SKYJACKED (1972)

A High-Flying Thriller from Director John Guillermin

Grade: B+

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Skyjacked is one of those movies that belongs to the “Airplanes in Trouble” subgenre. Essentially disaster movies, the specific plots of these movies vary but the overall situation is the same: something is endangering the plane (be it a terrorist, tainted food, or snakes) and the people on board and/or on the ground must find a way to safely land the plane and rescue the passengers. Many of the cliches present in these movies would be famously parodied in the 1980 spoof Airplane! Skyjacked is no stranger to these cliches, but director John Guillermin is nevertheless able to work with them to create a thriller that ultimately succeeds where it counts.

Although based on a novel by Edwin Corley (under the pseudonym David Harper), Skyjacked follows some of the same beats as the star-studded Airport, released two years earlier. There is a bomb-toting maniac threatening a plane, a pilot who had an affair with one of the flight attendants, and a man on the ground trying to coach the plane to a safe landing through inclement weather. But whereas the action in Airport doesn’t begin until halfway through, Skyjacked’s suspense starts within the first twenty minutes as Captain Henry O’Hara (Charlton Heston) is alerted to a message written in lipstick on a bathroom wall saying that a bomb will destroy the plane if it is not diverted to Anchorage, Alaska. And the affair is wisely (and cleverly) confined to a pair of flashbacks between the characters of Heston and Yvette Mimeux.

The first half of the movie therefore becomes something of a “whodunnit” mystery as the screenplay, written by Stanley R. Greenberg, does a pretty good job of concealing the identity of the hijacker. It could be a man who is “sick and tired of losing,” sitting next to a woman with a suspicious-looking tube of lipstick. It could be a Marine veteran gulping down bourbon next to a cello player. Or it could even be a pregnant woman who seems calm after the passengers are finally alerted to the threat.

These and other players fall into the same field as the “stock” characters lampooned in Airplane! And, although they are mostly portrayed by A-list actors, they are not always given time to shine. Leslie Uggams and Jeanne Crain, for example, don’t have that much to do on-screen. But they make the most of what they are given, and Guillermin would later perfect his direction of ensemble casts with The Towering Inferno (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978).

It is around halfway through the film that the mysterious hijacker is finally revealed. Who it is I won’t say, but the performer gives a deliciously deranged performance that makes us instantly root for their defeat. They kick, bludgeon, and shoot their way through any opposition to their goal (which, in hindsight, is a solid reflection of their insanity). Their deeds seem to be motivated by lack of appreciation, although their flashbacks seem to suggest that they had plenty of appreciation. A certain detail in these flashbacks implies that it could be chalked up to daddy issues.

The plot is not exactly unpredictable, since we can get a pretty good idea early on how things are going to end up. But how they end up that way is a mystery throughout. Guillermin also manages to inject suspense into even some of the formulaic scenes. When the plane has to land in a torrential downpour, there is a civilian plane flying dangerously close and O’Hara has to swerve around it to avoid a collision, resulting in pandemonium onboard. The scene then quickly cuts back and forth between his sweating face, the man in the tower taking him through, and the radar screen. The sequence with the hostile jet fighters, however, is less tense. For all the loud noises as the planes buzz around them, we pretty much know automatically that they won’t be shot down.

The finale of Skyjacked is an intense combination of editing and action. The hijacker is expected to be welcomed with open arms as their flashback from earlier is revisited, this time with the inhabitants of the destination they forced the plane to. But his hopes are dashed when they look out the window and see armed soldiers. This leads to a short yet brutal hand-to-hand fight with O’Hara, with unexpected results; what happens makes the ending all the more satisfying.

Skyjacked may not be the best “Airplanes in Trouble” movie, or even the best John Guillermin movie. But it is still quite suspenseful and entertaining. The actors are good, action is intense and the story, while predictable, is still effective and largely sticks to what is important. It aims to thrill and gets the job done.

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Director: John Guillermin

Screenplay: Stanley F. Greenberg (Based on the novel "Hijacked" by David Harper)

Producer: Walter Seltzer

Cast: Charlton Heston (Henry O'Hara), Yvette Mimieux (Angela Thatcher), James Brolin (Jerome K. Weber), Claude Akins (Sgt. Ben Puzo), Jeanne Crain (Mrs. Clara Shaw), Susan Dey (Elly Brewster), Roosevelt Grier (Gary Brown), Mariette Hartley (Harriet Stevens), Walter Pidgeon (Sen. Arne Undner), Ken Swofford (John Bimonte), Leslie Uggams (Lovejoy Wells), Ross Elliott (Harold Shaw), Nicholas Hammond (Peter Undner)

Rated: PG