MovieChat Forums > Airplane! (1980) Discussion > What war did Ted fight in?

What war did Ted fight in?

posted 9 years ago by mitchellhundred
20 replies | jump to latest

Based on his age and time frame Vietnam would make sense but his flashbacks seemed more WW2ish. Not to mention the much older Leslie Nielsen and Robert Stack apparently fought in the same war as him.

[–] shulma2002 9 years ago

Macho Grande is a small airport in Taylor, Texas. Why would US warplanes be attacking in Texas? The Spanish-American War was way before air combat. I am puzzled where the film writers came-up with Macho Grande

[–] Neo1599 9 years ago

It's a comedy.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 5 years ago

looked like some of the flight scenes were from WW One

[–] Lolo1976 9 years ago

They ignore time and age in these films, as it's not really supposed to make sense. I'm watching Airplane II right now (on TV), which takes place sometime after/around 1999 - yet the main characters haven't aged a bit, despite it being a good 20 years after the original. They even say it was 1980 during the first disaster, so it's not like they're trying to be logical. ;-)

[–] franklinlj 9 years ago

Ted fought in the Generic Movie War.

[–] boxerrebellion 8 years ago

Good point!

[–] snelling 8 years ago

It was WWIII!

"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer Sim--" - Frank Grimes

[–] sueb1863 9 years ago

He's not referring to a specific war, just to a general one in a spoof of the fact that just about every airplane disaster movie had a veteran of some "war" involved.

[–] squeemu 9 years ago

Since Zero Hour was made in the 50s, the protagonist of that film was probably a veteran of WW2. Since Airplane! is basically a comedic remake of that, they probably decided to make the war that Ted fought in basically seem like WW2, even though it makes no sense. Of course, hardly anything in this movie does!

[–] parkpunk 8 years ago

He can't tell us...It's classified.


[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

I just assumed it was Vietnam.

It's that man again!!

[–] skohl632001 8 years ago

It's not any specific war-it's a completely generic "movie war"-that's part of the joke.

[–] wordsatplaytoday 8 years ago

It was "The war."
Geez. Weren't you paying attention?

[–] cultfilmfreaksdotcom 8 years ago

LOL The fact Hays is too young is part of the joke. This movie is a remake of ZERO HOUR! where that Ted Striker, Dana Andrews, was in WW2 so the war footage is basically the same.

MY ZERO REVIEW:

http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/Dana-Does-Airplane.html

All Movie Reviews www.cultfilmfreaks.com

[–] gcarras (2726) 6 years ago

Wait..so Ted Striker the name was borrowed from ZERO HOUR's lead? Wow! Surely? Oh, I forgot about calling people Shirley unless they're named that.

[–] 8 years ago

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