If only all we had to fear today were hijackers.
As any film about an airplane made before 9/11, Skyjacked is badly dated but it's a real kick.
The plane wasn't full, first class was nearly empty - when was the last time anyone saw that? People entered and left the cockpit as though it was the Holiday Inn.
There was both a bomb and gun on board inside a carry-on satchel.
None of the carry-on baggage was screened.
People were smoking.
Roosevelt Grier could fit in a seat.
The story itself concerns a soldier from Crazytown (James Brolin) who hijacks the plane to take him to Moscow where he expects some sort of decoration for his service. Charlton Heston is the pilot. There are three people in the cockpit, which is a practice I recommend for all airlines now that a pilot left one cockpit and couldn't get back in.
Yvette Mimeux and Leslie Uggams are two of the flight attendants; Mimeux had a hot romance with the married pilot and is now engaged to the copilot.
Mariette Hartley plays a woman about to give birth.
Susan Dey is a hippie and a good suspect for leaving lipstick notes on the bathroom mirror.
It's a typical airplane story. There were some very exciting moments, particularly when the plane attempted to land in Alaska. There were some dumb moments: why Heston had to suggest the passengers deplane -- he was in the cockpit with James Brolin - the flight attendants, one would have thought, could have come up with that themselves. He also had to tell Yvette Mimiuex in code to deploy the chute and get the passengers out. Again, they couldn't have figured that out? Some parts of this were quite entertaining, and it's certainly worth seeing to look at old airline procedures. Flying was a lot simpler. And I wonder if it's any safer now.
Lots of familiar TV faces from the '70s and '80s besides those mentioned: Nicholas Hammond, who is still working, the late Claude Akins, Ken Swofford, now retired; the late Ross Elliott, Newhart's John Fiedler, and Magnum's John Hillerman, now retired. And two stars of the classic era of films: Walter Pidgeon, 75 then, and Jeanne Crain in her last film. If anyone is wondering, Jeanne Crain at 47 was still beautiful.
