5 Screenwriting Lessons – Airplane!

Who Wrote it?

Airplane was written by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. It was loosely based on the 1957 film "Zero Hour", which was written by Hal Bartlett, John C. Champion and Arthur Hailey (Who all went uncredited for Airplane).

How Long is it?

Airplane is 88 minutes long, including end credits.

What’s It About?

Airplane follows Ted Stryker (Played by Robert Hays), an ex-fighter pilot traumatised by an incident which occurred during the war. When he finds out that his ex-girlfriend Elaine (played by Julie Hagerty) is working in the cabin crew for a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago, he impulsively decides to book a seat on the same plane. However, trouble ensures when the passengers and pilots are taken ill with food poisoning. It falls to Ted to land the plane safely, with the help of Elaine, Dr Rumack (Played by Leslie Nielsen), a doctor dealing with the outbreak, an inflatable pilot called Otto, and the men on ground level in the control tower, including supervisor Steve McCroskey (Played by Lloyd Bridges) and Ted’s former commander Rex Kramer (Played by Robert Stack).

5 Screenwriting Lessons – Airplane!(The Following May Contain Spoilers)

Characters are Key to Comedy – Airplane is often regarded as a triumph of jokes over characterisation. Ted and Elaine are the sort of stereotypically good heroes often seem in the disaster movies like Zero Hour and Airport which Airplane parodies. However, the funniest jokes in the movie come from the various side characters. Like Ted and Elaine, they are based on stereotypes, but this makes them even funnier. From the Jive-talking grandma to the inappropriately precocious children, to Johnny, McCroskey’s hyperactive assistant, they all exist solely for the purpose of adding more jokes to the movie. However, these jokes are made even more memorable by the characters unique personalities.   

However, even the more serious characters are subject to some memorable running jokes. McCroskey starts out as a stiff and straitlaced character. However, as he follows Ted’s struggle, he begins to turn to his various addictions: Cigarettes, Alcohol, Amphetamines and Glue. When he starts sniffing glue, he goes off the rails, and leaves the film by diving through a window. The contrast between McCroskey’s initial tough nature and the bug-eyed, dishevelled maniac he turns into makes his deterioration even funnier. Much of the comedy in Airplane is based on extreme contrasts, and an authority figure losing their authority in such spectacular fashion is one of the funniest contrasts possible.

Setting Up a Joke Properly makes the Payoff Funnier – Fourth-wall jokes are common in comedies as zany as Airplane, but they are very difficult to pull off. However, Airplane has one particularly funny Meta joke concerning the casting of the famed basketball player Karem Abdul-Jabbar as one of the pilots, Roger Murdock. When a child is invited to see the pilots in the cockpit, he repeatedly asks Murdock if he is actually Abdul-Jabbar. Murdock continually denies it, until the child criticises his performance as a defender, at which point he breaks character and admits his identity. Later, when the food poisoning outbreak takes hold, he is seen wearing his signature goggles, and he has his LA Lakers shorts and socks on.  In this case, the joke works because it was properly set up. The revelation of Murdock’s identity is treated as a surprise, but it fits the anything-goes sensibility of the film perfectly.

Also on the plane is a seriously ill girl being flown to Chicago so she can receive a heart transplant. One of the air stewards decides to make her feel better by singing to her, so she gets a guitar from a nun and takes it to the patient. However, on the way, she accidently hits the head of various passengers with the guitar. This conditions us to expect an even greater mishap when she actually performs, and we get one – she accidentally knocks the girl's IV Line out and continues singing, unaware of the distress she’s causing, as the rest of the passengers sing along with her. The joke is hilarious because of the oblivious innocence with which she and her fellow passengers ignore the rapidly deteriorating condition of the girl. However, it would not have been as funny if were not aware of the stewardess’ short-sightedness from the beginning.

Never Forget the Rule of Three – The “rule of three” is often used in Airplane, referring to running jokes that are used exactly three times. The first time is set-up, the second reinforces the picture, and the third use is the punchline – subverting the routine for comedic effect. One running joke from the movie which relies on the rule of three concerns two passengers who communicate in “Jive talk”, which is translated for the viewer with subtitles. We see them communicate in Jive twice, and it’s funny on both occasions. On the third occasion, when one of the passengers is taken ill, the stewardess looks for someone who can speak Jive and translate for him. An old woman steps up to do the task, but soon she begins arguing with the “Jive Dudes”. The fact that she is even more proficient at the language than they are subverts the clichéd depiction of an old lady (Through the tough-talking Granny has become a stereotype in itself) and makes fun of the idea that Jive is a strange and exclusive language.

Another memorable running joke concerns the character of Dr. Rumack. As Ted prepares to land the plane, Rumack tells him “Good luck.  We're all counting on you”, and repeats the phrase during the landing. When Ted lands safely, Rumack enters the cabin and says the same thing a third time, completely oblivious to the fact that the danger has passed. This is funny because of the incongruity between the serious context when the line was used the first two times, and the peaceful state on the third occasion. The change in situation transforms the line from a clichéd piece of disaster movie dialogue into another very funny quote.

Don’t Forget the Little Details – Airplane primarily parodies the disaster movie Zero Hour, and is so blatant in its mimicry that the writers had to get the rights to remake Zero Hour so that they wouldn't run the risk of being sued for plagiarism. Two of Airplane’s most memorable running jokes were extensions of scenes and lines from Zero Hour. A line in which the Air Traffic supervisor says “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking” turns into the iconic sequence depicting McCroskey relapsing into his various addictions. The innocent nature of a sequence where a kid gets invited into the cockpit and talks to the pilots is memorably subverted, as Captain Oveur’s questions to the child become increasingly inappropriate. In both cases, throwaway moments from the original film are transformed into creative and funny sequences that give us a number of brilliant jokes and quotes.

The film’s tone is established with a simple but funny opening. The distinctive theme tune from the iconic movie Jaws sounds, as a plane’s tailfin cuts through the skies like a shark’s fin cutting through water. This is soon followed by a memorable running gag that occurs in the background, as two announcer’s state the same message simultaneously. However, they soon begin to get mixed up and give differing messages, leading to an argument between the two which reveals a personal relationship. These two jokes show that the comedy is wacky, easy to understand, and everywhere in the movie.

Remember to Take Some Things Seriously – One reason for Airplane’s success was the fact that the characters (With the exception of Johnny) take the ludicrous events that occur during the film entirely seriously. This is made particularly clear in a sequence at the end, where Kramer’s congratulatory message to Ted turns into a monologue that continues long after everyone has left the plane. It is delivered in a very serious manner by a very serious character, and he is unaware of how long-winded and silly it is, which maximises the level of humour.

Another aspect of the film that is funny because it is played (Relatively) straight is Ted’s backstory. Whilst his flashback sequences are as full of jokes as the rest of the movie, Ted’s main motivation is to get over his guilt regarding an accident in the war that claimed the lives of seven men. With the melodramatic music and voice overs, it resembles the typical hero’s journey in a disaster movie. However, it chooses to play typically dramatic moments for comedy which only the viewer is aware of. Ted’s memories of the ill-fated flight in the war are depicted through stock footage, and this is taken to its logical extreme, as the footage goes back in time to show us bizarre planes from the early days of Aviation. Whilst the viewer is aware of how artificial Ted’s central conflict is, he is not, and this makes the parody seem more sincere, and therefore funnier.

Verdict

Although parody films have gained a bad reputation in recent years, Airplane still retains its status as one of the funniest and most quotable movies of all time. It plays on the earnest and melodramatic nature of disaster movies, and provides a number of zany jokes that demonstrate how well the writers understand the basic tenets of comedy. There is a wide range of jokes, from verbal to slapstick, they are set up well and delivered effectively, and the characters are all memorable. Whilst many jokes are dated now, a significant portion are just as funny as they were when the film was released. In a movie estimated to contain about 250 jokes, that is a major accomplishment.