Snakes on a Plane backdrop
Snakes on a Plane poster

SNAKES ON A PLANE

2006 US HMDB
August 17, 2006

FBI agent Neville Flynn boards a flight from Honolulu, Hawaii to Los Angeles, escorting a key witness to testify against a mob boss at an upcoming trial. An on-board assassin releases a crate full of hundreds of deadly venomous snakes in an attempt to eliminate the witness. Flynn and a host of frightened passengers and crew must band together to survive the slithery threat.

Directors

David R. Ellis

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Kenan Thompson, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Keith Dallas, Sunny Mabrey, Lin Shaye, Elsa Pataky
Avventura Horror Azione Thriller Crime

REVIEWS (1)

RG

Roberto Giacomelli

Sean is a young and sporty man on vacation in Hawaii who, during a break between surfing and motocross, becomes an involuntary witness to the murder of a US politician. The assassins immediately set out after the witness, but the FBI entrusts his protection to Neville Flynn, who will have to escort Sean from Honolulu to Los Angeles. But flight 121, on which the policeman and the witness will have to travel in the utmost secrecy, will be the scene of death, since the assassins have sown the plane with over 200 breeds of venomous and hyperstimulated snakes. The spectators/travelers of Pacific Air flight 121 are warned that it is necessary to disconnect the brain for about an hour and forty-five minutes before venturing into the viewing of "Snakes on a plane". Already from the plot, it is evident that the spectator who has chosen to tackle this strange action/thriller contaminated with the beast movie must necessarily equip themselves with a great propensity for the incredible – improbable and the baracconesco to fully enjoy David R. Ellis' film. If you are looking for a product that is 100% entertainment, then "Snakes on a plane" will not fail to entertain the spectator, thanks to a massive use of action – tension and the original improbability of the plot and so many ideas already entered by force into the universe of trash cult. Under the banner of bad taste and political incorrectness, we will witness scenes in which the snakes bite eyes, tongues, female nipples and male members (note the scene in which a woman disturbed by the turbulence is about to vomit in the appropriate bag, but a snake bites her tongue!) and no one is spared, children swollen with venom, people of color bitten on the buttocks and an odious chihuahua thrown to an anaconda. All and more in this strange film, declared and proudly of series B. What could most interest is the genesis of "Snakes on a plane". Born from a simple phrase (snakes on a plane, in fact) that screenwriter Josh Friedman had used in his blog to describe in a few words a project he intended to work on, there was then developed a keen interest on the part of B-movie enthusiasts towards this hypothetical film (and this hypothetical plot), so much so that the film's producers decided to include in the screenplay of "Snakes on a plane" all the suggestions of the blog users, starting from the same tacky title (initially the film would have had the anonymous title "Pacific Air Flight 121") up to most of the gore and osé scenes. Part of the credit also goes to the protagonist of the film himself, the legendary Samuel L. Jackson, who believed in the project and supported it from the beginning, because "Snakes on a plane" represented the type of film that he, as a spectator, would have wanted to see (they are his own words!). The production phase of "Snakes on a plane" is therefore something really innovative, it can be considered the first example of a film made by spectators and was probably also the reason for its great success in its home country, where it has already become a small cult. David R. Ellis confirms that he does not do too badly behind the camera (his also "Final destination 2" and the less successful "Cellular"), "Snakes on a plane" is a flawless action/thriller, it has a lot of rhythm, great moments of tension and good special effects. Naturally, the screenplay is not the strong point, because by winking at the B-movie and exploitation in general, one often ends up falling into the easy spectacularity of high-altitude action and the crudest trash, but overall the story has its own compactness and does not lack self-irony (note Jackson's invective against the fucking snakes that infest the fucking plane) and little matters if credibility falls below zero and the characters are barely sketched, because the film manages to achieve the only objective it had set itself: to damnably entertain the spectator.

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