What's slower than a speeding bullet, and able to hit tall buildings at a single bound?
Overview
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.6/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.84/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams
Production
Paramount Pictures, Howard W. Koch Productions
Cast
Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Lorna Patterson, Jill Whelan, Ann Nelson, Jim Abrahams, Jonathan Banks, Stephen Stucker, Frank Ashmore, Craig Berenson, Barbara Billingsley, Lee Bryant, Joyce Bulifant, Mae E. Campbell, Ethel Merman
Where to watch
fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A razor-sharp, joke-dense parody that still lands because it commits completely to the absurdity. Its speed, deadpan performances, and relentless visual gags make it one of the defining studio comedies of the era.
Best for
fans of fast, gag-driven comedies
viewers who like deadpan absurdism
people who enjoy rewatchable joke-a-second films
audiences open to broad parody and slapstick
Skip if
you dislike nonstop silliness
you want character-driven or emotional comedy
you’re turned off by dated sexual humor
you prefer subtle, realistic humor
Overview
Airplane! is the rare parody that works even if you barely know what it’s parodying. The jokes come from every direction: wordplay, background details, visual repetition, and straight-faced performances that make the nonsense feel weirdly authoritative. It moves so quickly that even throwaway lines can become running gags by sheer force of timing.
Worth noting
What keeps it fresh is the discipline behind the chaos. The movie understands escalation, and it keeps finding new ways to turn a simple setup into a bigger payoff. Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan delivery is a huge part of the film’s legacy, but the whole ensemble plays it with the exact level of seriousness the material needs.
Bottom line
Some of the humor is very much of its time, especially in its sexual and cultural jokes, so modern viewers may have mixed reactions to a few bits. Still, as a machine for comedy invention, it remains a landmark: endlessly quotable, highly rewatchable, and still capable of surprising you with a joke you missed the first ten times.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (3.5★) · 8337 likes
I feel like we don't talk about the lady who fucked a horse enough
Patrick Willems (4★) · 5129 likes
At one point Leslie Nielsen has a line that's not funny and I thought "I hope that pays off" and then it pays off twice and gets funnier each time
Ethan ☔️ · 5125 likes
“Nervous?”
“Yes.”
“First time?”
“No, I've been nervous lots of times.”
russman (4★) · 4755 likes
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit Letterboxd
Jeff (5★) · 4528 likes
1) It's been scientifically proven that this is the funniest movie of all time, so we don't need to have that conversation any more.
2) I thought jive was an actual language until I was maybe 13.
3) For some odd reason the visual gag of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being pulled away from the cockpit wearing his Lakers gear and goggles is one of my favorite jokes in the movie.
4) This movie is rated PG but has boobs in it,… more
1975 · Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy · 1h 31m · PG · Curator 9.1/10 (1.2M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, BritBox, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
For viewers who enjoy relentless absurdism, running gags, and a refusal to play anything straight except the performances.