Mayday at 40,000 Feet

1977 "A crippled plane. A crazed convict..."
5.5| 1h33m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 29 April 1977 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Television
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

The co-pilot and engineer of a passenger jet struggle to keep the plane airborne after a marshal onboard, transporting a murderer to prison, has a heart attack and the killer uses his gun to shoot the captain and blow out the hydraulics.

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Reviews

VividSimon Simply Perfect
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Woodyanders Tough, but troubled Captain Pete Douglass (the always dependable David Janssen in sturdy stalwart form) has his hands full dealing with both a fierce snow storm and dangerous convict Greco (delightfully overplayed with lip-smacking maniacal relish by Marjoe Gortner), who's being transported to prison on board Douglass's passenger jet.Director Robert Butler keeps the entertaining story moving along at a brisk pace and generates a good deal of tension. The overwrought script by Austin Ferguson, Dick Nelson, and Andrew J. Fenady piles on the cheesy melodrama something thick: Douglass's sick wife undergoes an operation at a hospital for a possibly cancerous tumor, cantankerous disgraced doctor Joseph Manheim (a wonderfully grouchy and dynamic portrayal by Ray Milland) gets a chance to redeem himself, and so on. The bang-up cast of familiar faces helps a lot, with especially stand-out work from Christopher George as macho copilot Stan Burkhart, Don Meredith as happy-go-lucky cowboy engineer Mike Fuller, Lynda Day George as spunky senior stewardess Kathy Armello, Margaret Blythe as Stan's sweet old flame Susan MacKenzie, Broderick Crawford as the rugged, but ailing Marshal Riese, Christopher Norris as eager rookie stewardess Cindy Nelsen, and Hari Rhodes as the noble Belson. Richard Markowitz's crisp cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. William P. Jurgensen's robust score hits the rousing spot. A fun flick.
Desertman84 Mayday at 40,000 Feet is a regulation crisis-in-the-air TV movie distinguished by the accomplished direction of Robert Butler that features David Janssen,Don Meredith,Christopher George,Ray Milland,Lynda Day George,Margaret Blye,Marjoe Gortner and Broderick Crawford.Blinding snow threatens to send a jetliner hurtling toward doom. But Captain Pete Douglass (Janssen) has more than a snowstorm to battle when an armed madman turns the fuselage into a shooting gallery and his fellow passengers into clay pigeons. Adding to Janssen's growing list of problems is a maniac who goes on a shooting rampage in the first-class section. This TV movie was made in the tradition of Airport, The Towering Inferno and more epics of disaster that were commonly made during the 1970's.While the screenplay has used recycled plot lines and element from other disaster movies and it lacks the tension and suspense required to do films of such genres,it still will manage to entertain the viewers who does not mind the year it was made.
Theo Robertson I can imagine the pitch at the TV execs office went something like this " You know what everyone watches at the cinema these days ? Disaster movies , so let`s get everyone out of the cinema back into the home with a disaster movie for TV " " Great idea . We`ll get a well known TV actor and some Oscar winning actor everyone has forgotten about . How we gonna come up with a new slant on the genre ? "" that`s easy we set it on a plane just like in AIRPORT except , except there`s a mad psycho killer aboard the plane . We could even get that crazy guy from EARTHQUAKE to play the psycho " " With an idea and casting like that that there`s no way we can fail with this TV movie " I beg to differ because as someone who`s seen MAYDAY AT 40,000 FEET it is a failure because someone forgot to write an interesting script
nautilus_gr This film is of the typical disaster films of the 70's; aircrafts that almost crash, hijacks, engine failures, terrorist acts and so on. The amazing thing about them is the great performances by great actors; in such films, we saw actors like Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Jack Lemmon, Alain Delon, Christopher Lee and so on...In this film, David Janssen in a great performance (one more time), as a man in his 40's that has his own problems in his life, and apart from that, he has a rendez-vous with the bullet of a prisoner that wants to escape. The film script limits the abilities of the actor to perform; however, the film is a pleasant adventure/drama.5 out of 10.