Personal disclosure: My son, Don Granger, produced this film.


More than any other genre, horror films depend on scaring the audience by manipulating emotions through suggestion. No filmmaker can ever equal what the human mind can conceive. Logic and realism set the scene, then shocks and terror take over.

When Pacific Air #121 takes off from Honolulu, its entire upstairs First Class cabin has been commandeered by FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson), who is escorting a very important government witness, surfer dude Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips), to testify against notorious gangster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) in Los Angeles. Flight attendant Claire (Julianna Margulies) is working her last trip before law school and co-pilot Rick (David Koechner) is obnoxiously lecherous, as usual. Lei-wearing passengers range from a blonde bimbo (Rachel Blanchard) with her yapping Chihuahua to an infant-toting mother (Elsa Pataky) to an arrogant rap star (Flex Alexander) with his hefty bodyguards (Kenan Thompson, Keith Dallas), plus some amorous newlyweds, unaccompanied children and an irate businessman.

Writers John Heffernan and Sebastian Gutierrez, cinematographer Adam Greenberg and director David R. Ellis waste little time getting into the nitty-gritty: hundreds of vicious, pheromone-crazed snakes wiggling out of their crates, chewing through the electrical wiring, killing the captain (Tom Butler) and sinking their fangs into hapless passengers. Meanwhile, on the ground, another FBI agent (Bobby Cannavale) recruits a snake expert (Todd Louiso) for poison control. Suspense is heightened by Adam Greenberg’s inventive cinematography, Howard E. Smith’s editing and Trevor Rabin’s music.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Snakes on a Plane slithers in with an 8. R-rated for gore and nudity, this reptilian thriller is definitely not for children. It’s the stuff of which nightmares are made.