Airplane!
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Rapid-fire parody aimed squarely at teen boys.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 11–12
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of Airplane! was written by Elliot Panek
Parents need to know that this movie contains some mild cursing, drug use, a drawn-out barroom brawl between two Girl Scouts, and plenty of sexual innuendo. The drug and sexual references may fly over the heads of younger viewers. However, the overall tone of the film makes it clear that nothing is to be taken seriously.
Families Can Talk About
Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
- Families can talk about the use of humor in the movie. This movie is an equal opportunity offender that features several jokes at the expense of women, people of color, war veterans, and gays. Parents might consider talking with their kids about the intentions of the filmmakers. How does context change the way we interpret comedy?
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More on Airplane!
What’s the Story?
When the passengers and crew aboard Trans American Airlines flight 209 fall ill from food poisoning, passenger and veteran aviator Ted Striker (Robert Hayes) must put his wartime trauma behind him and take the throttle. As fate would have it, his old flame and flight attendant, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) is on board. Elaine's rekindled love for Stryker revitalizes his confidence, and with the help of a couple of hilariously gruff air traffic controllers, he flies the plane to safety.
Is It Any Good?
Without a doubt, AIRPLANE! reigns as king of all 80s parody films. Leslie Nielsen (in a precursor to his turn as Lt. Frank Drebin in the The Naked Gun series), Robert Stack, and Lloyd Bridges appear to enjoy portraying characters that lampoon their previous dramatic roles. And while the dialogue and references to films such as From Here to Eternity and Saturday Night Fever will appeal mainly to adults, site gags like the jive-talking granny (played by Barbara Billingsley of Leave it to Beaver) and lines such as, "Surely you can't be serious?" "I am serious... and don't call me Shirley," will have kids rolling on the floor. Along the way, the film mixes embarrassingly obvious puns and sight gags, as well as surprisingly quick-witted knocks at everyday airport/airplane situations. Parents should note that most of the jokes featured in this film are at the expense of various religious and ethnic groups in this film. They are not especially mean-spirited, yet some might interpret the film's off-color humor as offensive.
Movie Details
Studio: Paramount Pictures, Directors: Jerry Zucker, David Zucker
Run time: 88 minutes
Theatrical release: 7/2/1980, DVD release: 10/24/2000
MPAA Rating: PG for sex and drug references
Run time: 88 minutes
Theatrical release: 7/2/1980, DVD release: 10/24/2000
MPAA Rating: PG for sex and drug references
Our Members Say
See all 36 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title on for age 14 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
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I rate this title iffy for age 12 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
If this is PG, then imagine what PG-13 was like in the 80s!
This movie was very, very innapropriate. It really, and I cant stress that enough, really should have been PG-13. There was drug snorting, drinking, smoking, and a topless women for like 3 seconds but still, that is enough to be pushing the limit. BUUUUUT... now that that is out of the way, it wa sooo super funny and I really loved it. One of my new favorites, as far as comedy goes. I laughed my head off just dont expect the behavior is exceptable because of the PG rating. No one under 11 would not find it worth immitating. i laughed so hard I cried. The humor was soo corny that you just have to laguh. Ah, so funny.
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I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
teen+
there is only one word that comes to mined after this movie....''sexuial''!!!! not a bad movie but there is a part were bare breasts stay in the camra for a 9 second period ........ there is a ''gay'' man in this movie too....and it shows a few people do drugs .... and might be a NONO for some parents!!!
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I rate this title iffy for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- My highlights are:
Good film for older children, but very iffy for younger children
It's A brilliant movie but it has nudity and a lot of drinking. Good film for older children, but very iffy for younger children
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines!
I love this movie. It is really funny and the punchlines are perfect. Leslie Neilson is a very good asset but Robert Hays has really good moments too. I have watched it and I don't think that it is too bad. There is a part when two black passengers are talking and there are subtitles. This doesn't mean anything but some over-protective parents might take this as racist and, therefore, not for young children. I think that this is good for most children but some younger children might not understand some humour.
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I rate this title on for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
Great movie! But parents should watch before kids and make a judgement
I loved this movie! There was a brief topless woman, but other than that nothing too bad.
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
hilarious but should be rated R
I LOVED THIS MOVIE! This movie was hilarious! but there is a brief shot of a topless woman. But that's the only bad thing. I would say for 10 year olds and up.
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I rate this title iffy for age 13 and give it
Hilarious but edgy comedy for young teens.
Parents should know that while being hysterically funny, this quirky comedy includes sexual allusions and visuals. Bare breasts are shown once briefly (in a non-sexual manner), and references to sex pop up occasionally. comic violence is abundant including hangings, stabbings, and more. Social behavior isn't great.
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Lives in OhioI rate this title iffy for age 11 and give it- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
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I rate this title iffy for age 16 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
funny but it should be rated R
this really is a great movie but has very bad role modles. it has every illeagal drug known to man. there is some strong laungauge and topless female nudity. the violince is comic but will frighten some kids. a plane crashes through an airport. a man junps out a window (he is on crack). a man sets himself on fire and a woman hangs herself. two girl scouts get in a all night fist fight at a bar. this has all the stuff an R movie does,but somehow got away with PG. overall this movie is very VERY funny. but almost all the humor is either about drugs, mental retardation, sex, swears or violince. but parents will probbaly love lesley nielson in this movie. he is so funny in this one. but you have to be careful of your kids under the age of sixteen seeing it. it was definetley made for adults. see you next time. bye.
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I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
This is sure to become a classic
It's been a long time since I've seen it, and I don't remember it really well. Just as a good movie.
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I rate this title iffy for age 11 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
BEST COMEDY MOVIE EVER but not for the young ones . . .SPOILER ALERT!!!
Dont get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE this movie, its a one-off clever satire for every movie lover, but some of the humour is sexual and crude. There is partial nudity (in one scene, a woman's bare breasts are shown) as well as other references: double entedres for fellatio, sexual magazines are shown, one of which is titled "Modern Sperm", a doctor is looking up a young girl's nightie, and there is also some language (sh*t etc) and comedic violence which could be too much for kids under 11 (a japanese man stabs himself with a samurai sword, an old woman hangs herself, and a sick young girl's drip is knocked out of her wrist by the end of a guitar causing her to die. All of this is in a comic vein, but maybe think twice before showing it to the young ones All round an ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT movie for kids over 11 and an amazing testament to the power of comedy!!
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I rate this title on for age 11 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
Plenty of laughs-very loose rating
It was a very funny movie, and the above mentioned topics of concern are hard to take seriously. The topless woman that walks in front of the screen makes the PG rating very debatable. The drugs are not serious, but the many occurences make it a minor issue. It is hillarious and the parental reviews are completely overboard. The language in the movie is mild compared to that at any normal middle school, and the violence is to funny to get anything but laughs.
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I rate this title on for age 13 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
one of my favorite comidies
great movie but, does have topless women, women hanging herself, and a little bit of language. This was a PG befor there was a PG-13 ratign
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I rate this title iffy for age 12 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
Strickly for 12 and up
OK - this is one of those movies that you pick up because you think it would be a nice nostalgia movie to watch with the kids. Beware that the PG rating belies liberal use of the "sh" word and a couple of "assh**e", a good number of references to alcohol, smoking, cocaine use, amphetemines, glue sniffing. There are a couple sexual references (BJ given to inflatable co-pilot, inflatable co-pilot grabs woman's breasts, references to breasts, as well as a close up of a topless woman's breasts). For violence, there's actually less than in modern movies, the girl scout's brawl scene, someone stabs someone in the back, a scene where people slap a passenger in distress, and a couple of scenes where people get punched in the face, people committing suicide (hanging, sword in belly, lighting oneself on fire). If you are sensitive to gay humor, there is one character that is played for laughs as flaming. There's some mild pedophilia references between the captain and a boy passenger. As for content, the movie was not as funny as I remembered it, for some reason.
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I rate this title pause for age 14 and give it
Commonsense missed the suicide!
I loved this movie but will wait a while to show it to my kids, age 10 and 9. I was surprised that in the Parents need to know/Message section Commonsensemedia made no mention of the old lady who hung herself rather than listen to Robert Hays any longer.
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I rate this title on for age 8 and give it
2 words
COMEDY CLASSIC!!!!
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I rate this title on for age 7 and give it
funny movie
My big brother likes this movie, and laughs a lot. I don't get many of the jokes, but it was funny anyway.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
Funny, but very strong for a PG rating.
I thought Airplane was a very funny spoof for it's time. Sure, it's not gonna be a big hit with the kids, but To those who like The Clasical stuff, and Who can tell what time it was made from, it's gonna be Pretty darn funny! Sex: This is the Part that stretches the PG rating. Quite a bit of indo, and a part where it looks as if a woman is Preforming Oral Sex on a "Automatic Piolet." The worst part is when a bare-Breasted woman runs across the screen and starts bouncing for a few seconds. Altough the Scene is short, it's still prity Inappropriate. Violence: It's all commical, but it's still there. Language: Rare uses of the "S" word. Drugs: Quite a bit! I'm not going to go into Detail, but there's quite a bit of drug use here! Overall: Let you thirteen or Fourteen year old see it. It's funny, and if they like spoofs, whey'll laugh at this one!
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
what the h-e double hockey sticks? j/k........
no reely wut the hell? how is this movie PG if its got a naked woman????????? whoever rated this movie probably is very stupid...... but personally i dont care. if its a good movie ill watch it.
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Ratings at a Glance
| 100% | of parents say there's too much drinking, drugs, or smoking |
| 50% | of parents say it has language their kids can't use |
| 50% | of parents say the sexual behavior isn't age appropriate |
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