Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (2001 TV Movie) User Reviews

Do you want to dead-head your way back or do you want to take the front seat.

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 4 August 2005]

**SPOILERS**Eric Roberts in one of his rare good-guy roles as 1st officer Mike Hogan is very good as a suspended pilot who's given a second chance to redeem himself under the most dangerous and trying of circumstances.

Waiting for a Trans-Atlantic flight back to New York in London Mike is spotted by the airport manager of AJA airline, Mikes former employer, Arc Davis, Andrew Gillis, and asked if he could come on board as 1st officer since the plane, flight 534, is already two hours late and it's co-pilot isn't showing up. Mike is on administrated leave for crash landing a passenger plane at Boston's Logan Airport when he was supposed to fly the plane to it's original distention. what the board of inquiry wasn't told was that the plane was short on fuel and would have crashed, if Mike kept it airborne, killing everyone where by crash-landing the aircraft he saved all on board. Given a second chance Mike later runs into the same cut & save policies from AJA that caused him to lose his license to fly.

With the planes captain Jack Brooks ,Kevin Jumbinville,not wanting to wait any longer and with a cargo door dangerously unhinged Flight 534 takes off. Airborne at 30,000 feet all hell breaks loose as the giant passenger plane flies straight into an North Atlantic storm as the cargo door is torn out, causing the inside of the plane to decompress, knocking out Captan Jack as well as a number of passengers and leaving Mike Hogan all alone at the wheel with the planes fuel supply quickly being depleted.

Standard heroics with Mike and his former girlfriend cute and frisky flight attendant Katy Philips, Alexandra Paul, taking over the co-pilot controls as he replaces the wounded and unconscious Captain Jack as Flight 534's pilot. Turning the plane around in mid-flight Capatin Mike steers the aircraft to the nearest landing site before he runs out of fuel and crashes into the Atlantic: foggy and windswept Keflavik Airport in Iceland.

Besides Mike & Kathy there's also fugitive murder being brought back to stand trial in the US, Grant Blyth, Dean McDermott, who later, after he becomes religious, aborted his plan to skyjack the plane and risked his life to shut the cargo door. Thus giving Captain Mike the ability to turn and try to land the aircraft.

Besides being a fugitive from the law Grant is also a computer whiz who's able to jump the planes wires and allow it to be flown manually by Mike,who's not at all that impressed with the planes modern computer technology, and not blindly by instrument control and thus be able to land it safely at Keflavik Airport.

There's also the sweet and able air traffic controller at Keflavik Sara, Leah Pinsert, who guided the flight to safely in almost zero visibility. You would have thought that the very qualified but conceded Captain Jack would have risen to the occasion, like almost everyone else in the movie did,when things got dangerous and out of control but he did the exact opposite.

Wanting to take the control of the aircraft away from the very able and courageous Mike Hogan Captain Jack almost caused the plane to crash with his moronic antics. Which were nothing more then to re-inflate his very bruised ego that was busted by Mike being able to do a much better job of flying, and landing, the aircraft then he did.

Run Of The Mill Airline Disaster Movie

[jehaccess6 · 5/10 · 13 January 2008]

I found this film at Wal-Mart in the $1.00 bargain bin. I got my fair value, but would not have at a higher price. I was not familiar with the lead actors, since I was not a 'Baywatch' fan.

I must say that the continuity people really fell down on this film. The aircraft shown taking off is a short-haul Boeing 737, not capable of undertaking a trans-Atlantic flight with a full passenger load. The aircraft magically morphs into a Boeing 757 with a different paint scheme. A Boeing 757 is only marginally more suited for such a long flight. The computer graphics people could just as easily have produced a Boeing 777 that was designed for such service. In either case, the 737 and 757 are not fly-by-wire aircraft. The 777 is such an aircraft, but not controllable without computer assistance.

The trouble with the cargo door is another continuity rough spot. The failing cargo door initially is behind the wing. Later, it mysteriously becomes the cargo door ahead of the wing. The warning lights for an unsecured cargo door latch fail miserably. The pilots climb the aircraft to such an altitude that the pressure differential blows the door open and it is ripped from the aircraft. Such failures have caused actual crashes. The door fails, the cargo compartment decompresses, and the floor above it buckles. The buckled floor jams the cables to the tail controls and the aircraft becomes fatally uncontrollable in pitch.

The film cycles through the predictable interactions of the stock characters for such a drama. The murderer going home to face trial makes a trip to the lavatory and extracts a gun from the waste bin. He obviously had an accomplice to secrete the weapon there for him, but this development is never explained. He then volunteers to help save the aircraft and later voluntarily discards the weapon out the open cargo door. Sadly, his noble efforts lead to his demise from being sucked out of the open cargo door.

I had sort of settled into a dazed acceptance of this string of clichés when I spotted this beautiful Icelandic Air Traffic Controller being inserted into the plot. Leah Pinsent is obviously a natural blonde and perfectly gorgeous. She needs to work on her Scandanavian accent, however. She develops a personal relationship with the struggling pilot in about 25 minutes of professional contact over the radio. She shows up after the successful landing, hoping to meet the hero pilot in person. Her longing looks fall flat however when Alexandra Paul displays her prior claim to the hero with one embrace.

After viewing this film, I am considering starting a new career writing television screenplays. I need only crib my plot themes from hundreds of low-budget predecessors and piece them together like a quilt. I can pitch my first proposal as a melange of 'Desperate Housewives', 'Sex In The City', and 'Law And Order'. The producers can cast a lot of soap opera stars hoping to move up to television movies. I hope to cash my first big check before I actually wake up.

Enjoyable Movie

[kenday1 · 6/10 · 8 June 2003]

I enjoyed this movie. It was nice to see Eric Roberts as a "good guy" again for a change. Good variety of characters. I liked the idea of the prisoner on board risking his life for the passengers. Enjoyed seeing the arrogant captain tied up!

I think we've decompressed.

[rmax304823 · 2/10 · 2 August 2005]

Maybe someone else can find something other than clichés in this movie but I couldn't. I generally enjoy airplanes-in-trouble movies. By their very nature they're pregnant with suspense and raise all sorts of questions, like, "What the hell are we doing up here at 37,000 feet???" This is the kind of movie that "Airplane" parodied 25 years ago, except that I'm not sure "Airplane" did a better job of sending up the genre than "Rough Air" does.

There's a scene in "Airplane," for instance, in which a trembling flight attendant confesses to another her fear that the airplane and everyone on it is doomed. Then she adds, "And also I'm twenty-six years old and not married yet," and breaks into sobs.

In this movie a cargo door blows out, decompressing the fuselage and taking part of the tail assembly off. The airplane is a wreck. It shudders and lurches and will never make Keraktovic, Iceland, or whatever it is. (It's not Reykyavik, and Shannon and Prestwick are portmanteaued into Shanwick.) The airplane is falling apart piece by piece. And two flight attendance are whispering together aft. One of them has had an affair with the pilot and smiles as she describes the experience. "I had hoped for a family. All the usual things. Then one day he just left. And that was all. It's over now. Of course he was -- great!" The other leans forward conspiratorially and asks, "Great?" They are about to die and they're discussing how good Eric Roberts is in bed.

Roberts is the co-pilot who has had to take over when the captain goes nuts, although Roberts himself is under a cloud for a previous pilot error. (He was really innocent.) Two of the braver passengers are in the luggage compartment trying to block the hole in the fuselage with heavy baggage. (Why? I don't know.) It's a dangerous job. They could be sucked out at any time as they struggled with the crates and trunks. One of them is a murderer being taken to prison. (All airplanes have handcuffed murderers aboard, accompanied by a cop who fails in his duty.) In the midst of their exertions, the other passenger asks why the criminal did it. The two of them must shout over the howling slipstream and screaming jet engines. Still, the murder stops hustling the baggage and explains his motives. "He stole everything from me. My wife. My money. My life. I felt all empty inside." He completes the dangerous task, which will help save the airplane, and is sucked out to answer to a higher authority.

There's also one of those passengers who carries a lot of authority, some kind of high muckamuck in Global Circumcisional Airlines or something, and he makes a pain out of himself, bullying other, demanding to know what's going on, and generally getting in the way of things.

I missed the kid, though. I mean the child that's always on these stricken aircraft. Sometimes they need a kidney transplant. Sometimes a rare type of blood transfusion. Sometimes they suffer from peanut allergies. But they're always sick. I missed the kid.

Maybe that's why this movie is so unsatisfying. I burst into a torrent of tears when I heard the flight attendant say that it was all over between her and the pilot. (This was just before she told the joke about the difference between a stewardess and a jet engine.) I wept abjectly when the murderer poured out his tale of woe. But I could have flooded with tears this abandoned railway car that I live in -- if only that sick kid could have been aboard and have her life saved.

I'm -- I'm sorry. I can't go on. I'm choked with an unidentifiable but overwhelming emotion the chief symptom of which is nausea.

Another "Dollar DVD" goodie

[MetalGeek · 28 June 2007]

So I'm scanning the Dollar DVD Rack one afternoon at Wal-Mart, wondering what offerings it might have for me...the title "Rough Air" jumps out at me. An obviously made-for-TV air disaster movie starring Eric Roberts (Julia's ne'er-do-well brother) and Alexandra Paul (of "Baywatch" fame, though to me she'll always be "The Virgin Connie Swail" from "Dragnet")? This DVD cover even has the audacity to rip off the tag line from "Alien," saying "At 30,000 Feet, No One Can Hear You Scream!" SOLD! A few nights later I give "Rough Air" a spin and y'know what? It's actually a decent (although totally unoriginal) flick, but I couldn't help noticing its similarity to the classic disaster-film parody "Airplane!" In fact, it almost seems as if "Rough Air's" screenwriters took the basic plot of "Airplane" and decided to make their own non-humorous version out of it. The two major characters are the disgraced pilot (Roberts) whose last flight ended in disaster, and his estranged stewardess girlfriend, both of whom end up on the same plane when mid-air disaster strikes and the pilots are incapacitated. Of course, Roberts is the only other person on board who can fly a plane, so it's up to him to get everyone back on the ground safely. When Stewardess Ex-Girlfriend is asked to help out in the co-pilot's seat, I immediately had flash backs to Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty landing the doomed airliner in "Airplane" while trading sight gags and one liners with Lloyd Bridges in the control tower, but they keep things on the straight and narrow in "Rough Air." (I kept waiting for them to inflate "OTTO" the automatic pilot, but no such luck.) Do you even have to ask if they'll fall back in love again by the time the plane lands? :) "Rough Air" was an entertaining enough diversion for a rainy evening. If air disaster movies are your thing, it's worth the dollar. For the casual viewer, you can do a lot worse.

21st century airline rubbish

[uniqueabba · 1/10 · 13 December 2006]

Just watched yet another airline disaster.

2 flight attendants on a long haul flight, rubbish.

A pilot pulled off passenger list and made to fly in place of an out of hours pilot, rubbish.

Aircraft shown takes off as one aircraft, looks totally different in air, again looks different on landing. Special effects rubbish, looked like a school project.

Decompression: No masks appear automatically for ages, no automatic announcement made due to decompression.

No landing emergency drill followed, no brace positions called out for emergency landing by either Captain or flight attendants.

Why do the film studios not get an airline adviser in and ask what the drills are for such occurrences. Utter rubbish, corny lines and unknown actors who will no doubt never work again.

Cliche Ridden Rubbish

[blade-21 · 1/10 · 5 March 2002]

My goodness me!! What a waste of celluloid. This is the most cliche ridden disaster movie of all time. (Apart from Airplane where the cliches are intentional - and are used to hilarious effect). "Rough Air...." is sooooo predictable. All the usual two dimensional characters are there.. The pilot with a "history", the cabin attendant who is an old love interest, the criminal and his police escort etc. etc.

If you fancy yourself as a clairvoyant watch this...it will give you bags of confidence in the art of prediction. Otherwise forget it.

An Enjoyable Movie

[Uriah43 · 6/10 · 4 February 2014]

"Mike Hogan" (Eric Roberts) is a pilot who has been temporarily suspended because of an accident that wasn't his fault. However, when an international flight is in desperate need of a co-pilot he is coaxed into accepting the assignment in the hope that he might regain his former status. As it so happens his former girlfriend "Katy Phillips" (Alexandra Paul) is also on the flight as the head stewardess which creates a bit of an awkward situation for both of them. Even worse is the fact that the pilot "Captain Jack Brooks" (Kevin Jubinville) is a total jerk who treats Mike with complete disdain. Along with that one of the passengers named "Cal Matthews" (Carlo Rota) is almost as bad as Captain Brooks. That said however, none of these situations remotely compares to the problem Mike has to contend with once the flight takes off across the Atlantic Ocean en route to Boston. Anyway, rather than detail the entire story and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I thought this was an enjoyable movie for the most part. While it's true that most of the events depicted in this movie have been done before at one time or another I liked most of the actors involved and thought they performed fairly well together. Also having attractive actresses like Anne Openshaw (as "Flight Attendant Tracey Nichols") along with the aforementioned Alexandra Paul certainly didn't hurt either. In short, I liked this movie and I rate it as slightly above average.

Another Dull Air-disaster movie

[r_longden · 3/10 · 7 October 2001]

After sitting through this movie, I know that I can sit through anything. In a few simple words, It was poor. I explain my reasons below as to why I believe this.

The movie uses a lot of cliches, which you tend to think to yourself 'oh no, not this again!' as you have seen in another air-disaster movie. It also fails to give you any surprises or really bad compromising positions, because you get 'warned' about them before they happen. Warned in inverted commas because it is not a direct in-your-face warning but more of a subtle one, so that if you are concentrating slightly, you will get what's about to happen.

There is obviously a romance, which I think could have been left out and we, the public, would not miss a thing. Another thing that struck me was how they all seemed to remain quite calm on the plane, even though terrible things keep happening!

More screaming and a more tense atmosphere were needed to make this movie ten times better. Definitely not a recommended movie, but more of a I-dont-know-what-to-do-this-Sunday-so-I'll-watch-a-movie !

Nice film to relax

[iasuka · 5/10 · 24 July 2011]

I happen rather to like the film. Clichés? Yes. Inaccuracies? Tons of it. For instance, all modern airliners should have cargo bay isolated from passenger cabin and sudden depressurization of latter is hardly possible.

So what is there to like? For me it is overall... tranquility. Unlike most modern thrillers, this film leaves your nerves undamaged. It just looks reasonable. No maniacs, no superheroes, no dark forces, no anything like that. Just "good ole boys" doing what they can for people around them. And that is very refreshing. You could think that film is made in 70s or 80s.

So, all in all, this is a nice film to relax at night. Just don't expect much thrill and you'll be all right.

Thank you.

Very Watchable

[mollymoor · 8/10 · 29 April 2006]

I love Eric Roberts...it doesn't matter if he is good or bad...but when he is good as in this movie it is a lot better. It is too bad the industry does not use him more and that is he overshadowed by sister Julia and now daughter Emma. I usually do not enjoy airplane disaster movies...I watched (of course due to Eric Roberts) and for a couple of hours enjoyed myself. Canadian movies are getting better. I think Alexandria Paul is a good TV actress. It was nice to see Eric's wife in the movie also. I have to admit I rated the movie with a higher rating due to Eric Roberts being in the movie. The captain of the plain was the most irritating part of the movie. I just cannot imagine pilots fighting like this...

I can't believe I watched the whole thing

[jrfrest · 2/10 · 30 March 2020]

A hokey airline disaster movie with a stale plot, sub-par acting, terrible effects and rife with technical errors. 90 minutes I'll never get back.

Average story, poorly made movie

[wombat_1 · 22 July 2001]

This movie unrolls as if the producers had seen both the "Flying High" (aka "Airplane") movies and then immediately decided to make a serious movie based very heavily on what they saw.

A previous imdb critique of "Sphere" had Sharon Stone's delivery sounding like she was reading her lines as a hostage with a gun held to her head. In this movie, most of the actors deliver their lines like that; or maybe that they're seeing them for the first time ever on a teleprompter.

The good-guy copilot is cheerful and likeable, the bad-guy captain is arrogant and immediately dislikeable. The stewardesses smile brightly at each other as they chat. And on the first meeting of the featured passengers, straight away you could tell who would not live to see the end of the movie. See what I mean? It's altogether far too much like "FH".

The purpose of the savage dog in the cargo compartment escaped me completely.

The computer-generated images of the plane in flight are quite good, but they're not enough to rescue this movie. It was mildly entertaining, but no more than that.

Awful movie. Riddled with inaccuracies!

[paulbirney · 1/10 · 21 January 2002]

So many inaccuracies in this movie that I don't know where to start. Flight 534 is shown as a short-haul Boeing 737 with a black tail when taking off from London, when it is supposed to be a long-haul Boeing 757? with a red tail! ... and, could they not cast an Irish actor to play the part of the Shanwick Radio controller? Such a woeful Irish accent! BTW, Shanwick does not posess the technology to contact Keflavik Tower by radio all the way from Shannon!

Awful

[Johnny_Boy · 1/10 · 25 December 2003]

I am not an airline pilot but I do know enough to know that "fly-by -wire" computers can't be overriddden in order that the "infinitely more expert" (ho ho) pilot can fly an otherwise unflyable aircraft.

None of the various different aircraft shown in the film is fly-by-wire anyway

Actually I thought this film must be a joke at first. I realised it was serious when I saw the start of the development of the most loathsome character on the aircraft. He is played as English - compulsory of course in poor quality offerings of this type.

I would strongly advise anyone against wasting a single moment of life on this awful film.

I won't include any plot details, but if I did a spoiler warning would be entirely superfluous since any five year old could guess the plot whilst being distracted by something more interesting.

Very rough for the viewer

[Pro Jury · 3/10 · 20 August 2003]

A million dollar actor (Eric Roberts) stars in a ten cent movie (ROUGH AIR: FLIGHT 534).

ROUGH AIR: FLIGHT 534 is presented on the same cable network and often scheduled to air on or close to the same day as the similarly titled FREEFALL: FLIGHT 174.

Generally, ROUGH AIR is a rougher view than FREEFALL. Compared to FREEFALL: FLIGHT 174, ROUGH AIR: FLIGHT 534 is very poorly written and the quality of acting is less consistent than in FREEFALL: FLIGHT 174. Set your expectations low. Neither video movie will ever achieve art house acclaim.

Overall a good movie

[keenso93 · 10/10 · 13 December 2006]

I thought this film was really good and

I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday evening watching it. OK it's a bit predictable but aren't most things in life?

My favourite part was the Guy in first class who they eventually had to incapacitate. Hilarious. I was left wondering whether the prisoner was really a pilot or if he just made it up. I suppose it leaves it to the imagination. I thought the footage at the start of the film where the First Officer was having his flashback was very good. I would recommend this film for a quiet Sunday evening on a winters night.

Very Good

Rough around the edges but a good film!

[WhiteTigerPat · 25 April 2002]

I really liked this movie. It's a simple story with a airline full of passengers and something goes wrong. A trpical film about airline tragedies. Roberts and paul are good actors and show it. Like I said if you want a simple story about a airline tragedy just rent one of these films. They are all the same. It's out on DVd and a must for me because of the great Eric Roberts! Out of 4 stras I give it 3 stars.

Very entertaining and realistic

[american psycho who loves Christian Bale · 9/10 · 7 August 2002]

This movie in my eyes is very realistic and entertaining! It gives people a good glimpse of what being a pilot(First Officer or Captain)is really like!

The movie has a good story line and plot and had a lot of brave and memorable characters, for example Eric Roberts who plays first officer Mike Hogan who stayed calm, cool and collected through out the worrying flight. I think the fact that I myself are considering a career in aviation, preferably as a airline pilot attracted my likeness to this movie as I am fascinated about aeroplanes and dream of one day becoming a pilot!

In conclusion I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and was dazzled by it and Eric Roberts!

good movie and good acting

[mnstauto · 30 April 2006]

it was good to watch but I must comment the nothing as of to date has compared to the 1970 " airport " movie.

Which I feel showed more realism about day to day operations of not only the airport but and air lines as well.

As " airport " used actual air traffic controllers and not actors in the tower.One big mistake I feel was made is when the plane touched down there was no sign of emergency equipment on the sight until after the plane had come to a complete stop. But we all know that when an aircraft is declaring an emergency that the emergency crews are in place at the runway prior to touch down.

Not quite sure what IMDB reviewers are thinking...

[davidjackman · 10/10 · 7 May 2020]

This film is hands down fantastic. I feel that the complaints of bad acting or cliched lines or bad directing and so forth are undeserved and a little misguided. Watch this gem for yourself to see how this piece of cinema from 2001 could easily be the best film in it's genre (thriller), and certainly the best airplane-themed film of all time.

What we should really be discussing is how this film will bring awareness to airline safety in a way that nothing else has and that it should be an absolute essential watch for all pilots and cabin crew who are in training.

Let's give "Rough Air" the love it deserves!

Competent however formulaic

[michaelberanek275 · 8/10 · 16 December 2019]

This film pressed all the buttons for me in terms of a classic disaster movie updated for the smartphone era. Yes some plausibility issues but still massive problems as much of the issues are purely technical despite the drama surrounding the main characters convulsing around at some pace and indeed complexity - the twists and turns, and the fairly benign deneumont with sickly sweet romantic interests all round ni I just just love it as it not only plays all the old tropes but seems to have gone through them all from A-Z. The bit, was it Airport '77? wth the concourse window was referenced near the end. And making it just the more miserable and mundane like perhaps many tradegies really are to experience, there's hardly a flicker of genuine humour or pastiche. It's a serious genre movie that's pretty decent serving up OK writing and almost dignified performances.