History Film / TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 cargo plane, owned by the Arabco oil company and piloted by Frank Towns ([[Creator/JimmyStewart James Stewart]]) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough), is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. Among them are two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who have hitched a ride; eight Arabco employees, including riggers Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy) and "Rat Bags" Crow (Ian Bannen), accountant Standish (Dan Duryea), and foreman "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who is suffering from a mental breakdown; Renaud (Christian Marquand), a French doctor attending Cobb; and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger), a German aeronautics engineer who is returning from visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

** [[ViolentGlaswegian 'Ratbags' Crow]] spends most of the film poking fun at the other characters in ways he alone seems to find amusing. When he notices Dorfmann obsessing over his calculations, he jokes that it's a wonder the Germans didn't win [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]]. Dorfmann, clearly uninterested in the subject, says he wasn't involved; Crow then jokes to the other passengers that Dorfmann's non-involvement must be the reason the Germans lost.[[note]] In reality, Hardy Krüger was conscripted into the ''Wehrmacht'' in 1944, aged 16, and then into the SS a year later.[[/note]]

* AndStarring: Includes several levels of this. The opening credits begin as follows: "An Associates and Aldrich Company Production starring / [[Creator/JimmyStewart James Stewart]] / Richard Attenborough / Peter Finch / Hardy Kruger / Creator/ErnestBorgnine as Trucker Cobb / in ''The Flight of the Phoenix''". But Borgnine's credit is just the beginning - they continue with "Co-starring Ian Bannen / Ronald Fraser / Christian Marquand / Dan Duryea as Standish". And they're still not done, moving on to "Also starring George Kennedy / Gabriele Tinti / Alex Montoya". And that's still not the end, as they continue with "Featuring Peter Bravos / William Aldrich / and Barrie Chase as Farida".[[note]] Bravos and Aldrich die in the crash immediately after the opening credits, and Chase only appears in a flashback/hallucination.[[/note]]

* LastNameBasis: Several of the survivors are only addressed by their last names, including Harris, Watson, Renaud, and Standish (in the case of the two soldiers and the doctor, some characters don't even bother using their professional titles). "Trucker" Cobb and "Ratbags" Crow are given nicknames (though Cobb is never addressed as "Trucker" in the film, while only Carlos addresses Crow as "Ratbags"), but no first name.[[note]] As he dies, Cobb traces the name "E. Cobb" in the sand, but we never learn what the "E" stands for.[[/note]] Only four characters get first ''and'' last names (Frank Towns, Lew Moran, Heinrich Dorfmann, and Mike Bellamy).

* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VtzM16bxvk "Lilliburlero"]], a marching tune attributed to Henry Purcell but believed to be of ultimately Irish origin, is used as a theme for Captain Harris due to its association with the British Army.[[note]] Aldrich would use "Lilliburlero" as a leitmotif for the British Army again in his 1970 film ''Too Late the Hero''.[[/note]]

** Tassos and Bill, the unfortunate saps that get crushed by heavy equipment during the plane crash, are around for just long enough for us to learn that Tassos plays the bouzouki and Bill likes reading ''Playboy''. After the crash, we see Tassos' bouzouki smashed into kindling and Bill's magazine lying by his lifeless hand.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 cargo plane, owned by the Arabco oil company and piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough), is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. Among them are two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who have hitched a ride; eight Arabco employees, including riggers Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy) and "Rat Bags" Crow (Ian Bannen), accountant Standish (Dan Duryea), and foreman "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who is suffering from a mental breakdown; Renaud (Christian Marquand), a French doctor attending Cobb; and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger), a German aeronautics engineer who is returning from visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Trucker Cobb [[spoiler:dies of thirst about a third of the way into the film after running off into the desert without even taking a canteen]].

* BellyDancer: Sgt. Watson {{hallucinations|hallucinates}} about one he'd met named Farina.

* BellyDancer: Sgt. Watson hallucinates about one he saw once.

* GoingColdTurkey: Stranded in the desert as they are, the survivors who smoke or drink are forced to do without when their supplies of cigarettes and alcohol run out. Late in the film, Ratbags quips that he plans to write a letter to the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mirror]]'' entitled "How I gave up smoking in three days".

The film was quite popular, garnering UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Ian Bannen) and Film Editing (Michael Luciano).

The film was quite popular, garnering UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations for best supporting actor (Ian Bannen) and film editing.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 cargo plane, owned by the Arabco oil company and piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough), is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. Among them are two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who have hitched a ride; eight Arabco employees, including riggers Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy) and "Rat Bags" Crow (Ian Bannen), accountant Standish (Dan Duryea), and foreman "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who is suffering from a mental breakdown; Renaud (Christian Marquand), a French doctor attending Cobb; and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German aeronautics engineer who is returning from visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 cargo plane, owned by the Arabco oil company and piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough), is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. Among them are two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who have hitched a ride; eight Arabco employees, including riggers "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy), mild-mannered accountant Standish (Dan Duryea), and foreman "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who is suffering from a mental breakdown; Renaud (Christian Marquand), a French doctor attending Cobb; and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German aeronautics engineer who is returning from visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flight_of_the_phoenix_xlg.jpg]]

''The Flight of the Phoenix'' is a 1965 survival thriller directed by Creator/RobertAldrich, [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted from]] the 1964 novel of the same name by Creator/EllestonTrevor.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 cargo plane, owned by the Arabco oil company and piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough), is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. Among them are two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who have hitched a ride; eight Arabco employees, including accountant Standish (Dan Duryea), riggers "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy), and foreman "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who is suffering from a mental breakdown and being attended by a French doctor, Renaud (Christian Marquand); and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German civilian who is returning from visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 plane, owned by the Arabco oil company and piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough), is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. Among them are two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who have hitched a ride; eight Arabco employees, including accountant Standish (Dan Duryea), riggers "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy), and foreman "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who is suffering from a mental breakdown and being attended by a French doctor, Renaud (Christian Marquand); and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German civilian who is returning from visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

The plane is caught in a sandstorm and is forced to make a crash landing, killing two of the riggers and severely injuring a third. Though initially optimistic that they will soon be rescued, the survivors soon realise that even if they are missed, no-one knows where to look for them. While Harris decides to set out for the nearest oasis a hundred miles away on foot, Dorfmann announces that he is an aircraft designer and that he has established that they have all the parts [[TheGreatRepair to build a smaller airplane]] out of the wreckage of their aircraft. At first, Towns is dismissive of Dorfmann's idea, but Lew persuades him that the work involved will keep the survivors occupied and give them hope of returning to civilisation. The construction proceeds smoothly apart from the increasing friction between Dorfmann and Towns, until, with the new aircraft nearly complete (and dubbed the ''Phoenix'' by Standish), Dorfmann stuns Towns and Lew with a revelation about his professional background.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flight_of_the_phoenix_xlg.jpg]]

''The Flight of the Phoenix'' is a 1965 film directed by Creator/RobertAldrich, [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted from the 1964 novel of the same name]] by Creator/EllestonTrevor.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough) is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. They include two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who are hitching a ride on Towns' plane; eight Arabco oil company employees comprising six riggers who include sardonic Scotsman "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and muscular American Mike Bellamy (Creator/GeorgeKennedy), an accountant, Standish (Dan Duryea), and a foreman, "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who has suffered a mental breakdown and is accompanied by a doctor, Renaud (Christian Marquand); and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German civilian who was visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

** [[ViolentGlaswegian Ratbags Crow]] spends most of the film poking fun at the other characters in ways he alone seems to find amusing. When he notices Dorfmann obsessing over his calculations, he jokes that it's a wonder the Germans didn't win [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]]. Dorfmann, clearly uninterested in the subject, says he wasn't involved; Crow then jokes to the other passengers that Dorfmann's non-involvement must be the reason the Germans lost.[[note]] In reality, Hardy Krüger was conscripted into the ''Wehrmacht'' in 1944, aged 16, and then into the SS a year later.[[/note]]

* SurvivorGuilt: Capt. Towns has this when he loses two people and one is gravely injured in the crash. After Tassos and Bill are buried, Standish offers Towns his Bible and asks if he'd like to say a few words; Towns, near despair, says, "Like what?... 'Sorry'?" Later, as he is writing the crash report in his log book, he scribbles out his description of the sandstorm and simply writes "Pilot error" as the reason for the crash. The subsequent deaths of Cobb, Carlos, and Gabriele make his guilt steadily worse.

* OhCrap: Watson gets a big moment of this when Dorfmann shouts to the others that Harris has returned from his failed expedition, half-dead... which Watson already knows, as he found him several hours earlier but decided not to tell anyone (which Harris knows, as he saw Watson when the latter came over to investigate). As the other passengers run to Harris' aid, Watson closes his eyes in despair and rolls over in his bunk, certain that his life is about to get very difficult. (As it turns out, Harris is so exhausted that he says nothing about Watson's deceit, simply asking if he's been "holding the fort" in his absence and then asking him to clean the sand out of his gun.)

* PlayingSick: Sgt. Watson feigns a leg injury to get out of accompanying Capt. Harris on his attempt to walk to civilisation; Harris takes Carlos instead. Unfortunately for Watson, he gives himself away when, on discovering that Cobb has gone after Harris, he runs to inform the other passengers.

** Trucker Cobb becomes a figure of sympathy as he laments the fact that his mental breakdown has likely irreparably ruined his present and future career as an oil rig foreman (even as Renaud tries to assure him that everyone has a breaking point), and this is heightened as his sanity slips further until he makes his final suicidal trek after Harris.

* DirtyCoward: Sgt. Watson fakes a leg injury to get out of going with Capt. Harris on his attempt to walk to civilisation; Carlos, his replacement, does not survive the expedition. When Harris returns, dehydrated and half-dead, Watson is the first to find him but decides not to tell anyone (Dorfmann, the second person to discover Harris, is not as discreet). Finally, he bluntly refuses to join Harris in trying to make contact with the nomads; neither Harris nor Renaud, Watson's replacement, survive the encounter. [[spoiler:Watson, meanwhile, [[KarmaHoudini does survive the film.]]]]

** Ratbags Crow is barely able to go for a single scene without making fun of one of the other castaways; after his usual verbal jousting partner, Carlos, dies while trekking into the desert with Harris, he is left with passengers who find his sarcasm irritating rather than funny (for example, when he pretend flirts with an unamused Watson while asking him for a spanner, the latter simply tells Crow to knock it off). That said, while he's a pretty unsympathetic character (less so than Watson, maybe), he works very hard during the ordeal and never could be accused of cowardice or bringing any detriment to the group.

** He remains determined to set off for Madara, a hundred miles away, on foot, insisting that it can only improve the chance the others will be rescued, even after Towns points out that the magnetic rock in the nearby mountains will render his compass useless while Lew notes that the calculations involved in navigating by the stars require too much precision and his right-handedness and resulting uneven stride mean that he will end up simply walking in an anticlockwise circle. Sure enough, Harris ends up back at the crash site a few days later, near death from dehydration and exhaustion, his companion from the expedition, Carlos, having died in the desert.

* BedouinRescueService: Subverted - the nomads prove to be hostile, and Harris and Renaud's attempt to establish contact with them ends fatally for them.

* ClosestThingWeGot: Dorfmann only designs remote controlled model aircraft flown by hobbyists; he has never designed a plane large enough to carry a person. However, he's the closest thing available to a full-size aircraft designer, and, as he points out to the shocked Towns and Lew, the aerodynamic principles governing model aircraft are nearly identical to those for their full-size counterparts.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Trucker Cobb dies of thirst about a third of the way into the film after running off into the desert without even taking a canteen.

* TheExtremistWasRight: Dorfmann has a chance to boast when his insistence that a full-size plane and a model are built with the same proportions, and will therefore have the same result during flight, is proven correct when the ''Phoenix'' takes off.

* GermanicEfficiency / ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: When Dorfmann determines that enough pieces can be scavenged from the crashed aircraft to build a smaller model, he becomes almost obsessed with ensuring that construction proceeds to his specifications and on his schedule, and scarcely seems interested in the human cost to the other passengers. Such is his determination that he doesn't even crack a smile until Towns succeeds in starting the engine in the film's climax.

** He insists on trying to make contact with the nomads on the chance they might help the stranded passengers, even though he himself knows they are likely outside the law of their own tribe and there's nothing stopping them from killing him. When Sgt. Watson flatly refuses to accompany him, he tries to place him under open arrest and orders him to hand over his revolver; Watson again refuses. (To Harris' credit, he does realise that there is nothing he can do to force Watson to obey, and so he stops trying.) As predicted, when Harris and Renaud approach the nomads, their throats are cut and their bodies looted.
* HopeSpot: The next day the nomads appear to have left a camel for the use of the survivors. Turns out it's lame and the two men sent to talk to them have been murdered.
* IdiotBall: Captain Towns and Lew, being ''pilots'' and all, shouldn't have been so shocked that the principles of flying model aircraft and full size aircraft are the same - [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools but the tension needed to be there]].
* IKnowMortalKombat: In a non-combat version of this trope, Dorfmann doesn't actually design commercial aircraft, just scale models operated by remote control. However, the basic principles are the same, and he notes to Towns and Lew that there are extra challenges in designing model aircraft, as they have no pilots and so cannot rely on them for stability.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Watson, though a DirtyCoward and a [[PlayingSick shirker]], is correct in not following Harris, who gets two people and finally himself killed during two separate attempts to hike out of the desert, both of which (navigation problems and hostile nomads) he was warned about.

* RageBreakingPoint: Towns snaps after discovering that Harris and Renaud have had their throats cut by the nomads, and the camel they left behind was abandoned because it can't walk properly. He proceeds to empty the contents of Watson's service revolver into the camel, and when he returns to the ''Phoenix'' and an unrepentant Watson says, "He's dead, isn't he?", his anger at the sergeant's cowardice boils over and he knocks him to the ground with a single punch.

* SenselessSacrifice: Harris ends up being responsible for three of these. First, when he and Carlos strike out for Madara on foot, Carlos dies of thirst and Harris ends up walking in a giant circle back to the crash site. Second, when he and Renaud approach the nomads camped just over the dunes from the crash site, they end up with their throats cut. In both cases, he knows he is taking a potentially life-threatening risk, but [[HonorBeforeReason decides the possibility that he might be able to get help outweighs the risk.]] In fairness, he thinks the plan to get the aircraft flying will never work, so ItsTheOnlyWay of getting help.
* ShootTheDog: When Towns and Lew discover Harris and Renaud's dead bodies next to the lame camel abandoned by the nomads, Towns repeatedly shoots the camel with Watson's gun both to put it out of its misery and to release his anger at the deteriorating situation around him.

* ButIReadABookAboutIt: Dorfmann says he has experience building and designing aircraft. He later reveals he works with model aircraft, but it turns out the principles are much the same, just on a smaller scale.

* IdiotBall: Captain Towns and Lew, being ''pilots'' and all, shouldn't have been so shocked that the principles of flying model aircraft and full size aircraft are the same - [[TropesAreTools but the tension needed to be there]].