Zero Hour! opens with a dogfight sequence as an America squad led by Ted Stryker. Their mission is to destroy a high priority target. Using fog as cover, they attempt to stealthily take out the target. Due to a miscalculation by Stryker, the squad crashes to the ground. Stryker is the only one to survive. Stryker recovers, but is stricken with immense guilt and PTSD for being the only survivor. He can barely hold down a job. His marriage has suffered. He applies for a job in Canada that he has a strong chance of getting.
He comes home to find his wife, Ellen, and son, Joey, left him. He’s quick to get to the airport and get on their flight. He finds them and he pleads to his wife to give him another chance.
Meanwhile, the flight is jeopardized as passengers and the flight crew are falling ill with food poisoning. With the help of Captain Treleaven, Stryker is the only one that can land the plane safely. Time is of the essence as the condition of the sick patients are getting worse.
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Unintentional comedy is a characteristic that can befall a film. We think of The Room, Troll 2, Plan 9 from Outer Space, or Don’t Look in the Basement. But, it is also possible for films that aren’t “so bad their good.” People can look to a film like This Island Earth, the film riffed for the feature film adaptation of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not a bad film by any measure, yet it hasn’t aged well.
The Hall Bartlett film, Zero Hour!, may be one of those extremely rare cases where a film is unintentionally hilarious by no fault of its own. It is well shot, capable actors including Dana Andrew (The Frozen Dead) and Sterling Hayden (Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather), and a tense music score by Ted Dale. It doesn’t feel aged to the point of being retroactively camp. The state of the film as indirect comedy is all due to the film being bastardized by Jim Abrams and the brothers Zucker for their 1980 hit, Airplane!
I was able to accept Zero Hour! as a serious film for the first 15-20 minutes. But, when the lines and shots that would later be used in Airplane! I started chuckling. When I heard Sterling Hayden recite the line, “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking”, I busted out in laughter.
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There was a brief moment with the radar technician. He was reciting the line, “He’s all over the place! Nine hundred feet up to 1300 feet.” I was waiting for him to shout Gunderson’s line, “What an asshole!” FYI: the actor playing Gunderson in Airplane! was Jonathan Banks of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
How was it possible for Abrams and the Zuckers to use the exact same lines of dialogue, similar camera shots, and cues from the music score? Well, Zero Hour! was produced by Paramount, who were also producing Airplane! Couldn’t ask for better circumstances.
If you’re one of those few people in existence that hasn’t seen Airplane!, then you’ll actually be able to enjoy Zero Hour! as the serious drama film it was meant to be seen. For the rest of us, you’ll likely be reciting the lines added in by Airplane! That’s not a bad thing. It’s just second nature.
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Dana and Linda were so much better in the noir FALLEN ANGEL