Flight of the Phoenix (2004 film)
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| Flight of the Phoenix (2004) | |
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| Directed by | John Moore |
| Produced by | William Aldrich |
| Written by | Scott Frank, Edward Burns |
| Starring | Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Giovanni Ribisi, Tony Curran |
| Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
| Release date(s) | 17 December 2004 (USA) |
| Running time | 113 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$45,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Flight of the Phoenix is a 2004 remake of the 1965 film of the same name, based on the book of the same name. The film opened in the US on December 17th with the tagline, "The only way out, is up."
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[edit] Plot
When an Amacor oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns (Quaid) and copilot "A.J." (Gibson) are sent to shut the operation down. However, on their way to Beijing, a major dust storm forces them to ditch their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the desert. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and Elliot (Ribisi), a lone drifter. On the way down, the plane is damaged beyond repair, one crew member, Kyle, falls to his death out the plane's damaged cargo hatch, and two others, Dr. Gerber (Ditchfield) and Newman (Hindy), die from trauma inflicted by turbulence and impact.
When the storm ends and the dust settles, it becomes apparent that they are 200 miles off course with only one month's worth of water available. Davis (Padalecki) goes out and gets lost, dies and is not found by his crew. At first they decide, with the counsel of Captain Towns, to just sit and await rescue. However, after surveying the situation and realising that their value to Amacor is less than they had originally believed, they reconsider and are convinced by Elliot, who claims to be an aircraft designer, to rebuild the remains of their C-119 into a new aeroplane which they christen "The Phoenix" after the legendary bird.
They struggle for several weeks through dust storms, bandit attacks, lack of water, and the revelation that Elliot's aircraft design experience has, to this point, been restricted to the design of model aeroplanes. The problems grow when a group of bandits camp nearby and when the survivors attempt to communicate, the bandits kill Rodney (Curran) and are killed in a short, fierce skirmish when ambushed by Towns. However, they eventually are able to construct the new aircraft and take off barely in time to escape a larger group of bandit attackers.
Through a series of photos, we see what became of the crew when they made it back to civilisation. All have been revitalised by the experience: Towns and A.J. start their own airline (appropriately named Phoenix), Sammi and his wife start their own restaurant (Jeremy and Rady are there to celebrate), Liddle is reunited with his wife and kids, Ian becomes a professional golfer, Kelly is working at an ocean oil rig and Elliot wears a flight suit on a magazine cover with the headline "NASA's New Hope?"
[edit] Cast
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[1]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dennis Quaid | Frank Towns |
| Tyrese Gibson | A.J. |
| Giovanni Ribisi | Elliott |
| Miranda Otto | Kelly |
| Tony Curran | Rodney |
| Kirk Jones | Jeremy |
| Jacob Vargas | Sammi |
| Hugh Laurie | Ian |
| Scott Michael Campbell | Liddle |
| Kevork Malikyan | Rady |
| Jared Padalecki | Davis |
| Paul Ditchfield | Dr. Gerber |
| Martin Hindy | Newman |
| Bob Brown | Kyle |
| Anthony Wong | Lead Smuggler |
[edit] Production
The film was shot on location in Namibia. A ferry sank during transportation of a major set piece across a river forcing the river bottom salvage of the aircraft fuselage. The "Making Of" featurette on the DVD shows director John Moore losing his temper (at times violently) at the cast and crew of this film.
Four aircraft were used during the film:
- C-119G, N15501 - flying shots. (still flies as of 2006)
- C-119F, BuNo.131700 / N3267U - desert wreck.
- C-119F, BuNo.131691 - Phoenix film prop.
- C-119F, BuNo.131706 - Phoenix film prop.
- A "Phoenix" that could be taxied but not flown was built for closeups. The ""Phoenix"" flying scenes version were done using a radio controlled model and computer graphics. (For the 1965 version of the film, a flying "Phoenix" was built. The resulting aircraft wasn't structurally strong and crashed killing stuntman Paul Mantz.) [2]
During the filming of Flight of the Phoenix Jared Padalecki flipped his vehicle and reportedly thought he was dead.
[edit] Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was disliked with a "rotten" rating of 29%. The film had 33 fresh ratings, and 79 rotten ratings, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The main criticism was that it was very similar to the original. John Anderson from Newsday said, "if you've seen the original, there's absolutely no difference in what happens. And very little reason to check it out." Scott Brown from Entertainment Weekly gave a good review, saying "refreshingly, it's actually about action, albeit arbitrary action, and how it defines us and keeps us alive."
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Flight of the Phoenix (2004) Full credits
- ^ O'Leary 2004, p. 37.
