A Wing and a Prayer

It is intelligent, engaging, well-acted, and mostly believable. At the end, I wanted more. The cast is good. On the whole, this was a great movie - great enough for me to go through the IMDb's registration process just so as to give this movie a just review. On a scale of 10, I will give 9 points to the TV version that I saw on USA movies (TV usually edits out any foul language and slackness).

The technical, procedural, and behavioral aspects of what really happens within an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) is NOT what is depicted in this movie... Not even close!

First, the movie shows the controllers in a cramped low ceiling room with standard overhead lighting. In a real ARTCC, the ceiling is more than 20 feet high and the lighting is provided only at the M1 consoles (low lighting conditions).

There are multiple and separate backup systems within the ARTCCs, including radar systems and radio systems. As of the making of this movie, the ARTCCs had already been upgraded to a newly developed Voice Switch and Control System (VSCS) by Harris Corp., which has 4 levels of radio communication redundancy.

There are no overhead water pipes that could leak and cause lower floors to develop subsequent equipment failures or a mass outage as depicted in this movie. That's Hollywood for you!

This movie would have you believe that the ARTCCs are inadequate and have no backup systems if there is a failure... Absolutely ridicules!

Spoilers, but you really shouldn't be watching this anyway-

Now this was a lame movie. It jumps on the Die Hard 2 bandwagon eight years too late, featuring a plane full of characters we are supposed to care about getting into all sorts of bother during a storm.

The pilots, for a start, clearly don't have any qualifications as they don't seem to have the faintest clue how to cope in an emergency. Some guy with snazzy hair saves the day with the help of his selfish air traffic controller girlfriend, or wife, something, I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. Selfish because she abandons the control tower at the "climax" to see her husband/boyfriend land in the plane, even though there are others in the sky that could be crashing all over the place due to her incompetence. I hope she gets fired. Oh, and the plane is supposed to be flying with one wing, except in some bad CGI shots it isn't even damaged. Note to the director: Telling the SFX guys what you actually want them to do is always a good idea.

Also we have the World's Worst Stewardess who spends the first half of the film wandering through the aisle looking bored and reassuring passengers by saying "Oh no! We're going to crash!" (Or something although those lines) when something bad happens. The second half of the film she spends trying to stand up in the luggage compartment while looking for a passenger's satellite phone with no real sense of urgency even though the plane is missing a wing. And no-one bothers to check what she's doing when she doesn't turn up for ages. The mainly emotionless passengers are kept off screen besides some guy and a small boy who is gullible enough to think a plane can fly with one wing, however in this film they can, anyway.

At the end the guy with the snazzy hair helps land the plane in a impossibly stupid fashion, after which everyone stands round the plane celebrating even though the fuselage has been hit by lighting and could explode.

The good points? "The Abyss" is referenced.

Overall, it isn't as diabolical as "Airspeed" but you really should avoid this dreck at all costs.

2/10.

This was an interesting movie, but laughable if you're trying to learn more about how air traffic controllers actually operate. They work in the dark (not in a well-lit room as in the movie) for one. Up until recently, they did have sub-standard equipment dating back to the Dark Ages. Lots of smaller, towered airports still have old equipment to this day...scary. One funny thing that I noted in the movie was during some of the outdoor scenes in the "rain"...you could see a reflection of the crew aiming water hoses up in the air to create the effect of rain. The ending was a complete joke. I like Claudia Christian a lot, but even she doesn't make this movie very watchable...avoid it except when in desperate need of entertainment.

I'm not normally one to be petty about these things but since this film is so rubbish I thought I'd point out that, at one point the pilot of the longhorn flight (the guy) is shown with no steering wheel in his hands: he is just holding his clenched fists in position (look to bottom left of the screen). This is made even more funny because he is overacting the way the turbulence is affecting his arms. Once I'd seen the shot of no wheel between his hands, I couldn't help but burst out laughing every time he tried to be serious about their situation. I can't remember where abouts it is though since I saw it on TV and didn't (wouldn't in hindsight) record it. The directing almost as bad as the acting. Just thought I'd mention it for those who like to laugh about how terrible some films are. 1/10, unless you rate it for its comic value.