Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking

November 12, 2019 8:00 AM

Side-by-side comparison: Zero Hour! (1957) Vs Airplane! (1980) (SLYT)
posted by bondcliff (25 comments total)

A lot of the scenes are such carbon copies I think I'd enjoys seeing a remix with the Airplane! audio dubbed over the original scenes.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:20 AM on November 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

Nonsense. Airplane is an entirely different kind of movie altogether.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:25 AM on November 12, 2019 [19 favorites]

So which Pink Floyd album should I be playing here?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:28 AM on November 12, 2019 [9 favorites]

As an Airplane lover, my jaw dropped when I later saw Zero Hour on TCM. Thank you for this!
posted by Melismata at 8:34 AM on November 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm totally sure... and don't call me Joe King.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:36 AM on November 12, 2019 [10 favorites]

Airplane is an entirely different kind of movie!
posted by Inkoate at 8:45 AM on November 12, 2019 [7 favorites]

They were right, it did get Ted-ious.
posted by solotoro at 8:48 AM on November 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

So it was a parody in the Mad Magazine sense of the word, the same images overlaid with sight gags & funny lines.

Works for me! (Zero Hour looks terrible; Airplane is brilliant.)
posted by chavenet at 9:06 AM on November 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

...or an MST3K episode where they stuck the riffs right into the movie.
posted by PlusDistance at 9:10 AM on November 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

I watched Zero Hour earlier this Spring after hearing about it for a good many years. I kind of liked it and I can totally see how some goofballs indulging in some mind altering drugs happening upon it and wanting to remake it. It is so deadly and ridiculously serious that you can't help but laugh at it. However, and this is a crucial difference, Zero Hour claims to be based on a true story! And not just any story but a CANADIAN one! So it is a movie about a Canadian air plane drama made by Americans with American actors playing Canadians. Which gives it a really weird tone almost like an extended SCTV sketch that didn't make the cut.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:32 AM on November 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

I'm glad I hung around for the boom-chicka-bow-bow post-script.
posted by Orlop at 9:33 AM on November 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

I had no idea Sterling Hayden (Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangelove) was in this.
posted by condour75 at 10:55 AM on November 12, 2019

This may have been mentioned in the video (tl;dw), but Zero Hour was based on Flight into Danger, which was not only a Canadian production but also starred Canadians, most notably James Doohan, aka Scotty from Star Trek. It was Arthur Hailey's first version of the story, and, like the pilot in the movie, Doohan was a WWII veteran. (Airplane! would eventually come full circle, sort of, by having William Shatner, also a Canadian, in the sequel.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:00 AM on November 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yeah we read “Flight into Danger” in our grade 5 or 6 reader back in the day. Actually a much better ripping yarn than most of the insipid crap, IIRC.
posted by Rumple at 11:09 AM on November 12, 2019

I too have watched Zero Hour on TCM. The effect was like deja vu.

Because Airplane was based so closely on Zero Hour, Team ZAZ didn’t discover that they didn’t know how to write a movie script from scratch until Top Secret. The end result was hilarious, but writing it was a painful learning experience.
posted by pmurray63 at 11:11 AM on November 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

This may have been mentioned in the video (tl;dw), but Zero Hour was based on Flight into Danger, which was not only a Canadian production

Ah ok - so that makes sense. Reading through the wiki the story proved pretty popular with multiple versions being made. The German version and the 70's TV movie remake are available on Youtube. And weirdly an amateur Lego movie version.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:47 PM on November 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

Saw Zero Hour on the late late movie one night in the previous century. Was amazed to hear my home city featured in the film. It was the first time I'd ever heard "Vancouver" mentioned in film. Just to date myself further this happened before "Hollywood North" was a thing.
posted by Zedcaster at 1:14 PM on November 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

the first time I'd ever heard "Vancouver" mentioned in film.

my first "Vancouver" moment came right smack in the middle of O Lucky Man, which just happens to be a bloody masterpiece ... assuming you're into that sort of thing.
posted by philip-random at 2:25 PM on November 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

I haven't felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:52 PM on November 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

You may also notice that the engine noise in the background is also the same between the two movies, despite Zero Hour! taking place on a prop plane and Airplane! on a jet.
posted by ckape at 5:50 PM on November 12, 2019 [9 favorites]

And no mention of Airport 1975? - the home of the original singing nun on a plane!
Compare and contrast.
posted by eddieddieddie at 9:02 PM on November 12, 2019

It's mentioned at 0:22, and they even show a top-bottom split comparison for a moment at 0:28.
posted by Bugbread at 11:19 PM on November 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

OMG, this is AMAZING! Thanks for posting it; my day is officially made.
posted by rednikki at 12:43 AM on November 13, 2019

This is a transcript of Zero Hour! with all the lines that made it to Airplane! bolded.
posted by Fukiyama at 7:52 AM on November 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

I don't know whether to applaud the restraint of the person who made that available without inserting the Jive Guys into Zero Hour or to bemoan their dead-inside-ness.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2019