Airplane! is what they used to call a laff-riot. Made by team which turned out Kentucky Fried Movie, this spoof of disaster features beats any other film for sheer number of comic gags.
Writer-directors leave no cliche unturned as they lay waste to the Airport-style disaster cycle, among other targets. From the clever Jaws take-off opening to the final, irreverent title card, laughs come thick and fast.
Plot has former pilot Robert Hays, now terrified of flying due to wartime malfeasance, boarding an LA-to-Chicago flight in pursuit of ex-girlfriend stewardess Julie Hagerty.
When flight personnel, including sexually-deviant pilot Peter Graves and co-pilot Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, contract food poisoning on board, Hays is called upon to land the craft safely, an effort not made easier by fact that air controller Lloyd Bridges is completely crazed.
