| Flight of the Phoenix (2004) | |
|---|---|
| |
| Directed by | John Moore |
| Produced by | William Aldrich |
| Written by | Scott Frank, Edward Burns |
| Starring | Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Giovanni Ribisi, Tony Curran |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | 17 December 2004 (USA) |
| Running time | 113 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$45,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Flight of the Phoenix is a 2004 remake of the 1965 film The Flight of the Phoenix, based on the book of the same name. The film opened in the US on December 17th with the tagline, "The only way out, is up."
Contents |
Cast
- Dennis Quaid - Frank Towns
- Tyrese Gibson - A.J.
- Giovanni Ribisi - Elliott
- Miranda Otto - Kelly
- Tony Curran - Rodney
- Kirk Jones - Jeremy
- Jacob Vargas - Sammi
- Hugh Laurie - Ian
- Scott Michael Campbell - Liddle
- Kevork Malikyan - Rady
- Jared Padalecki - Davis
- Paul Ditchfield - Dr. Gerber
- Martin Hindy - Newman
- Bob Brown- Kyle
- Anthony Wong - Lead Smuggler
Plot summary
When an Amacor oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns (Quaid) and copilot A.J (Gibson) are sent to shut the operation down. However, on their way to Beijing, a major dust storm forces them to ditch their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the desert. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and one lone drifter. On the way down, the plane is damaged beyond repair, one crewmember, Kyle, falls to his death out the plane's damaged cargo hatch, and two others, Dr. Gerber (Ditchfield) and Newman, die from trauma inflicted by turbulence and impact. When the storm ends and the dust settles, it becomes apparent that they are 200 miles off course with only one month worth of water available. Davis (Jared Padalecki) goes out and gets lost. He dies and is not found by his crew. At first, they decide, with the counsel of Captain Towns, to wait for rescue. However, after surveying the situation and realizing that their value to Amacor is less than they had originally believed, they reconsider and are convinced by Elliot (Ribisi), who claims to be an aircraft designer, to retool the remains of their C-119 into a new airplane which they christen "The Phoenix" after the legendary bird. They struggle for several weeks through dust storms, nomad attacks, lack of water, the death of two more crewmembers, and the revelation that Elliot's aircraft design experience had, to this point, been restricted to the design of models. However, they eventually are able to construct the new aircraft and take off barely in time to escape an army of nomadic attackers. Through a series of photos, we see what became of the crew when they made it back into civilization. All have been revitalized by the experience: Towns and A.J. start their own airline (appropriately named Phoenix), Sammi and his wife start their own restaurant (Jeremy and Rady are there to celebrate), Liddle is reunited with his wife and kids, Ian becomes a professional golf player, Kelly is working at an ocean oil rig and Elliot wears a spacesuit on a magazine cover with the headline "NASA's New Hope?"
Critical Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was disliked with a "rotten" rating of 29%. The film had 33 fresh ratings, and 79 rotten ratings, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The main criticism was that it was very similar to the original. John Anderson from Newsday said, "if you've seen the original, there's absolutely no difference in what happens. And very little reason to check it out." Scott Brown from Entertainment Weekly gave a good review, saying "refreshingly, it's actually about action, albeit arbitrary action, and how it defines us and keeps us alive."
Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The film was shot on location in Namibia.
- A ferry sank during transportation of a major set piece across a river forcing the river bottom salvage of the plane fuselage.
- Four planes were used during the film:
- A "Phoenix" that could be taxied but not flown was built for closeups. The ""Phoenix"" flying scenes version were done using a radio controlled model and computer graphics. For the 1965 version of the film, a flying "Phoenix" was built. The resulting plane wasn't strong structurally and crashed killing stuntman Paul Mantz.
- During the filming of Flight of the Phoenix Jared Padalecki flipped his vehicle and reportedly thought he was dead.
- Hugh Laurie got the lead part of Gregory House in the medical drama House with an audition tape which was shot in the bathroom of his hotel during the filming of this movie.
- The "Making Of" featurette on the DVD shows director John Moore losing his temper (at times violently) at the cast and crew of this film.
- When the plane is taking off at the end of the film there are many pirates chasing them. However, as the plane takes off over the edge of the cliff there are only about half a dozen of them.
- The nomads inexplicably speak Cantonese, a southern dialect of China restricted to Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong Province, and Guangxi Province. It would be highly unusual to be spoken in the Gobi desert.
External links
- The Flight of the Phoenix (2004) at the Internet Movie Database
- Official Flight of the Phoenix site
- "Flight of the Phoenix" Clip Crash Scene
- The Flight of the Phoenix (2004) at Rotten Tomatoes
