8 Scary Plane Crashes

I've been meaning to share this list for a long time, but there keeps being "incidents" that make it insensitive. The truth is that there'll never be an entirely appropriate and unblemished stretch of time to celebrate aviation disasters, but that's sorta the point: I've never been in a plane crash, and Film and Television have all but guaranteed that I'll never allow myself to be in the position where I could be. It certainly looks like one of the least fun ways to die, or even live, and when that's conveyed through the screen in various ways over the years, I think it's worth itemizing. 

- Paul

LOST

In describing the show, "plane crash" appears in the first sentence (and then probably never mentioned again). At the time, it boasted the most expensive TV pilot of all time (largely due to its airliner wreckage) though throughout the series we get several different accounts of this crash, and each one is intense and harrowing. 

Alive

If these were ranked as Scariest or Most Graphic, this is always number one. I experienced this in a movie theater when I was 9 years old and it definitely made me uneasy about air travel. Eventually it became an HBO Flavor of the Month and I can certainly attest that repetition never dulled my fears. 

Fight Club

This midair collision made an appearance in the movie's very short (and very brilliant) Theatrical Teaser (which was just a dizzying assemblage of the more surreal moments from the film). I love that trailer, probably more than the movie. In fact they shoulda rolled credits right after this scene, and it'd probably crack my Top 10 Films list. 

Catch-22

McWatt kamikazes his plane directly into Hungry Joe, chopping him in half and leaving only a weary pair of legs. This is before he slams the plane into the side of a cliff. It's all very dark and gruesome and effective partly because, like all the wizardry in this movie, it's all practical effects/trick photography. Still - poor Hungry Joe. 

STAR WARS Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

You could argue that it's not a literal "plane" crash but I don't have time for your bitching -- it's an aircraft collision, which is technically the basis of most Outer Space Science Fiction Action (i.e. STAR WARS). I've seen enough nameless pilots crash kooky spaceships into miniaturized plastic surfaces to fully minimize the spectacle, but this movie answered the question that was always in the back of my mind - "What would it look like to travel at light speed into something?"

Cast Away

For the most part it feels a little tacky and cartoonish -- Zemeckis's lust for digital effects would be his undoing, but his talents as an old fashioned Film Director are the saving graces of this scene. Moments before the jarring malfunction, Tom tends to a bandaid on his finger, drawing our attention into something small and quiet, and by the time it seems obviously ominous, it's too late. 

World War Z

Dude, fuck "snakes on plane", try fending off modern day maniac zombies in mid air with nowhere to go - it's not like you can board up the windows between Business and Economy. It's truly great suspense when tossing a live grenade down the aisle of a commercial airliner is actually the safest course of action. 

The Right Stuff

We don't actually see the moment of impact for the totally rad looking Lockheed NF-104A, but its high altitude engine failure and frenetic tailspin back down to Earth is gut wrenching enough. Still not the scariest part though: Chuck Yeager ejects from the plane still amidst the clouds and plummets to the ground, unable to pull his chute because his head's on fire. Is that a man? You damn right it is.