Airport - Watch Order: Release Order

1970 - 19794 Films8h 1m2.9 Average

The Airport series defined the disaster movie genre of the 1970s, featuring spectacular airline catastrophes and star-studded ensemble casts in each film. These movies established many of the tropes that would become synonymous with disaster cinema, from dramatic personal subplots to large-scale destruction sequences.

While each film tells a standalone story with different characters and disasters, they're connected by tone, fictional airline companies, and most notably Joe Patroni (George Kennedy), who appears in all four films in various airline industry roles. The series was so influential that it directly inspired the classic parody Airplane! (1980), which lovingly mocked the genre's conventions.

Linear Timeline: Release Order = Story Order

1
Airport poster

Airport

19702h 17m3.6
Director: George Seaton
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dana Wynter, Dean Martin, Barbara Hale, Jean Seberg

An airport manager tries to keep his terminals open during a snowstorm, while a suicide bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight.

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2
Airport 1975 poster

Airport 1975

19741h 47m3
Director: Jack Smight
Cast: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Susan Clark

When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.

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3
Airport '77 poster

Airport '77

19771h 54m2.9
Director: Jerry Jameson
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Brenda Vaccaro, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland

Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle after a hijacking gone wrong. Now the surviving passengers must brave panic, slow leaks, oxygen depletion, and more while attempting a daring plan, all while 200 feet underwater.

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4
The Concorde... Airport '79 poster

The Concorde... Airport '79

19792h 3m2.2
Director: David Lowell Rich
Cast: Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely, Alain Delon, Sylvia Kristel, George Kennedy

Aviation disaster-prone Joe Patroni must contend with nuclear missiles, the French Air Force and the threat of the plane splitting in two over the Alps.

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