Our film opens at London's Heathrow Airport as the select few passengers of Flight 19-X verify their boarding passes. Why 19-X? It’s an eXtra flight chartered by millionaire architect Alan O’Neill (Roy Thinnes). Along with his English wife, Sheila (Jane Merrow), the plane will be hauling only a few select passengers and several crates filled with the deconstructed stones of Sheila's family chapel to be later reconstructed in the States. (I guess she wouldn't leave without them or something.) But some locals weren't really thrilled with this venture, and led by a Mrs. Pinder (Tammy Grimes), tried to prevent them from moving the chapel, and it’s priceless artifacts, with a court injunction. Having lost that battle, Pinder intends to take up the fight in the American courts and makes arrangements to be on the flight, too -- much to the chagrin of the O’Neills. (But it isn't it their chartered flight? Can't they just refuse to let her on? Oh, right. The plot.) Pinder is a little miffed that she can't take her dog along unless he rides in the cargo bay. Reluctantly, she agrees.

Meanwhile, Captain Slade (Chuck Connors) is concerned by the huge amount of fuel needed with such a short passenger list. He’s then informed about the extra weight caused by the unique cargo, and we get our first hint that something sinister is afoot when the crates containing the discombobulated (and I cannot believe that my word processor recognizes that word) chapel start emitting spooky music as they're loaded onto the plane. And once they are secured in the hold, even stranger things begin to happen:

Inside the plane, the two stewardesses (clad in go-go boots and army helmets) make preparations for the flight. And since there will be a grand total of ten passengers on the flight, Sally (Brenda Bennet) informs Margot (Darlene Carr) everyone will be bumped-up to first class. Suddenly, an icy cold breeze blasts through the plane. In the cockpit, Jim (Russell Johnson) the flight engineer, and Frank (H.M. Wynatt) the co-pilot, notice the temperature gauges drop dramatically, and then watch dumbfounded as the windshield ices over. Contacting the control tower to check on the weather, they detect no arctic front and say the weather is nominal. The windshield quickly defrosts, so they write it off as "freaky London weather" and continue with the pre-flight checks.

The rest of the passengers waiting to board the plane are an eclectic bunch, including super-model Analik (France Nuyen), and a cranky hotel-magnate named Farlee (Buddy Ebsen). Also along for the ride are a doctor (Paul Winfield), and Holcomb (Will Hutchins), a movie star on his way home from making a spaghetti-western in Italy. Here, the film also falls victim to Irwin Allen's Syndrome. The symptoms: The presence of one or two young moppets to add some kind of "cute" factor to the proceedings. Usually no explanations is given as to why they are present. They're just there. So we have the prerequisite youngster also on board, sitting alone in the backseat with her doll. (Weird.) This little girl, Jodi (Mia Benson), and the bitchy Manya (Lyn Loring), and her hard-drinking boyfriend, Paul Kovalik (William Tiberius Shatner), rounds out the group.

Before the plane can take off, Pinder confronts the O'Neill's again. They argue and she charges them with sacrilege for moving the sacred druid stones that were within the chapel. The stewardesses separate them, so they can take off, resulting in Pinder returning to her seat in a huff. After the plane finally takes off, the O’Neills continue to squabble. Sheila's been having some second thoughts about the whole thing. Tired of all the quibbling, Alan heads to the lounge for a drink. Alone, Sheila tries to use the plane’s earphones to listen to some music, but all she hears is some spooky music mixed with several tormented voices calling out to her by name. (It's the same spooky music that came from the crates.)

In the cockpit, the instruments appear to be malfunctioning: Either they’re flying into a real strong wind, or the plane isn’t moving. Slade alters course to see if there is any change. Back among the passengers, Kovalik is the first to notice that they aren't moving. He makes note of the date to Manya as the eve of the summer solstice -- a day when witches and warlocks cast there spells. (Plot point!) Farlee, a pilot himself, realizes the plane has made about five course changes and demands to know what’s going on. Concern grows in the cockpit, because no matter which way they turn, the plane isn’t moving and appears to be suspended in mid-air. (If you notice the wire holding the model, like I did, it is.) In the cargo hold, the ominous music grows louder as something tries to break out of the cargo crates -- much to the distress of Pinder’s dog. Totally entranced by the voices she’s hearing, Shelia slowly gets up and then heads back toward the cargo hold. She swoons and faints, and as the other passengers gather around to help her, she starts chanting in Latin. Pinder and Kovalik can speak the language, and realize what she’s saying, but reveal nothing. Helping Sheila back to her seat, the doctor suggests to Margot that she could use something to eat.

The other passengers hear her, pry the elevator door open, and pull her up to safety, but she’s nearly frozen to the bone. Sally heads to the cockpit and reports that the outside door of the cargo hold must have blown off. (It's the only possible explanation for the extreme cold.) Jim says that's impossible, according to his instruments, so whatever happened, it had to be caused by something inside the plane. Still, none of the instruments haven been functioning all that properly since they took off, so Slade thinks they'd better check it out. While Jim heads down to the hold, Slade asks O’Neill about his cargo. O’Neill says it’s nothing but a bunch of harmless rocks. Satisfied for the moment, the pilot heads to join Jim in the galley. As he passes Pinder, she asks him to please check on her dog.

Slade finds the dog, frozen to death, while Jim takes a closer look at the crate. Suddenly, he yells for Slade to get away. Slade turns and sees Jim has been flash frozen. As he turns to run away, something grabs his arm, and is so cold, it burns him, but he manages to get away. He calls for help up the elevator shaft. Sally, the doctor and Pinder hear him and haul him up. Slade informs them that Jim is dead and to seal the elevator shaft. As the doctor hauls him to the cockpit, to prevent a panic, Sally asks that Pinder not tell anybody about the death. But Pinder immediately (and gleefully I might add) goes and tells everyone that the flight-engineer is dead.

The passengers gather to try and make sense of what’s happening. Pinder claims that she knows exactly what’s going on: the Grove Abbey -- the chapel that’s being moved, was sacred ground to the Druids, and the altar itself (also on board) contained a druid sacrificial stone. (And I don’t have a clue what that is, but it doesn’t sound good.) Every 100 years, on the eve of the summer solstice, the druids would make human sacrifices to the "Old One." These rituals have been disrupted by the move, but the forces of nature linked to the "Old One" are still present, currently running amok, and demanding another sacrifice. Manya is horrified, and points out that tonight is the eve of the summer solstice. It's at this point we discover that Kovalik was a former priest. Having lost his faith, he scoffs at Pinder’s beliefs and heads to the lounge for another drink.

Then the plane starts shaking violently, causing the floor by the elevator to crack open and the icy fog begins to seep through. Farlee orders everyone to the front of the plane away from the cargo hold. Sally realizes that Jodi is asleep in the rear, and runs to get her, but the icy fog overcomes her. Holcomb and Margot go after her. Holcomb grabs Sally, while Margot gathers up Jodi and her doll and escapes. As the crack in the floor violently widens, the passengers hear the haunted voices calling for Sheila from below. Kovalik asks Sheila if she remembers the Latin she chanted earlier. She does and repeats it. Telling her it’s from a black mass, Pinder adds that Shelia's great grandfather was burned at the stake for being a druid, and now she too must be sacrificed to the "Old One."

Panic and survival instincts soon takes over most of the passengers, but they aren’t quite ready to throw Sheila to the wolves yet. In a bizarre twist, they take Jodi’s doll and dress her in Sheila’s clothes. They trim Sheila's nails and hair, and then glue them to the doll in an attempt to fool the spirits. Pinder, a druid herself, laughs, saying it won't work. As the others prepare the doll, Sheila turns to Kovalik for some reassurance, since he was a former priest. He has none. He’s lost his faith completely and has no belief in a god that can’t provide a single iota of his existence, and feels no one could, or should, be expected to have that much faith.

Leaving the doll by the crack in the floor, they wait to see what happens, and after a brief respite, the doll quickly dissolves into the familiar green goo. With time running out, to save everyone else, Pinder tries to convince Sheila to sacrifice herself. (Good of the many and all that. And then we’re then entreated to a infomercial on all natural druidism.) Kovalik scoffs at her, too. Anybody who has faith in anything is a fool in his eyes. He lights a cigarette and notices Pinder’s aversion to the open flame of his lighter. Kovalik then relates to everybody how people used to build huge bonfires on the highest hills to ward off the evil spirits. They would cling to the fire until dawn when the solstice officially ended, sending the spirits back to wherever they came from.

O’Neill heads for the cockpit to find out how long until the sun comes up. Slade says in about three hours, and O'Neill tells them about their plan to build a fire to hold the spirits back until dawn. He also suggests that they climb to a higher altitude so the sun will hit them sooner. (Slade thinks it’s so crazy it just might work.) The other passengers gather all the paper they can find, place them on a Formica table, and start the fire. They burn everything they can, but have to be careful as not to endanger themselves or the plane; Jodi even sacrifices her children’s book, and Holcomb and Farlee even throw their money onto the fire, but it's not enough. (Isn’t that a federal offense?)

The fire begins to die down and dawn still hasn’t arrived. Out of time and fuel, with the deathly fog inching ever closer, the passengers have turned into a mob and decide to give the spirits what they want. O’Neill tries to defend his wife, but Holcomb and Farlee beat him unconscious. Watching all of this, Kovalik makes a makeshift torch out of a magazine and heads back toward the cargo hold, taking Sheila’s place. Manya calls for him to come back. (The back of the plane is completely frozen over with the green moss.) As the others watch his progress, dawn finally breaks. Manya continues to beg him to come back, they're safe now, and he doesn’t need to sacrifice himself anymore. Kovalik retorts "I have to see it!" 

He does see it, and is horrified (but do we get to see it! Heck no.) The icy wind comes up one more time, blowing the door off, and Kovalik is sucked outside in the explosive decompression. The others scramble back into their seats, belt in, and don their oxygen masks. (It’s a good thing they were paying attention to the stewardess at the beginning of the film.) Eventually, Slade regains control of the plane and they head back to London.

Obviously, The Horror at 37000 Feet was a made for TV movie. There are plenty of scenes that end with a fade to black for commercial breaks that aren’t there. It felt like a really long episode of The Night Gallery, or any other one of those '70s horror anthology shows. (You know, the ones they used to show on the Sci-Fi Channel around 4 a.m.)

There’s plenty of scenery eating, mostly by Shatner, to qualify as a real cinematic treat. I gave this film a Vomit Bucket because I was trying to keep up with Wild Bill as he drank. (Jeezus the guy pounds the liquor in this film.) And matching Shatner toe to toe in the over-acting department is Lyn Loring. It was her idea to substitute the doll as a sacrifice, and you can easily gauge her emotional state by the shade of her blushing cheeks. Tammy Grimes leaves her teeth marks on several pieces of furniture as well. 

By the end, I was rooting th "Old One" on, and wanted him to kill everybody on board after they killed the only likeable character on the plane. No, not Russell Johnson -- Pinder’s dog. I also found it funny that the characters seemed able to actually hear the ominous choral music emitting from the cargo hold.

If you sit down and think about it, though, the most enjoyable thing about this film -- aside from those swinging stewardess outfits, is when you realize you’ve just witnessed Captain Kirk, the Professor, Jed Clampett, that guy from The Invaders, and The Rifleman kick the devil’s ass at 37000 feet.

Posted: 09/16/00. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

Questions? Comments? Shoot me an e-mail. My dubbing policy.

How our Rating System works. Our Philosophy.