screams 'American Cinema Comedy'. A lot of the humor is a precursor to modern american humor, including the terribly cheesy pulp humor. This film is an homage to the comedies that came before it, but is innovative in its combination of wordplay and referential humor. I see vestiges of this film in everything from 'The Hangover' to 'The Office'.…
schoosskyler, TMDB Community