Jet Storm

This is basically a disaster movie prototype, from before there were such things. It wasn't the first film made about a flight in peril, but it was one of the first to feature a jet aircraft. This film is chock-a-block with fine acting talent and the claustrophic confines of the aircraft make for a good 'plot pressure cooker' that eventually brings things to a head.

Actually the confines of the aircraft are not anywhere near as small as they ought to be; the aircraft cabin set is eerily quiet, and incredibly spacious, having eight foot plus ceilings, wide seats and a huge gangway. There is a downstairs lounge too, with a second row of windows (unseen in any external shots), a bar and a luggage hold that you can wander around in. Jet aircraft were certainly not like that at the time and in fact never really have been. The camera work has just a hint of sway to it; enough to suggest the aircraft is actually flying, but without making you feel seasick watching it. The aircraft used in the film vary; in long shots prior to and during take-off a medium-haul Aeroflot Tu104A (CCCP-42390) is used, however they are seen boarding G-AOYM (actually a BEA Vickers Viscount, with no jet engine exhaust in the trailing edge of the wing root of course) and announce themselves using a different call sign (G-AJOR) to the control tower. A Tu104-esque model is used too, which is also marked G-AJOR. Near the end of the film a completely different aircraft, a turboprop of some kind, is seen in twilight.

The film was released in 1959; the only passenger jet aircraft flying for most of the previous three years had been the Tu104. Both the Boeing 707 and the DH Comet IV had been flying transatlantic since October 1958, but portraying either type in a disaster movie would have been a political hot potato; effectively the US and UK aircraft industries were busy duking it out for the long haul jet aircraft market. Choosing the Tu104 to represent a fictional type flying the equally fictional 'Atlantic Queen' service was a neat way out of any controversy that might so be caused.

It is a pretty good film, this, all told; an interesting period piece, a proto-disaster movie, a hothouse of acting talent.

This has to be a key progenitor to the modern disaster movie well before the famous Airport series for instance. There are scenes in this repeated with great hilarity in Airplane! too. But here the style is of a serious drama and thriller, as opposed to a comedy, except for the inevitable inadvertent howlers for the contemporary viewer. There's a preponderance of excellent actors at all levels with quite a lot to offer in the now standard character-development phase of the plot -- there are ongoing themes on typical preoccupations of the era like social class prejudice, the destruction of world wars and fears of nuclear apocalypse, and lots on the burgeoning sexual revolution to name a few. With stuff like this the real action and indeed the plausibility of the plot becomes strangely irrelevant. But if one cares to pick the latter apart it's not hard to see wobbly elements like the odd two-level areoplane in the studio when the external shots are of a re-fitted Tuplov Soviet nuclear bomber with just a single deck fuselage. The addition of the "lounge deck" is important in the story, and anyway adds to the feel of specialness and luxury that flight in the 1960s was synonymous with. So, for the excellent drama, and the bits of cultural history alone I give this 9/10 with just a point loss on the plausibility front. Attenborough is excellent as the creepy antagonist.

Way before Airport! This might not be the very first all star airline dramas (I believe The High and the Mighty was) but it was way ahead of its time. Good thriller with fair subplots and good acting. Hermione Baddely nearly steals the show as a surly, panicky passenger.

Jet Storm is directed by Cy Endfield, who also co-writes the screenplay with Sigmund Miller. It stars Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, Hermione Baddeley, Bernard Braden, Diane Cilento, Barbara Kelly and David Kossoff. Music is by Thomas Rajna and cinematography by Jack Hildyard. Plot finds Attenborough as Ernest Tilley, a man still angry and grieving over the hit-and-run killing of his seven year old daughter. Tracking down James Brock (George Rose), the man responsible for the accident, he boards the same aeroplane flight as him and threatens to blow it up as an act of vengeance against Brock and mankind for allowing him to get away with his crime.

It's a real hard film to track down. Packed to the rafters with British acting talent, it has rarely been licensed to even be shown in the United Kingdom. I myself had to order a DVD copy from Australia, but the wait was very much worth it.

As has been noted by the very few reviews of the film on the internet, it's a British prototype disaster movie, but that in no way means this is cornball stuff, it's a very human and intelligent drama. Endfield's film is looking into how a number of people react differently when faced with the possibility of death, while it casts a scathing eye towards a society that creates someone like Ernest Tilley. How would you react if you faced impending death on board a plane? How would you react if your child was killed and the man responsible got away with it? Searching questions that of course don't bare thinking about, but that's why we have cinema, to let us escape into a dramatic world that paints possibilities for us.

The ream of character sub-plots are excellently performed by the huge cast, but it's Attenborough and Baker who shine brightest. The former has Tilley as hollowed and tragic, a man tipped over the edge, pain seeping from every pore. The latter has Captain Bardow as silky smooth, calm during crisis, it's an elegant portrayal by one of Britain's most under valued actors. Elsewhere, Endfield does a marvellous job of threading so many character strands together, making one successful whole and he deftly paces it and brings it in under 90, exposition free, minutes. The lovely title song is called Jetstream (a working title for the film), not Jet Storm as is listed on IMDb, and it's warbled by Marty Wilde (lyrics by Endfield) who also features in the cast.

An under seen British classic of entertaining substance, one that also has the requisite drama and suspense as it dangles its questions. 8/10

A British aviation thriller; A story about a former scientist aboard a commercial airplane flying from London to New York who threatens the safety of the passengers in his plan to confront a man who he believes is responsible for the hit-and-run death of his young daughter. An intelligent script provides some tension as well as melodrama and humour but it is a touch naive with constant moralising and the eventual payoff which is contrived. With many of the tropes of the disaster movie genre, the plot is interesting as the alarmed passengers soon divide into groups: reactionary and liberal. Richard Attenborough brings a convincing complexity to the role of bereft father, and danger which maintains the danger throughout, and the film boasts a starry British cast delivering good character-driven performances.