SPOILERS.
Back in the mid-1950s there was "The High and the Mighty." It was a success, so there followed a spate of other airplane disaster movies (eg., "The Crowded Sky."). But you can only have so many engine failures and so many mid-air collisions, I guess, so some other crisis must take place before or after -- or, in this case, while -- the passengers reveal their own mid-air crises to one another. "Zero Hour!" in, what, 1957?, gave us all a dose of food poisoning that killed off all the competent pilots. "Airplane" (1980) sent it up. Then, for some reason, probably the ebola scare, in the 1990s there were several versions of "Outbreaks" and "Carriers."
This cheaply made and thoughtless film is the first that I know of to combine some kind of viral outbreak with the traditional mid-air disaster. It's not really worth going into in any detail. The stereotypical characters and conflicts are promptly laid out for us. I more or less gave up after the first hour or so. I guess that's why I couldn't understand how everyone was able to leap to the conclusion that the pathogen was a virus and not, say, a bacterium, or how or why they assumed it was airborne and not in the water or something. Or how it's possible that "red and white blood cells are essentially becoming radioactive isotopes." Not that any of that matters to the viewers who will enjoy this, or to the witless writers either for that matter. The film achieves monuments of implausibility.
The mechanism of infection and death isn't any more than a peg to hang a half-baked mystery on, and an excuse for Baldwin to chew out the wanly pretty blonde, Penelope Ann Miller, for which may his soul roast in hell. What is Baldwin doing in this movie anyway? What is he doing in ANY movie? I can grasp Penelope Ann Miller's presence. She's an actress of sorts, and eye candy to boot.
There is a guy aboard the plane who is some sort of naval liason with the types who develop biochemical warfare agents. The only reason I can make that statement is that the character announces it out loud. I could never tell from his uniform because wardrobe has been able to supply him with only a generic gabardine and a brass "U.S." badge on each lapel. He has no sign of rank, nor does his uniform give any indication of which branch of the armed forces he's a member of.
There's another character aboard the plane who is the stereotyped moron that every catastrophe movie needs. He's as much of the part of the plot as the Chief of Police in the cop/action movie who demands that the rogue cop turn in his badge and his gun for overzealousness or cantankerousness or excessive mopery in office. You can't miss this dilatory jerk. He's only there to shout abuse at everyone, accuse them of incompetence, display his cowardice, and infterfere with everyone's attempt to find a solution to the problem. He drips with sarcasm. He's the guy with the blue shirt and big jaw with a tiny mouth in the middle of it. I'd also mention that he speaks with a Canadian accent but it's hardly worth it since, with the exceptions of maybe Baldwin and Miller, everybody in the movie speaks with a Canadian accent. Not that that's necessarily bad. Canadians are bland and inoffensive. Some of my best friends are Canadians. In fact some of my relatives live in Athabasca, Alberta. They don't own any gold mines or anything, but they do have gallon jars of pickled moose on the pantry shelves. I only hope the Canadians never stop enforcing their anti-litter laws, and I love Moose Head Ale. I've never met a Canadian I didn't like. I've met a few movies I didn't care much for, and this is one of them.
Back in the mid-1950s there was "The High and the Mighty." It was a success, so there followed a spate of other airplane disaster movies (eg., "The Crowded Sky."). But you can only have so many engine failures and so many mid-air collisions, I guess, so some other crisis must take place before or after -- or, in this case, while -- the passengers reveal their own mid-air crises to one another. "Zero Hour!" in, what, 1957?, gave us all a dose of food poisoning that killed off all the competent pilots. "Airplane" (1980) sent it up. Then, for some reason, probably the ebola scare, in the 1990s there were several versions of "Outbreaks" and "Carriers."
This cheaply made and thoughtless film is the first that I know of to combine some kind of viral outbreak with the traditional mid-air disaster. It's not really worth going into in any detail. The stereotypical characters and conflicts are promptly laid out for us. I more or less gave up after the first hour or so. I guess that's why I couldn't understand how everyone was able to leap to the conclusion that the pathogen was a virus and not, say, a bacterium, or how or why they assumed it was airborne and not in the water or something. Or how it's possible that "red and white blood cells are essentially becoming radioactive isotopes." Not that any of that matters to the viewers who will enjoy this, or to the witless writers either for that matter. The film achieves monuments of implausibility.
The mechanism of infection and death isn't any more than a peg to hang a half-baked mystery on, and an excuse for Baldwin to chew out the wanly pretty blonde, Penelope Ann Miller, for which may his soul roast in hell. What is Baldwin doing in this movie anyway? What is he doing in ANY movie? I can grasp Penelope Ann Miller's presence. She's an actress of sorts, and eye candy to boot.
There is a guy aboard the plane who is some sort of naval liason with the types who develop biochemical warfare agents. The only reason I can make that statement is that the character announces it out loud. I could never tell from his uniform because wardrobe has been able to supply him with only a generic gabardine and a brass "U.S." badge on each lapel. He has no sign of rank, nor does his uniform give any indication of which branch of the armed forces he's a member of.
There's another character aboard the plane who is the stereotyped moron that every catastrophe movie needs. He's as much of the part of the plot as the Chief of Police in the cop/action movie who demands that the rogue cop turn in his badge and his gun for overzealousness or cantankerousness or excessive mopery in office. You can't miss this dilatory jerk. He's only there to shout abuse at everyone, accuse them of incompetence, display his cowardice, and infterfere with everyone's attempt to find a solution to the problem. He drips with sarcasm. He's the guy with the blue shirt and big jaw with a tiny mouth in the middle of it. I'd also mention that he speaks with a Canadian accent but it's hardly worth it since, with the exceptions of maybe Baldwin and Miller, everybody in the movie speaks with a Canadian accent. Not that that's necessarily bad. Canadians are bland and inoffensive. Some of my best friends are Canadians. In fact some of my relatives live in Athabasca, Alberta. They don't own any gold mines or anything, but they do have gallon jars of pickled moose on the pantry shelves. I only hope the Canadians never stop enforcing their anti-litter laws, and I love Moose Head Ale. I've never met a Canadian I didn't like. I've met a few movies I didn't care much for, and this is one of them.