Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land

Written byPeter R. Brooke
Robert M. YoungDirected byJerry JamesonStarringLee Majors
Hal Linden
Lauren Hutton
Ray Milland
Gail Strickland
George DiCenzo
Tess Harper
Terry KiserMusic byLalo SchifrinCountry of originUnited StatesOriginal languageEnglishProductionExecutive producersAllan Manings
Henry WinklerProducersPeter Nelson
Arnold H. OrgoliniProduction locationsLaird International Studio - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CaliforniaCinematographyHéctor R. Figueroa (credited as Hector Figueroa)EditorJohn F. LinkRunning time105 min.Production companiesOrgolini-Nelson Productions
Orion PicturesOriginal releaseNetworkABCReleaseFebruary 27, 1983 (1983-02-27)

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (also known as Starflight One or Airport 85^{[1][Note 1]}) is a 1983 television film (for the ABC Sunday Night Movie) directed by Jerry Jameson and starring Lee Majors, Hal Linden, Lauren Hutton, Ray Milland, Gail Strickland, George DiCenzo, Tess Harper, and Terry Kiser. The film also features an all-star ensemble television cast in supporting roles.

Jameson had become known for his work on "... movie-of-the-week phenomenon and group-jeopardy suspense and terror." His work with Lee Majors had begun with the television series The Six Million Dollar Man in 1973, with the actor starring in three of Jameson's later films.^[2]

Starflight, the first hypersonic transport, is being prepared for its maiden flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. On board are the pilot, Cody Briggs, cheating on his wife Janet with Erica Hansen, media-relations representative for Thornwell Aviation. Passengers include designer Josh Gilliam, who is apprehensive about the engines not being under ground control, and satellite TV baron Freddie Barrett. Takeoff is delayed so that the body of the deceased Australian ambassador and his wife, Mrs. Winfield, can be taken aboard - something that Del, the first officer, considers a bad omen.

Passengers include a gaggle of reporters for print and television, communications entrepreneur Freddie Barrett, gold thief Hal Parisi and his bride who does not know of Hal's crime, and Thornwell electrical engineer Joe Pedowski who is afraid of flying.

Bud Culver, Freddie's partner in Australia, tells Freddie he must scrub that day's launch of a TV satellite because weather is closing in; Freddie orders an immediate launch without NASA approval. Cleared by NASA for liftoff, Starflight climbs to 23 miles using its scramjet engines, then levels off. Freddie's rocket runs into trouble with the second stage and has to be destroyed. NASA reports that destruction of the rocket has produced debris which is headed for Starflight. Cody wants NASA to guide their maneuvers, so NASA engineer Chris Lucas recommends Starflight climb out of danger. Cody engages the scramjets again, but debris from the failed launch hits the underside of the aircraft. When NASA says they are clear, Cody orders the jets shut off, but they keep firing because the debris has severed the controls. Their hydrogen fuel runs out just as Starflight reaches orbit.

NASA dispatches the Columbia Space Shuttle to refuel Starflight, and to bring Josh Gilliam back to Earth to work on the problem. An astronaut advises shutting down the damaged power conduit, putting the media aboard off the air. Starflight's flight engineer Pete tests the airlock transfer but is killed when the hatch malfunctions and breaks free. Improvising, Cody sends Josh to Columbia inside the ambassador's coffin. Columbia returns to Earth with Josh aboard, landing at Thornwell to be serviced by Thornwell's mothballed shuttle-handling facility. Josh discovers Thornwell's universal docking tunnel, a flexible conduit that could be attached between Starflight and Columbia.

Cody restores power for the media, electrifying a cable in the section damaged by rocket debris. In the cargo hold, crates with Parisi's gold were damaged during the rocket climb, also hitting a seal; now bricks of gold are escaping from the plane and can be seen by passengers. Parisi wants to escape the plane, but his wife tells the captain what she now knows.

Columbia and six astronauts arrive with the tunnel, intending to rescue twenty passengers. Five passengers, including Hal Parisi, are successfully brought through. The next five, including Freddie Barrett, are lost when the flexible tunnel swings too close to the sparking electric line and ignites. Forty-seven passengers remain aboard. Josh is frustrated but an exchange with his wife Nancy reminds him of a fuel tank built by Culver Aviation that can be repurposed to carry people. When Columbia's crew and the five passengers disembark, Parisi is arrested.

Q.T. Thornwell tries to stop Josh's plan to use Culver's tank; he is bitter about industrial espionage by Culver against Thornwell's shuttle-handling investment, but Q.T.'s son stands up to dad and promises the tank will be acquired from Culver. Columbia launches again with the container and takes on 38 more passengers, leaving only nine aboard.

Cody sends Joe Pedowski on an EVA, in a spacesuit left aboard by Columbia, to repair the damaged wiring. By this time, Josh suggests to NASA that Starflight follow a shuttle on re-entry, believing the shuttle's heat shield would offer protection. Columbia cannot launch in time, but another shuttle, XU-5, in orbit on a military mission, arrives to assist just as Starflight is to hit the upper atmosphere. The two craft ride in together, only Starflight's wingtips being exposed, and XU-5 veers off once the worst has passed. This leaves Cody to fly Starflight, with minor structural damage, through a harrowing steep descent of 60-plus miles that finally ends in a successful landing.

The film's visual effects were supervised by veteran effects guru John Dykstra's Apogee effects house. Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land made use of stock footage of launches by the space shuttle Columbia and an Apollo-era Saturn V on the launch pad. Columbia makes three launches in 24 hours to help Starflight (something completely impossible given turnaround times for shuttle launches). The Saturn V shown at the Kennedy Space Center was depicted as carrying the communications satellite from a fictitious launch site near Sydney. Each time Columbia lands, the touchdown footage is from the early shuttle days when they landed on the dirt runway at Edwards AFB, rather than the concrete runway that Thornwell would be expected to have. Footage of the approach and landing tests with the shuttle prototype Enterprise was used. A chase plane is also visible.^{[Note 2]}

The New York Times said Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land was "... still another reworking of the escapist adventure stuff that proved so popular in the film Airport."^[3] A later review by Dave Sindelar noted that the film was a cross between Marooned (1969) and the Airport movies. It also relied heavily on stock NASA footage to its detriment. Also, Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land was "... slow-moving, mired by disaster-movie style cliches, implausible, and has plenty of dead spots."^[4]

• Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land at IMDb
• Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land at AllMovie
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