The Terminal (2004) on Netflix
A coup in Krakozhia leaves Viktor Navorski's passport unrecognized while he is in the air, stranding him at JFK Airport. Frank Dixon tells him to stay in the transit lounge.
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- Rotten Tomatoes61%
Trailer
Plot summary
Viktor Navorski flies from Krakozhia to New York for his first visit to the city. While he is in the air, a coup topples his country's government, and the United States refuses to recognize the new regime, which makes his passport worthless. Customs officers take his passport and return ticket. Frank Dixon, the airport's acting field commissioner, lets him stay in the transit lounge until the matter is settled, and Viktor, who speaks little English, chooses to wait there. Dixon, considered for a promotion, wants him gone. Viktor gets to know baggage handler Joe Mulroy, janitor Gupta Rajan, food service driver Enrique Cruz and immigration officer Dolores Torres, and he meets Amelia Warren, a flight attendant passing through the terminal.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Terminal (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The idea may have come from Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in Terminal One of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris from 1988 until 2006. Spielberg bought the rights to his life story and Nasseri received thousands of dollars, yet no studio publicity material mentions him.
- Spielberg traveled the world looking for an actual airport that would let him film for the length of the production and could not find one, so the terminal was built inside a massive hangar at LA/Palmdale Regional Airport once used to build the Rockwell International B-1B bomber. The set was based on Düsseldorf Airport.
- Emily Bernstein played clarinet for the score, including several prominent solos, and her name is in the end credits, though individual studio-orchestra musicians typically performed anonymously at the time. Spielberg insisted on highlighting her work; she was being treated for cancer during the recording and died less than a year later.
- Tom Hanks based his characterization of Viktor Navorski on his father-in-law, a Bulgarian immigrant who speaks "Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek, little bit of Italian, little bit of French" as well as his native Bulgarian. Hanks also had help from a Bulgarian translator.
- The set's design made The Terminal one of the first films to use the Spidercam, a camera rig most often used for televised sports, which gave Spielberg the ability to create sweeping shots across the whole space.
