A tough day on the job for Global Air pilot Hank O'Hara: First, he learns that his ex-mistress will be playing head stewardess on his Flight 502 to Minneapolis. Then, en route, he discovers a lipstick-scrawled warning that there is a bomber on board and that he must divert to Anchorage, Alaska. And later, after making a landing there during a zero-visibility thunderstorm, he is compelled to continue the mad bomber's odyssey by flying into the restricted airspace of Mother Russia! Anyway, that is the setup of 1972's "Skyjacked," an entertaining affair released during the early '70s craze for airport/disaster flicks. A handsome-looking picture with a roster of great actors playing essentially one-dimensional, underdeveloped types, it nevertheless moves along nicely and is more than competently directed by John Guillermin.
Now, as to the identity of that mad bomber, which isn't revealed until the film's midpoint, we have the following list of first-class suspects: There's the increasingly rabid and pie-eyed Vietnam vet, played by James Brolin; a jazz cellist, played by former L.A. Rams defensive lineman Rosey (here, "Roosevelt") Grier; an older couple relocating to Minneapolis (Ross Elliott and, in her final screen role, the still-beautiful Jeanne Crain, who sadly doesn't get more than six lines of dialogue in the entire film!); a pretty young girl (Susan Dey, in her first film, herself flying high on the success of her wildly popular TV program "The Partridge Family"); a U.S. senator (Walter Pidgeon) on a mysterious mission for the president; and the seemingly inevitable woman going into labor while in flight (Mariette Hartley, whose delivery strikes the viewer as the easiest one ever filmed; I swear that I've had more difficult bowel movements!). Rounding out this cast, by the way, are Yvette Mimieux as the head stewardess (that WAS the correct term back then!), Leslie Uggams as another stewardess (her "Screw you!" may be the picture's single best line), Claude Akins and John Fiedler as air traffic controllers, and, oh, as Capt. O'Hara, Charlton Heston, an old hand at bringing his people safely to the promised land. All are just fine, especially Chuck and Brolin, whose characters are the only ones here with anything resembling depth.
As might be expected, "Skyjacked" begins with a light tone but eventually turns surprisingly grim, especially when the Boeing 707 enters Soviet airspace. To the film's credit, the Russians here are shown in a very positive light, and the sight of one of their fighter jets waggling its wings in farewell before it zooms off may be the picture's most touching moment. Modern-day viewers may marvel at the ease with which our whackadoodle bomber brings guns and hand grenades aboard an airplane, not to mention the in-flight smoking (even by the captain!) and the ordering of a Bloody Mary by a very pregnant woman, but let's remember, after all, that these WERE the good ol' days of 1972. In all, "Skyjacked" is nothing demanding and nothing artful, but it sure is fun. I originally watched this film on a brain-dead Friday night after a long, hard week of work, and found that it fit the bill perfectly....
Now, as to the identity of that mad bomber, which isn't revealed until the film's midpoint, we have the following list of first-class suspects: There's the increasingly rabid and pie-eyed Vietnam vet, played by James Brolin; a jazz cellist, played by former L.A. Rams defensive lineman Rosey (here, "Roosevelt") Grier; an older couple relocating to Minneapolis (Ross Elliott and, in her final screen role, the still-beautiful Jeanne Crain, who sadly doesn't get more than six lines of dialogue in the entire film!); a pretty young girl (Susan Dey, in her first film, herself flying high on the success of her wildly popular TV program "The Partridge Family"); a U.S. senator (Walter Pidgeon) on a mysterious mission for the president; and the seemingly inevitable woman going into labor while in flight (Mariette Hartley, whose delivery strikes the viewer as the easiest one ever filmed; I swear that I've had more difficult bowel movements!). Rounding out this cast, by the way, are Yvette Mimieux as the head stewardess (that WAS the correct term back then!), Leslie Uggams as another stewardess (her "Screw you!" may be the picture's single best line), Claude Akins and John Fiedler as air traffic controllers, and, oh, as Capt. O'Hara, Charlton Heston, an old hand at bringing his people safely to the promised land. All are just fine, especially Chuck and Brolin, whose characters are the only ones here with anything resembling depth.
As might be expected, "Skyjacked" begins with a light tone but eventually turns surprisingly grim, especially when the Boeing 707 enters Soviet airspace. To the film's credit, the Russians here are shown in a very positive light, and the sight of one of their fighter jets waggling its wings in farewell before it zooms off may be the picture's most touching moment. Modern-day viewers may marvel at the ease with which our whackadoodle bomber brings guns and hand grenades aboard an airplane, not to mention the in-flight smoking (even by the captain!) and the ordering of a Bloody Mary by a very pregnant woman, but let's remember, after all, that these WERE the good ol' days of 1972. In all, "Skyjacked" is nothing demanding and nothing artful, but it sure is fun. I originally watched this film on a brain-dead Friday night after a long, hard week of work, and found that it fit the bill perfectly....