TYPE OF VIOLENT WEATHER: Winter storm
ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN THE MOVIE: It’s going to be a hell of a day for Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster), the no-nonsense manager of Chicago’s (fictional) Lincoln International Airport: a crazed passenger has detonated a bomb on an outbound flight and the crippled jet must return to Lincoln. But a powerful winter storm has kept another airline stuck in the airport’s main runway. Can chief mechanic Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) remove the plane in time?
RANDOM (BUT SLIGHTLY RELEVANT) FACTOIDS: The film was a huge success, earning more than $100 million—adjusted for inflation this would be more than $550 million today. With its large cast and multiple story lines, Airport was the first “disaster” movie—and created a movie genre that was tremendously popular in the ’70s.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupqktw252M]