The Best Movies About Airplanes and Airports

San Francisco Bay Area journalist and frequent flier David Armstrong writes about business and leisure travel. He covers airlines and airports from a consumer's perspective, and writes about hotels, resorts, spas and travel destinations for a variety of media outlets. He was the aviation reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle for seven years and is a former arts critic and feature writer for the San Francisco Examiner.

We've all seen movies on a plane. But what are the most memorable movies about airplanes and airports?

Here is a subjective list of the 10 best feature films about civil aviation — as picked by this frequent flier:

1. "Airplane!'' This may be the most flat-out enjoyable movie about civil aviation ever. Released in 1980, this knowing spoof of air disaster movies is still funny, if politically incorrect. Think of the pilot who says to a boy "Have you ever seen a grown man naked?'' Or the older white woman who attempts to speak what she believes to be ghetto patter to young black men by blithely explaining "I speak jive.'' Not to mention the comically anxious passengers who watch as two ordinary American travelers try land the plane.
2. "United 93.'' The dark, tragic antipode to "Airplane!'' This 2006 picture is a skillful docudrama that recreates the last moments aboard the hijacked United Airlines plane that crash-landed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. Incredibly sad, incredibly hard to watch, it nevertheless compels attention.
3. "The Aviator.'' Not a great film, but this bio-flick about the reclusive mogul and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, directed by the great Martin Scorcese and starring a credible Leonardo DiCaprio as the dashing but mad Hughes, is entertaining from take-off to landing. The supporting performance by Alec Baldwin as Pam Am visionary Juan Trippe is worth the price of admission.
4. "Catch Me If You Can.'' Dicaprio again. He's boyishly handsome and charming as a consummate con man who convinces everyone he is a professional airline pilot (among other things), though he has absolutely no idea how to fly a plane. Directed by Steven Spielberg with a born storyteller's brio
5. "Airport.'' Based on Arthur Hailey's novel of the same title, it's a blissfully exaggerated melodrama, released in 1970, that takes a common idea – the idea of a big airport as a small city – and puts it on-screen with a starry cast that includes Burt Lancaster and Helen Hayes.
6. "Tokyo Joe.'' One of Humphrey Bogart's little-known roles, the 1949 feature was shot on location in war-ravaged Tokyo. Bogart is an American war veteran who starts a cargo airline in Japan – amid complications from officials running the American occupation.
7. "The Terminal.'' Spielberg again, with a bit too much sentimentality about an immigrant to the U.S. who gets caught in legal limbo and can't leave the airport. The movie is nevertheless carried by Tom Hanks' engaging Everyman performance.
8. "Octopussy.'' What can I say? It's Bond ... James Bond. We're shaken and stirred by Agent 007's adventures in the sky circa 1983.
9. "Snakes on a Plane.'' The title tells the story with this so-bad-it's-good thriller/horror flick. With Samuel L. Jackson as a cool-under-pressure FBI agent.
10. "Air Force One.'' Harrison Ford is heroic as the President of the United States battling Gary Oldman-led Russian hijackers on-board the President's plane.

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David Armstrong is a former movie critic for the San Francisco Examiner.