Sauvetage en plein vol

Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 is a tense rescue drama, made-to-order for aviation buffs! The movie starts off by introducing the main character, Jay Parkins, (played by Scott Bakula), as a kind of a rogue, itinerant pilot, unwilling to settle down to the daily grind of an airline cockpit, and preferring to take on risky flying jobs where and when he can find them. Jay and his friend Frank (Alan Fletcher), take on the task of ferrying two Piper Ag Cats, which are crop dusting aircraft, on a long-haul over the Pacific Ocean all the way from San Francisco to Australia. Obviously, the premise is ridiculous, but the movie is supposed to be based on a true story, so somewhere, there had to be two pilots crazy enough to actually try this stunt!

Predictably, problems plague the mission. First, Frank cracks up on take off from Pago Pago, leaving Jay to continue the rest of the trip alone. Then, through a combination of mechanical failures and poor judgment, Jay gets over the Pacific Ocean on the last leg of the trip. Fortunately, both his HF and VHF radios still work, and he calls for help from an Air Traffic Control center in New Zealand. This is where Captain Gordon Vette, played by bad-guy Robert Loggia in a refreshingly non-type cast role, comes to the rescue. Utilizing a very plausible air-to-air search procedure, Capt. Vette and his Air New Zealand flight crew locate Jay, and ultimately help navigate him to safety. I won't give away any more of the plot details, but suffice it to say that as a highly critical aviation movie buff, this movie did very little to annoy me, or insult my intelligence as someone with more than a passing knowledge of aviation. Technical assistance was very good.

The "goofs" note the transformation of the ANZ commercial aircraft from a B-737 to a B-767, but that sort of continuity problem is common and pretty much must be overlooked, since stock footage is cheaper than setting up a location shot just to depict a jet airliner take-off.

The thing I enjoyed most about this film is the likeability of the characters, which were developed just enough to let us get to know them enough to care about them. The real Capt. Vette, an American Ex-Air Force pilot stationed in New Zealand after marrying a local girl, seems to be the ideal of the individualistic, capable, yet compassionate airline Captain -- someone into whose hands you would gladly trust your life. This is what film does best -- portray the human condition in a manner which makes the viewer identify with the characters and the situation. The rest of the plot elements -- Jay's long-suffering wife, who would prefer the financial security of her husband's boredom in an airline cockpit, Jay's side-kick Frank, who wasn't thrilled about the "mission" in the first place, and the people on the ground and aboard the Air New Zealand flight who work together to make the rescue mission work -- are all done just right, and greatly help the viewer enjoy the film!

I give this movie 3 1/2 propeller blades out of four! It is a very interesting movie which I recommend to all aviation enthusiasts!

If you fly or have ever flown as a passenger out over an ocean and experienced its vastness, or if you've ever been lost in the middle of nowhere without a map, at night and running out of gas, then you'll totally relate to this movie about the rescue of a solo Cessna pilot lost over the ocean between Pogo Pogo and Auckland, New Zealand. I found it suspenseful and engrossing in spite of thinking I knew how it'd end. The leads are well acted by Scott Bakula & Robert Loggia despite both of them being strapped to their pilot seats for most of the movie. I found myself on the edge of my seat at times. There characters form an interesting father-son type relationship exclusively from their conversations over the radio. I found their conversations the most interesting part of the movie. And at the end I was totally blown away to discover that this was a true story!

Dr. Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap) and Dr. Kennedy (Neighbours) attempt to fly from San Francisco to Australia in two 'toy planes' - but once I managed to get past this concept, I was hooked! A true Christmas film with plenty of spirit, 'Mercy Mission' is both exciting and believable. I don't know a lot about the technical side of the action, but that didn't stop me rooting for the characters - wanting Jay not to give in, and Gordon to win the approval of his passengers (I loved his explanation to the children on board about what had happened to Jay, and why they needed to help). And, of course, by the end, I was just as emotional as those on screen - which is how any Christmas movie worth its salt should affect an audience. Frank's battle with his plane in Pago Pago was also convincing (even if his accent was a little trans-continental), and the dialogue was both strong and funny ("How old could you be?" "This guy's really old, 771") This film is recommended any time of year, as it's easy to watch, but sharing your Christmas with Gordon and Jay really adds to the experience.

This film is a pleasant enough way to while away a Sunday afternoon. It's becoming something of a cult classic with students (in Britain) due to the casting- Scott Bakula will forever be associated with Dr Samuel Beckett but the more legendary of the two doctors surely has to be Dr Karl Kennedy.....

The fact that the movie is about a little known real-life aviation event in 1978 got me to start watching the movie. What held my interest was the suspense of finding out the fate of "the lost pilot". Scott Bakula was great in this role because he easily came across as a likable fellow who you want to root for.

Basically, the story recounts a 1978 incident near Australia in which a commercial jetliner went looking for a single occupant plane that was lost over the ocean. The small plane was still flying, but had lost navigational capability and was also running out of fuel. The pilot was planning to ditch into the sea ... and no one knew where he was.

The creative techniques that the captain of the commercial jetliner used to try and find the plane were impressive. They are also based on what actually happened - so this was pretty cool to watch. The captain's further efforts to convince the passengers to allow the search were interesting as well. The story was quite unusual as far as "plane" movies go, so this was a treat.

This movie is a pretty good story that just about everyone is likely to enjoy; I recommend checking it out. (If you're a plane enthusiast, definitely catch this one!)