Mayday (2005) (TV)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

T.J. Scott

Writers (WGA):

Kevin Lund (teleplay) &
T.J. Scott (teleplay) ...

Release Date:

2 October 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

Twelve miles above the Pacific Ocean, an errant missile strikes a state of the art passenger jet. The flight crew is crippled or dead. Now, defying both nature and man, a handful of survivors must achieve the impossible: Land the airplane. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Aidan Quinn	...	John Berry
Kelly Hu	...	Sharon Crandall
Dean Cain	...	Commander James Slan
Charles S. Dutton	...	Admiral Randolf Hennings
Michael Murphy	...	Captain Randall Williams
Gail O'Grady	...	Anne Metz
Sasha Roiz	...	Wayne Johnson
Richard Fitzpatrick	...	Jack Miller
Tamara Hope	...	Linda Farley
Gabriel Hogan	...	Daniel McVary
Victoria Pratt	...	Simms
Ron Lea	...	Harold Stein
Matt Aquin	...	David Henderson
Martin Roach	...	Carl Fessell
Matt Gordon	...	Carson Evans

Runtime:

120 min (including commercials) | South Africa:87 min (approx)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the film the decompression of the aircraft lasts at least three minutes, and is described as an "Explosive Decompression". In reality a decompression classed as "Explosive" lasts just 0.1 SECONDS. Also a hole five feet across decompresses an aircraft in a fraction of a second.

Completely Unrealistic **Possible Spoilers**

While I do not have a degree in science, it was painfully obvious that those who put this "production" together had NO concept of physics. Other commenters have covered most of the glaring inaccuracies so I won't repeat them but will add that they are certainly on target. The producers and writers also had little understanding of current military technology and likewise had little comprehension of the Navy, its command structure, and how its people handle situations. I won't go into the multitude of reasons that the whole scenario the movie is built upon is so incredibly improbable that it borders on ridiculous. I will say the production crew and writers did NOT do their homework.

Having spent 23 years in the Navy, and a good deal of that time with Navy pilots I think I can speak with a bit of authority when I say that the Navy would NEVER even think of trying to "resolve" the situation in this poorly contrived plot in the manner attempted. While there certainly could be a officer with the low morals of Dean Cain's character, there would not be a whole command that would blindly follow along with something as immoral as what Cain's character was proposing. The Navy teaches it's people to think and if given an order that is obviously immoral they are not required to obey it and are in fact supposed to report it to someone above their chain of command. In speaking with some Navy pilots I know, none of them would accept an order to shoot down the airliner if there was ANY chance someone might be alive. Even if they knew for a fact everyone was dead, they would ONLY shoot it down when it posed an immediate (not just possible) danger of crashing and causing civilian casualties on the ground and given they were over the middle of the ocean, that was not the case. As support to this I point to the sad story a couple of years ago where a pro golfer's private jet plane took off from Orlando, FL. The plane decompressed as it reached altitude, and apparently was on autopilot. Because the plane did not respond to air controllers, an Air Force F-16 fighter was scrambled to investigate. From the pilot's report after making contact, everyone was certain that all aboard were dead. But the plane was allowed to continue on for hundreds of miles, run out of fuel, and crash on its own in an uninhabited area. All the F-16 did was follow the jet to ensure it did not crash into any populated areas.

It is an old, contrived, worn out plot to have the military make a mistake and then try to cover it up. Can't writers think of something new? That road has been used so often it has ruts in it. Is the Navy perfect? No. Do individuals try to hide mistakes, I imagine they do. But a mistake of this magnitude would never get as out of hand as was portrayed in this sorry excuse for a movie. I have seen worse than this and probably should have given it at least a 2, but the stereotypes were so predictable and bad, 1 out of 10.