The Top Ten Most Quotable Movies of All Time Number One Airplane

"Passengers certain to die!"

"Airline negligent!"

"There's a sale at Penney's!"

"It's an entirely different kind of flying. Altogether."

"It's an entirely different kind of flying."

Airplane! is a brilliant satire of the over-dramatic aircraft disaster movies of the 1970s, and many of the film's best gags are drawn directly from the plots of those films. Casting Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges in the roles of the "in charge" officials on the ground, and Leslie Neilsen as the doctor on board the pilotless aircraft only adds to the satire, and their serious lines set up only to be knocked down by the next joke lead in to some of the funniest and most well-known jokes in all of modern cinema.

There are few movies with so many formerly serious actors who, given the opportunity to do comedy, were found to have absolutely precise timing and a fantastic comic sense. Leslie Neilsen was known at the the time to be very interested in doing comedy, and when given the chance, he used it as a springboard to launch a career in television and other films, many with different comedic styles. George Romero's Creepshow is another example of Neilsen's talent. In the film, he plays Richard Vickers, the betrayed member of a love triangle who takes revenge on Ted Danson's character Harry Wentworth by burying him up to his neck in the sand. While he is carrying out his plot, Vickers reels off a hilariously cynical string of one-liners at Wentworth's expense, and once again, Neilsen's comic sense and timing make a good scene great.

It should be noted here that Creepshow deserves honorable mention as a Most Quotable movie. Lines like "I drove out there with the remains of three human beings. Well... two human beings and Wilma." are definitely Most Quotable List quality, and Creepshow does share the distinction of having a cast of brilliantly funny and very talented actors, including Hal Holbrook and the distinguished E.G. Marshall, no less.

Some credit has to be given to the films Airplane! pokes fun at, of course, since without them, there would have been nothing to make fun of. Many of Airplane's jokes are satirizations of elements like the singing nun, organ transplant patient and non-stop-talking passenger from Airport 1975, one of the ultra-camp disaster movies of the 1970s. For those who have seen and cringed at the over-the-top heroics of the Airport films (Airport 1975 was later included in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time), Airplane just becomes that much funnier, turning the leaden suspense of the disaster genre into far more entertaining gold.

One interesting item of trivia is that Trans-World Airlines, the name of the fictional airline in the film, is actually the real name of a cargo airline company which agreed to allow their name to be used in Airplane.

It is possible, but unlikely, that another movie will ever aspire to the completeness of satire that Airplane! achieved, given so many modern films are written replete with references to other characters and stories. It is a film balanced ever so delicately on the edge of satiric voice. Had it not been cast just so, and had the jokes, sight gags and puns not been written just so, the film could have very easily done a most unfunny pratfall at the box-office. Initially, the film drew little attention, only garnering a few awards. But over time, as the cultural references and millions of quoted lines followed, Airplane eventually aspired to become the 10th funniest American comedy in the AFI 100 funniest films feature list, and a spectacular financial success, with over $100 million in box office and rental sales.

For a movie originally written as a 20-minute comedy sketch, Airplane! has had a rather dramatic affect on the movies. It single-handedly ushered in the era of the "silly movie," and launched a new career for Leslie Neilsen, who went on to star in a television series and three more comedy films with the same Zucker Abrahams Zucker writing team.

There may be a number of films that are funnier than Airplane, and which may use Airplane as inspiration. One certainty is that the film still holds up well, even after numerous repeat viewings and the fact there are probably a great number of its fans who have never seen a 1970s Airport disaster movie. Then again, there are still other fans who would say they aren't missing much.

But for the sheer number and quality of great quotes, Airplane! is absolutely unparalleled, and is therefore the undisputed number one Most Quotable Movie of All Time.