Snakes on a Plane
Year: 2006
Director: David R. Ellis
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies & Nathan Phillips
Runtime: 106 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 01/06/21
Director: David R. Ellis
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies & Nathan Phillips
Runtime: 106 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 01/06/21
Snakes on a Plane was a difficult film to miss when it released in 2006. Not because the film was really good or really bad, but just because of the premise and the films extremely straight to the point title. Theoretically you know what you’re getting yourself in for with Snakes on a Plane, it’s extremely self-explanatory. Yet for all the social media buzz the film got in the lead up to its release, to the point where it became so viral that traditional news outlets began talking about the film too, surprisingly few people ever went to watch it. It only doubled its $30 million budget (which considering how much hype there was for the film is a massive underperformance), and whilst it’s definitely had a bit more success with its home media releases, it’s still quite surprising to find out just how many people can quote the films iconic “I’m tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane” scene without ever having actually seen the film.
So, it’s been fifteen years since this oddity of a film came out and I haven’t seen it in about a decade, I didn’t really care for it that much when I saw it the first time, but I’ve decided to revisit the film after seeing one of my favourite film analysts, Ryan Hollinger, talk about it recently. Is it as mediocre as I remember, of is there actually something of substance hidden amongst its over-the-top premise?
Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) witnesses a murder committed by drug lord Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) and is persuaded into testifying against Kim in court by FBI Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) following an attempt on Sean’s life.
They must fly from Hawaii to Los Angeles, and to do this they occupy First-Class on a mostly empty commercial airline. The First-Class passengers are moved down into Economy-Class upon boarding the flight, much to the disdain of those who had paid for that privilege, and the flight takes off.
A couple of hours into the flight a container full of snakes, planted by an associate of Kim’s, unlocks and ejects hundreds of venomous snakes into the cargo hold. Riled up by pheromones that have circulated through the air filtration system, the snakes attack anything that moves, including each other, on sight. As the snakes make their way through the plane’s fuselage, they disrupt many of the electronic functions causing the flight to be more difficult for the pilots and leaving many of the passengers in the dark. As people begin to panic the snakes find their prey and begin to attack, injecting passengers with deadly venom, or in some cases even eating them.
Agent Flynn, along with some of the surviving passengers must find ways to keep the snakes at bay and the plane functional whilst the flight is still in the air, all whilst ground teams struggle to identify what snakes are on board and what anti-venom is needed to save any passengers that make it off the plane alive.
So, it’s been fifteen years since this oddity of a film came out and I haven’t seen it in about a decade, I didn’t really care for it that much when I saw it the first time, but I’ve decided to revisit the film after seeing one of my favourite film analysts, Ryan Hollinger, talk about it recently. Is it as mediocre as I remember, of is there actually something of substance hidden amongst its over-the-top premise?
Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) witnesses a murder committed by drug lord Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) and is persuaded into testifying against Kim in court by FBI Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) following an attempt on Sean’s life.
They must fly from Hawaii to Los Angeles, and to do this they occupy First-Class on a mostly empty commercial airline. The First-Class passengers are moved down into Economy-Class upon boarding the flight, much to the disdain of those who had paid for that privilege, and the flight takes off.
A couple of hours into the flight a container full of snakes, planted by an associate of Kim’s, unlocks and ejects hundreds of venomous snakes into the cargo hold. Riled up by pheromones that have circulated through the air filtration system, the snakes attack anything that moves, including each other, on sight. As the snakes make their way through the plane’s fuselage, they disrupt many of the electronic functions causing the flight to be more difficult for the pilots and leaving many of the passengers in the dark. As people begin to panic the snakes find their prey and begin to attack, injecting passengers with deadly venom, or in some cases even eating them.
Agent Flynn, along with some of the surviving passengers must find ways to keep the snakes at bay and the plane functional whilst the flight is still in the air, all whilst ground teams struggle to identify what snakes are on board and what anti-venom is needed to save any passengers that make it off the plane alive.
When you look at the story and premise of Snakes on a Plane, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is some campy B-Movie creature feature, and that’s exactly what the film was intended to be upon conception. It was supposed to be something more akin to Sharknado than what it actually ended up being, which is a film that’s part horror-part thriller and done with a very straight face. It wants you to take the film seriously, and so actually goes out of its way to be scary and disturbing wherever it can, but it seems to clash with the performances and dialogue that feel more akin to something from the originally intended B-Movie style.
One thing I forgot between when I last watched Snakes on a Plane and now is just how violent the film is, and how much it leans into the horror genre. From the moment the audience is made aware that the plane is unsafe, prior to any passengers even boarding the plane, the film builds tension in the same way the Final Destination films do (which is no coincidence considering director David R. Ellis was the man behind Final Destination 2). You’re given plenty of reasons to feel uncomfortable due to the environment and the people involved, everything feels volatile and ready to explode at a moment’s notice. So once the proverbial shit hits the fan and the snakes begin attacking the passengers, you’re presented with some extremely horrifying deaths that include the likes of a woman’s tongue being bitten as her head swells and her mouth froths with poison, a man being trampled to death by the other passengers, and a snake violently burrowing its way into a woman’s eye socket.
These types of scenes happen a number of times throughout the film as the snakes find new ways to intrude the safe spaces created by the passengers, and each time one happens you’re left with an eerily uncomfortable feeling as you digest what just happened. The cinematography plays into this very well by lingering on wide shots of the carnage as we’re shown the snakes slithering over dead bodies, and sometimes even out of them.
It’s distressing to say the least and certainly leaves many memorable deaths with you, but because it plays them so seriously it’s not something you feel comfortable having seen. It’s not like a slasher flick or even Final Destination to bring that up again where the deaths are all about spectacle and designed to be entertaining; but it’s instead genuinely quite unsettling and paranoia inducing.
But also unlike a slasher, the characters are given a bit more to do than just be victims for our amusement. They’re not given big character arcs or anything, but almost every single person who’s given a name is either useful in some capacity or is designed to be a reflection of how different types of people we all know would react in such circumstances. This means that despite having a very large amount of screen time, Samuel L. Jackson is kept from being a Swiss Army Knife jack-of-all trades kind of character, he’s just as vulnerable as the rest of them and has just as much to contribute.
The plane itself is as much of a character as anybody else in the film. The vast majority of the film takes place inside the confines of that vehicle, so you’re going to spend a lot of time looking at what essentially amounts to a few rows of seats, a cockpit, and a stairwell that separates First-Class and Economy. The set is really rather genius in its design because of how the filmmakers evolve each area of the plane as the film progresses. Danger zones shift from one area of the plane to another over the runtime and it’s honestly incredible how well its done. A plane is just a few metres worth of straight corridors when you really break it down, so to do as much as Snakes on a Plane does with that environment is really worthy of praise.
One thing I forgot between when I last watched Snakes on a Plane and now is just how violent the film is, and how much it leans into the horror genre. From the moment the audience is made aware that the plane is unsafe, prior to any passengers even boarding the plane, the film builds tension in the same way the Final Destination films do (which is no coincidence considering director David R. Ellis was the man behind Final Destination 2). You’re given plenty of reasons to feel uncomfortable due to the environment and the people involved, everything feels volatile and ready to explode at a moment’s notice. So once the proverbial shit hits the fan and the snakes begin attacking the passengers, you’re presented with some extremely horrifying deaths that include the likes of a woman’s tongue being bitten as her head swells and her mouth froths with poison, a man being trampled to death by the other passengers, and a snake violently burrowing its way into a woman’s eye socket.
These types of scenes happen a number of times throughout the film as the snakes find new ways to intrude the safe spaces created by the passengers, and each time one happens you’re left with an eerily uncomfortable feeling as you digest what just happened. The cinematography plays into this very well by lingering on wide shots of the carnage as we’re shown the snakes slithering over dead bodies, and sometimes even out of them.
It’s distressing to say the least and certainly leaves many memorable deaths with you, but because it plays them so seriously it’s not something you feel comfortable having seen. It’s not like a slasher flick or even Final Destination to bring that up again where the deaths are all about spectacle and designed to be entertaining; but it’s instead genuinely quite unsettling and paranoia inducing.
But also unlike a slasher, the characters are given a bit more to do than just be victims for our amusement. They’re not given big character arcs or anything, but almost every single person who’s given a name is either useful in some capacity or is designed to be a reflection of how different types of people we all know would react in such circumstances. This means that despite having a very large amount of screen time, Samuel L. Jackson is kept from being a Swiss Army Knife jack-of-all trades kind of character, he’s just as vulnerable as the rest of them and has just as much to contribute.
The plane itself is as much of a character as anybody else in the film. The vast majority of the film takes place inside the confines of that vehicle, so you’re going to spend a lot of time looking at what essentially amounts to a few rows of seats, a cockpit, and a stairwell that separates First-Class and Economy. The set is really rather genius in its design because of how the filmmakers evolve each area of the plane as the film progresses. Danger zones shift from one area of the plane to another over the runtime and it’s honestly incredible how well its done. A plane is just a few metres worth of straight corridors when you really break it down, so to do as much as Snakes on a Plane does with that environment is really worthy of praise.
If there’s anything that sticks out like a sore thumb though it’s basically anything that doesn’t take place on the plane. Whilst I appreciate the film wants to explore what the kind of procedure would be on the ground for dealing with an outbreak of venomous snakes on a flight in progress, it really drags the fast pace of the film to a grinding halt as you’re taken away from the danger and left in the hands of some very uninteresting characters.
As a result, the film does overstay its welcome at just over an hour and forty minutes, realistically I think the film could have lost around twenty minutes and not lost anything of real value. It would have tightened up the pacing significantly and whilst it may have meant losing the insight gained from the ground, this kind of film isn’t really in need of that information.
Whilst I won’t say that Snakes on a Plane is a must watch, it is certainly worth checking out if you have even a passing interest in it. There’s a lot it actually does really well and I think people are often too eager to pass it off as a dumb film because of the title and the underwhelming, sometimes tone deaf dialogue. Should Snakes on a Plane have been campier? Probably. I think it does the whole serious horror thing really well, but with a title like that and the way it was marketed probably takes a lot of people by surprise when they realise just how dark it actually is, which has only hurt its reputation.
It’s an intriguing oddity that isn’t like what you would usually find Hollywood churning out, so it’ll give it credit where it’s due. But it’s unlikely to blow you away and you’ll likely want it to be finished long before the credits actually roll.
As a result, the film does overstay its welcome at just over an hour and forty minutes, realistically I think the film could have lost around twenty minutes and not lost anything of real value. It would have tightened up the pacing significantly and whilst it may have meant losing the insight gained from the ground, this kind of film isn’t really in need of that information.
Whilst I won’t say that Snakes on a Plane is a must watch, it is certainly worth checking out if you have even a passing interest in it. There’s a lot it actually does really well and I think people are often too eager to pass it off as a dumb film because of the title and the underwhelming, sometimes tone deaf dialogue. Should Snakes on a Plane have been campier? Probably. I think it does the whole serious horror thing really well, but with a title like that and the way it was marketed probably takes a lot of people by surprise when they realise just how dark it actually is, which has only hurt its reputation.
It’s an intriguing oddity that isn’t like what you would usually find Hollywood churning out, so it’ll give it credit where it’s due. But it’s unlikely to blow you away and you’ll likely want it to be finished long before the credits actually roll.