The Doomsday Flight

Back in 1966, "The Doomsday Flight" wasn't quite as familiar and tired a genre film as it would seem today. The "Airport" films were all made a few years later, though a few air disaster flicks had preceded it as well, such as "The High and the Mighty" and "Zero Hour!" in the 1950s. This take on the air disaster films is a bit different because it was made for television and it was written by Rod Sering. The overall effort is about as good as the better air disaster pics...and a lot better than the really bad ones (like "Airport 75").

A cross country flight has many of the usual caricatures aboard. A maniac (Edmund O'Brien) calls the airport to tell them that he's put a bomb aboard the plane after it's taken off. He informs them that the bomb will automatically activate itself when the plane drops below 4000 feet! There is then a mad scramble to try to find out where the bomb is and provide the creep his ransom money if they cannot find and disarm it. The agent in charge of all this is played by Jack Lord but Gregg Morris and Ed Asner are also on hand to handle the case.

The best thing about this film is probably the maniac. Edmund O'Brien is very malevolent and seems to delight on toying with everyone. It also becomes apparent that even if they pay him, he might just let the plane explode anyway!! A very tense and well made film with many aspects which were used in the parody film, "Airplane II". Worth seeing but familiar.

Doomsday Flight, written by the master dramatist Rod Serling, is one of the three best movies ever made involving an airplane flight (Fate is the Hunter and Airport are the others). Very well acted by a non-big name cast including lots of familiar faces.

Rod Serling, famous for "Twilight Zone," was one of the most gifted screenwriters in Hollywood. In addition to his two television series (the other the vastly underrated "Night Gallery"), he wrote the screenplays for classics such as "Seven Days in May" and "Planet of the Apes." His talent is undeniable and Serling deservedly is a legend.

"The Doomsday Flight" has the trademark Serling creepiness. Edmond O'Brien, another tremendously underrated Hollywood talent, carries the film with an eccentric but oddly winning performance of a man living on the edge. The cast is loaded with familiar faces such as Edward Asner, John Saxon, and Jack Lord, but O'Brien provides the tension this kind of film badly needs.

Serling was something of an authority on airplanes. His older brother, Robert, was an esteemed aviation writer, and Serling himself was a paratrooper during World War II. So, he knew a lot about the aviation industry and the gaps in its security.

The plot here is simple. A man places a bomb on a passenger plane (a fictional Boeing 797). It is set to activate when the plane ascends to a certain height, then detonate when it descends below that altitude. The plot is thus somewhat similar to that of Sandra Bullock's "Speed."

The performances are gripping, especially for a television movie. Van Johnson as the pilot and Lord as a troubled FBI agent. The direction by William Graham is outstanding for a film of this type, and overall it is a quality production.

There's a fatal problem with the script, however. Serling obviously knew all about pressure-sensitive detonators. They were developed during World War II for military applications. Such detonators do, as the script points out, detonate on air pressure changes at specific altitudes. So, when a plane reaches a certain altitude, they do intend blow up. The "arm after reaching the altitude and then detonate on the way down" is a minor complication.

The problem with the script is that the pressure doesn't change in modern passenger aircraft. The cabins are pressurized. In fact, the cargo holds are pressurized, too. Pressure-activated detonators may work on World War II aircraft that weren't pressurized, but they wouldn't work on a "Boring 797" because the pressure inside the aircraft doesn't reflect the outside air pressure. Even if the cargo hold were not pressurized, there would be no way for the airplane crew to disarm the bomb because access to the cargo hold from the main cabin is impossible - so a ransom threat wouldn't work. Serling undoubtedly knew all that, but figured the audience wouldn't - and, undoubtedly, he was correct.

Anyway, a well-made production that undoubtedly influenced the later "Airport" which began the entire "disaster film" craze of the 1970s (and there are some nice explosions in this film). Worth a watch, just try not to think too much about it.

I can only imagine how ticked off every cast and crew member of The Doomsday Flight was when Airport came out on the big screen four years later. It's practically the same! There's a middle-aged desperate man (sorry fellas) who plants a bomb on a passenger aircraft, special agents working with the pilot of the plane to try and bring about a safe landing, and a little old lady who acts silly. Writer Rod Serling must have been very frustrated.

Yes, this is a tv movie and you can tell. The production values aren't that great, and the script is more than a little melodramatic; but wasn't Airport melodramatic too? I was pretty impressed with Edmund O'Brien's paranoid performance as the psychotic bomber. Normally I never thought he added anything to his character roles, but he was energetic, confident (in his acting abilities, not as his character), and ate up every scene he was given. Van Johnson was believable as a flyboy captain who didn't want to alarm the passengers, but he might have cringed off-camera at some of the corny lines he had to say.

Most modern audiences probably won't like this movie. It's too dated, and there have been so many far superior disaster movies made throughout the decades. But if you're that person who likes watching the original versions of things, you might want to pop this one in for a matinee.

Stumbled on this movie having no idea what it was or who made it. I was to say the least very pleasantly surprised. The acting was of excellent quality, the characters believable even if the bomber himself was portrayed as an absolute loon. The whole thing was genuinely tense and kept you guessing.

I can wholeheartedly recommend watching this I thought it was a really good film.