I watched this movie the other night on Lifetime Network only because I was expecting a classically bad made for TV movie. And I was not disappointed! Nothing in the movie makes a lick of sense and every possible disaster in air cliché is employed. Some of the scenes were just mind-numbing like the finale when the plane comes in to land. Whats with all of the emergency equipment lined up directly in the line of the landing! If you are looking for a good hoot like I was, then watch this movie. If not, then don't waste two hours of your life. One casting note. The best character was Erik Estrada playing an action movie matinée idol. What a hoot.
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jouiskc20 October 2005
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**SPOILES** The made for TV-movie "Panic in the Skies" starts off interesting enough as were introduced to the cast who are about to embark on the fateful New York to London flight 115; a top movie action hero who has a string of eight blockbusters hits a basketball all-star guard for the NBA New York Cobras a cute little girl on her first flight on an airplane a mysterious businessman, who later not only turns out to be wanted by the police but becomes the hero in the movie, as well as a newlywed couple and pregnant woman and computer geek among others.
Once airborne all hell breaks loose when the plane is struck by a lighting bolt and all the crew ends up dead with planes control panel destroyed. Flying on automatic-plot the Jumbo 747 is clueless, like everyone else, to where it's going. During the rest of the movie the plane goes from as high as 60,000 feet to tree-top level until the plane finally crash-lands on a little airfield outside of Vancouver Canada. In between we see some of the most unbelievable ham acting, as well as unrealistic situations, ever in a motion picture.
With panic spreading all throughout the plane head flight attendant Laurie Ann Pickett has passenger Brett Young, who seems to know what he's doing, take control of the plane which is unusable with it's controls destroyed. We also wonder just what Brett has to do with flying a Jumbo 747 since he never flew as much as a model air plane before he came on board! and why Laurie would allow him to get into the planes cockpit to fly it!
Brett putting all the loose ends, and wires, together with the help of computer geek Joel Rose and computer whiz kid Carl get the plane on a flight course north/west to the Pacific Coast not east across he Atlantic Ocean to London England where it was scheduled to fly.
It turns out that Brett & Co. are not really in control at all of flight 115 since it has a mind of it's own. The Jumo Jet get's so out of control that the USAF is alerted by ground control to blow it out of the sky, together with it's 400 passengers aboard. If it strays into a heavily populated area like the city of Chicago.
All this time with flight 115 going some 3,000 miles off course the only persons who are tracking it is the air-traffic control tower in New York! With what would be scores of other, and closer, air-traffic control towers in both the US and Canada, as well as NORAD, not at all interested in the planes' erratic and dangerous flight pattern.
On the plane the passengers seem not at all that terrified in the fix that they find themselves in with their acting being so unconvincing, trying to show that their in fact terrified and frightened. In some scenes it looks like they were cut prematurely because the actors in them just couldn't keep a straight face long enough, cracking up and giggling, before they could even end. The movie makers must have been in danger of running out of film and just kept them, after what must have been scores of takes, in to keep from going well over budget.
We at first learned that Brett wasn't kosher when a NYC police detective tried to arrest him before he got on the flight. Later we ,and Laurie, got the real deal from Brett himself. He's a whistle blower the firm he worked for was selling defected laser equipment to the Pentagon and was framed in order to keep his mouth shut.
At the end of the movie we see hero Bett walking, free as a bird, into the sunset suitcase in hand as Laurie tells the awaiting police that he died together with the flight crew in the planes cockpit! As if his death after examining the all the DNA and other evidence wouldn't show that she was badly mistaken or purposely lying about what really happened to him.
Funny in an unintentional sort of way "Panic in the Skies" can't be taken seriously even for a moment since it's so ridicules and phony. You can only hope that those in it survived in real life, like in the movie, the disaster that they found or got themselves into to live, and be able to make make movies, another day. -
smiley-3212 January 2006I was watching this movie not too long ago.. Obviously it's one of those Airport disaster scenarios again..
Well, this one has an all star cast.. Well, most of them. After the plane takes off from London, in the air.. disaster strikes when a lightning bolt hits the front of the plane, killing two the pilots.
So, with no-one in the cockpit.. The question is.. who is going to fly the plane? Well, in this film.. It relied on Kate Jackson who plays one of the stiff upper lip air stewardess, who tries to keep the situation under control. Ed Marinaro, who's some kind of a wanted fugitive.. who's also caught up with the drama. Billy Warlock and Brandy Ledford who are also stewards on the plane backing up Kate Jackson's character..
With other names like Robert Guillaume and Erik Estrada (who I remember him from the TV series 'CHIPS') plays as this hot shot actor who's also getting airsick on the flight.
I must admit, the movie is worth watching.. But I want don't believe is.. how can a jumbo jet carry so much fuel if the plane is to fly a full 16 hours in the air? That's impossible..!
Anyway, it's all fiction. But at the end of the day.. the passengers did land safely. I was hoping for more suspense an a few more deaths.. But all in all, this was nothing really..
Enjoyable hokum.. 5 out of 10! -
Nogami19 August 2001This movie is the best bad plane movie I've ever seen! I mean, they have all the cliches - Pregnant Woman, Pilots Dead (crispy!), A computer guy plugging his Laptop in to run the autopilot, the discovery of a felon onboard, etc. Just when you think the cheese can't get any better, it does!
Lots of awful acting to boot, horrible special effects, an attack by a angry dog, etc. If you watch it (ack), or rent it (ACK!), be aware of what you're getting yourself into!
Great to watch with friends who like to cut movies apart though! -
podwilliams12 January 2006Oh-oh, the pilot's dead... So who's going to fly the plane home? Yes it's another variation on the old Airport theme, with a cast of TV movie stars looking either very panicky or firm-jawed in the face of disaster. I'm watching this as I type. It's so deliciously bad I can barely keep my eyes off it! The script is so bad it deserves some kind of award. Kate Jackson comes to the aid of a pregnant woman who wonders if her belt is too tight - never fear, Kate undoes the belt for her! Hurrah! Furthermore, unable to communicate with the pilots or access the cockpit Kate wonders aloud who's flying the plane. Very moving stuff. Tell your friends that they must hunt this film down. It's transcendentally boring!
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dfc-727 January 2006Admittedly, I only saw about 10 minutes worth of this stinker. As a professional aviator with a fair amount of jet experience in the Lear-60, an airplane capable of flying at 51,000 feet, if just barely when the conditions are super-favorable, i.e., so light as to be nearly out of fuel, with colder than usual air temperature aloft, I can assure the casual viewer that no 747, albeit a very capable, powerful and fast airliner, is able to attain 52,000 feet, especially with 16 hours of fuel on board (so I've read in other comments)-- if a 747 is capable of such a fuel load (no operator of a 747 would put that much on to merely cross the Atlantic), notwithstanding the aerodynamic fact that its minimum and maximum speed limitations would be so close together, if not inverted, that it would be out of control, and notwithstanding that the occupants wouldn't merely be having some difficulty breathing, able to complain how they're having trouble breathing when their blood should be boiling in their dead, distended bodies at such a toxic altitude (at such height pressurization is no mere comfort-- that's why an astronaut wears a spacesuit) as the jet is depicted from exterior POV to be climbing amongst puffy clouds where there simply aren't clouds-- where there isn't enough moisture to form clouds where the temperature tends towards minus 50-60 degrees centigrade, never minding the fact that lightning strikes on airliners and other much smaller aircraft are commonplace and rarely more than reason for expensive inspection and repair to electronics and engine parts, as a pilot this movie transcended the "so-bad-it's-good" realm clear around and back into the "so-bad-it's beyond-good-and-back-into-worse-than-bad- so-bad-I-haven't-the-words-to-describe-how-truly-bad-it-really-is" realm of cinematic surreal stupidity. There's plenty more to criticize, including the inane dialog, but I haven't the time, inclination nor room to continue. Aviation is oh-so-rarely depicted with even a hint of basic research in film and television-- and this one epitomizes this apparent law of cinematic storytelling. Pity it wasn't written as an absurd comedy.
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Well, this movie is somewhat entertaining or boring. What's your opinion? There a lot of errors about the aircraft and a lot of other stuff. The aircraft, a Boeing 747, has a lot of errors in it. The plane would change its color from the Executive Decision livery, to plain white color, and finally red, white, and blue and with the "Royce Air" words. I don't even see any control wheel on the flight deck of the aircraft. The flight deck don't even look like the what the 747 has. As you look closely in the cockpit, you could see that the instruments are all burned up and so are the pilots. The pilots look like burnt charcoal. Why would a laptop control a 747? The oxygen masks came from the back of every seat instead of coming from the overhead. I don't know what else to say about the movie, because I haven't seen it in four years. I saw this film from the Fox Family channel before it became ABC family. Anyway, this film does kill time when you are bored.
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oconnor512 March 2003This without a doubt is the worst film I've ever seen. Now it's possible that it seems ridiculous to me just because I know a fair bit about aeroplanes but c'mon...how many people are going to believe that you can walk up the cockpit and plug in your laptop to control the plane! and that touching the sparking wire will make the plane fly to a different airport. This air disaster movie had not one, but all of the classics on board....newly married couple, pregnant woman, small child alone, film star, old couple... Not only is it the worst film ever, it also contains the single worst scene ever, where a passenger on board asks the 'film star' to come up with a last minute idea like he does in the movies, to which he replies 'Thats the movies, THIS IS REAL LIFE!) Shocking stuff. This is one that aircrews will love to laugh at, otherwise, forget it.
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jamiecostelo5824 November 2006The title really says it all, and this film never shakes off its TV style, with your typical bad acting and over the top performances in some places, but Kate Jackson is pretty convincing in her role as an air stewardess, although sometimes you may think that if she just calls Charlie and asks for his help, she'll become Sabrina Duncan all over again!
There have been countless TV movies/dramas detailing the effects of air disasters and so on, and I think to myself why the time and effort was wasted in making yet another one. In a nutshell, this really does not make viewers who are rather timid of flying (like myself) feel any better, and for those who are not frightened of air travel, watching something like Panic In The Skies will not be something they would want to remember.
Nevertheless, Panic In The Skies does contain heart-stopping moments mixed with the usual sympathetic and emotional aspects of people fearing for their lives, and perhaps this is what makes it a little more interesting for the viewer who would actually want to see the film to the end and find out what happens, even if we can guess beforehand! 6/10 -
cbnotes12 September 1999As horrible as this film is, it forces you to watch it.
It's on television as I type this, and I cannot bring myself to change the channel for fear of missing the next cockamamie predicament that happens. And what a cast! Kate Jackson, Ed Marinaro, Erik Estrada, Maureen McCormick, and Robert Guillaume. Tune in yourself and see how Sabrina, Officer Joe Coffey, Paunch, Marsha Brady, and Benson save a disaster-bound 747 from crashing!!!
I regret that MST3K is off the air -- this is the kind of experiment that they would do proud. -
rcoulam99923 November 2006Who cares if it's utterly, utterly ridiculous and implausible? Never heard of "the willing suspension of disbelief"? It is a miserably wet November afternoon, but "Panic In The Skies" has cheered me enormously. With more cheese than a pile of ripening socks, and enough improbability to drive Heisenberg to drink, this film has to set some sort of clichés-per-minute record, which I suspect will never be challenged. Astounding effort. I give this one ten out of ten for the mad dog alone. I hated "CHiPS" because I thought Erik Estrada was rubbish; I loved "PITS" (somehow appropriate?) for much the same reason - Erik was truly in his element here. A simple rule for life: don't get on a plane if you recognise one of the flight attendants from TV.
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Peter-17116 December 2000Some people here seem to think this movie is bad. I wonder if any of them have seen Airspeed which in my opinion was stupid, boring and laughable most of the time. This movie might not be 100% realistic but at least it seems to have gotten a little more thought and was more entertaining than Airspeed. This movie gets a 6/10.
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andymiles12 January 2006Definitely a movie to watch but only once. Having just sat through this movie shown as an afternoon matinée on TV, I have never seen a movie as bad as this one. The very idea of pilots being charred by a lightening strike and the aeroplane continuing to fly and be steered by a passenger by sparking wires together is only the beginning of an absurd movie concept. This was supposed to have been events happening on a Boeing 747 but even these giants of the air don't have such high ceilings. I think Make-up got a little carried away with the applying eye shadow around the cock-pit window and missed out the blusher during landing. Acting was average but very little attention had been given to any semblance of reality. Can any budget be justified to make a movie such as this? It was however, a movie of some entertainment value for the goof spotters. Expect a high score here.
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len-2615 April 1999Perhaps I have a soft spot for Kate Jackson. This movie does not have as much reality and plausibility as "The Jetsons", and yet somehow, she can carry it and make this movie entertaining. Just forget about reality and enjoy the show.
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steeleronaldr13 March 2023I usually bypass custom made movies simply because other key characters are overlooked. I will assume she was the head stewardess and to me didn't really look convincing. Now Kate Jackson is a good actress but here she came off annoying of anything. Maureen McCormick never gets a chance to express her character which was sad cause she took is a pretty good actress.
The whole plot was a bit unbelievable but at least entertaining. A jumbo jet struck by lightning and the cockpit gets fried. Plus the head stewardess actually has a key to the cockpit for emergency reasons. A why a jet would have such an ax on board really takes the cake. The male stewardess knowing there is a electrical issue takes a elevator to the lower level, like okay I'll buy that. In all this movie was made to showcase Jackson and really nothing more. Maureen McCormick, Eric Estrada and Robert Gilliam was just there for the ride. I mean it's a descent movie just a bit far fetched and at least it moves along and doesn't really get boring. I gave it 5 out of 10 only because it's a fun movie that won't make you feel like you just wasted 90 minutes of your time. -
actress-328 April 2000I saw this movie after the Payne Stewart incident. Even though some of the special effects were fake it made me think about what the people would be feeling. It was pretty good. Of course I tuned in because of Kate Jackson and was not disappointed! She was solid as usual. I would definitely recommend it. Thumbs up!
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LTSally24 February 2004This movie is so great! It's so far over the top that it becomes amusing. I've seen it twice together with my sister and we couldn't stop laughing. Everything goes wrong in the plane, one thing after another. And the hero who has to save them all has this incredibly dramatic face while the main actress looks as if she's seen a ghost... I really recommend this film but please don't take it seriously, it's so much better if you see the humor in it!
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MikeyBrill280718 June 2005This film is the best aviation drama film I have ever seen! The actors are quality especially Kate Jackson! She seems to know what she is doing. The Plane a Boeing 747 takes ff from New York bound or London on Royce Air Internation on flight 115. The Plane is hit by lightning seconds after takeoff killing the crew of the cockpit. The autopilot which has gone loony takes the Planes anywhere it feels! It controls destination, speed, alltiude and when it lands. Finally in the end of film the aircraft lands in Vancouver. All passengers were safe! Kate Jackson even hit off with an escaping criminal called Brett Young! The area that lets this film down is the fact that the aircraft isn't a Boeing 747 but a McDonnell Douglas DC 10 of American Airlines noticed by the seat cover patterns!
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bobby-10930 June 2000THIS movie takes the cake in several categories: cheesiness; cliche-using; BAD writing; wasted cast talent.
If you're interested in laughing hysterically at a classic bloated studio flop, probably written by some famous exec's nephew, this is the movie for you.
It's funny - the worse a movie gets, the funnier it becomes. Actually worth your time if you can stand it. :-) -
Flippitygibbit23 September 2002Maybe I was in a forgiving mood, but I didn't think 'Panic In The Skies!' - exclamation! - was that bad. On a sliding scale for plane-disaster movies, it was somewhere near the top. The cliches, given that the genre demands at least a few, were limited: nobody had a mobile phone easily at hand (Airspeed), and there were no pilots (Rough Air), doctors, or nuns with guitars among the passengers. Nor were ground control on hand to help. There was the lone child, the pregnant woman and/or newly pregnant stewardess, plus the elderly couple, but I would have started to get really nervous without some familiar stereotypes. What about the Bar-B-Pilots, though, or the dog attack in the cargo hold? And for the 'stewardess who holds it all together before falling in love with the conman hero', we got 'stewardess who falls to pieces' as a bonus package (normally the hero pilot's role). How's that for equality? The computer graphics let the climax down a little, but all in all, I really didn't end up cringing in my seat (see Final Descent, and its train sequel, Final Run. Guffaw, snort).