The taking of flight 847 (part 2)

Posted by Ric on 13.03.05

(Part 1)

Repeated attempts are made to make the passengers on the plane seem sympathetic to the viewer. However, I feel this fails: there is a woman struggling with a young child, but this is tainted by the man trying to take advantage of her. There is a newly married couple, though the wife looks half-retarded. Another man is meant to appear a go-getter with the whole of his life ahead of him, though is clearly boring the man next to him in the check-in queue. The forth man, though lacking a mullet, I suspect is also a terrorist. He pushed in front of an old woman in the queue, so strikes me as the type of person who would attempt to hijack an aeroplane. Also, he is not white.

The people are now boarding the flight. Everyone is smiling and laughing, except for one man. The mullet terrorist knows one must learn where the emergency exits are and not take over the plane until the red light goes off.

The terrorists on the plane, looking strangely like Milli Vanilli, keep turning round, probably for the man causing a disturbance at the ticket desk and being removed by the military police.

There is little in the plot between take off and hijacking. This problem could have been covered by cutting away to indicate the passage of time, possibly returning to the culmination of a game of travel favourite Battleships. In the event, they chose to have the hajack take place while the plane was still rising. (As the opening text stated, this is the retelling of a real event; this is possibly just how it happenned.)

Each of the terrorists prepares in his own way. One of them goes to the toilet with a leather bag from which he retrieves guns. The other remains seated and breathes through his mouth, before simply producing a grenade from his pocket. Though he has nothing in his other hand, he then removes the pin with his teeth with true cinematic flair.

The pair seem to have little trouble in taking over the body of the plane. They indicate their desire to enter the cabin by dragging our heroine to the door and repeatedly shouting, "Open! Open!" Reaching the limit of their persuasive powers, it seems that the third man left of the ground was their negotiator.

The co-pilot looks through the peep hole to discover what the disturbance is. On seeing that it is two armed men attempting to enter the cabin, he voices what would be the first thing on my mind too: "We'd better let him in."

They do this just as Milli Vanilli terrorist kicks the grate from the door and is in the process of posting the grenade through it. Opening the door knocks him over, causing the pin to fall to the floor. This causes him great distress and panic, despite the fact that he had pulled it ten minutes previously and was merely holding it in his teeth.

To be continued...