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Quotes

Rex Kramer: All right, I'll need three men up at the tower. You, Neubauer. You, Macias.

Johnny: Me, John, big tree!

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Mistakes

Striker leaves Elaine in the cockpit. When he sits down, Dr. Rumack comes in. First his shadow is on the the wall on the left, then in the next shot. it's on the right side of him. See more...

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One of the jobs in the end credits is magic consultant. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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Airplane (1980) - 19 corrections

Directed by Jim Abrahams, starring Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Lorna Patterson, Peter Graves, Robert Hays, Robert Stack (add more)

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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During the disco dance scene, Ted hurls Elaine towards the ceiling and stands there looking up, waiting for her. But when she falls back into his arms, she jumped from somewhere in front of him. Realistically the trick would not have been possible, I admit that - but still a mistake. [As with many "mistakes" cited for this film, the intent is to make the audience laugh, thereby making it more than a deliberate mistake - it's an intentional joke and therefore not a mistake.]
Edit
Even though the fantasy beach scene looks very similar to the one in From Here To Eternity (1953), the directors of Airplane insist that they never saw that movie. [Thats not true. When watching the movie on DVD with the trivia track playing it does suggest that they never saw the movie, but then the trivia messages get more and more silly suggesting they knew all along.]
Edit Corrected by GalahadFairlight
When Rex Kramer is entering the airport and being bombarded by donation seekers, it's the same five people over and over again, but each time they speak they have a different voice and a new cause. [This is done DELIBERATELY due to the comedic nature of the movie. Absolutely NOT a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by GalahadFairlight
At the end of the film when Otto (the inflatable pilot) is saluting you can see a wire making his his arm salute. [So? He's supposed to be a mechanical dummy of some sort. That's how his arm works.]
Edit
When we see all the passengers clapping to Randy's song Striker is missing. [It might help if you specified when he was there and went missing as the song is long enough he went to the bathroom or moved seats etc.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
In the disco scene when Ted throws his jacket and it comes back to him, a hand can be seen to the left throwing his jacket back at him. [That's not a mistake. It may have been unintentional by the film makers, but whether the hand had been there or not, it's obvious that someone threw the jacket back (spoofing classic disco movies where the hero throws his jacket off screen). That we can actually see them do it ruins the joke a little, but there's no reason why they should not be there.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
Look for the scene when the airline employee picks up Kramer (Robert Stack) to take him to the airport. As Kramer is talking to his wife in the full-length mirror (before he walks through it), you can see the tip of a boom mic in the top left of the frame. [There was no boom mike in the top left screen. There was a ceiling fan in that area which resembled a mike, but wasn't.]
Edit Corrected by SAZOO1975
Elaine says that they should think about the plans they made before the war. Elaine and Ted met in the bar during the war when Ted was a pilot (and broke up after it). [She isn't referring to plans "they made together" before the war, she just says "plans before" the war. She is meaning that they had plans before the war seperately, such as falling in love, career choices, etc...she simply means she is ready to start doing things she wanted to do before she met him, and before the war started.]
Edit Corrected by Jazetopher
When everyone comes to ask questions about the plane, at the bottom someone holds up ice cream - the ice cream melts more between shots. [This was a deliberate joke. Ice cream cones look like microphones. This is even pointed out during the movie on the DVD'S trivia track feature.]
Edit Time
It is obvious that the two girl scouts who have the fight are stuntmen dressed as women. [That's the gag. Over half of the "special" effects in the whole film are deliberately cheesy and poorly done. For example, the sound of the springboard that Ted jumps off of in the disco, or the sound of propellers on a jet when viewed from outside.]
Edit Corrected by Jazetopher
When Captain Oveur is summoned to the white courtesy phone, he picks up the red one at first and is told "No - the white phone." He replies "Oh." Just after his response and just before he hangs up the phone, a small higher-pitched sound is heard. According to Peter Graves in the commentary, that's the script supervisor stifling a laugh. [If you have to listen to the commentary to find out the sound is a laugh then its not really a mistake but a sound at an busy airport.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie Time
Throughout the movie, the number of seats in each row change and the number of aisles change. [There are three seats on one side and two on the other. Also, there is more than one area of seats (first class, coach, etc), and the number of rows vary between them.]
Edit
In the shot when the stewardess first approaches Dr. Rumack, he has a stethoscope hanging around his neck. In the next shot, it's gone. [That's the joke. The woman calling the stewardess says "I think the man sitting next to me is a doctor," and he is sitting there with a stethoscope on. Once that gag is complete, the doctor returns looking like a normal passenger, sans stethoscope.]
Edit Corrected by Zwn Annwn
When the passengers start getting sick, the pilot radios to Chicago and says, "We're in trouble." Then, they find out that the fish is causing the sickness and the pilot passes out. Elaine then radios Chicago and says "We're in terrible trouble." The man at Chicago then says "suspend all food service out of Los Angeles." No one told him that the fish was causing the problems. [It could well be that Elaine's entire conversation with McCrosky (the "man at Chicago")was not revealed to us. There is a break between the scene where Elaine radios Chicago and the scene where McCrosky gives orders to suspend food service, so it is perfectly reasonable to assume that Elaine did indeed tell McCrosky about the food poisoning.]
Edit
When one of the two African Americans ordered his dinner, he said, "Drink side, run me the java." Even though there's no such thing as "Jive" language, it's pretty clear that he is asking for coffee to drink ("drink...java"). The caption says nothing about coffee. [This is a comedy. There are no written rules that says the captions have to translate exactly what the person is saying. If I remember right he even says a cuss word and the caption says 'GOLLY.']
Edit Corrected by Vernon Gilmore
Why on earth does Stryker land the plane with the wheels up? [He doesn't. He puts the landing gear down before landing, but the harsh impact causes the wheels to collapse.]
Edit Corrected by Matty Blast
Mrs. Hammen (Joey's mother) eats the fish, but she never suffered any ill effects. [She may have had a natural immunity to the food poisoning.]
Edit
At the very end of the movie, Stryker is seen on the plane in a very sweat-soaked shirt. A couple of shots later, after Stryker is off the plane, the auto pilot waves to him as he takes off and now Stryker's shirt is completely dry. [This "mistake" was intended, since the sweat-soaked shirt was a joke, and to continue it into another scene would be in violation of one of our comedy rules, which is "Can you live with it?" Once a joke is done, it is not continued into the next scene. ]
Edit
One of the black characters orders a steak, but later in the movie, he is sick from eating the fish. [There are two Jive characters, the right one gets sick]
Edit