This week, we’re doubling up with Zero Hour! (1957) and Airplane! (1980), two films forever linked by turbulence, tension and parody perfection. Directed by Hall Bartlett, Zero Hour! is a no-nonsense disaster thriller where Dana Andrews plays a guilt-ridden ex-pilot forced to land a crippled airliner after the crew succumbs to food poisoning. Ruthlessly straight-faced, it laid the blueprint for the genre’s melodrama and moral gravity.

Fast-forward to 1980, and Jim Abrahams along with David and Jerry Zucker hijack the entire premise to create Airplane!, one of the most beloved spoof comedies of all time. With Robert Hays as the PTSD-plagued pilot and Leslie Nielsen delivering deadpan gold, Airplane! reuses Zero Hour!’s plot beat-for-beat...just with more inflatable autopilots and jive-talking passengers.

Is this a case of high-stakes drama giving way to high-flying farce, or proof that comedy is just tragedy plus a punchline? Listen on to find out!

Zero Hour! is not on Metacritic’s all time movie list!Airplane! is movie 2335 on Metacritic’s all time movie list!

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