The first time I saw this Canadian made-for-TV movie I found it pretty impressive, considering that it was "based on a true story" and considering what it was.
William Devane is pilot on an modern airliner flying across Canada to Winnipeg. They abruptly "run out of gas" in the middle of nowhere. They're flying along smoothly when a little light on the panel starts to go beep beep beep. "That's not normal," observes Devane coolly. The other on the flight deck -- Scott Hylands in the second seat and Winston Rekert at the airline's chief mechanic -- suggest various ways of stopping the damned beeps. Sometimes they work, but not for long. A scan of the flight manual reveals that because of some confusion in the unit of measurement, the airplane has taken on fuel measured in pounds instead of liters.
The result is that, here they are, flying merrily along at a bit more than 20,000 feet when they are suddenly undone by the metric system and all their power cuts out. Without hydraulics, there are no lights anywhere, not back in the passengers' cabin or on the flight deck. And Devane must now wrestle with controls deprived of "power steering". The only way to keep the airplane flying is to keep the nose down, but in doing so they are losing altitude. And NO LANDING FIELD IN SIGHT! It does not bode well for Devane, his crew, or his scared-stiff passengers.
Not to worry. All three men on the flight deck know their business -- except for those liters and quarts and things -- and the result is cooperation. The movie doesn't give us a hero. It shows us how teamwork can solve problems that an individual can't.
I like it so much when it was released that I bought a cheap copy from some firm in the Czech Republic. Watching it for the second time was less of a thrill because I knew what was coming and because certain formulaic plot elements rather leaped off the screen and attacked me viciously.
Molly Parker, with her pale, lightly freckled, longitudinal face, is not Hollywood glamorous but radiates a cool Egyptian beauty, kind of like Akhenaten, if he'd been a woman, which maybe he was. She was trained as a ballerina and gave a striking performance as a necrophiliac in "Kissed." I'm deeply in love with her, even though she never responds to my many mash notes. But, man, she's stuck in a role that every disaster-movie and soap opera fan must be bored with by now. She's the girl friend who wants to have children and "build a home", while her fiancé is not at all keen on the idea. When the final clinch comes, the conflict is resolved. Guess which way it goes.
You see what I mean by "formulaic plot elements." During the climactic approach, for the first time, we begin to hear the inner monologues of some passengers, which generated my own inner monologue -- Zzzz. There's the snobby businessman back in the cabin, who cares only about power. The stern flight attendant, Shelley Hack, tells him so, just in case you missed it as he strides back and forth issuing orders over his cell phone. Does he realize there's more to life than money? Are you kidding? There's the bullying dilatory ex hockey star who pushes everyone aside and shouts often. I think he finds religion, although I'm not sure that a prayer which emphasizes the phrase "Help ME get out of this" is actually very spiritual. And Parker dreams: "I should be afraid. Why am I not afraid? Because I'm with him!"
I missed the beautiful flight attendant who loves the captain and who is perhaps preggers but we'll have to accept the fact that Devane is happily married and we find out nothing about Shelley Hack's love life, which, in its own quiet way, is too bad. And where is the kid who needs the rare transfusion or the kidney transplant? Well, we have to be philosophical. This is, after all, "based on a true story." And I still got a kick out of it.
William Devane is pilot on an modern airliner flying across Canada to Winnipeg. They abruptly "run out of gas" in the middle of nowhere. They're flying along smoothly when a little light on the panel starts to go beep beep beep. "That's not normal," observes Devane coolly. The other on the flight deck -- Scott Hylands in the second seat and Winston Rekert at the airline's chief mechanic -- suggest various ways of stopping the damned beeps. Sometimes they work, but not for long. A scan of the flight manual reveals that because of some confusion in the unit of measurement, the airplane has taken on fuel measured in pounds instead of liters.
The result is that, here they are, flying merrily along at a bit more than 20,000 feet when they are suddenly undone by the metric system and all their power cuts out. Without hydraulics, there are no lights anywhere, not back in the passengers' cabin or on the flight deck. And Devane must now wrestle with controls deprived of "power steering". The only way to keep the airplane flying is to keep the nose down, but in doing so they are losing altitude. And NO LANDING FIELD IN SIGHT! It does not bode well for Devane, his crew, or his scared-stiff passengers.
Not to worry. All three men on the flight deck know their business -- except for those liters and quarts and things -- and the result is cooperation. The movie doesn't give us a hero. It shows us how teamwork can solve problems that an individual can't.
I like it so much when it was released that I bought a cheap copy from some firm in the Czech Republic. Watching it for the second time was less of a thrill because I knew what was coming and because certain formulaic plot elements rather leaped off the screen and attacked me viciously.
Molly Parker, with her pale, lightly freckled, longitudinal face, is not Hollywood glamorous but radiates a cool Egyptian beauty, kind of like Akhenaten, if he'd been a woman, which maybe he was. She was trained as a ballerina and gave a striking performance as a necrophiliac in "Kissed." I'm deeply in love with her, even though she never responds to my many mash notes. But, man, she's stuck in a role that every disaster-movie and soap opera fan must be bored with by now. She's the girl friend who wants to have children and "build a home", while her fiancé is not at all keen on the idea. When the final clinch comes, the conflict is resolved. Guess which way it goes.
You see what I mean by "formulaic plot elements." During the climactic approach, for the first time, we begin to hear the inner monologues of some passengers, which generated my own inner monologue -- Zzzz. There's the snobby businessman back in the cabin, who cares only about power. The stern flight attendant, Shelley Hack, tells him so, just in case you missed it as he strides back and forth issuing orders over his cell phone. Does he realize there's more to life than money? Are you kidding? There's the bullying dilatory ex hockey star who pushes everyone aside and shouts often. I think he finds religion, although I'm not sure that a prayer which emphasizes the phrase "Help ME get out of this" is actually very spiritual. And Parker dreams: "I should be afraid. Why am I not afraid? Because I'm with him!"
I missed the beautiful flight attendant who loves the captain and who is perhaps preggers but we'll have to accept the fact that Devane is happily married and we find out nothing about Shelley Hack's love life, which, in its own quiet way, is too bad. And where is the kid who needs the rare transfusion or the kidney transplant? Well, we have to be philosophical. This is, after all, "based on a true story." And I still got a kick out of it.