Skyjacked (1972)

Truly Dreadful Film

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Upchuck Heston does his BAD-ACTING schtick, this time as a pilot of a commercial plane.So REALISTIC how Rosey Grier tries to TACKLE the bomber! Oh yes. And then when the controller Claude Akins BANTERS aimlessly to bring in the airliner just when a small plane wanders into the area. Jim Brolin is the bomber. He has a BRIEFCASE of explosives! Oh no! What the hell are we going to do now? We can't turn the channel! This is a MOVIE! Oh..... my..... GODDDD!!!! I'm sorry. I just can't take it anymore. I must curtail my review. Besides, my Dinty Moore BEEF STEW is ready..... I'm really hungry.

Heston was very impressive and very likable as the leading man in this one. It offers him the kind of role he was made for: very manly, strikingly handsome, sharp, resourceful. And for nearly 30 yrs he has been the main action hero on screen. As El Cid or Ben Hur, but also as the Renaissance genius. The only other action star who resembled him was Lancaster. Guillermin crafted a refreshing and exciting movie, and the kindred genre's links with both the shocker (as in Hitchcock) and the action movies about hostages (as in Willis) are well used, as the disaster movies come from the horror via Sci Fi (I. Allen), and the genre will be reshaped in the '80s as the action movies (but hostages dramas were a much earlier genre, as gangster movies usually); and it's this zesty craft of 'Skyjacked', the gusto, which give such a joy and excitement, and also Heston's awesome role. 'Skyjacked' is a pretty quirky movie, with an awesome suspense and Heston making a wonderful role, very believable and manly; it's one of the early disaster movies (but with the mention that here people don't fight a disaster or a natural force, as in the regular movies, but a hijacker), and it doesn't rely on the all-star cast. Brolin is deservedly dis-likable. The early giveaway of the hijacker is linked with the funk of him writing his messages with lipstick, the fetishism of a crazy soldier. The storyline is very violent, though the movie doesn't look exploitative.Dear reader, when I was a teenager two classics of the genre have been broadcast on TV in sequential weeks, the one with Newman and McQueen, and the colorful one also with Heston, about an earthquake.For 'Skyjacked', the disaster movie is the kindred genre, the nearest.

Commercial airliner piloted by Charlton Heston is hijacked by someone claiming to have a bomb. Whether you consider it a knockoff of Airport or not, it's very much in the same vein as that film and its sequels. I see IMDb gives away the identity of the hijacker in their summary which is weird since the first 40 minutes of the movie is about that mystery. No spoilers here though.Full of the stereotypical cast you might expect from an Airport movie: the pilot and stewardess who used to have a thing (Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux), aging stars (Walter Pidgeon, Jeanne Crain), up-and-coming youngsters (Susan Dey and future Spider-Man Nicholas Hammond), professional athlete (Rosie Greer), pregnant lady (Mariette Hartley), and a troubled soldier (James Brolin). The tension aboard the plane is pretty good but the dated flashback sequences are silly. Not bad of its type. First 45 minutes or so is best. If you like the Airport movies you'll surely like this.

A decent if not spectacular entry into the Seventies disaster films is Skyjacked often confused with another airplane disaster film that starred Charlton Heston, Airport 75. This one is better than that thing from the Airport series.Susan Dey playing one of the passengers finds a note written in one of the airplane bathrooms demanding that the plane be taken to Anchorage Alaska for refueling for a trip to the then Soviet Union. The pilot is Charlton Heston the crew is co-pilot Mike Henry, navigator Ken Swofford and various stewardesses headed by Yvette Mimieux. The note says the writer has a bomb as well to enforce his demands.There's not much suspense here in that from the beginning you know it is James Brolin, the soldier so eager to get on board. What you don't know is that he's being discharged for being deranged, but we learn that just a tad too late before Brolin reveals himself and takes the plane and its passengers hostage.The best thing about Skyjacked is the duel of minds and wits between Heston and Brolin. In fact Brolin is a truly frightening individual whose instability makes him hard to control and his combat skills and weaponry make him deadly.Speaking of the weaponry, note that Brolin takes it on board the plane as a carry on in his duffel bag. Thanks to 9/11 we've certainly beefed up security so that at least that could never happen now in that way.Skyjacked is not the best of the Seventies disaster films, but it holds up reasonably well for today's audience.