paulgmoffat In the book, there were only about 5 survivors, and the rest that remained 'alive' were severely brain damaged due to the period of decompression, after all, the plane was at 62,000 feet. The need to down the plane thus ensued to limit the legal fallout over so many 'walking dead'. Get the book.

RLARKT199 Considering this is a made for TV movie,the special effects were above the normal TV standard. Some good movie actors,Dean Cain and Adrian Quinn star in this film. I was able to purchase a DVD copy of this film,Mayday,through the German DVD shops which can be found on the web-sites. Grant you,this a made for TV film, it was not bad. The special effects,when the missal hit the plane,was well done. If you should wish to purchase a copy of this DVD from Germany,make sure your DVD player plays the European standard,pal system,if it does not,your player will not be able to play it. Does your player play other region DVD's,check your manual. I the player was purchased in the USA or Canada,no doubt it is region one. Here in Canada,multi region DVD players are for sale,or,do this,on the internet,type in DVD hackers list,this list lists all the players that are capable of playing this region DVD. It also gives instructions on how to change the region codes on your player,many DVD player,this can be done. Good luck.

Eric-62-2 I have been a fan of the novel "Mayday" since it first came out in 1978 which was when pilot Thomas Block had sole author's credit. It was a very effective, chilling take on the familiar "airplane disaster" type story that had become popular in the wake of the Airport movies. I also enjoyed the 1997 update which gave us a more dramatically effective ending. Because of that intimate familiarity with both versions of the novel, I really had low expectations for a two hour TV production, because (1) I knew that would not give us enough time to do the story justice and (2) we would be spared depiction of what is the novel's really most chilling aspect, the fact that the surviving passengers are turned into brain-dead zombies for all intents and purposes, and are as much an obstacle to the plane's ability to get back as the conspiracies of Commander Sloan and the Airline executive/Insurance company respectively.So, coming in with low expectations, I came away for the most part not too bothered by the changes that were made. I was in fact grateful that the Navy comes off better in this telling of the tale than they do in the novel with Lieutenant Matos ultimately defying Commander Sloan, and Admiral Hennings deciding to blow the whistle on Sloan's actions (in the novel, Sloan manages to trick Matos into crashing his plane so he can be killed as a witness, and the guilt-ridden Admiral Hennings commits suicide. Sloan ultimately gets arrested when its revealed his office was tapped). Also, I was glad they cut out the implausibly stupid romance of John Berry and flight attendant Sharon Crandall that developed along the way.On the down side, the film was stuck with the dated source material by having a cockpit crew of three which was normal back in the 70s but is no longer so today. Also, the ending was soft-pedaled completely, leaving out the brain damage effects consequences to the passengers, and implying that many of them will ultimately recover, and leaving out the improved ending of the 97 novel where airline exec Johnson boards the plane to try and remove the incriminating printout documents and has his confrontation with Berry. The subplot added of other passengers trapped in the Conference Room proved pointless, and the matter of Harold Stein still being alive at the end, rather than committing suicide earlier was a weak point too.All in all, if you're a fan of the novel, you'll consider this a tepid "by-the-numbers" adaptation that failed to take advantage of how more chillingly effective the story could have been on the big screen. If you're not familiar with the novel at all, I won't blame you for finding the whole thing wildly implausible and silly and would recommend getting the novel, whether the 78 original or the 97 rewrite.

V-Man Given the fact that its a made for TV B-movie, it was pulled off nicely. Many complain about the realism, but how many action movies depict an actual decompression semi-accurately? At least they acknowledged that oxygen deprivation will kill or render a person unconscious. Besides that, its not an action movie like many other airplane movies. What intrigued me is the moral and ethical struggle posed. This is what the movie is trying to say, that every day things depicted in the movie can actually happen. How many already have and been covered up in such a way? As for the quirks, it was amusing to see Dean Cain in an antagonist role for once, but the so called "navy headquarters" was reminiscent of a WW2 battle room.