Mayday

So let's see: The American Navy is testing a new missile, somehow manages to miss the fact that a passenger airliner is in the test airspace, missile hits plane. Explosive decompression somehow lasts TWO FREAKING MINUTES, and sucks many people out of the plane. It's powerful enough to rip a set of bolted chairs out of the floor and out of the plane .(It's about 15 minutes into the movie, and already you can tell the people making this movie have no clue about airplanes... or basic physics for that matter.) Captain dies from lack of oxygen and the co-pilot is in a coma for the same reason. (What?!) A "weekend pilot" takes over the controls and has to land the plane. Meanwhile, both the Navy and the airline's insurance company are independently scheming to secretly destroy the crippled plane, so they can hide their idiocy and save money, respectively.

Thanks to a "sympathetic" admiral, who for much of the movie stood by while orders to destroy the plane were given and almost followed, but then declared self-righteously that his report to the Pentagon would tell it "like it happened", we can assume that justice will be done.

Of course the heroic pilot manages to bring the plane in for a dramatic landing, everyone is happy, and thanks to evidence he gathered, the insurance guys will get their just deserts as well.

The plot is unbelievable to say the least. The actors are variously over-acting, under-acting, or acting dead. (The last group did the best job, I think.) The music screams: THIS IS THE EXCITING PART! THIS IS THE SAD PART! BE ANGRY! CRY! ON THE EDGE OF YOU SEAT, NOW! After a while you tune it out. The whole movie, I mean.

Save yourself two hours, and don't watch this piece of crap.

The only reason this is getting 2 out of 10 and not 1 is because I have seen a few movies that were worse... but very few.

I thought it was good. Though I also heard it is true, not too sure. Thats why I came to this site. I was wondering if anyone knew if there was any truths that this movie was the basis upon because if that is true then it should be opening a lot of peoples eyes to a lot of things.

I don't see why people are giving it such bad credit - I thought it was well plotted and well done. Not to mention it does keep you on the edge of your seats!

Does anyone know if there was any truths in it though? IT would be great to know for sure or not. Most of the movie was about correct on what would happen also. (air compressure, shock, and the like).

I seriously thought it was a good movie, and NBS was right to show it. It wasn't a waste of television, if you ask me.

Thanks.

I saw it, and I thought it was a very decent movie. It is certainly not a waste of time, and it was like a breath of fresh air compared to all the other crap showing on local broadcast TV. The plot was not original, but I like how they presented it. And I also thought the jet was cool. The acting was 'OK'. I have certainly seen worse in the movie theater, but it could have been better. The music score fit the movie well and the actors were OK. The plane was cool to look at. The plot, although not original, was interesting. It also has a good cliff hanger to it, and at one point in the movie I was afraid of the dreaded "To be Continued" (this was before I knew I was watching a movie). The over all feel to it was like a really good episode of "24".

Bottom Line: Not a waste of time, but not exactly super-fantastic either.

This movie does not do justice to the original book from which it was taken. About 30 years ago Tom Block's name was on the cover, and he was credited with this original book. Recently his friend and fellow writer Nelson DeMille put his name on it. The movie barely mentions Tom Block. Tom is a retired airline pilot who knows his stuff. Read the book to see that. We can guess why this was done. Some asked about afterburners and rapid or explosive decompression. Read the book, but there was a lot of funny things going on in the film with all this. Funny and dumb to a pilot. Even with so many changes it was a half way interesting film. Too bad it might take readers away from the re-released book when it ought to help to make a lot more. Film viewers will be more than pleasantly surprised if they do read Tom Block's book (well, I guess Nelson DeMille did have a good part in the writing, after all he got his name on it finally). See the film, but definitely read the book.

Considering this is a made for TV movie,the special effects were above the normal TV standard. Some good movie actors,Dean Cain and Adrian Quinn star in this film. I was able to purchase a DVD copy of this film,Mayday,through the German DVD shops which can be found on the web-sites. Grant you,this a made for TV film, it was not bad. The special effects,when the missal hit the plane,was well done. If you should wish to purchase a copy of this DVD from Germany,make sure your DVD player plays the European standard,pal system,if it does not,your player will not be able to play it. Does your player play other region DVD's,check your manual. I the player was purchased in the USA or Canada,no doubt it is region one. Here in Canada,multi region DVD players are for sale,or,do this,on the internet,type in DVD hackers list,this list lists all the players that are capable of playing this region DVD. It also gives instructions on how to change the region codes on your player,many DVD player,this can be done. Good luck.