''The Doomsday Flight'' is a 1966

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written by Rod Serling and directed by William Graham. The cast includes Jack Lord,

Edmond O'Brien Eamon Joseph O'Brien (September 10, 1915 – May 9, 1985) was an American actor and film director. His career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. O'Brien w ...

Van Johnson Charles Van Dell Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American film, television, theatre and radio actor. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II. Johnson was described as the embodiment o ...

, Katherine Crawford,

John Saxon John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1936 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Westerns and horror films, often playing ...

, Richard Carlson and

Ed Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' a ...

.''The Doomsday Flight'' (1966)
on YouTube The film concerns a bomb placed on an airliner, and the efforts to locate it before it explodes. The terrorist who placed the bomb demands money in exchange for necessary information. The film inspired real-life copycat incidents involving bomb threats.

Plot

At Los Angeles International Airport, a

Douglas DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in July ...

airliner takes off for New York. Shortly after takeoff, the airline receives a bomb threat. The stranger (

) on the telephone asks for a sum of $100,000 in small denominations. He also states that the bomb is hidden in the cabin. The stranger is actually a former engineer who worked in the aviation industry. The company Chief Pilot Bob Shea ( Richard Carlson) decides to warn the flight crew. He orders pilot Capt. Anderson (

), to circle around Las Vegas. He also asks the flight crew to search for the bomb on board. It is revealed that the bomb has an aneroid, altitude-sensitive switch and will detonate if the aircraft lands. Meanwhile, the search to find the bomb on board the flight involves the opening of passenger hand luggage and tearing open several areas in the cabin and cockpit. All efforts are unsuccessful. The passengers are alerted to the emergency and start to panic. The bomb threat caller telephones again to tell the police how to pay the ransom. A delivery man will simply come to the airport and take the money. The police follow the van closely, but the van has a serious accident on a ring road and catches fire. The terrorist has trouble believing the police who confirm that they are preparing a second payment. He seeks refuge at a bar, where he drinks a lot and starts talking to the bartender (

Malachi Throne Malachi Throne (December 1, 1928 – March 13, 2013) was an American actor, noted for his guest-starring roles on ''Star Trek'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'', ''Lost in Space'', ''Batman'', '' Land ...

) who is suspicious of the caller. When the caller has a heart attack, the bartender calls the police who come running, but the man is dead. The FBI Special Agent Frank Thompson ( Jack Lord) then interrogates the bartender asking him to report the exact words of the terrorist. The police discover that the bomb will explode if the airliner drops below 4,000 feet. The chief pilot then decides to tell the flight crew to land the aircraft at Stapleton International Airport in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, whose altitude is higher, and landing there will not trigger the bomb. After the airliner is safely on the ground, the flight crew meet in the airline operations room of his company. In the end, by chance, the bomb is discovered where it was least expected — in the pilot's chart case.

Cast

* Jack Lord as FBI Special Agent Frank Thompson *

as The Man, Bomb Threat Caller *

as Captain Anderson, Pilot * Katherine Crawford as Jean *

as George Ducette, a celebrity on flight * Richard Carlson as Chief Pilot Bob Shea *

Edward Faulkner Fielden Edward Faulkner II (born February 29, 1932 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American film and television character actor. He is most known for his roles in John Wayne films, including ''Hellfighters'', ''The Green Berets'', '' Rio Lobo'', ...

as Co-Pilot Reilly * Tom Simcox as Flight Engineer *

Michael Sarrazin Michael Sarrazin (May 22, 1940 – April 17, 2011)

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

Edward Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' a ...

as Mr. Feldman *

as The Bartender * Jan Shepard as Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson * Greg Morris as FBI Agent Balaban * David Lewis as Mr. Rierdon, Personnel Director, Aviation Co. * Howard Caine as Mack, L.A. Dispatcher

Production

It was the first TV movie for John Saxon.

Release

''The Doomsday Flight'' premiered on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

in the United States on December 13, 1966 and was the most watched made-for-TV movie to that time, with a

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

of 27.5 and an audience share of 48% until it was surpassed by ''

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Use ...

'' in 1968. ''The Doomsday Flight'' was released theatrically in cinemas in other countries around the world,"Release Information: 'The Doomsday Flight' (1966)."
'IMDb'', 2019. Retrieved: August 16, 2019. and distributed by the

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distrib ...

in the UK."Distribution: 'The Doomsday Flight' (1966)."
''IMDb'', 2019. Retrieved: August 16, 2019.

Reception

In a contemporary review by J. Gould in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' decried the "exploitation of bomb scares on passenger airplanes" engendered by ''The Doomsday Flight''.

Copycats and FAA concerns

''The Doomsday Flight'' led to copycats who would call airlines and claim to have a similar bomb aboard a flight. A notable attempt was the Qantas bomb hoax in 1971, when a caller claimed to have placed such a bomb. The man actually placed a bomb at the Sydney Airport, leading officials to take the threat seriously and pay out $560,000 to the person.Trumbull, Robert
"Australian Airline pays $560,000 in bomb hoax."
''The New York Times'', May 27, 1971. In 1971 the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

urged television stations in the United States not to air the film, on the basis that the film could inspire other emotionally unstable individuals to commit the same or similar acts as the villain in the film.Buckhorn,. Robert F
"TV stations asked to ban 'Domesday Flight'."
''The Bryan Times'', (Google News Archive Search, google.com), August 11, 1971. Retrieved: August 16, 2019.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema.'' Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Doomsday Flight, The 1960s disaster films 1960s thriller films American aviation films American television films Films with screenplays by Rod Serling Films directed by William Graham (director) Films scored by Lalo Schifrin 1966 television films 1966 films 1966 in American television Films set in Los Angeles Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films about terrorism in the United States Films set in Colorado 1960s English-language films 1960s American films