description Zero Hour! Overview
Zero Hour! is a 1957 American aviation disaster film directed by Hall Bartlett and adapted from a story by Arthur Hailey. Dana Andrews plays a traumatized former military pilot who must take control of a passenger aircraft after food poisoning incapacitates its pilots and many passengers. Its plot, characters, and dialogue later supplied much of the narrative framework parodied by the 1980 comedy Airplane!.
help Zero Hour! FAQ
Was Zero Hour! the inspiration for Airplane!?
Yes, the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams bought the rights to Zero Hour! and used its script as the skeleton for Airplane! (1980). Many lines and scenes in Airplane! are lifted nearly verbatim from the 1957 film.
Who stars in Zero Hour! (1957)?
Dana Andrews stars as Ted Stryker, a traumatized former military pilot forced to land a passenger plane, and Sterling Hayden co-stars. The hero's name is the origin of Airplane!'s Ted Striker.
Is Zero Hour! based on a book?
It was adapted from a story by Arthur Hailey that first reached audiences as the 1956 Canadian television drama Flight into Danger. Hailey later developed it into the novel Runway Zero-Eight.
Why do the pilots get sick in Zero Hour!?
The flight crew and many passengers are incapacitated by food poisoning from spoiled fish served on board. That leaves Dana Andrews's character, a veteran haunted by a past mission, the only person able to land the plane.
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