MovieChat Forums > Skyjacked (1972) Discussion > A minor plot wrinkle [spoiler]

A minor plot wrinkle [spoiler]

posted 10 years ago by ZolotoyRetriever
3 replies | jump to latest

[spoiler alert]

During the part where the plane and passengers are on the ground at Anchorage, there's a brief moment where the hijacker (Brolin's character) basically leaves himself wide open to being overpowered or, better yet, tossed off the plane. It's when he panics over seeing the van-load of photographers and runs down the aisle, pushes the two stewardesses aside, and stands at the open door and shoots at the van. He had his back turned to everybody behind him, totally unprotected. He'd put his grenade and electronic device away.

At this point, I'm thinking one or both of the two stewardesses could really have shoved Brolin right out of the plane, then shut the door before he could climb back up the chute. Security people were standing right below at the bottom of the chute, could have physically restrained him. Also, Captain O'Hara (Heston) was coming down the aisle right behind him, and could have rendered assistance in helping either to shove Brolin out or at least help shut the door if the two stewardesses had already shoved him out of the plane.

[–] SealordJohn 10 years ago

During those situations you mentioned, Jerome Weber (James Brolin) had already powered up the bomb and was holding the remote to detonate that bomb. So attacking Weber or pushing him out of the plane probably would not stop him from activating the remote control.

Even before Weber shoots at the van and activates the bomb, when Gary Brown (Roosevelt Grier) rushes and tackles Weber in the aisle, that should have knocked Weber flat on his back and at least stunned him long enough to be overpowered. The much larger Brown was beaten much too easily by the smaller Weber.

[–] Howlin Wolf 9 years ago

I thought the same - but, let's be fair; there's more than ONE minor plot wrinkle! 

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[–] mdonln 9 years ago

Yes, I wondered about that too. At the time I think the inflated ramp had already been removed so he would have fallen straight down and been injured. Then I thought of the bomb. At that point we still thought there was one in the bag.

As a separate thought I wondered why they couldn't have shoved the bag out the cockpit window. At one point the pilot opened the window and it seemed large enough for the bag to fit. The bag had been roughly handled and hadn't exploded so that shouldn't have triggered anything. As it hit the ground it might have gone off or not.

At the time, Weber had gone to the back of the plane for some reason. The pilots would have moved to the back as well. If Weber got suspicious and fidgety he would have triggered the bomb, had there been one and it hadn't gone off, and it would have exploded sending everyone both outside and inside scrambling. Maybe it would have been far enough away to have not caused major damage; at least not as much as if it was still on the plane.

The movie would have taken a different turn. With the explosion, Weber would have thought he was back at war and under fire triggering his PTSD. They could have then showed how his flashback and what had happened to him. Still the bad guy, he would have been a more sympathetic character. It would have shown what the vets experienced and let audiences see how Weber got to that point. As it stands he just seemed crazy and a wannabe traitor to his country who thought the Russians would honor him.

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