With Plane being recently released and putting a rather interesting spin on the idea of what happens following a plane going down unexpectedly, it is an interesting time to look back at what Hollywood can achieve in terms of edge-of-your-seat action with a plane crash.
Such crashes are commonplace themes in movies, and from the brutal to the nearly comical, there is no end to the styles of movies that use plane crashes for a tension-filled sequence. Stretching back decades in cinema, such scenes make for some of the most exciting cinema there is.
7 Final Destination
While it wasn’t actually real and was later revealed to simply be a premonition the lead character had about what would happen if he stayed on his plane, Final Destination wins a place for the intense plane crash sequence in the opening act. After boarding a plane for a class trip to France, Alex receives a premonition of a brutal plane crash and freaks out.
After he and several other passengers are thrown off the flight, the plane crashes anyway, and the survivors begin getting brutally picked off. The savage way in which the movie appeared to kill every main character so early in the film was a shock to the system that made the rest of what followed seem even more fantastical.
6 Sully: Miracle On The Hudson
One of the more intriguing examples on this list that present a true story plane crash landing, Miracle on the Hudson tells the true story of how Captain Chelsey Sullenberger, played by Tom Hanks, managed to land his commercial flight on the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers and crew from near-certain death, after the plane was struck by birds.
The attack on Sully both in investigations and in the press following this event was well-documented later in the film, but this was another excellent example of a brilliantly tension-filled plane crash scene occurring in the opening moments of the runtime, making a film opening more brilliantly exciting than most biographical movies can dream of.
5 Cast Away
Tom Hanks simply isn’t good for planes, but before he ever played Sully, he starred as FedEx worker Chuck Noland, who must survive alone on an island after finding he is the sole survivor of a plane crash. The crash scene itself is once again an early scene in the film, but it was intense and the direction from Robert Zemeckis helped make it hugely memorable.
Hanks trying to escape the wreckage of the plane as it sinks beneath the surface of the ocean and his attempts at surviving following it made for an extraordinary movie, which is well-remembered today, as are many films which begin with such a thrilling sort of sequence.
4 World War Z
Brad Pitt and a zombie film don’t feel like they’d be likely to appear on a list of the best plane crash scenes in movie history. But World War Z had a lot of varied intense action sequences, one of which followed Pitt’s character escaping Jerusalem on board a plane, where it is later discovered there is a zombie hidden aboard.
The crashing plane sequence which follows zombies taking over the plane is absolutely thrilling, the intense action and Pitt’s character being one of the few survivors at the end of it all helped make it one of the most exciting scenes in an already action-packed movie which made World War Z truly memorable.
3 Non-Stop
One of the more interesting concepts for a film entirely set on a plane, Non-Stop features Liam Neeson as an air marshal who is framed for hijacking the plane he is on. Trying to solve the mystery of which passenger is behind his misfortunes while staying alive is a risky and fascinating business.
However, near the climax of the film, there is what feels like a nearly inevitable plane crash. The plane doesn’t completely crash, but the thrilling finale where Neeson’s character must take on those who have been entrapping him is excellently done and presents one of the most action-packed plane crashes in cinema history.
2 Airplane
Some of the earliest movies about airplanes were films like Airport, which did some of the best early plane crashes on the big screen. But Airplane, which was a parody of these and other movies, set a former pilot on a plane where the captain and his first mate are both incapable of flying.
Having to take over, the hilarious film shows how the pilot manages to bring the plane down without a complete disaster. Nevertheless, it is still highly amusing how the plane ends up landing, making this one of the best early examples of farcical parody films.
1 Flight
Sully may be the better remembered of two similarly styled films, but Flight, starring Denzel Washington, was another great example of how a pilot hero could be turned against by the media. Despite nobody on his plane dying in the crash, he is hunted by the media, and an investigation which reveals he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs while flying.
The opening crash scene is another great case of a disaster that was averted in a thrilling opener to the film. Denzel and his co-pilot trying to bring the plane under control was a thrilling encounter that remains a memorable scene to this day.