Snakes on a Plane: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

One day, should the American Film Institute loosen up and offer a list of the 100 Greatest B Horror Movies ever made, David R. Ellis' "Snakes on a Plane" deserves a spot on that list.

While it's true that the movie doesn't have the unexpected spunk of, say, "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama" and "Hell Comes to Frogtown," or the bloody verve of "Microwave Massacre" and "Redneck Zombies," or the robust sexuality that makes "Frankenhooker" and "The Gore Gore Girls" so critical to the canon, it does have a title that is as tantalizing as one of the best movie titles ever, "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death."

As a plus, the movie also is a blast.

The film, which Ellis based on a script by John Heffernan and Sebastian Gutierrez, has been basking in Internet blogging glory for a year. All questions about whether it would live up to expectations now can be laid to rest--the movie surpasses them.

The story starts in Honolulu, with surfer Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) witnessing crime boss Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) murder one of his victims with the business end of a baseball bat. Cut to a shocked Sean fleeing the scene, with Kim's men taking note and soon learning his identity. Worse for Sean is that they learn that FBI agent Neville Flynn (a marvelous Samuel L. Jackson) has convinced Sean to fly to Los Angeles to testify against Kim in another case.

Since Kim isn't about to allow that to happen, he smuggles into the belly of the plane several hundred venomous snakes, all of which are stoked into a pheromone-driven rage. The idea is that when an explosive releases the snakes from their boxes, bloody chaos will ensue as the snakes charge through the plane's crevices and begin their nasty feast.

Everybody onboard is on the menu--the germophobic rapper and his posse, the Paris Hilton-knockoff with the growling Chihuahua, two little boys who are too well-mannered for their own good, the pilots, the flight crew, dozens of others. The method of snake attack is grotesquely imaginative--men shouldn't stand too long at a urinal, couples should resist joining the mile-high club.

Since "Snakes on a Plane" plays with the conventions of the genre while also fully employing its rules, it strikes just the right tone throughout--the film nods at its pedigree and winks at itself while also casting a group of actors who take the proceedings just seriously enough to ignite the fun.

Jackson, in particular, is perfectly cast. Just as good is Julianna Margulies as the take-charge flight attendant, Clair, who could give Karen Black a run for her money when it comes to how to run a plane thrown into turmoil. Together with these snakes, the comic-book bloodshed, the camp and the dire circumstances, "Snakes on a Plane" makes the current, depressing state of air travel look downright civilized in comparison.

Grade: A-