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Snakes on a Plane
Directed by	David R. Ellis
Written by	Sheldon Turner Sebastian Gutierrez John Heffernan David Dalessandro
Produced by	Craig Berenson Stokely Chaffin Toby Emmerich Penny Finkelman Cox Don Granger Justis Greene Jeff Katz Gary Levinsohn Sandra Rabins George Waud David J. Taylor
Starring	Samuel L. Jackson Nathan Phillips Rachel Blanchard Mark Houghton
Cinematography	Adam Greenberg
Edited by	Howard E. Smith
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	August 18, 2006 (US) August 18, 2006 (UK) August 24, 2006 (Aus)
Running time	105 minutes (UK)
Language	English
Budget	$36,000,000

Snakes on a Plane is an high concept action/horror film, starring Samuel L. Jackson, released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006. The David R. Ellis-helmed film was created by David Dalessandro and written by himself, John Heffernan, and Sheldon Turner. The film wrapped up principal photography in September of 2005, but after popularity of the upcoming film grew to unexpected levels, the studio later ordered five days of additional re-shooting to raise the MPAA film rating system rating from a PG-13 to an R.

The film has been rated R by the MPAA for language, a scene of sexuality and drug use, and intense sequences of terror and violence.

Plot

Template:Spoiler After witnessing a brutal murder of a prosecutor committed by gangster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson), Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) is escorted by FBI agents Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) and John Sanders (Mark Houghton) to testify in a highly-publicized case. Despite increased security for the flight, Kim arranges for a time-release crate full of snakes to be placed in the cargo hold of the plane, a Boeing 747, on which Jones will be flying from Honolulu to Los Angeles. The leis given to the passengers by airport staff upon their departure had been secretly sprayed with pheromones to make the snakes more aggressive in an attempt to bring down the plane before it reaches its destination.

The crate opens midway through the flight and the snakes make their way throughout the cabin (due to a tampered-with access hatch), killing numerous passengers, one of the pilots, and Agent Sanders. The surviving passengers flee first to the front of the airliner, putting up a blockade of luggage, and when the snakes break through, they go upstairs to the first class area. Agent Flynn contacts FBI Agent Hank Harris (Bobby Cannavale) on the ground, who arranges for emergency crews to be waiting at Los Angeles International Airport. Agent Harris then calls herpetologist Dr. Steven Price (Todd Louiso), who identifies the snakes based on pictures Agent Flynn sends him via a smartphone belonging to one of the passengers. Kraitler (Darren Moore), the person who illegally obtained the snakes for Kim's use, is then taken into custody and forced to provide the antivenom for each of the snakes on the plane.

Meanwhile, Flynn goes into the bottom of the plane in order to restore the air conditioning/ventilation controls and other systems damaged by the snakes. When he returns, he finds that the surviving copilot, Rick (David Koechner) has been killed by the snakes. After all the passengers strap into their seats, Flynn decides to use his firearm to shoot out a window, which will cause the plane to depressurize and the ensuing vacuum will suck the snakes out of the plane. Flynn and another passenger, Troy (Kenan Thompson), then take the controls and land the plane at Los Angeles International Airport, thanks to his experience with a PlayStation 2 flight simulator. The film concludes with Jones and Flynn surfing, presumably in Bali. Template:Endspoiler

History

The storyline of the film is credited to the University of Pittsburgh administrator—and first time Hollywood writer—Dalessandro, who got the idea in 1992 from a nature magazine. "I read about the Indonesian brown tree snake climbing onto planes in cargo during World War II". He originally wrote the screenplay about the brown tree snake loose on a plane and called it "Venom". He soon revised it to be about poisonous snakes, and then crediting Alien revised it again to include "lots of them loose in the fuselage of a plane."

Dalessandro's third draft of "Venom" was turned down by all 30 Hollywood studios in 1995 and the Pittsburgh administrator lamented "My big foray into Hollywood. They put it on a shelf." In 1999 though a producer for MTV/Paramount followed up before NewLine took over.

The film's title and premise generated a lot of pre-release interest on the Internet. One journalist even wrote that Snakes on a Plane is "perhaps the most internet-hyped film of all time." Much of the initial publicity came from a blog entry made by screenwriter Josh Friedman, who had been offered a chance to work on the script. The casting of popular actor Samuel L. Jackson further increased anticipation. At one point, the film's working title was altered to Pacific Air Flight 121. In August 2005, a perturbed Samuel L. Jackson told an interviewer, "We're totally changing that back. That's the only reason I took the job: I read the title." In another interview in early 2006, Jackson claimed that once he learned about the movie title being changed he said: "What are you doing here? It's not Gone with the Wind. It's not On the Waterfront. It's Snakes on a Plane!" On March 2, 2006, the studio reverted the title to Snakes on a Plane.

In recognition of the unprecedented Internet buzz for what had been a minor movie in their 2006 line-up, New Line Cinema ordered five days of additional shooting in early March 2006 (principal photography had wrapped in September 2005). While re-shoots normally imply problems with a film, the producers opted to add new scenes to the film to take the movie from PG-13 into R-rated territory and bring the movie in line with growing fan expectations. Among the additions is a line that originated as an Internet parody of Samuel L. Jackson's traditional movie persona: "Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!".

On June 3 while presenting the award for best movie at the MTV Movie Awards, 2006, Samuel L. Jackson said:

I'm here tonight to present the award everyone's been waiting for: best movie. Now, this award holds a special place in my heart because next year I'll be winning it for Snakes on a Plane. Now I know, I know that sounds cocky, but I don't give a damn. I am guaranteeing that Snakes on a Plane will win best movie next year. Does not matter what else is coming out. The New James Bond... no snakes in that! Ocean's 13... where my snakes at? Shrek the Third... green, but not a snake. No movie shall triumph over Snakes on a Plane. Unless I happen to feel like making a movie called Mo' Motha-fuckin' Snakes on Mo' Motha-fuckin' Planes.

Although NewLine has hired two additional writers to smooth out the screenplay, the original idea dating back to Dalessandro's 1992 version carries the entire middle of the movie. As he put it "...once they get on the plane, mine".

Media coverage

In mid-July 2006, New Line Cinema revealed that it would not be showing any advance screenings for critics. Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com stated that "These kind of movies are marketing-driven, not critic-driven. So the only thing the critics could do is hurt it. And even if the reviews are good, they wouldn't mean much." The film debuted on August 18 with some late-night screenings on August 17. Despite the lack of advance screenings, the movie has garnered much publicity in various media.

During a July 21, 2006 panel discussion at the Comic-Con Convention in San Diego, California, a ten-minute clip from the film was shown to a crowd of more than 6,500 people. The panel included actors Samuel L. Jackson and Kenan Thompson, director David R. Ellis, and snake handler Jules Sylvester. Afterwards, fans were allowed to ask the panelists questions.

Print

Black Flame is publishing the novelization to the film. It is written by Christa Faust. On June 13, 2006, comic book writer Chuck Dixon announced on his web site that he would be writing the comic book adaptation of Snakes on a Plane. DC Comics has since announced that their Wildstorm imprint will release a two issue miniseries on August 16th and August 30th. In January 2006, Wired featured the film as "The best worst film of 2006," based solely on the title and concept of the movie.

An illustrated book from Thunder's Mouth Press, "Snakes on a Plane: The Guide to the Internet Ssssssensation" by David Waldon details the internet phenomenon and was published July 28, 2006. Waldon details various viral videos relating to the SoaP craze, and interviewed their producers to find out what about the movie captured their attention.

Music and audio

On March 16, 2006, New Line Cinema publicly announced a contest on TagWorld and a website promoting the film. The contest allowed artists on TagWorld to have their music featured on the movie. A flood of S.O.A.P themed songs by artists like Captain Ahab, Louden Swain, the Former Fat Boys, Nispy, and others are now available because of the TagWorld contest. In addition, a music video for the film, released July 10, 2006 on MTV2's Unleashed, has also generated publicity toward the movie. The video is for the first song on the soundtrack CD, Cobra Starship's "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)".

In October of 2005, Nathanial Perry and Chris Rohan recorded an audio trailer spoof, which helped fuel the internet buzz. Perry and Rohan recorded the "motherfucking snakes" line in the audio trailer which was added to the film during the week of re-shoots. In July of 2006, New Line Cinema signed a worldwide licensing agreement with the Cutting Corporation to produce an audiobook of the film.

The soundtrack is currently available for streaming in its entirety on MTV's The Leak.

Television and video

Beginning in May 2006, episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its sister show The Colbert Report contained references to Snakes on a Plane’s title, famous line, and general premise. Colbert accompanies the references with an imitation of Samuel L. Jackson saying "I am tired of these motherfucking snakes!". One notable example on The Daily Show occured just after the alleged terror plot in August 2006, which resulted in a large number of items to be banned from airplanes in the UK and USA. This story was accompanied by the satirical tagline "Snakes not allowed on a plane". On the 15th of August 2006, Samuel L. Jackson guest featured on The Daily Show, opening with his already very famous line. Keith Olbermann has featured stories about the movie and Internet buzz several times on his MSNBC news program Countdown. In addition, G4's Attack of the Show features a semi-regular segment entitled "Snakes on a Plane: An Attack of the Show Investigation", and even had a week dedicated to the movie which included interviews- including a conversation with Sunny Mabrey in a recreation of an airplane bathroom- and a day where hundreds of actual snakes were on set. Additionally, MTV Canada's MTV Live has made sketches of an eager man waiting in line for months to see Snakes on a Plane first.

In June 2006, New Line Cinema commissioned famed UK audio-visual film remixers and chop-up artists Addictive TV to cut and sample Snakes on a Plane to create trailers for the US television networks.

Internet

Snakes on a Plane became an Internet phenomenon soon after Josh Friedman's blog entry and mentions on several Internet portals. The title inspired bloggers to create songs, apparel, poster art, pages of fan fiction, parody films, mock movie trailers and even Short film parody competitions. Snakes on a Plane has also inspired the creation of graphics for fictional movies about other animals in odd settings, like "Sharks on a Roller Coaster" (Tagline: You must be this tall...to DIE!).

Snakes on a Plane was promoted highly on the Pod-cast Filmspotting, formerly known as Cinecast.

The phrase "Snakes on a Plane" has been used on Internet forums to indicate that a given topic is nonsensical. With creative uses of capital letters, bold or italic text, and punctuation the title has been manipulated to reflect surprise, horror, or absurdity, among other things. The meme is often interspersed with images of Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Mace Windu and quoting lines recalling his roles from both the Star Wars series and Pulp Fiction. The slang form "SoaP" is used in place of "Shit happens" or "Oh well, what'cha gonna do?"

A viral video entitled "Snakes on a Plane Early Auditions" features comedian Dave Coyne doing impressions of actors Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro, and muppet Beaker, doing casting auditions for the movie. The film has been featured on Digg, iFilm, YTMND, and YouTube, and was included as enhanced content on the film's soundtrack. Dave's voice acting talent can be heard in the audiobook dramatization of Snakes on a Plane.

In March of 2006, the Zebro comedy group produced the first ever Snakes on a Plane music video contest. Contestants were told to write and record original songs inspired by the movie and then make them into music videos. The top 3 videos were produced by Zebro itself, including the rap song "Snakes on an MP3" which has been featured on Extra, MTV, CNN, and MSNBC after being put on Youtube. Another song entitled "100%: A Tribute to SoaP" is a claymation video dedicated to the film. The videos are in discussion to be put on the official DVD produced by Automat Pictures.

Many of the early false trailers and other viral videos circulated via YouTube, and captured media attention there, such as:

• Snakes on a Plane Rap
• Snakes Who Missed The Plane
• Snakes on a Plane Fake Trailer
• Snakes on a Plane: How Hollywood Really Works
• Former Fat Boys Song
• All Your Snakes Are Belong To Us
• Steaks on a Train
• Short film parodies
• SoaP videos from a music video contest

On July 6, 2006, the official Snakes on a Plane website started a promotional sweepstakes called the "The #1 Fan King Cobra Sweepstakes." The contest makes innovative use of the publicity-generating potential of the Internet, requiring contestants to post links on forums, blogs, and websites and collecting votes from the users of those sites.

Recently, Varitalk has started an advertising campaign in which fans can send an amusing semi-personalized message in the voice of Samuel L. Jackson to telephone numbers of their choosing.

• Send a Samuel L. Jackson voice message about SoaP
• Listen to an mp3 of the Samuel Jackson SoaP voice message

Some people have even examined Snakes on a Plane for hidden political meanings. Richard Kim of The Nation compared the way the movie "inspires laughs and thrills" with how the Bush Administration uses the threat of terrorist attacks to instill "fear and acquiescence." Others anti-war bloggers have even analyzed Snakes on a Plane as a serious political satire that comments on the irrational fear which drives the war on terrorism. Still others have speculated that the true operative metaphor behind the need to laugh at this fear is rooted in the September 11, 2001 attacks—the animal trainer who supplied the snakes for the film shows this in his comment, "But it's that fact they sneak up and can kill you. It's one of those things, it's like a nasty little terrorist without arms".

On August 17th, several websites (including a forum dedicated to the invasion and an imageboard that created several memes revolving around the movie ) raided theaters all across the United States in an apparent "invasion". While most of these weren't noteworthy, at least one made national news .

Ratings

• MPAA- Rated R for language, a scene of sexuality and drug use, and intense sequences of terror and violence.
• BBFC- 15 (Consumer advice: Contains strong language, sex and bloody violence)
• OFLC - M for moderate horror violence, moderate coarse language, sex scene and incidental drug use.

Merchandising

Several independent T-shirt manufacturers have made T-shirts with graphics illustrating various humorous representations of the film. One, created by Jeffrey Rowland, depicts a frontal exterior view of a plane cockpit, with the pilot and copilot depicted as snakes. Another uses vintage road signs to formulate "Snakes + Plane = Snakes on a Plane". A third showed a cartoon representation of Jackson's Mace Windu character from the Star Wars series cutting down snakes with a lightsaber. It was pulled, presumably for copyright reasons.

A Snakes on a Plane t-shirt is also now available at Hot Topic retail stores. Samuel L. Jackson was dressed in the snakes in cockpit fanshirt in the official music video Snakes on a Plane, though this is only readily obvious from still photos from the day of the shoot, and only a fraction of the shirt is visible in the video. The shirt he is wearing is from TopatoCo, it is unknown if he chose the shirt himself, or if someone working on wardrobe selected it. On the August 3 2006 edition of TNA iMPACT!, wrestler Christian Cage was the latest person to sport the "road sign" t-shirt.

In a move which goes against usual movie merchandise practices, New Line Cinema partnered with CafePress.com to permit fans of Snakes on a Plane to become official licensees of Snakes on a Plane merchandise. This opened the door for millions to design and sell not only t-shirts, but other gift items such as mugs. Designers are restricted from using any copyrighted images or content created by New Line Cinema (e.g. images from the film); or images/depictions of the individual actors in the film. Fans have already responded by creating hundreds of designs including those using the full title of the film, something allowed by the New Line Cinema / CafePress partnership.

Cast

Trailers

The official teaser trailer premiered before X-Men 3: The Last Stand. and the first official trailer appeared online on June 26, 2006. Another trailer circulated in July 2006, showing several of the snake attacks and a missing pilot and co-pilot. In addition, New Line Cinema commissioned famed UK audio-visual film remixers and chop-up artists Addictive TV to cut and sample the film to create trailers for the US television networks. Rotten Tomatoes has video clips of the official trailers, as well as fan-made trailers.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on August 15, 2006 as a joint project between New Line Records and Decaydance Records.

Trivia

• In a February 1998 episode hosted by John Goodman, a similar plot was undertaken by Saturday Night Live in a sketch called "When Cobras Attack".
• The title image is a reference to the Caduceus, the staff belonging to the Greek god Hermes. If you look closely, you will find that both snakes in the image share the same tail (the one on the left), and the tail on the right is actually disembodied, not belonging to either snake. Whether this is due to an artist's error or intentional is not known.
• The phrase "snakes in the cockpit", which is said in the film, is used by pilots in reference to the high number of complex tasks they have to accomplish.
• In June 2006, a pilot had a run in with a real snake on his plane.
• No United States-based airline currently allows snakes in the main cabin area. However, some airlines allow snakes to travel as cargo.
• A rip-off horror B-movie, Snakes on a Train, was released straight to DVD on August 15, 2006, only 3 days prior to Snakes on a Plane's theatrical release.
• In the internet flash "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", Samuel L. Jackson is shown for a brief moment, and then attacked by small green snakes. The same animator made another movie based on Snakes on a Plane.
• The initial script for the film was 122 pages long when director David Ellis signed on to direct the film. After reworking the script along with his producing director and Samuel L. Jackson for more than four months, the script was narrowed down to 103 pages.

References

1. "The A.V. Club: David R. Ellis". 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
2. ^ Borys Kit (2006). "The Hollywood Reporter.com: Fan frenzy for 'Snakes' is on a different plane". Retrieved 2006-03-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
3. "The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)". 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
4. Mark Brown, "Snakes on a Plane leaves critics flying blind," The Guardian, August 18, 2006.
5. ^ Friedman, Josh (2005). "I find your lack of faith disturbing: Snakes on a Motherfucking Plane". Retrieved 2006-03-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
6. "Snakes on a Plane News at IMDB". Retrieved 2006-07-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
7. Wloszczyna, Susan (2006). "'Snakes on a Plane' sssssssays it all". Retrieved 2006-04-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
8. Matheson, Whitney (2006). "Can't stop the 'Snakes'". Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
9. Steuer, Eric. "The Best Worst Movie of the Year". Wired. January 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
10. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156025971X
11. "TagWorld and New Line Cinema Team for Snakes on a Plane Soundtrack Contest" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-03-18.
12. "TagWorld :: snakesonaplane's - Home". Retrieved 2006-03-18.
13. Fan frenzy for 'Snakes' is on a different plane Hollywood Reporter. March 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
14. Snakes on a Plane in GraphicAudio Retrieved August 07, 2006.
15. http://www.mtvu.com/music/the_leak/snakes_on_a_plane/
16. "Snakes on a Plane Early Auditions" YouTube. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
17. "" Email. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
18. Official Trailer. Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
19. "Snakes on a Plane." Alliance Atlantis & Odeon Films. Retrieved July 22, 2006.]
20. "Snakes on a Plane trailers". RottenTomatoes.com. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
21. Amazon.com: Snakes on a Plane: The Album: Music: Original Soundtrack. Retrieved July 21, 2006.
22. Foxnews.com: Pilot Fights Black Snake Stowaway on Plane." Retrieved July 22, 2006.

External links

• Official website
• Template:Ymovies title
• Snakes on a Plane at Rotten Tomatoes
• Snakes on a Plane at Metacritic
• Snakes on a Plane at Box Office Mojo
• Snakes on a Plane Cast Interview at yourMovies.com.au
• Snakes on a Blog
• Black Flame, publishers of the tie-in novel
• Interview with Dylan Innes, Production Assistant on Snakes On A Plane
• NPR Story About "Snakes on a Plane"
• Snakes on a Plane at Salon.com
• Snakes on a YTMND
• Snakes on a Plane at the Internet Movie Database.

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• 2006 films
• Films about animals
• American films
• English-language films
• Films set on an airplane
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• Internet memes
• New Line Cinema films
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• Snakes on a Plane
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• Samuel L. Jackson Films