Airplane! (Flying High) (1980)
The
tail of an airplane slices through dark clouds like a shark fin
breaking through the moonlit surf in Jaws . . . and so
begins the hilarious master spoof, Airplane (known as Flying
High in some non-US releases).
 Trans-American Flight 209 takes off from Los Angeles to Chicago
with multiple nutcases on board, while in the terminal the voice
for the white-zone parking has a fight with the voice for the
red-zone parking.
Once all the loonies board the plane, everyone establishes a
character identity through some kind of sight gag . . .
There's a
singing nun, a girl who needs a heart transplant in six hours, a
gay pilot with a hunger for the little boys who visit his cockpit,
some religious zealots, a doctor whose nose grows like Pinocchio
when he lies, and other assorted fraternity-house inventions.
When they all get food poisoning from the fish course and a
terrible storm appears, it's up to Elaine the stewardess to fly
the plane in the noble Karen Black tradition, with the aid of her
boyfriend, Ted Striker - an ex-fighter pilot who is now afraid of
planes.
 Back
in the control tower, a similar group of loons are calling the
shots by radio, led by Robert Stack (who removes his sunglasses to
reveal a smaller pair of sunglasses underneath).
While the air
controllers play computer basketball on radar screens, Dr. Rumack
(Leslie Nielsen) takes a look at his dying passengers and sighs
"Haven't seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant
concert".
In flashback, we see substitute pilot Striker so rattled by the
shell-shocked officer in his hospital ward who thinks he's Ethel
Merman (the officer rises up in bed to sing Everything's Coming
Up Roses and it's Ethel Merman herself in drag) that he gives
up flying and hosts Tupperware parties for the natives in
Africa.
A group of press photographers move into the chaotic control
tower back in Chicago. "Okay, boys, let's take some
pictures" says one of the cameramen, and the others pinch all
the pictures from the wall and leave.
Airplane! is the brainchild of three comedy writers from
Milwaukee who began their careers with Kentucky Fried Movie,
and graduated to the Naked Gun series.
 The movie was a smash hit and made over $80 million in the US
alone.
It also led to a 1982 sequel, appropriately titled Airplane
II: The Sequel, that was built around a disastrous flight
involving a Space Shuttle.
Airplane! also went on to a long life in cable and on
home video.
It continues to be popular today, as catchphrases like
"Don't call me Shirley!" and "Looks like I picked
the wrong time to quit . . . " have become a permanent part
of hipster lingo.
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