Supersonique en péril

I am surprised that the score is so low. Okay, I admit the movie is technically bad but at least we got to see a lot of familiar faces here. You rarely see that in a TV movie. This is the only time I've seen Regis Philban in a movie of any kind. It was hard to recognize Billy Crystal. Probably the coolest part of this movie was when it showed that explosion. A pity it was just that one scene. I know that this movie is really clichéd. It probably helps that "Airplane!" is my favorite comedy too. They mocked stuff like this perfectly.

The version I saw was 92 minutes (on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"). This says it's only 89 minutes. Wow, that is the first time I have ever heard of a movie having a longer version being shown like that. It was certainly an interesting episode as it was their longest ever. Yeah, it's not worth watching on its own, but I think there have been many worse disaster films. I guess it probably did go on too long and there's still nothing unique about it. **

That so many good actors would get together in such a bad film. This movie's premise seems to be "take a cast, put them on an SST, and then subject them to trouble after trouble." I also find it hard to believe that so many good actors would have an off day every day of filming and at the same time. How many of their careers didn't get ruined by this film is beyond me, especially that of John de Lancie. Avoid this one at all costs. Airport '79 was a much better film, and Airplane! was a whole lot funnier.

At a certain point during "SST: Death Flight", one of the passengers calms the others by saying that it's more dangerous to cross the street in a big city like New York, than to fly over the Atlantic in an airplane. He's probably correct, statistically speaking, but that most definitely wasn't the impression you got during the 70s, what with all the disaster movies with airplanes around that time! You could easily lose track of all the aviation disaster movies that were made during these two decades. There's the legendary "Airplane" series, of course, but also other random classics ("Skyjacked", "The Doomsday Flight", "The Crowded Sky", ...) and a whole lot of TV-movies-of-the-week. "SST: Death Flight" is a very formulaic, and by the looks of it also a rather unpopular movie, but I still found it enjoyable.

The problem with this film, and with practically every other made-for-TV disaster movie from the same period, is that it too much feels like a "light-version" of the aforementioned "Airport" series. It's always about a wide range of characters, struggling with their own banal private problems, gathering aboard an aircraft - usually for its maiden voyage - that will crash if it weren't for a handful of heroic people sacrificing themselves. "SST: Death Flight" at least tries to go the extra mile, with not one but TWO deadly issues. The supersonic jetliner's hydraulic system gets sabotaged by a frustrated company employee (who is stupid enough to be on board of the plane he sabotaged) and a doctor from the WHO brought a deadly African flu-virus in his suitcase.

You perfectly know what else to expect. Lots of familiar faces from the TV and cinema industry, usually long after their glory days, and you can generally predict straight away whether they'll be survivors or martyrs at the end. "SST: Death Flight" honestly isn't that bad if you embrace all the clichés and stereotypes. The performances, as well as David Lowell Rich's direction, are competent. Besides, Billy Crystal had to start his career somewhere, right?

With a cast of 1970s TV stalwarts and a lame-sounding plot, I was preparing for the worst. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this film, although it wouldn't win any awards, was quite watchable.

A group of familiar TV faces (including Peter Graves, Robert Reed, Burgess Meredith, Bert Convy, George Maharis, Lorne Greene, Season Hubley, Doug McClure, and Tina Louise) takes off for disaster on a new supersonic airliner. The opening sequences establish that many of the characters absolutely hate each other, setting the stage for high drama in the sky. Angry bad guy Les Phillips (Maharis) sabotages the plane's hydraulic systems (apparently because he wants a promotion), leading to the inevitable crisis as the good guys (Reed, McClure, Brock Peters, and Meredith) fight to save the plane and passengers. Throw in a deadly virus that has escaped some onboard containers, and things get hairy pretty fast. Burgess Meredith saves the day with a pair of pliers, and the final crash landing seems a little contrived but overall the movie's not bad.

As with all disaster movies, the plot is pretty easy to figure out, and the next crisis is always predictable, but it was fun to see a lot of familiar 1970s actors again. Billy Crystal and Regis Philbin even appear, and boy are they young! The "special effects" are really atrocious, as an unconvincing model clumsily flies on a wire though the whole movie. However, you could do a lot worse than this TV disaster film, especially if you lived through the 70s.

PS-One final question: after Maharis sabotaged the plane, why on earth did he get on board it?

This is a very enjoyable disaster movie, about yet another one of those star-filled planes heading for trouble. This time, a Concorde is sabotaged, and if that wasn´t enough, there is also a virus spreading inside the plane. The film has everything an airplane-disaster movie buff could ask for: tacky effects, lots of stars and fun dialogue. Pretty good stuff.