‘Airplane!” Is 45: Celebrate With the Film’s 6 Most Hilarious Moments

AIRPLANE!, Julie Hagerty, Robert Hays, 1980, — (c) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

Forty-five years ago on July 2, 1980, the hilarious comedy Airplane! landed in theaters, and audiences have been laughing ever since. Starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves and Robert Stack, the film parodies 1957’s Zero Hour!, as well as the Airport series, which released four films between 1970 and 1979. Airplane! mined ’70s disaster movie cliches for laughs, and audiences couldn’t get enough — the film was a massive hit, earning $171 million on a minuscule $3.5 million budget, and yielding one sequel, 1982’s Airplane 2: The Sequel.

Airplane! was produced by filmmakers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams — a trio who would later go by the name Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker and create films like Ruthless People and The Naked Gun series — along with screenwriter Pat Proft. The film also marked a collaboration between Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker and Nielsen that would last until the mid-’90s: the group created the limited-run TV series Police Squad!, which starred Nielsen as Det. Lt. Frank Drebin — a role he’d reprise in three Naked Gun films.

Airplane! is a goldmine of comedic genius and picking only a handful of the funniest scenes or lines is tough because the movie is packed with wall-to-wall gags.

However, here are some of the absolute classics:

“Don’t call me Shirley”

This exchange between Dr. Rumack (Nielsen) and Ted Striker (Hays) is arguably the most famous line from the film and perfectly encapsulates its dry, deadpan humor. Fans might not know that this was Nielsen’s first comic role after a long career as a serious dramatic actor; his delivery was perfect and launched an entire new career for him.

“Looks like I picked the wrong week to…”

This running gag sees air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) repeatedly declare he picked “the wrong week” to quit various bad habits (smoking, drinking, sniffing glue, amphetamines) as the crisis on the plane worsens.

“I speak jive”

When the two Black passengers start speaking in exaggerated jive slang, a bewildered flight attendant tries to understand them, and ultimately, an elderly white woman (played by classic TV mom Barbara Billingsley) steps in and translates perfectly.

“What is it?”

Dr. Rumack’s exasperated explanations to Elaine (Julie Hagerty) of what a hospital, a cockpit, or headquarters are (“It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now!”) are brilliant examples of the film’s absurd literalism.

Johnny’s nonsensical observations and advice

The tower controller Johnny (Stephen Stucker) is a constant source of bizarre non-sequiturs, like reading a newspaper headline that says “There’s a sale at Penney’s!” during a crisis, or describing the plane as “a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.”

The inflatable autopilot, “Otto”

When the main pilots are incapacitated, the inflatable autopilot “Otto” takes over. His deflating and reinflating, along with his eventual “death” by explosion, is a fantastic running gag that combines visual comedy with a touch of dark humor.

Honorable mentions: the increasingly inappropriate dialogue between Capt. Oveur (Peter Graves) and the little boy in the cockpit (“Have you ever seen a grown man naked?”); the ridiculous “Roger, Victor, Clarence” sequence in the cockpit (“We have clearance, Clarence.” “Roger, Roger.” “What’s our vector, Victor?”); and when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, playing co-pilot Murdock, breaks character with the little boy (“I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag (Bill) Walton and (Bob) Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!”).

Which line do you still quote the most?