Sunday, March 8, 2026

Reuters: Khamenei's hardline son Mojtaba named as new supreme leader

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My Movie Collection (First 401 cataloged)

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Saturday, March 7, 2026

Destroy The Islamic Republic of IRAN

 

Countries Involved in the War Against Iran

The conflict involving Iran has escalated, drawing in several countries. Below is a list of nations that have declared war or are actively engaged in military actions against Iran.

Key Participants

CountryInvolvement Details
United StatesInitiated military operations targeting Iran's nuclear program and military capabilities.
IsraelCoordinated attacks with the U.S., including strikes that killed key Iranian leaders.
United Arab EmiratesSuffered drone attacks from Iran and is considering military action in response.
QatarExperienced strikes on energy facilities and engaged in defensive actions against Iranian aircraft.
KuwaitTargeted by Iranian attacks, leading to U.S. casualties due to friendly fire incidents.
BahrainIranian drones targeted U.S. bases and residential areas, escalating military tensions.
OmanU.S. bases in Oman were attacked as part of Iran's military response.
Saudi ArabiaFaced attacks on U.S. bases and critical infrastructure, with potential military action being considered.
JordanIranian missiles targeted U.S. military installations within its borders.
LebanonHezbollah, aligned with Iran, launched attacks against Israel, further complicating the conflict.
IraqIranian strikes targeted Kurdish regions and U.S. bases, escalating regional tensions.

Summary of Actions

  • The U.S. and Israel have led the charge against Iran, aiming to dismantle its military capabilities.
  • Several Gulf states have been directly attacked by Iran, prompting them to consider military responses.
  • The conflict has implications for regional stability, with multiple nations now involved in active hostilities.
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The Concorde. . . Airport '79 (1979)

 




The Concorde... Airport '79 (released in the UK as Airport '80: The Concorde) is a 1979 American disaster film, and the fourth and final installment of the Airport film series. It is directed by David Lowell Rich, produced by Jennings Lang, from a screenplay by Eric Roth and a story by Lang.[2] The film's ensemble cast features George Kennedy, who appeared in all four films from the Airport series, along with Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, Sylvia Kristel, Eddie Albert, Bibi Andersson, Charo, Cicely Tyson, Jimmie Walker, David Warner, Mercedes McCambridge and Martha Raye.

Although critically panned and commercially unsuccessful in North America, the film was a financial hit internationally, grossing a total of $65 million on a $14 million budget.

Plot

Kevin Harrison, a corrupt arms dealer, attempts to destroy an American-owned Concorde on its maiden flight after one of the passengers, reporter Maggie Whelan, learns of his weapons sales to communist countries during the Cold War.

The Concorde takes off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and lands at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., despite being forced to perform a go-around when environmental protestors fly a hot air balloon into its approach path.

Maggie reports on the flight the following day, which leads to a story of Harrison and his Buzzard surface-to-air missile project. A man named Carl Parker claims to have documentation of illegal arms deals, but is shot by an assailant who chases Maggie before a passerby triggers a fire alarm, scaring the assailant away.

Maggie is told by Harrison that someone is framing him. He sends Maggie off in a limo, then plots to destroy the Concorde with Maggie on it by reprogramming an attack drone test to target the Concorde.

Capt. Joe Patroni and Capt. Paul Metrand board the Concorde. They are joined by Peter O'Neill, the 2nd officer and flight engineer.

Harrison surprises Maggie at the airline check-in desk to see her off. He asks whether the documents have shown up, but they have not. As he walks away, Parker's wife delivers the documents to Maggie. She reviews them and realizes that Harrison lied.

The Concorde departs for Paris. Unbeknownst to the flight crew, an off-course surface-to-air missile is headed for them. At his company headquarters, Harrison tells his controllers to alert the government. The USAF scrambles F-15 fighter jets to intercept the missile as it locks onto the Concorde. After evasive maneuvers by the Concorde, an F-15 destroys the missile.

As the Concorde approaches Europe, an F-4 Phantom II sent by Harrison engages the Concorde as French Air Force Mirage F1s scramble to help. The Concorde evades the F-4's missiles, but the explosion of one of them damages the plane's hydraulics. The Mirages shoot down the F-4 before the Concorde reaches the French coastline en route to Paris. Due to the damage, the plane lands at Le Bourget Airport instead of Charles de Gaulle. The Concorde barely stops at the last safety net. Metrand and Isabelle invite Patroni to dinner.

Harrison promises Maggie to go public with the documents but attempts to bribe her into revising his statement. After being paid by Harrison, a mechanic, Froelich, places a device in the Concorde's cargo door control unit, timed to open during flight.

As the passengers board, Froelich is at the security checkpoint when some of his money falls from his trouser leg. The X-ray technician attempts to return it, but Froelich runs off. On the runway, the Concorde's exhaust renders Froelich unconscious and scatters the money.

En route to Moscow, the automatic device opens the cargo door. Metrand sees the carpet tear down the middle of the aisle, signifying the fuselage is under tremendous stress and the aircraft is about to break apart. The cargo door is ripped off, causing a sudden decompression, damaging the aircraft and ripping a segment of the floor, knocking out the primary flight controls as the plane spirals towards the ground. The airline founder's seat lodges in the hole, acting as a plug. With only back-up systems available, the pilots attempt to fly to Innsbruck, Austria, for an emergency landing, but they are losing too much fuel. Metrand realizes they are flying towards a ski area he knows along the Alps in Patscherkofel; they could make a belly landing on a mountain-side.

The aircraft approaches the landing site while the ski patrol marks a runway, landing successfully. While passengers are being rescued, Maggie reports on the accident to a news reporter and mentions a major story she is about to release. Harrison, en route back to Washington, sees the newscast in his private plane and commits suicide. The last of the crew leaves the Concorde shortly before the fuselage explodes.

Cast

Production

It took producer Jennings Lang a number of years to get permission from Air France to use the Concorde. Air France requested some changes to the story and dialogue.[3] Lang argued the film was not a direct sequel because it used different characters and settings, apart from George Kennedy whose character Joe Patroni was promoted to pilot.[4] The plot to bring down the Concorde in the second act of the film was very similar to the Turkish Airlines Flight 981 accident six years earlier, in that an explosive decompression (and subsequent loss of control) was caused by the cargo hold door blowing off in flight, although it is not known if this was coincidence, or indeed the writers' direct inspiration.

The film was originally going to be called Airport '79 - the Concorde but Lang decided to rename it so it would not be confused with Airport 1975 and Airport '77.[5] In October 1978 Universal announced that filming would start in November.[6] Susan Blakely appeared in the film as the first in a three-picture deal she signed with Universal following the success of Rich Man, Poor Man.[7] Parts of the film were also shot in Alta, Utah.[8] Filming had finished by February 1979.[9]

Sylvia Kristel wrote in her memoirs that Alain Delon was unhappy with the size of his trailer and insisted he be given David Lowell Rich's trailer, which was larger. Rich complained to Lang, who supported Delon.[10] Kristel wrote that towards the end the shoot, the director started "being overtly misogynistic. He treats me badly, shouting, making me repeat things all the time for no reason."[11]

The special effects were produced by Universal Hartland, the visual effects house of Universal Studios Hollywood which also worked on the television shows Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The film utilised blue screen compositing for filming of flight scenes involving fibreglass model aircraft and it was found that the white Concorde model would reflect the blue screen which interfered with the compositing process. Painting the model in a yellow primer-style paint colour stopped reflection of the blue screen and produced perfect results, with the yellow being filtered out by colour balancing later on.

The model makers also cut into shape small number eleven exacto knife blades which were very strong and sharp. These shaped blades were used as tiny antenna details on the model aircraft and served as a warning to people who were handling the models to be more careful and stop knocking them off.[12]

Release

Television premiere

For the film's May 1982 network television premiere on ABC, additional footage was added to expand the film's running time so it could be shown in a three-hour time slot.[13]

Reception

Critical reception

The film was the recipient of mostly negative reviews by critics upon its release, and years later holds an approval rating of 20% on the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews.[14]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "The Concorde – Airport '79 is – how should I put it? – not the best of the series, but to say that it's the worst is to convey the wrong impression. In this case, worst is best."[15] Variety′s review called the film "Definitely not for sophisticates, Concorde is a throwback to the old popcorn genre, and rather enjoyable at that" but noted that "unintentional comedy still seems the Airport series' forte".[16] Stu Goldstein of Boxoffice graded the film as "Poor" and called it "so silly it's actually entertaining."[17] David Ansen of Newsweek wrote, "You have to respect a movie so single-mindedly dedicated to High Silliness. The advantage of its blithe disregard for plausibility is a plot that zips along at such breakneck pace that the audience is too busy counting the holes in the Concorde to question the holes in the plot."[18] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and called the story "ludicrous."[19] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The disaster they face is as contrived as the characters. You never believe for a second that these passengers are in any danger, beyond getting airsick or mussing their hair."[20] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film "nearly as funny as The Big Bus, albeit unwittingly."[21]

Film critic Roger Ebert highlighted the film in his book I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie, deriding the science in the scene in which Patroni fires a flare gun out of the cockpit window.[22] It is also listed in Golden Raspberry Awards founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.[23]

Box office

Produced on a budget of $14 million, it earned a little over $13 million in the United States and Canada,[24] thus ending the enormous financial success of the Airport films. Internationally the film still performed well, grossing $52 million for a worldwide total of $65 million.[25]

Aircraft history

Main article: Air France Flight 4590

The Concorde aircraft used in the film first flew on January 31, 1975, and was registered as F-WTSC to the Aérospatiale aircraft company. It would be re-registered by Aérospatiale as F-BTSC and leased to Air France in 1976. In 1989, this Concorde carried Pope John Paul II.[26]

On July 25, 2000, F-BTSC, as Air France Flight 4590, was hit by runway debris on takeoff, igniting the leaking fuel on the wing's fuel tank (part of the fuselage), and causing the aircraft to crash in the small French town of Gonesse, killing all 109 passengers and crew on board, as well as four people on the ground. At the time of the accident, F-BTSC had logged 11,989 hours and 4,873 cycles.[27]

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Airport '77 (1977)

 


Airport '77 is a 1977 American disaster film, and the third installment of the Airport film series. It is directed by Jerry Jameson, produced by William Frye, from a screenplay by Michael Scheff and David Spector and a story by H. A. L. Craig and Charles Kuenstle.[1] The film's ensemble cast features Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, Brenda Vaccaro, Darren McGavin, and Christopher Lee as well as the return of George Kennedy from the two previous Airport films.

The plot concerns a private Boeing 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art that is hijacked before crashing into the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle, forcing the survivors into a desperate struggle for survival.[2][3]

Despite mixed critical reviews, Airport '77 was a box-office hit, grossing $91.1 million worldwide. At the 50th Academy Awards, the film received nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Plot

A privately owned Boeing 747 belonging to wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens is flying to his Palm Beach, Florida estate. His estranged adult daughter Lisa and her young son Benjy are among the passengers. She is unaware Stevens is dying and wishes to reconnect with him. Also on board is priceless artwork from Stevens' private collection destined for his new museum. The collection has motivated a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft.

Captain Don Gallagher is lured from the cockpit during the flight and knocked unconscious. Sleeping gas secretly installed pre-flight renders unprotected crew and passengers in the cabin unconscious. Chambers pilots the aircraft to a small deserted island to offload the art treasures, dropping the plane below radar range to seemingly disappear to flight controllers in the Bermuda Triangle. Descending almost to wave-top altitude, one of the plane's wings collides with an offshore drilling platform in a fog bank. Chambers extinguishes the resulting engine fire, but the plane stalls and crashes and sinks quickly. The plane settles in relatively shallow water above the plane's crush depth, though water pressure gradually compromises the fuselage and a persistent air leak makes a timely rescue imperative. Many passengers are injured, some seriously. Chambers, the only surviving hijacker, reveals the plane was 200 miles (320 km) off course, meaning search and rescue efforts will be focused in the wrong area and the trapped crew must get a signal buoy to the surface. Captain Gallagher and a professional diver, Martin Wallace, attempt to swim to the surface using air masks. A malfunctioning hatch kills Wallace but Gallagher succeeds in activating the emergency beacon on the surface. The signal is detected and a rescue operation is launched, joined by veteran aeronautics expert Joe Patroni and Philip Stevens.

The Navy dispatches a flotilla including sub-recovery ship USS Cayuga and USS Agerholm. Gallagher is rescued. Stevens, aboard, Cayuga is warned by Patroni on the mainland of the aircraft's risk of imploding. Navy divers raise the aircraft with balloons, but just before the plane reaches the surface, a balloon breaks loose and a cargo door bursts, flooding the cabin with seawater, killing Chambers, Wallace's widow Karen, and an injured passenger. Additional air pressure lifts the plane to the surface, and all survivors are evacuated. Captain Gallagher and Stevens' assistant, Eve, are fished from the ocean by a Navy helicopter as the 747 sinks beneath the waves. Stevens reunites with Lisa and Benjy, while the helicopter carrying Gallagher and Eve lands aboard Agerholm, where they are met by the grateful survivors.

Cast

Production

The aircraft used for the film, N9667[4]

Although the disaster portrayed in the film is fictional, rescue operations depicted in the movie are actual rescue operations used by the Navy in the event of similar emergencies or disasters, as indicated at the end of the film prior to the closing credits. The disaster itself—a hard water landing as shown in the film, and an intact sinking—would not be likely given the hard tailstrike, which would have demolished the aircraft.[citation needed]

For the interior of the submerging Boeing 747, production designer George C. Webb designed a three-storey, 4000-square foot interior mounted on gimbals.[5] A 72-foot portion of the 747's exterior was submerged in a Florida lake for the underwater shots.[5]

Edith Head was the film's co-costume designer, receiving her 35th and final Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $30 million in the United States and Canada and $61 million internationally for a worldwide total of $91.1 million.[6][7]

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 50% of 12 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.4/10.[8] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[9] Variety wrote, "The story's formula banality is credible most of the time and there's some good actual US Navy search and rescue procedure interjected in the plot."[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and wrote, "The movie's a big, slick entertainment, relentlessly ridiculous and therefore never boring for long."[11] The New York Times wrote, "Airport '77 looks less like the work of a director and writers than like a corporate decision."[12]

Awards and nominations

Ceremony Category Recipient Result
50th Academy Awards[13] Best Art Direction George C. Webb, Mickey S. Michaels Nominated
Best Costume Design Edith Head, Burton Miller Nominated

Television version

For its initial broadcast on NBC-TV in September 1978, an additional 70 minutes of outtakes and new footage shot especially for network TV was added.[14][5]

Theme park attraction

From late 1977 until the early 1980s, the Universal Studios Tour in California featured the Airport '77 Screen Test Theater as part of the tour.[15] Several sets were recreated, and members of the audience were chosen to play various parts. The audience would watch as these scenes were filmed. Key scenes such as the hijacking, crash and rescue were recreated, and the footage was then incorporated into a brief digest version of the film and screened for the audience on monitors. Each show's mini-film was made available for audience members to purchase on 8 mm film and videotape.

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