Skyjacked (1972) User Reviews

Exciting and amusing but full clichés and stereotypes with a strong performance by Heston

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 17 June 2007]

The movie is another jetliner epic with tough hero Charlton Heston . A Boeing commercial airline (the 'Global Airways' plane used in the movie was a World Airways Boeing 707 , N374WA) is hijacked . Commandant Charlton Heston along with crew and flight attendant (Ivette Mimieux ) taking on a dangerous bomber . The film is detailing hectic flighty hijacked by a dangerous terrorist and passengers' relationship . All clichéd and stock characters with regurgitation of all usual stereotypical situations from disaster films such as the musician , the pregnant girl (Mariette Hartley) , a nervous , crazed vet Vietnam (James Brolin), the senator (Walter Pidgeon) and his son (Nicholas Hammond). Taking place on fateful storm and freeze skies and the airplane heading to Russia . If you've seen the original ¨ Airport ¨ (George Seaton ) , the daddy of them all , you've seen them all , in fact , the terrorist character is likeness to Airport's Van Heflin.

The picture contains thriller , suspense , drama , moderated tension and is quite entertaining although with some flaws and gaps . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of a strong acting by Charlton Heston , bringing conviction to character , he also starred a similar role at ¨ Airport 1975 ¨ (Jack Smight) . Look quickly to Claude Akins, John Hillerman , Jeanne Crain , among others , though doesn't appear the classic character Patroni (George Kennedy) , a saga usual . The motion picture was professionally directed by John Guillermin , habitual of disaster films (Towering inferno, King Kong , Kong lives) and airplane movies (Blue Max ) . The film is classified ¨parents guide¨ for a certain violence . It's an inoffensive diversion but is sometimes tediously unspooled . The film will appeal to Charlton Heston fans and disaster genre enthusiasts.

Fun to watch and true to its era

[george-841 · 7/10 · 30 September 2012]

As others have said, some interesting scenes indicative of the times: pilots and passengers smoking mid-flight, pregnant woman orders a bloody Mary, crazy hi-jacker is able to board with a machine gun and a satchel full of live grenades. Plus he has a flashing light on his carry-on bag which he later pretends contains a bomb that he can control with a remote control device. Hmm... nobody at check-in asked him about the flashing light on his hand luggage?! LOL The weakest part of this movie was how they used dreams and weakly designed flashback sequences to provide "depth" (such as it is) about some of the key characters. But we really didn't gain anything from finding out that Heston had an illicit affair with Mimieux. (Given the opportunity, who wouldn't? She's gorgeous.) The hi-jacker was Section 8 case from the Army who decides to hi-jack this plane to Moscow but his flashbacks explain almost nothing: somehow he's disgruntled that he didn't get his due from the U.S. military and he anticipates being able to get recognition from the Soviets by hi-jacking a U.S. passenger jet which happens to be carrying a U.S. senator whose on some mission that's never explained. Would the Soviets give a damn? Evidently not since they gun him down after the jet lands in Moscow. But he doesn't help his case deplaning with his machine gun and a vest full of grenades.

This may sound like I didn't like the movie but that's wrong. Heston did a decent job, Mimieux is nice eye-candy and Claude Akins was his usual self as the only guy capable of talking Heston down through the ice storm into Anchorage. I had to laugh at the earlier review who stated that the reviewer has had more difficult bowel movements than Mariette Hartley's emergency delivery on the plane! Why the hijacker would keep a woman in labor on his plane when he could have gotten rid of her in Anchorage is never explained---other than that he's a Section 8 case and not making much sense in most respects.

Worth seeing for sure---once!

Confucius say.... Never take a sleeping pill and a laxative while on the same flight

[Ed-Shullivan · 7/10 · 2 November 2023]

Simply put, I enjoyed this 1972 disaster film release even some 50 plus years after its original release. I am a senior citizen so all the film stars were familiar to me and the air disaster plot was reminiscent of the 1970's other disaster films with a cast of past their prime film stars.

What I kept asking myself while watching this film was why isn't air travel as roomy and easy to accomplish today as it was back in the 1970's even with the opportunity for skyjackers? I appreciate that 9/11 can never happen again and robust security measures must be taken and is todays norm, but this film reminds us all of a simpler time when air travel could be a real adventure and enjoyable.

This film explores the personal lives of each of the main characters and how they deal with a stressor such as being in the middle of a skyjacking with a bomb aboard their plane.

I enjoyed watching Skyjaclked and God willing I will most likely want to watch it again if I am still alive in the next few dceades. I give it an admirable and deserving 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.

A lot better than you might think

[gordywright · 29 August 2003]

I was really surprised by this film, one, I had never actually seen it, and two, it was well worth seeing.

I did, however, find it very frustrating. Not through the plot or the acting or anything like that, but it was full of actors and actresses, whose faces were familiar to me, I spent about half the film wondering who had been in what, I couldnt wait to get on here and find out.

Charlton Heston was his always accomplished self, no more and no less, and he is always very good. James Brolin played a military section 8 well indeed, or at least I assume that is a way in which a section 8 would be, not like Klinger in M*A*S*H!

All together a very good film, well worth watching, and in truth probably suffered unfairly against the films of the day, The Godfather and The French Connection to name but two.

Not necessarily one for the collection, but worth seeing all the same.

Jet Screams In The Jet Stream

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 9 June 2011]

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....

a 1972 airline film

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 9 May 2015]

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.

Heston takes wing in minor disaster flick

[Pipesofpeace · 5/10 · 4 September 2011]

Had this been made by Universal Studios instead of MGM, they might well have called it AIRPORT '72, so closely does it follow the template of that popular disaster movie series; it even casts Charlton Heston as a pilot two years prior to his playing a similar role in AIRPORT 1975. The film introduces us to the personal lives of several passengers, including a U.S. Senator (Walter Pidgeon), a jazz cellist (football legend Roosevelt Grier), a smart-mouthed teenage girl (Susan Dey from The Partridge Family), and a very pregnant lady (Mariette Hartley, who used to do those cute Polaroid commercials with James Garner)who probably shouldn't be flying to begin with at this late stage. There's also an unusually twitchy Vietnam vet on board (hammily played by James Brolin) which should remove all doubt as to who is leaving scary notes on the bathroom mirror and threatening to blow up the plane if his demand to be flown to Moscow isn't met. Yvette Mimieux and Leslie Uggams appear as two of the best-looking flight attendants in aviation history (they were called stewardesses back then, but then again that was a time when you could also smoke openly on a commercial airplane.) TV's Claude Akins shows up in the control tower, essentially playing George Kennedy. This sounds pretty ridiculous, and in some ways it is, but director John Guillermin (The Blue Max, The Towering Inferno) keeps up a brisk pace and makes this quite watchable, for what it is.

Worth the watch

[pmtelefon · 6/10 · 10 January 2020]

"Skyjacked" is an okay, if somewhat dated, watch. It's not much of a whodunnit because anyone who is paying attention can figure out who the villain is in about ten minutes. That doesn't really matter because the movie is pretty suspenseful most of the way through. "Skyjacked" does run out of gas towards the end but it's not a deal breaker. The movie is a little dated. It has a few too many flashbacks but that was not uncommon is the early 1970s. The cover of the DVD of "Skyjacked" that I own tried selling the movie as a "camp classic". This movie may be a little corny at times but it is not campy. For the most part, "Skyjacked" is a well made, exciting movie.

Stay on standby

[Boyo-2 · 4/10 · 23 January 2001]

This review contains all elements of the (ha, ha) plot, so proceed accordingly.

Movie is a subpar entry in the glory days of the disaster movie. I saw all of them and know their casts by heart; if an Oscar winnner was in peril, I was in the audience.

This is not as laughably bad as "The Concorde - Airport '79" and certainly not as much fun as "Airport '77". Cast is a curious mix of screen vets (Heston, Crain, Pigeon), TV actors (Brolin, Dey, Akins and Hartley) and a football player (Grier) in for good measure.

Movie begins with a Mystery Person buying lipstick in the airport gift shop. Soon after, Jeanne Crain is seen applying lipstick. If anyone thinks there is the slightest chance that she is responsible for the peril the passengers will endure, then you need to see more movies. With that gimmick in place, the movie then does not tip its hand anymore until the actual culprit is revealed. Standard flashbacks try to explain why this mad bomber is aboard. In addition to that misfortune, Mariette Hartley is heavily pregnant (three guesses how that concludes), Crain's husband forgot to mail their flight insurance, and there is a mid-air collision with a smaller aircraft. Oh, and its raining too. All the characters seem to know one another by name, even though that familiarity is never established.

The cast goes from horrible (Brolin, who chews on all available scenery) to wooden (Chuck Heston, who coaxes real sympathy with the line "My foot's asleep"!) to supremely beautiful (Yvette Mimieux is a welcome sight as a the most beautiful stewardess who ever lived). Mimieux is a godess of the silver screen and is worth seeing anywhere, anytime.

The only other thing to recommend is the glance and remark given by Leslie Uggams as she departs the plane.

Wow....an air disaster film from the 1970s....that's something highly original!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 28 August 2013]

It's really amazing that people like to fly today considering all the air disaster films Hollywood has made over the years. There was a trickle during the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s (with such films as "Five Came Back" and "Zero Hour!" and "The High and the Mighty"). However, in the 1970s, it became an absolute phenomenon. Following "Airport" (1970), there were a flood of sequels as well as this film, "Skyjacked". It's really a wonder that ANYONE flew after seeing these films! "Skyjacked" is interesting in that Charlton Heston starred as the pilot in this one...and was also a pilot in "Airport 75". He does not, however, play the same character (thank goodness!).

The film begins with a star-studded cast of passengers boarding an airplane. However, shortly after the plane leaves the airport, one of the passengers reports that they found something interesting in the restroom--a message written in lipstick on the mirror that says that there is a bomb planted aboard. To make it seem like it's NOT a crank, the person who left the message also left a detonator for the staff to find! Shortly after, one of the flight attendants finds a message on her cart instructing that the plane must change course to anchorage NOW or else! What's to happen to the plane and the innocent people and who is the hijacker--if there is one? Tune in and see.

I was surprised by this one. Although I hated the sequels to "Airport", "Skyjacked" actually works quite well and is a tense little thriller. Now I am not saying it is a great film--the flashback subplot seemed totally unnecessary and dumb. Plus, the childbirth scene on the plane made me laugh, as the kid looked about a month old AND came out 100% clean! Sorry to say, it really doesn't work that way! By the way, if you care the 'Russian' fighter planes are actually American F-100s. You cannot blame the film company, as it wasn't like they could borrow some Soviet MiG fighters for the production!

Not a bad airplane-thriller, better than the "Airport" sequels...

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 8 September 2005]

Routine airline flight, piloted by none other than Charlton Heston, is beset with hijack warnings via notes left on the lavatory mirror. Could the psycho-on-board be musician Roosevelt "Rosie" Grier? Sweaty soldier James Brolin? Hippie Susan Dey or boy toy Nicholas Hammond? What about distraught stewardess Yvette Mimieux--has she cracked under pressure? Genre disaster flick slipped into theaters in between 1970's "Airport" and its many sequels, and actually was quite a hit at the box-office (but in this era, what Charlton Heston movie wasn't?). Unfortunately, once all is revealed--in rather anticlimactic fashion--the last reel is extremely dire. Still, for the first three-quarters of its length, "Skyjacked" provides just the kind of silly thrills you'd expect from a movie with that title and cast. Speaking of titles, "Skyjacked" was RE-TITLED "Sky Terror" once it premiered on network television. No sense frightening anyone into thinking this might be a documentary. ** from ****

Enjoyable time capsule.

[phillindholm · 8/10 · 20 March 2007]

"Skyjacked," one of many "air disaster" films from "The High and the Mighty" to "Airport", is one of the best in the genre. Featuring a star-studded cast headed by Charlton Heston (as the pilot, of course) and Yvette Mimieux (head stewardess), it's a fast-paced, efficient study in suspense. Basically a story involving the attempted hijacking of a commercial airplane, it focuses on a small group of first class passengers who provide both the drama and occasional (intended) humor. Among them are a middle-aged couple (Ross Elliot and Jeanne Crain) worried about yet another job transfer, a senator and his son (Walter Pidgeon and Nicholas Hammond) a "hippie girl" (Susan Dey, on leave from "The Partridge Family" in her screen debut), a jazz musician (former football great Rosey Grier) and of course, a pregnant woman (Mariette Hartley), who is due any minute (apparently, the nun missed this flight). Also aboard is a young sergeant (James Brolin, who fit this in between seasons of "Marcus Welby MD). Last, but not least is Leslie Uggams making her film debut, as an assistant stewardess.

Despite the occasionally unintentionally funny dialogue and predictable situations which, let's face it, go with the territory, the film has enough action and melodrama to be consistently entertaining. The cast give it their all. Far more interesting than the love triangle between Heston, Mimeux and co-pilot Mike Henry (which is established in a few ludicrous, but mercifully short flashbacks) are the performances of those who play the passengers. Crain, as lovely as ever, (in her first film in five years,and her last) gets to assist in the delivery of Hartley's baby,(neither she, nor ''Co Midwife'' Mimieux can sing, and Grier won't turn his guitar loose, so we are spared an in-flight, improvised ballad) as well as a chance to attack the villain. Pidgeon doesn't have to say much to give his character authority, Hartley is charming, and Susan Dey is both natural and appealing. As for Grier, he displays a genial screen presence while Brolin even evokes a bit of viewer sympathy.

"Skyjacked" was a big hit when it was first released and got a big audience rating when it was shown on television as "Sky Terror". The photography is excellent, the music by Perry Botkin, Jr. ("Nadia's Theme") is unobtrusively effective, and the main theme is beautiful. Although "Airport 1975" was waiting in the wings, so to speak, "Skyjacked" holds it's own. It will be released this June on DVD in it's original Panavision aspect ratio. I for one, can't wait!

Airport 1972?

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 7 April 2014]

Commercial airliner piloted by Charlton Heston is hijacked by someone claiming to have a bomb. Whether you consider it a knockoff of Airport or not, it's very much in the same vein as that film and its sequels. I see IMDb gives away the identity of the hijacker in their summary which is weird since the first 40 minutes of the movie is about that mystery. No spoilers here though.

Full of the stereotypical cast you might expect from an Airport movie: the pilot and stewardess who used to have a thing (Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux), aging stars (Walter Pidgeon, Jeanne Crain), up-and-coming youngsters (Susan Dey and future Spider-Man Nicholas Hammond), professional athlete (Rosie Greer), pregnant lady (Mariette Hartley), and a troubled soldier (James Brolin). The tension aboard the plane is pretty good but the dated flashback sequences are silly. Not bad of its type. First 45 minutes or so is best. If you like the Airport movies you'll surely like this.

Ridiculous escapist fun...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 4/10 · 13 December 2008]

There's a certain amount of fun to be had trying to keep count of how many times Charlton Heston uses the word "damn" in SKYJACKED, but other than that, this is a pretty goofy potboiler. Director John Guillermin tries mightily to infuse the film with some substance by including some awkward flashbacks but they just come off as silly, adding nothing to the development of a lot of cardboard characters. Heston is the captain of an airliner hijacked by kooky James Brolin. All of the passengers are let go save for the (semi) all-star first class passengers: Walter Pidgeon; Susan Dey; Rosie Grier; Jeanne Crain. Foxy Yvette Mimieux is the head stewardess involved in a love triangle with Heston and co-pilot Mike Henry and Mariette Hartley plays a pregnant woman. It's ridiculous, escapist fun.

"Well, one good thing: all drinks are on the airline for everyone."

[bensonmum2 · 7/10 · 27 July 2007]

A flight bound for Minnesota is hijacked and diverted to Anchorage with Moscow as its ultimate destination. Between terrible weather and zero visibility over Alaska and the possibility of being shot down my Russian fighters, it's going to be a harrowing journey. And that doesn't even take into account the unknown, crazed hijacker with a bomb who is somewhere on the plane!

I'll be honest – Skyjacked probably doesn't deserve the rating (7/10) I've given it. But I had such a good time watching it that I couldn't bring myself to rate it any lower. The situations may be predictable to anyone who has seen more than a handful of 70s disaster-style movies, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. My only real complaint is that the movie never goes far enough in the way of over-the-top camp or cheesy clichés. Much of Skyjacked is played too straight forward for its own good.

Old square-jawed Charlton Heston is the pilot. His Captain O'Hara is the same no-nonsense character who spits lines like nails and has the look on his face of someone who has been constipated for a couple of weeks that Heston always played. But boy is he good at it. I love watching the guy work! The rest of the cast takes the notion of two-dimensional characters to new heights. There's Rosey Grier as the gregarious black musician, Jeanne Crain as the middle-aged woman in the midst of some mysterious crisis, Walter Pidgeon as the old Senator who knows more than his share of national secrets, Susan Dey as the hippie who couldn't possibly afford to sit in first class, Mariette Hartley as the pregnant woman on the verge of going into labor, and Claude Akins as the only man who could give Heston a run for his money in the no-nonsense department. Even James Brolin, who outstanding as the crazed hijacker, isn't fleshed-out beyond a couple of ridiculous, but quite funny, flashbacks. They may be a predictable bunch, but they make Skyjacked a lot of fun.

One of my favorite parts of Skyjacked is the way director John Guillermin tries to make a mystery out of the hijacker's identity. First, I can't imagine anyone actually found it difficult to spot him. It's pretty obvious – he's the one acting nuttier than a fruitcake. (Not to mention that the new DVD gives away his identity on the back cover – good going guys!) Second, I love the way Guillermin tries to throw suspicion on a number of characters. For example, the only clue to the hijacker's identity we have is a tube of red lipstick. There's no way you can miss it – Guillermin zooms in on it about a dozen times. Then, a couple of scenes later, we see Jeanne Crain applying . . are you ready for this . . . red lipstick! I had to laugh! How in the world could anyone possibly imagine Jeanne Crain as a hijacker? Too funny!

Decent.

[gridoon · 6/10 · 12 July 2002]

This old-fashioned disaster film is not bad, despite a few slips into soapy silliness (the flashbacks). Charlton Heston is commanding as always (when he says "Nobody dies on my airplane!", you believe it), and there is even a little Agatha Christie-type mystery in the beginning, concerning the identity of the mad hijacker. (**1/2)

You've been... Sky-Hijacked! Na na na na na na na...

[Coventry · 5/10 · 23 March 2021]

Somewhere deep inside, I still like to believe that "Skyjacked" was initially meant to be a stern and intense thriller about disgruntled Vietnam veterans having to revert to terrorism in order to be heard. The original premise, or maybe even the first draft of the script, simply must have been heavily psychological and devastating. But then - and of course I'm just guessing all this - "Airplane" came in 1970, which was a tremendous financial success and promptly skyrocketed (pun intended) the formula of the "disaster movie". It's very, very likely that the popularity of "Airport" forced the writers of "Skyjacked" to drastically alter their film. All of a sudden, the potential motives of the bomber are mere footnotes, while the typical disaster clichés and stereotypes come to the foreground. Pregnant ladies going into labor, danger for mid-air collisions, etc... You know the drill.

But hey, I usually LOVE all these popcorn disaster-blockbusters, if - and only IF - they go over-the-top. "Skyjacked" doesn't have the Irwin Allen trademarks, like ginormous budgets or cartoonesque villains and cowards. The body count is far too low and there aren't any spectacular special effects or stunts. Quite often, "Skyjacked" even balances on the verge of boring, and that is totally unacceptable for a (pseudo-) disaster movie. The cast is more than impressive, and Charlton Heston is a regular disaster movie artist, but it's not your usual gathering of semi-washed up Hollywood veterans and showmen.

Weaponry in his carry-on

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 26 September 2012]

A decent if not spectacular entry into the Seventies disaster films is Skyjacked often confused with another airplane disaster film that starred Charlton Heston, Airport 75. This one is better than that thing from the Airport series.

Susan Dey playing one of the passengers finds a note written in one of the airplane bathrooms demanding that the plane be taken to Anchorage Alaska for refueling for a trip to the then Soviet Union. The pilot is Charlton Heston the crew is co-pilot Mike Henry, navigator Ken Swofford and various stewardesses headed by Yvette Mimieux. The note says the writer has a bomb as well to enforce his demands.

There's not much suspense here in that from the beginning you know it is James Brolin, the soldier so eager to get on board. What you don't know is that he's being discharged for being deranged, but we learn that just a tad too late before Brolin reveals himself and takes the plane and its passengers hostage.

The best thing about Skyjacked is the duel of minds and wits between Heston and Brolin. In fact Brolin is a truly frightening individual whose instability makes him hard to control and his combat skills and weaponry make him deadly.

Speaking of the weaponry, note that Brolin takes it on board the plane as a carry on in his duffel bag. Thanks to 9/11 we've certainly beefed up security so that at least that could never happen now in that way.

Skyjacked is not the best of the Seventies disaster films, but it holds up reasonably well for today's audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen... you have been skyjacked."

[Aussie Stud · 3/10 · 12 December 2001]

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

Airport 72!

[mls4182 · 6/10 · 27 February 2023]

Ah the good old days. 1972. People smoking cigarettes and pipes on planes, pregnant women drinking bloody Mary's, and has been movie actors having bad TV movies to pay their SAG dues.

Every person in the cockpit is wearing a wig - and they are all male. The good news is this is one of the few films in middle age where Chuck Heston kept his clothes on.

The result is no better or worse than most of the airport and 1970s disaster movies. There seems to be less camp moments.

The cast includes Susan Dey fresh off Partridge Family, Rosie Grier, James Brolin during his Marcus Welby hiatus, the beautiful and talented Jeanne Crain (who gave up acting after this stinker), perennial starlet Yvette Mimeux and screen great Walter Pidgeon given 18th billing.

Skywhacked

[Poseidon-3 · 11 July 2007]

In the 1970's, feature films and TV movies continually focused on mid-air crises of all kinds. The "Airport" series featured a mad bomber, a collision with a small private craft, a crash beneath the waters of the Bermuda Triangle and finally a skirmish with heat-seeking missiles (clearly most of the ideas had run out by that time!) TV-films dealt with ghosts, crashes into the Everglades, murderers and even one in which a plane flies into a skyscraper! Here, pilot Heston and Co. are on board a passenger jet for Minneapolis when suddenly there are lipstick-written messages demanding that the flight plan be altered to Anchorage instead or else a bomb will be detonated. Not only does Heston have to contend with a hijacker/bomber, but also he doesn't even know who the culprit is, just that he or she is likely a member of first class. This makes the first 30 minutes of the film a bit of a mystery (one which is completely spoiled on the back of the new DVD case, so take care if watching for the first time!) It also makes for some serious tedium as the script can't allow viewers to know much about the people on board, lest it become obvious who is or is not the passenger with a screw loose. When the hijacker is revealed, things take on a more tense feeling, but there are really very few times when anyone in this movie acts like a real person. The passengers react to the news of a hijacking the way they might react to finding that the plane is out of smokehouse almonds. People keep misunderstanding each other's intentions and motives in an effort to build some mystery about the bomber. Sadly, this just isn't handled well enough to work to the film's advantage. At least in "Airport", the star-studded cast members each got a chance to shine, even if some of the stories were silly. Here, the characters are almost strictly cardboard props. Heston was a master at playing the square-jawed authority figures and he does well here, even showing some shades of vulnerability at times. Check out the mushroom cloud of smoke he has coming out of his pipe in the cockpit! Times have changed. Mimieux is attractive as his head stewardess and former flame (as revealed through some loony, "arty" flashbacks.) Henry is the hunky co-pilot who now keeps Mimieux company. Brolin, as a soldier on board, is one of the few people with something significant to play and he obviously relished it, though it could hardly be described as great acting. Grier shows improvement over some of his earlier projects like "Daniel Boone", but has little to do. Pidgeon plays a US Senator on board and tries to inject some weight into a paper-thin part. Dey, as a hippie, Hammond as Pidgeon's son and Elliott and Crain as a married couple are so much furniture, their roles are so un-fleshed-out. At least Hartley gets a chance to fret some in her clichéd role of the panicky pregnant woman. Akins appears in a role George Kennedy would likely have played if he hadn't been stretched so thin in virtually every other disaster film of the decade. Uggams, in her film debut, plays a stewardess whose final line is amusing if a bit unlikely. What's neat about the film is its serene production design and color scheme, its aerial photography, its unusual music score, its generally serious tone and its eclectic cast of familiar faces. Unfortunately, the script has to count as a debit as it fails to generate any characters of particular interest or depth. The editing and continuity on the film is also poor. Chunks of activity seem to have been left out such as Henry bandaging Mimieux's cut. Also, Mimieux's hair goes from loose to pulled-back to loose within moments. Though the film is not nearly campy enough to be funny throughout, there are a couple of giggles along the way such as when one passenger is nearly frozen and has a hair full of frost or when busy character actor Fiedler has his voice hilariously and ludicrously over-dubbed. There's a lack of urgency to the movie, typified by (the still-lovely) Crain when she has a chance to get off the plane and decides to smooth out the suede in her hat instead. It's doubtful that anyone but die-hard buffs will find this anything much beyond tiresome, but at least it isn't an over-the-top mess like so many of today's movies.

Bad Trip

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 13 October 2015]

While an unseen passenger buys some lipstick, lead pilot Charlton Heston (as Henry "Hank" O'Hara) prepares for a flight from Oakland to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Unfortunately, the "Global Airways" plane is going to suffer from some significant human turbulence. It starts when TV's pretty "Partridge Family" teenager Susan Dey (as Elly Brewster) visits the rest room. She dashes out to notify the crew there is a message on the mirror, "Bomb on plane. Divert to Anchorage Alaska. No joke no tricks death," written in lipstick...

MGM and producer Walter Seltzer got some skilled professionals to work on this film, to no avail. It was obviously intended to make the same box office flight as "Airport" (1970), and is a tepid variation of that all-star mega-hit. However, "Skyjacked" is a bad trip. The home video sleeve markets it as a "Cult Camp Classic," which is making lemonade with a lemon. Soldering passenger James Brolin (as Jerome "Jerry" Weber) threatens to over-camp Mr. Heston, but the older actor conserves his strength for a spectacular finish.

*** Skyjacked (1972-05-24) John Guillermin ~ Charlton Heston, James Brolin, Yvette Mimieux, Roosevelt Grier

Well worth watching

[LUVJET · 8/10 · 16 October 1998]

I first saw this film when it was released at the theatre in 1972, (I was 12yrs old), under the title "Sky Terror". Being an aviation buff, I was in my glory- This film had everything! Some of the best shots of a Boeing 707 in flight, (Most flight scenes today are computer generated and are extremely phony) and Yvette Mimieux, who has never looked more glamourous, as the first Stewardess. What more could an airline buff want. Charlton Heston reprises "Moses" in the cabin, as only he could. James Brolin is the resident bomb-carrying, psycopathic war vet, who's released on a 4F and wants to hijack everyone to Russia so he can be decorated. Mariette Hartley, is a believable "expectant-mother", who boards the flight as she's about to give birth. (How'd she slip past the gate agent?) Then there's Susan Dey, who was suspect immediately, as a Hippie traveling first class! There's a fairly good story here with the usual soap opera flair. (Mimieux's character has had an affair with the Captain and currently dating the 1st Officer). Geat interior and exterior scenes combined with above average acting and good dialogue, makes this all-star film, worth watching.

I give it a: * * 1/2 rating, they lose half a star for being an almost direct rip-off of "Airport".

The Cast

[xnamora · 7/10 · 31 August 2020]

Great cast of horror and sci-fi regulars. It's full of old friends.Enjoyed this a lot.

Quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. . .

[sestinatim · 1/10 · 22 May 2002]

Skyjacked has no real characters, nary a coherent plotline, little suspense, and absolutely nothing to offer beyond cardboard acting, inconsistent direction, and jarring editing. From the opening sequence, designed to introduce the main players in clever or amusing ways as they board a plane for Minneapolis, the film is static and confusing. The thirty seconds or less devoted to each character is not enough to get a feel for their personality. Furthermore, a few second-person, "to the camera" shots, designed to introduce the "skyjacker," are confusing and poorly handled so as to throw the viewer out of the film's continuity. Later as the suspense is supposed to build, jump cuts abound and the action is otherwise so static as to be boring. One might think that Anchoarge is a routine stop on the way to Minneapolis rather than a forced destination by a crazed bomber for all of the concern that the actors display. The film is hardly worth following to its cryptic conclusion, a series of mindframe fantasies, the significance of which is never fully explained. There are some impressive "live airplane" exterior shots in what is otherwise a benign "aircraft fight sequence" but in comparison to the poorly designed set of the interior of the aircraft, serve to do little more than throw a disenchanted viewer even farther out of what little story there is. I viewed Skyjacked as part of a "disaster movie weekend" among such other 70's disaster fare as The Swarm, Fire!, Juggernaut, and Rollercoaster. The films were selected by a random sampling of second tier disaster flicks, and Skyjacked was picked by it's close proximity on the shelf to Rollercoaster and The Swarm. The 2002 Movie Guide had no review for Skyjacked, although it did give ratings of no stars to The Swarm, Fire!, and Rollercoaster. Obviously, the ommitting of Skyjacked was certainly on purpose; it was showing the proper opinion that the film should never have been made.