This movie is a true story of a real airliner accident where a miscalculation causes the plane to run out of fuel during a flight. I found the cockpit scenes to be fascinating, but there were some really stupid mistakes that distracted from the film enough to annoy me. The most ridiculous of these was the behavior of the crew then the plane finally comes to a stop on the ground. Instead of immediately proceeding with the evacuation of the plane, they all just sit there, supposedly thanking their maker for surviving. Then, they open the front and rear exits and proceed to all exit from the rear of the plane. Not one person exits from the front, even though the slide is in place and the drop much less than in the back. Even the cockpit crew feels some need to work their way through the smoke to the back of the plane to exit. Why?
I was also annoyed with the endless boring background stories and thoughts. They actually have voiceovers at one point of what the passengers are thinking. It was very dull and filled a lot of time.
Time was a particular problem in this film. It really could have been a good hour story. The real action takes place in the last 35 miles of the flight, which does not take very long at over 200 knots. Instead, we had one fifteen minute period when they only went five miles. Then, in a matter of seconds, they jumped 10 miles. I think this would have been more powerful had they told the ending of the flight in real time.
The cockpit suspense was really good and I enjoyed it. The endless pouring over manuals and trying different thinks made the story more real. Had they been a bit more realistic about time and dropped the side stories, this could have been a really good TV movie (but not a "real" movie). I give it 5/10.
I was also annoyed with the endless boring background stories and thoughts. They actually have voiceovers at one point of what the passengers are thinking. It was very dull and filled a lot of time.
Time was a particular problem in this film. It really could have been a good hour story. The real action takes place in the last 35 miles of the flight, which does not take very long at over 200 knots. Instead, we had one fifteen minute period when they only went five miles. Then, in a matter of seconds, they jumped 10 miles. I think this would have been more powerful had they told the ending of the flight in real time.
The cockpit suspense was really good and I enjoyed it. The endless pouring over manuals and trying different thinks made the story more real. Had they been a bit more realistic about time and dropped the side stories, this could have been a really good TV movie (but not a "real" movie). I give it 5/10.