Lt. Ted Stryker is a haunted military veteran looking to reconcile with his estranged family. The plane takes off and everyone is getting comfy when the stewardess begins taking dinner orders. Grilled Halibut? Sounds delicious. Except that a passenger gets sweaty with food poisoning and it begins to spread through the plane like wildfire. Is there a doctor on the plane?! Of course there is. But when one of the pilots is taken down by the bad fish too everyone starts to panic. Dr. Smooth does his best to keep everyone calm until the remaining pilot utters these fateful words: “Doctor, I just remembered something. I ate fish too.”
And with that you know that this plane is going down. SHIT is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?! Stryker reluctantly jumps into the pilot seat with his always tearful looking estranged wife as co-pilot. He hasn’t flown a plane since WWII but he’s this flights only hope. Does this story sound vaguely familiar? It’s because the 1980 film Airplane! was a spoof of this film. Zero Hour! stands on it’s own for some unintentionally funny scenes and dialogue; especially the sick passenger freak outs and the tense final screaming moments between Lt. Stryker and the air traffic controllers. Good Stuff.
“Ted, that was probably the lousiest landing in the history of this airport! But there’s some of us here, particularly me, who would like to buy you a drink and shake your hand.”
