Flight of the Phoenix (2004)

Director:

John Moore

Writers (WGA):

Lukas Heller (1965 screenplay)
Scott Frank (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

17 December 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The only way out is up

Plot:

Survivors of a plane crash in the Mongolian desert work together to build a new plane.

Plot Keywords:

Desert | Stranded | Remake | Airplane Accident | Sandstorm

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Dennis Quaid	...	Frank Towns
Tyrese Gibson	...	A.J.
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Elliott
Miranda Otto	...	Kelly Johnson
Tony Curran	...	Alex Rodney
Sticky Fingaz	...	Jeremy (as Kirk Jones)
Jacob Vargas	...	Sammi
Hugh Laurie	...	Ian
Scott Michael Campbell	...	James Liddle
Kevork Malikyan	...	Rady
Jared Padalecki	...	John Davis
Paul Ditchfield	...	Dr. Gerber
Martin Hindy	...	Newman (as Martin 'Mako' Hindy)
Bob Brown	...	Kyle
Anthony Wong	...	Lead Smuggler

Also Known As:

El vuelo del Fénix (Argentina) (video title) (Spain) [es]
Le vol du Phoenix (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Aavikkolento (Finland) [fi]
Anka'nin uyanisi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Der Flug des Phoenix (Germany) [de]
Fööniksi lend (Estonia) [et]
I ptisi tou Foinika (Greece) [el]
Il volo della fenice (Italy) [it]
O Vôo da Fênix (Brazil) [pt]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some language, action and violence.

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

UK:12 (video rating) (2005) | UK:12A (original rating) | Canada:14A (DVD rating) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41095) | Taiwan:PG-12 | Norway:11 | Iceland:14 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) | Germany:12 | Ireland:12A | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M (DVD rating) | Philippines:G | Singapore:PG | Greece:K-13 | Peru:14 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Africa

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The aircraft used in the film is a Fairchild C-119, a direct descendent of the WWII era C-82 used in the original film

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the rear cargo doors come off after hitting the terrain, the contents of the cabin, as well as a passenger, are shown to be violently 'sucked out'. The aircraft is not pressurized, so this could not be due to a great pressure differential between the cabin and the outside atmosphere. The mere fact that the door is open does not create a massive suction or draft, as is evident by military cargo and paratroop drops made from rear exit aircraft. Thus, while it might get noisy, and things might get shaken out, they would not get sucked out in this manner.

Quotes:

Frank Towns: Why give people false hope?
Liddle: Come on man.Most folks spend their whole lives holding on to hopes and dreams that are never going to come true but they hold on to them. Why are you going to give up on them now when you need them most?
Frank Towns: You are assuming I'm one of those people who has hopes and dreams.
Liddle: I find it hard to believe that a man who learns to fly never had a dream.
Frank Towns: Look, how can I let those people build that plane when I don't believe it will work? And, every day they waste trying to build it brings them one day closer to dying.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Sentinel (2006)

Soundtrack:

A Moment in Time (Intro)

Why bother!

I'm not saying that I didn't get caught up in this a bit, but then I searched my memory for the original, which cam out when I was pretty young. It starred Jimmy Stewart, who was a good deal more balanced than Dennis Quaid. There is nothing new here, other than a Mongol hoard and Mongolia itself. The point, of course, is to build a plane from carcass of the older, larger one. I think what was missing was true characterization. While everyone seemed to wear their emotions on their sleeves, they were like worker ants with little visible personality. At the beginning, the captain would rather let everyone die than put forth some effort. The in-fighting seems really strained. The characters who wander off don't seem to have reason other than it's the right thing to do. There is an ugly scene with a nomadic tribe. As if the process of getting out of the desert wasn't bad enough. There is also a problem with wear and tear on the principles involved. They seem to stay pretty healthy despite their hard work and the hopeless nature of their predicament. I'm not saying it's a bad movie. It's just not different enough or well acted enough to make it any better than the first.