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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.