Movie Review: Airplane (1980)

★★★★★

Airplane! isn’t just funny it’s joke after joke, so fast you’ll miss one while you’re still laughing at the last.

Kelly J.

California

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Airplane

1980

When you think of comedy classics, Airplane! (1980) almost always comes up and for good reason. Directed by the trio Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker (a team now simply called ZAZ), it’s a rapid-fire parody of disaster movies that redefined what a comedy could be. But while most people remember it for its quotable lines (“Surely you can’t be serious…”) and absurd gags, there’s actually a lot more going on under the surface.

At BoxReview.com, I like to revisit films like Airplane! and dig a little deeper. Why does it still work decades later? What makes it different from other parody movies? And is it just silly or secretly brilliant? Spoiler alert: it’s both.

The Setup: A Disaster Movie Gone Completely Mad

On the surface, Airplane! is a parody of 1950s and 1970s disaster films, especially Zero Hour! (1957), which it borrows heavily from in plot and dialogue. The story is straightforward: passengers and crew on a commercial flight fall ill from food poisoning, forcing a traumatized ex-fighter pilot, Ted Striker (Robert Hays), to land the plane with the help of his ex-girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hagerty).

It sounds serious. And that’s exactly the point. Airplane! takes a dead-serious disaster plot and turns it into a playground for sight gags, puns, slapstick, and absurd non-sequiturs.

What Most Reviews Miss: The Straight-Faced Performances

One of the most overlooked elements of Airplane! and part of why it works so well is the casting of traditionally dramatic actors. Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves were not known for comedy before this film. Instead of playing the jokes with a wink, they deliver every absurd line with the same intensity they’d give in a war movie.

That deadpan delivery is the secret weapon. Imagine if these roles had gone to traditional comedians the film might have felt too broad or self-aware. Instead, Nielsen and the rest treat the nonsense around them with stone-faced seriousness, and that contrast makes it exponentially funnier.

Comedy as Editing: The Rhythm of the Jokes

Another thing people don’t talk about enough is how much of Airplane!’s success comes from editing and timing. The movie never lets you breathe jokes come one after another, layered on top of each other.

A visual gag might happen in the background while dialogue plays straight in the foreground. A character might deliver a perfectly normal line, only to be undercut seconds later by a slapstick gag. That relentlessness creates momentum, and by the time you’re halfway through the movie, you’re laughing not just at the jokes but at the sheer audacity of how many jokes the filmmakers can pack into one scene.

Satire of Authority and Seriousness

Yes, Airplane! is silly. But it’s also sly. The film doesn’t just parody disaster movies it pokes fun at the way authority figures, institutions, and “serious men” present themselves. Lloyd Bridges’ character, Steve McCroskey, is a perfect example. He’s supposed to be the calm, commanding air traffic controller, but every scene reveals his weaknesses (“I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue”).

It’s parody, yes, but it’s also commentary: the people we trust to hold everything together are often just as fallible, neurotic, and ridiculous as the rest of us. That satirical streak keeps the film from being just a string of jokes.

The Visual Gags People Forget

Everyone remembers the “don’t call me Shirley” line or the dancing disco sequence, but what about the subtler visual gags? The “automatic pilot” (an inflatable doll), the newspaper headlines escalating from panic to “Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot,” or the way background extras react with complete seriousness to absurd events these details add layers to the humor.

Rewatching Airplane! is like noticing Easter eggs. The film rewards you for paying attention, which is why it holds up so well on repeat viewings.

Why It Still Works

Plenty of parody films have come and gone since 1980, and let’s be honest most don’t age well. The difference is that Airplane! doesn’t rely on pop culture references tied to a specific year. Sure, it riffs on disaster films, but it builds its humor on wordplay, slapstick, and universal absurdity. That’s why it’s still funny decades later, even to audiences who’ve never seen Zero Hour! or Airport.

It also set the template for modern parody. Without Airplane!, there’s no Naked Gun, no Hot Shots!, and probably no Scary Movie franchise. It showed that parody could be relentless, surreal, and genuinely cinematic.

A Comedy With Heart

Here’s something I’ve always loved about Airplane! that doesn’t get enough credit: beneath the chaos, the story between Ted and Elaine actually works. Sure, it’s exaggerated, but their dynamic grounds the movie. Ted’s struggle with his wartime trauma, his fear of failure, and his desperate attempt to win Elaine back give just enough weight to balance the absurdity.

Without that tiny emotional core, the film might have felt hollow. With it, you actually care at least a little whether Ted lands the plane.

Final Thoughts from BoxReview.com

At Box Review, we love comedies that aren’t just funny in the moment but stay funny for decades. Airplane! is the definition of that. It’s endlessly quotable, yes but it’s also meticulously crafted, brilliantly cast, and smarter than it looks on the surface.

Watching it today feels like hanging out with a friend who keeps cracking jokes, one after another, until you’re laughing too hard to breathe. It’s silly, it’s satirical, and it’s still one of the greatest comedy films ever made.

So if it’s been a while since you last watched Airplane!, buckle up, put your tray table upright, and get ready to laugh all over again. And don’t call me Shirley.

Act Fast... Limited Time Offer!

Airplane

1980