Is just one of the many ridiculous lines in this preposterous 70's disaster flick which jumped onto the "AIRPORT" bandwagon. It seemed for a rather long period throughout the 70's, film studios just couldn't stop green-lighting disaster movies that contained airplanes either getting hi-jacked or having engine problems mid-flight. Some memorable "airplane" cinematic moments would be Karen Black commandeering a 'half blown-up' airplane with Charlton Heston assisting her via radio in 1974's "AIRPORT 1975". Another classic scene would be Helen Hayes getting the 'back hand' treatment by Jacqueline Bisset in 1970's "AIRPORT". But nothing comes close to the ludicrosity of 70's film sweetheart Yvette Mimieux trying to take control of the hi-jacked plane in this cinematic dud.
Charlton Heston makes his 100th disaster film appearance in "SKYJACKED", this being one of his earlier disaster flicks which were to be followed by countless others including 1974's "EARTHQUAKE", "AIRPORT 1975" and the 1992 tele-movie "CRASH LANDING: THE RESCUE OF FLIGHT 232". "SKYJACKED" would be his second film in which he co-starred with Yvette Mimieux, the first being 1962's racially-charged "DIAMOND HEAD". Charlton Heston is the pilot, Yvette Mimieux is the stewardess. Other famous personalities thrown into the mixed pot are TV-fixtures Susan Dey, Claude Akins and Roosevelt Grier and some surprising career ventures by silver screen legends, Walter Pidgeon and Jeanne Crain (this being her final film project before disappearing into obscurity - and after seeing this movie, you won't have to wonder why!).
Strange things begin to happen once the plane takes off. Some nut-case is writing deadly messages on the toilet mirror with a lipstick. Could it be Ms. Clara Shaw? (Crain) - she is wearing the same color lipstick. Could it be Senator Lindner? (Pidgeon) - a stewardess noticed his absence from his seat around the same time the message was probably written. Aboard this particular plane and among this particular group of passengers is a twisted psychopath (brilliantly portrayed by a hammy James Brolin) who ends up hi-jacking the aircraft and demands to be flown to Russia. If his demands are not met, he threatens to blow up the plane and everyone on board with it. The strangest thing here is that in one scene, James Brolin looks perfectly normal, the next scene, when it is exposed that he is the hi-jacker, his face is all sweaty, his skin is all grimy and his clothes are all damp and ruffled. Was there a full moon at that particular moment?
James Brolin delivers a wonderful campy performance as a crazed Vietnam War Veteran who spends the next hour or so keeping Heston, Mimieux and the rest of the passengers at bay while they make their way to Russia. Further ridiculous scenes would include fighter jets blasting by the plane and doing weird twists and loops in the sky as if we were watching this event from an Air Base Show. I was half expecting to see red, white and blue dust to come shooting out of their tails while they created a message in the sky. None of this is particularly relevant to the film - instead we get about 10 minutes of stock footage of military training shots as they are 'escorted' into Russia's air-space.
Meanwhile, we have Yvette Mimieux having mental 'flashbacks' to the times when she and Heston were dating, or to be politically correct, 'having an affair'. It is basically just shots of a laughing Mimieux being pushed on a swing by a laughing Heston while the sound-track converts into a symphony of pan flutes and strings, the camera lens being replaced with a 'soft lens'. None of these scenes really have any direct effect on the movie itself. These scenes are pretty much seen as 'filler' moments, as if the Director decided that he still had 10 minutes of footage to kill. Regardless, it is pretty much the basic 'pilot once dated the stewardess' plot-line.
As most of the 'airplane disaster' films end, "SKYJACKED" pretty much wraps up the way you'd expect. Hi-jacker meets his demise, passengers make it off the plane to safety, pilot and stewardess suggestively ignite a flame that could only have happened in an event such as this. I kept waiting for a scene that would make the most out of Pidgeon's and Crain's acting abilities - but they were never given the chance.
In the end, I felt like I had wasted 2 hours of my time. Unlike "AIRPORT" and its many sequels, "SKYJACKED" only had a handful of stars in it to keep it afloat. Disaster films such as "THE SWARM" and "WHEN TIME RAN OUT" pretty much counted on their 'star line up' to bring in the audiences that in the end, never bothered turning up. "SKYJACKED" barely has any 'big name draw' that would appeal to the mass public, therefore a suitable plot/script needs to ensure that it won't fall into that forgettable void where so many other films have fallen before it. Unfortunately, "SKYJACKED" fell into it.
Perhaps a more appropriate title for this film would be something Yvette Mimieux would later star in... "THE BLACK HOLE".
My rating: 3 out of 10
Charlton Heston makes his 100th disaster film appearance in "SKYJACKED", this being one of his earlier disaster flicks which were to be followed by countless others including 1974's "EARTHQUAKE", "AIRPORT 1975" and the 1992 tele-movie "CRASH LANDING: THE RESCUE OF FLIGHT 232". "SKYJACKED" would be his second film in which he co-starred with Yvette Mimieux, the first being 1962's racially-charged "DIAMOND HEAD". Charlton Heston is the pilot, Yvette Mimieux is the stewardess. Other famous personalities thrown into the mixed pot are TV-fixtures Susan Dey, Claude Akins and Roosevelt Grier and some surprising career ventures by silver screen legends, Walter Pidgeon and Jeanne Crain (this being her final film project before disappearing into obscurity - and after seeing this movie, you won't have to wonder why!).
Strange things begin to happen once the plane takes off. Some nut-case is writing deadly messages on the toilet mirror with a lipstick. Could it be Ms. Clara Shaw? (Crain) - she is wearing the same color lipstick. Could it be Senator Lindner? (Pidgeon) - a stewardess noticed his absence from his seat around the same time the message was probably written. Aboard this particular plane and among this particular group of passengers is a twisted psychopath (brilliantly portrayed by a hammy James Brolin) who ends up hi-jacking the aircraft and demands to be flown to Russia. If his demands are not met, he threatens to blow up the plane and everyone on board with it. The strangest thing here is that in one scene, James Brolin looks perfectly normal, the next scene, when it is exposed that he is the hi-jacker, his face is all sweaty, his skin is all grimy and his clothes are all damp and ruffled. Was there a full moon at that particular moment?
James Brolin delivers a wonderful campy performance as a crazed Vietnam War Veteran who spends the next hour or so keeping Heston, Mimieux and the rest of the passengers at bay while they make their way to Russia. Further ridiculous scenes would include fighter jets blasting by the plane and doing weird twists and loops in the sky as if we were watching this event from an Air Base Show. I was half expecting to see red, white and blue dust to come shooting out of their tails while they created a message in the sky. None of this is particularly relevant to the film - instead we get about 10 minutes of stock footage of military training shots as they are 'escorted' into Russia's air-space.
Meanwhile, we have Yvette Mimieux having mental 'flashbacks' to the times when she and Heston were dating, or to be politically correct, 'having an affair'. It is basically just shots of a laughing Mimieux being pushed on a swing by a laughing Heston while the sound-track converts into a symphony of pan flutes and strings, the camera lens being replaced with a 'soft lens'. None of these scenes really have any direct effect on the movie itself. These scenes are pretty much seen as 'filler' moments, as if the Director decided that he still had 10 minutes of footage to kill. Regardless, it is pretty much the basic 'pilot once dated the stewardess' plot-line.
As most of the 'airplane disaster' films end, "SKYJACKED" pretty much wraps up the way you'd expect. Hi-jacker meets his demise, passengers make it off the plane to safety, pilot and stewardess suggestively ignite a flame that could only have happened in an event such as this. I kept waiting for a scene that would make the most out of Pidgeon's and Crain's acting abilities - but they were never given the chance.
In the end, I felt like I had wasted 2 hours of my time. Unlike "AIRPORT" and its many sequels, "SKYJACKED" only had a handful of stars in it to keep it afloat. Disaster films such as "THE SWARM" and "WHEN TIME RAN OUT" pretty much counted on their 'star line up' to bring in the audiences that in the end, never bothered turning up. "SKYJACKED" barely has any 'big name draw' that would appeal to the mass public, therefore a suitable plot/script needs to ensure that it won't fall into that forgettable void where so many other films have fallen before it. Unfortunately, "SKYJACKED" fell into it.
Perhaps a more appropriate title for this film would be something Yvette Mimieux would later star in... "THE BLACK HOLE".
My rating: 3 out of 10