Movie · 2006 · Action, Thriller, Adventure, Crime, Horror · 1h 45m · R · English
Curator score: 1.1/10 (256.9K ratings)
Sit back. Relax. Enjoy the fright.
Overview
FBI agent Neville Flynn boards a flight from Honolulu, Hawaii to Los Angeles, escorting a key witness to testify against a mob boss at an upcoming trial. An on-board assassin releases a crate full of hundreds of deadly venomous snakes in an attempt to eliminate the witness. Flynn and a host of frightened passengers and crew must band together to survive the slithery threat.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.1/10
IMDb: 5.5/10
Letterboxd: 2.50/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
Metacritic: 58
TMDB: 5.5/10
Director
David R. Ellis
Production
New Line Cinema, Mutual Film Company, Meradin Zweite Productions, Eyetronics, H2L Media Group
Cast
Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Kenan Thompson, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Keith Dallas, Sunny Mabrey, Lin Shaye, Elsa Pataky, Bruce James, Casey Dubois, Gerard Plunkett, Terry Chen, Emily Holmes, Mark Houghton, David Koechner, Bobby Cannavale, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Todd Louiso
Curator Review
Verdict
A knowingly ridiculous B-movie premise executed with enough energy, gore, and crowd-pleasing absurdity to work as a late-night watch, even if the script and effects are uneven. It’s more fun as a communal joke than as a genuinely tense thriller.
Best for
fans of so-bad-it's-good action-horror
group watches and quote-along viewing
viewers who enjoy pulpy 2000s studio genre movies
people looking for a high-concept creature feature
Skip if
you want polished suspense or strong character writing
cheap CGI creatures are a dealbreaker
you dislike self-aware camp
you expect the movie to fully commit to either horror or action
Overview
Snakes on a Plane is exactly what its title promises, and that is both the joke and the appeal. The movie leans into a ludicrous high-concept setup with enough sincerity to keep it from collapsing into parody, while still giving audiences the kind of outrageous moments they came for: panicked passengers, escalating chaos, and a steady stream of snake attacks in confined spaces.
Worth noting
What keeps it watchable is less craftsmanship than attitude. The cast sells the material with a straight face, the pacing is brisk, and the film understands that its audience is here for spectacle, not plausibility. The effects are uneven and the dialogue is often clunky, but those flaws are part of the experience rather than a fatal problem.
Bottom line
As a thriller, it’s thin; as a midnight movie, it works. If you approach it as a glossy B-movie built for communal laughter, it delivers exactly enough mayhem to justify the premise.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Morgan (1.5★) · 1226 likes
I really waited an hour and 26 minutes to hear the iconic line.
ratbastard (2★) · 1039 likes
Title checks out.
adambolt (3.5★) · 870 likes
there's a snake on my dick
connor (4★) · 552 likes
why must a movie be "good"? is it not enough to sit somewhere dark and see cgi snakes, huge?
russman (3★) · 486 likes
When I saw this originally, people threw rubber snakes around the theater