Hostage Flight (1985 TV Movie) User Reviews

Better Than Average TV-Movie

[TheFearmakers · 8/10 · 5 March 2022]

The 1985 TV-Movie HOSTAGE FLIGHT is one of the better hijacking dramas, which includes theatrical features with the1970's All-Star-Cast device only here with actors and actresses mostly known for television, at that time...

Except Ned Beatty as the man in charge on the ground (with gunman Morgan Paull at his beckon call), stressing on the situation in the air, filmed with a worthy amount of suspense and for very good reason...

The eclectic hijackers are an extremely mean and nasty group, pulling off the kind of knee-jerking, loud and brash attitudes to not only get the passengers' respect... from stalwart pilot Mitchell Ryan to photographer Dee Wallace who's befriended blonde beauty Kim Johnston Ulrich.... but to effectively stir up the right amount of suspense for the anticipation of who they'll kill next...

And their genuine ferociousness is a surprise, played by actors looking soap operatic yet proving otherwise, making the viewers loathe their existence to the point where, during the final act twist when the passengers get the gun-hand, you may not feel the empathy intended as an ambiguous morality tale instead of an airplane-in-peril exploitation.

Fighting Back

[virek213 · 7/10 · 14 September 2001]

This 1985 made-for-TV suspense drama about Mideast terrorists who hijack a flight from New York to London, only to eventually find themselves at the mercy of the very people they've held hostage, seems now to be very much like the 1998 feature film THE SIEGE.

Truth tends to be stranger than fiction, but somehow, from what we know so far, there may have been HOSTAGE FLIGHT-type struggles for retaking control of the passenger jets that rammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. I have the uneasy feeling that this film, though it might have gone unnoticed but for its theme of hostages fighting back, may be quite prescient now.

Worth a watch!!

[phillip-161 · 8/10 · 14 December 2010]

I enjoyed the movie immensely it keep you guessing all the way through and featured enough action and suspense to keep me watching all the way through..The ending was a bit lack lustre though because it didn't explain any feelings as to why they did what they did..Was also quite shocked by the female flight attendants execution and also the young girls beating/rape..The drama throughout the movie was extremely good and anyone that found themselves in that situation would be just as scared i always find that airline hijacking movies do very well in portraying what the situation would be like..Another one that i recommend is The flight the uli derrickson story thats another very well portrayed airline hostage situation

Decent TV Movie

[LuvsFood · 14 April 1999]

Kind of enjoyable, but typical 80's made for TV film. What makes it stand out is the fact that the passengers actually fight back against the terrorists at the end of the movie. (This is not a spoiler, really - they hyped that aspect of it when they ran the promos for the film).

Also stood out because of the two! endings - I was fortunate enough to have seen both of them - they are both kind of grim - although one is nastier than the other. Both endings are right after a surprisingly adroit discussion by the passengers about what to do with the men who have been holding THEM hostage for the last several hours.

Hostage/Hijack Situation

[phillip-610-869279 · 9/10 · 7 May 2013]

Trans Allied Flight 136 is a American domestic flight hijacked mid- flight by 4 middle eastern terrorists, Suspenseful through-out with them giving out demands to the powers that be. News coverage,re-fueling etc.It then leaves for LHR with the order that there leader must be released by the appropriate authorities by the time they land GMT, It then takes a nasty turn when they execute a male passenger followed by a female flight attendant.. The passengers grow increasingly frightened/terrified knowing that they must do something but what? The middle man then savagely beats and rapes a female passenger leading to the final showdown and the passengers fight back with the split second that is given to them when a female passenger breaks down after her husband is taken forward by one of the terrorists..A travelling police lieutenant shoots one of them and the victim of the beating/rape throws hot coffee in another ones face, The cockpit terrorist is tricked at the spyhole of the door and knocked out by two passengers. The 3 remaining terrorists are tied up and a heated discussion starts amongst the passengers on what to do regards justice for the two murdered people. There are two endings equally gruesome. Overall a real good watch. And I recommend viewing.

Among the best TVW's ever made.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 7 August 2020]

This is the kind of example of what a TV production can bring to audiences, how can a TV stuff take "risks" in the screenplay....I have seen this feature back in the late eighties or early nineties and will never forget it. Especially of course the awesome ending, at least the alternate ending that was shown in Europe. That's the only example of this scheme that was ever made in hostage films; at least as far as I know. Usually, in hostage movies, the endings are always the same. But there is a little goof which I want to talk about. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. At the end, when the terrorists are show hanged, where is the fourth, where is the lady, because we only see trousers, and she wore a skirt. And how can one hang another one on a plane cabin? Are there any hooks on the ceiling? But that doesn't remove anything at all from this awesome piece of work. One more thing, no explanation is given about the motivations of those terrorists, who do not look like Arabs. Most, if not all, plane hijackings in those periods were pulled by Arabs. It should have been explained. IRA, right wing extremists? The man whom the terrorists asked for the release looked like an Arab....Hmmmm

Ahead of its time

[medic249a2 · 15 August 2004]

This little-known TV movie was thinking way ahead of its time, considering that events that occurred in the film - passengers overpowering the terrorists - may have actually taken place in at least one of the hijacked planes on 9/11/01.

***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING!***

The plot is fairly straightforward: When a group of psychopathic terrorists begin murdering passengers & crew members on a jet they've hijacked in order to secure their leader's release, the passengers - including an armed policeman - start making plans to overpower them. Eventually they strike; one terrorist is hit in the face with a hot liquid, scalding him; another is gunned down by the policeman; a third is overpowered by several passengers and has his weapon taken; and the fourth is overpowered by the flight crew. With the terrorists now at the mercy of the same people they'd been torturing and killing, the passengers and crew now must figure out what action to take: do they execute the terrorists, or hand them over to authorities?

***END SPOILER WARNING***

I have seen both versions of the ending to this movie, and one was admittedly more disturbing than the other. Truth really does seem stranger than fiction today, given the events of 9/11.