Flight (2012 Film)

''Flight'' is a 2012 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by John Gatins and produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Steve Starkey, Zemeckis, and Jack Rapke. The film stars Denzel Washington as William "Whip" Whitaker Sr., an alcoholic airline pilot who miraculously crash-lands his plane after a mechanical failure, saving nearly everyone on board. Although hailed a hero, an investigation soon begins to cast the captain in a different light.

''Flight'' premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 14, 2012, and was theatrically released the following month on November 2. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Washington's performance and Zemeckis' return to live-action filmmaking, his first such film since ''Cast Away'' and ''What Lies Beneath'' in 2000. The film was also a commercial success, grossing $161.8 million against a production budget of $31 million. ''Flight'' appeared on multiple critics' year-end top ten lists and received two nominations at the 85th Academy Awards for Best Actor (Washington) and Best Original Screenplay.

Plot

Airline pilot and US Navy Veteran Captain Whip Whitaker snorts cocaine to stay alert after a long night of drinking in his Orlando hotel room with Katerina Marquez, a flight attendant he will be flying with later that morning. He pilots SouthJet Air Flight 227 to Atlanta, which experiences severe turbulence during takeoff.

Meanwhile, amateur photographer and drug addict Nicole Maggen buys heroin and has an argument with her landlord. She suffers an overdose after injecting herself with the drug.

On the SouthJet Air flight, co-pilot Ken Evans takes over while Whip discreetly mixes vodka in his orange juice and takes a nap. He is jolted awake as the plane suffers a mechanical fault and goes into a steep dive. Whip regains control by pulling out of the dive and rolling the aircraft inverted, flying over Nicole's motel, and makes a controlled crash-landing in an open field. On impact, Whip suffers a blow to his head and loses consciousness.

Whip awakens in an Atlanta hospital with moderate injuries and is greeted by his old friend, Charlie Anderson, who now represents the airline's pilots union after retiring from flying. Whip learns his piloting skill managed to save 96 out of 102 aboard the plane, losing two crew members and four passengers, with 37 severe injuries. Charlie tells Whip that flight attendant Camelia Satou and Katerina both died in the crash. Head flight attendant, Margaret Thomason, is also in the hospital with minor injuries. Evans is in a coma after suffering a severe head injury but is expected to recover. Whip is visited by friend and drug dealer Harling Mays, who proffers porn magazines, a carton of cigarettes, and a pint of vodka, the last of which Whip refuses. Whip sneaks away for a cigarette and meets Nicole, recovering from an overdose in the same hospital, along with a cheerful chemotherapy patient. The next morning, Mays picks up Whip from the hospital.

Having retired to his late father's farm, Whip meets Charlie and attorney Hugh Lang, who explain that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) performed a drug test while he was unconscious. Results showed that Whip was intoxicated during the flight, although Hugh gets the toxicology report voided on technical grounds.

Whip visits Nicole as she is vacating her apartment and relocates her to the farm. They become intimate but his drinking habits clash with Nicole's attempts to stay drug-free. Later, he attends a funeral for Katerina. He approaches Margaret after the funeral and asks her to tell the NTSB that he was sober enough to fly.

Whip pays a visit to Evans after he awakens from his coma. Evans has likely lost much of his ability to walk and may never pilot an airplane again. Although upset, Evans has no intention of telling the NTSB that Whip was drinking.

Nicole decides to separate from Whip after he fails to stay sober and he spontaneously drives to the home of his ex-wife and son, both of whom resent him. Hounded by the media, he stays with Charlie until the NTSB hearing, vowing not to drink. The night before the hearing, Charlie and Hugh move Whip to a guarded hotel room with no alcohol. He finds the door to an adjacent room unlocked and raids the minibar there.

The next morning, Charlie discovers Whip passed out drunk. After rousing him awake, Whip requests that Hugh and Charlie call Harling Mays to provide him with cocaine, in hopes it will make him alert enough to make it through the hearing. At the hearing, lead NTSB investigator Ellen Block explains that a damaged and improperly maintained elevator assembly jackscrew was the primary cause of the crash. She commends Whip on his valor and skill, noting that no other pilot was able to land the plane in simulations of the crash. She then reveals that two empty vodka bottles were found in the plane's trash, despite beverages not being served to passengers, and that Whip's blood test was excluded for technical reasons. She then states the only other member of the crew to test positive for alcohol was Katerina. Whip pauses, unable to bring himself to blame Katerina for his actions. He collects himself and comes clean, admitting to being intoxicated the day of the crash. A tearful Whip also admits that he is presently drunk at the hearing and finally acknowledges that he has a problem, coming to terms with his alcoholism.

Thirteen months later, an imprisoned Whip is lecturing a support group of fellow inmates. He mentions that not all of the deceased victims' families have come to forgive him, but he is glad to be sober and having done the right thing. He is also working to rebuild his relationships with Nicole and his son, who visits to interview Whip for a college application essay. He begins by asking, "Who are you?" As a plane flies overhead, Whip replies, "That's a good question."

Cast

Production

Robert Zemeckis entered negotiations to direct ''Flight'' in April 2011, and by early June had accepted, with Denzel Washington about to finalize his own deal. It was the first time that Zemeckis and Washington had worked together on a motion picture.

By mid-September 2011, Kelly Reilly was in negotiations to play the female lead, with Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, and John Goodman joining later in the month, and Melissa Leo and James Badge Dale in final negotiations. Screenwriter John Gatins said in early October 2011 that production would begin mid-month. ''Flight'' was largely filmed on location near Atlanta, Georgia over 45 days in November 2011. The film was produced with a relatively small budget of $31 million, which Zemeckis calculated to be his smallest in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1980, made possible because of tax rebates from Georgia and because Zemeckis and Washington waived their customary fees.

Gatins explained in a 2012 interview with the ''Los Angeles Times'' that the dramatic fictional crash depicted in ''Flight'' was "loosely inspired" by the 2000 crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which was caused by a broken jackscrew. In that incident, an ungreased jackscrew came loose and caused a catastrophic failure from which recovery was impossible, though pilot Ted Thompson and first officer Bill Tansky were able to fly the plane inverted in the last moments of the flight. Among the captain's last words on the CVR were:

The Alaska Airlines 261 crash had no survivors. The airplane in ''Flight'', a two-engine T-tail jet airliner, appears to be from the same model family as was the plane involved in the Alaska Airlines 261 disaster, a variant of the MD-80. Many elements from the accident were used in the film, such as the cause of the accident, segments of the radio communication, and the inversion of the airplane.

Scroggins Aviation Mockup & Effects was hired to supply three decommissioned MD-80 series aircraft that represented the plane in the film, with additional MD-80-series aircraft used for scenes in the cabin and cockpit.

Reception

Release

''Flight'' opened in 1,884 theaters across the US and Canada on November 2, 2012, with a runtime of 138 minutes. In its first week, the film ranked second in the American box office, grossing with an average of per theater. ''Flight'' earned in the US and an additional in other countries for a total of , well above its production budget.

Critical response

''Flight'' received mostly positive reviews, and has an approval rating of 77% based on a sample of 239 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with a weighted average of 6.90/10. The site's consensus states "Robert Zemeckis makes a triumphant return to live-action cinema with ''Flight'', a thoughtful and provocative character study propelled by a compelling performance from Denzel Washington". Fandango Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Washington's performance received praise. ''The Hollywood Reporters Todd McCarthy wrote that the film "provides Denzel Washington with one of his meatiest, most complex roles, and he flies with it". Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film four out of four, writing "''Flight'' segues into a brave and tortured performance by Denzel Washington—one of his very best. Not often does a movie character make such a harrowing personal journey that keeps us in deep sympathy all of the way." He also noted the plane's upside-down flight scene was "one of the most terrifying flight scenes I've ever witnessed" and called the film "nearly flawless". Ebert went on to name the film the sixth best of 2012. Although the film was not nominated for Best Picture, he later noted that it deserved to be. ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote, "Denzel Washington didn't get an Oscar nod for nothing: His performance as an alcoholic airline pilot ensnared by his own heroics is crash-and-burn epic".

The film received some criticism from pilots who questioned its realism, particularly the premise of a pilot being able to continue flying with a significant substance-abuse problem. The Air Line Pilots' Association dismissed the film as an inaccurate portrayal of an air crew and stated that "we all enjoy being entertained, but a thrilling tale should not be mistaken for the true story of extraordinary safety and professionalism among airline pilots".ALPA News Release
Alpa.org (October 31, 2012). Retrieved July 13, 2013. Airline pilot Patrick Smith also commented that "a real-life Whitaker wouldn't survive two minutes at an airline, and all commercial pilots—including, if not especially, those who've dealt with drug or alcohol addiction—should feel slandered by his ugly caricature". The pilot also criticized the portrayal of the relationship between copilot and captain, the decision of Whitaker to increase speed dangerously in a storm, and the ultimate dive and crash landing of Whitaker's aircraft.
The Daily Beast (November 18, 2012). Retrieved July 13, 2013.

Top ten lists

''Flight'' was featured on 47 top ten lists by North American critics.
* 3rd – Steven Rea, ''Philadelphia Inquirer''
* 3rd – Rafer Guzmán, ''Newsday''
* 6th – Roger Ebert, ''Chicago Sun-Times''
* 7th – Richard Roeper, RichardRoeper.com
* 7th – Kyle Smith, ''New York Post''
* 8th – Brian Tallerico, Hollywood Chicago
* 9th – Michael Phillips, ''Chicago Tribune''
* 9th – Owen Gleiberman, ''Entertainment Weekly''

Awards and nominations

See also

* ''The Pilot'' (1980 film)

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flight (2012 Film)
2010s American films
2010s English-language films
2012 drama films
2012 films
2012 thriller films
American aviation films
American disaster films
American drama films
Films about alcoholism
Films about aviation accidents or incidents
Films about drugs
Films about prostitution in the United States
Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
Films produced by Robert Zemeckis
Films produced by Walter F. Parkes
Films scored by Alan Silvestri
Films set in Atlanta
Films set in Florida
Films set on airplanes
Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)
Films with screenplays by John Gatins
ImageMovers films
Paramount Pictures films