IMDb RATING
6.6/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy f... Read allIn 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
Patricia Tiernan
- Mrs. Joan Wilson
- (as Carole Eden)
Ray Ferrell
- Joey Stryker
- (as Raymond Ferrell)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlthough several air crisis films contributed a range of clichés that would appear in the parody Airplane! (1980), Airplane! was directly based on this film. The writers noted down every quirk and came up with such great material that they decided to make their own comedy film. To avoid lawsuits and royalty issues, and as Zero Hour was so obscure, they found that they could afford to buy the rights to the entire film and then do whatever they wished. This would inspire Airplane! fans to view Zero Hour with cult-like status, organizing viewings during which they could spot all the clichés.
- GoofsWhile the airplane is in flight, the instruments show an airspeed of 40-60 mph (which would mean the plane was in a stall) and oil and fuel pressure readings of 0 (which would mean the engines were off).
- ConnectionsFeatured in Airplane: Long-Haul Version (2005)
- SoundtracksZero Hour
Song and Theme composed by Arthur Hamilton
Featured review
"Our survival hinges on one thing - finding someone who not only can fly this plane, but didn't have fish for dinner."
It's like déjà vu all over again. Until last night, I had never seen Zero Hour!, but I feel as if I've seen it a dozen times. I knew that some of Airplane! (the sick girl and singing nun for example) came from Airport, but I had no idea just how much was taken from Zero Hour! Airplane! is like some weird comedic remake or re-imaging of Zero Hour! - and they nailed it right down to the exclamation mark. And it's not just ideas or concepts that were taken from Zero Hour!, entire sections of dialogue were lifted and used in Airplane! I'm shocked to discover that lines like "I guess I picked the wrong week to give up smoking" weren't written especially for Airplane! The dialogue is so similar that when little Joey visits the cockpit and the captain asks if he's ever been in cockpit before, I kept waiting for him to ask "Have you ever seen a grown man naked?" as he does in Airplane! Even some of the performances in Airplane! are eerily reminiscent of Zero Hour! Take Robert Stack in the role originally done by Sterling Hayden. Amazing stuff! The funny thing to me about this example, however, is that Hayden is actually more intense in the role than Stack could have dreamed.
Giving a rating to Zero Hour! is difficult. Even if you've only seen Airplane! once (and I've probably seen it a couple of dozen times over the years), it's all but impossible to keep a straight face (Who am I kidding? It's impossible not to downright laugh out loud.) when Johnny goes to make coffee or when Stryker straights sweating buckets behind the controls of the plane. It's impossible to take the melodrama of Zero Hour! seriously. So I don't know how I would rate the movie had I never seen Airplane! I would like to think I would have still enjoyed the experience and would have formed a similar opinion. But I have seen Airplane!, so I have that built in bias. In the end, because the movie kept me entertained (for whatever reason) throughout it's brief 81 minute runtime, I'm rating Zero Hour! a 7/10.
Giving a rating to Zero Hour! is difficult. Even if you've only seen Airplane! once (and I've probably seen it a couple of dozen times over the years), it's all but impossible to keep a straight face (Who am I kidding? It's impossible not to downright laugh out loud.) when Johnny goes to make coffee or when Stryker straights sweating buckets behind the controls of the plane. It's impossible to take the melodrama of Zero Hour! seriously. So I don't know how I would rate the movie had I never seen Airplane! I would like to think I would have still enjoyed the experience and would have formed a similar opinion. But I have seen Airplane!, so I have that built in bias. In the end, because the movie kept me entertained (for whatever reason) throughout it's brief 81 minute runtime, I'm rating Zero Hour! a 7/10.
helpful•421
- bensonmum2
- Aug 22, 2007
- How long is Zero Hour!?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $400,764 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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