The Horror at 37,000 Feet

By Reggie's Take on March 23, 2014

Take flight in this cult-classic The Horror at 37,000 Feet, starring TV icons William Shatner (Star Trek: The Original Series), Buddy Ebsen (The Beverly Hillbillies) and Chuck Connors (The Rifleman). A 73 minute made for TV movie back in 1973.

William Shatner, who 10 years earlier had starred in the Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” plays the lead role. Shatner described his character’s demise in the movie as one of his “unique ways” of dying: “I get sucked out of an airplane while carrying a lit torch into the plane’s baggage compartment to try to confront a druid ghost.” According to Shatner, many of his fans consider the movie the worst Shatner movie ever

For the Trek fans out there it also co-starred France Nuyen, who played the title character in the TOS episode “Elaan of Troyius,” and Paul Winfield, who portrayed Captain Clark Terrell in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Captain Dathon in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Darmok.”

Made for CBS Television. The film first aired in 1973. Now available on DVD.

Synopsis:
An architect and his wife are flying from London to L.A. with an altar from an ancient abbey secured in the plane’s cargo hold. Also aboard the flight are Buddy Ebsen as a pushy millionaire, William Shatner as a drunken, cynical ex-priest, Tammy Grimes as a nutcase, and Chuck Connors as the lantern-jawed pilot. Crew and passengers come into jeopardy when an invisible demon escapes from the altar, and threatens the plane in an effort to destroy the architect’s wife.