CALAMITY PLANE
Feel like getting away? You might get over that after revisiting these onscreen travel mishaps
The pandemic has all but cancelled summer vacations. Cruises are on hold, borders are closed and the coronavirus surges are causing new restrictions and closures across the globe. But maybe staying home this year is not such a bad thing. The airline can lose your luggage, your car could break down or you could even accidentally leave your kid home alone. If you need a reason to appreciate the wonders of your own backyard, we remind you of the times movies showed us what can go wrong on a trip.
1
Annie’s midflight meltdown in Bridesmaids
Annie is separated from the rest of the bridal party on their flight to Las Vegas, because, well, she can’t afford a first-class ticket.
While high off a mixture of anxiety meds and alcohol, she tries to sneak into first class and gets caught, which leads to a cringy confrontation with the flight attendant.
Back in economy, she hallucinates that a colonial woman is on the wing of the plane. If this was real life, Annie’s freakout, which causes the plane to get diverted to Wyoming, would have gone viral on Twitter 2
Failure to launch in Little Miss Sunshine
When seven-year-old Olive secures a spot in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, her eclectic family agrees to travel to the competition — in a Volkswagen Microbus. Their road trip across America is detoured many times, including when the clutch breaks on the bus. To make matters worse, Olive’s grandfather dies mid-trip, and the family decides to sneak his body out of the hospital and stash it in the trunk. Let’s hope they packed good road trip snacks to fuel pushing the van.
3
Kevin misses his family’s flight in Home Alone
A misbehaving Kevin is banished to the attic the night before his family’s holiday trip to Paris. A poorly timed power outage causes chaos the next morning and before the family knows it, they are all on a flight to France
... without the eight-year-old. For the rest of the movie, his frantic mother tries to book a trip home. And Kevin gets an adventure of his own. 4
The frosty motorcycle trip in Dumb and Dumber
Harry and Lloyd set off for Aspen on a motorcycle. Aside from being an impractically slow way to travel long distance, the two end up freezing on the journey. En route, Harry asks to stop to go to the bathroom and Lloyd advises him to just pee himself.
5
The woes of economy in Last Holiday
On her flight to Prague, “the big ol’ man” sitting in front of Georgia attempts to recline his seat. She stands up for herself and her fellow passengers, questioning why airlines prioritize making money over passenger comfort. According to our guide however, he had every right to recline on a long-haul flight, unless you count what Queen Latifah’s character does as “begging for mercy.” But she ends up upgrading to a firstclass “cocoon” with cocktails.
6
Greg versus the flight attendant in Meet the Parents
Greg Focker has every reason to be #teamcarryon after losing his bag on his flight to meet his girlfriend’s parents. Unfortunately for him though his bag is too big to fit in the overhead compartment and he’s asked to check it. His reaction, reasonably, gets him removed from the plane. It’s never a good idea to say “bomb” on an airplane.
7
A staycation to die for in Beetlejuice
It turns out even a staycation can go sour, as it does for Barbara and Adam Maitland, who swerve to avoid hitting a dog while driving back from the hardware store. They crash through the walls of an old covered bridge and plummet to their deaths. But hey, at least the dog lives. And the two end up getting to take an exciting trip to another realm.
8
Food poisoning at 20,000 feet in Airplane!
This whole dad-joke packed movie is one travel mess after another. For some reason, on this (already chaotic) flight they decide to serve bone-in fish as one of the dinner options. Imagine how that cabin must have smelled. As a result, much of the plane gets food poisoning.
9
All those snakes in Snakes on a Plane
So many snakes on that plane. The Washington Post