How the Snakes on a Plane hype started….
Way back in 1999 the fledgling internet had proved itself as possibly the most invaluable of marketing tools when the filmmakers behind ‘The Blair Witch Project’ built up a whole load of hype for the film having put together a website that supported the fictional myth behind the film. By 2006 the film world had embraced the internet’s publicity capability and it was a disaster film that found that it was the fans who did the work for them. That film was ‘Snakes on a Plane’ a title that did what it said on the tin and when the then all powerful film website ‘Ain’t It Cool.com’ broke the news of a film that had used its title as a pitch, had been greenlit, was about to go into production and would star Samuel L Jackson the internet went wild and the studios marketing department had one of their easiest campaigns, sitting back to watch the fans take the film viral. It was embraced it with endless combinations of the film’s title getting ever more ludicrous often to hilarious effect.
THAT notorious Snakes on a Plane quote….
It also had one of films great quotable lines with Jackson, sick of the mayhem the snakes are causing, yelling, “I have had it with these motherf***ing snakes on this motherf***ing plane!” which had audiences amending and quoting it for their own ends though when it came to being shown on TV it became, “I have had it with these monkey-fightin’ snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane!”.
The Plot…..
Little about the plot needed explaining but it featured Jackson as an FBI agent on a plane flight from Honolulu to LA escorting a witness to a murder but both are unaware that the mob has stocked a cargo of highly venomous snakes timed to release when the plane has taken off.
Behind the scenes …..
Written by the late John Heffernan with Sebastian Gutirrez and David Dalessandro in what was their debut script that was picked up by New Line cinema. But once the film’s production had gone viral they took on fan suggestions of their expectations of what they wanted to see so the nudity and gore increased with enough kills to make even the most snake friendly audiences wince. And the films premise meant there was an almost endless amount of dislikeable and easily disposed of passengers to meet a gruesome demise.
The mayhem was orchestrated by the late David R Ellis a former stuntman who was ideally suited to the material having helmed ‘Final Destination 2’ a few years previously with its finely tuned set pieces and here he used a snakes POV shot using night vision as they slithered around the plane. A high concept film whose pitch was its title saw him turn Snakes in a Plane into a morgue in the sky as the bodies piled up with no character spared.
Those bonus features…..
Released now on a Limited Edition blu-ray the bonus features include:
- Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by critics Max Evry and Bryan Reesman
• Archival cast and crew audio commentary, featuring director David R. Ellis, actor Samuel L. Jackson, producer Craig Berenson, associate producer Tawny Ellis, VFX supervisor Eric Henry, and second unit director Freddie Hice
• Snakes on a Page, a brand new mini-documentary exploring the movie tie-in novelization phenomenon, featuring publisher Mark Miller, historian David Spencer and Christa Faust, author of the Snakes on a Plane novelization
• Pure Venom, an archival feature on the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast and crew
• Meet the Reptiles, an archival featurette on the work of snake wrangler Jules Sylvester and the various snakes featured in the film
• VFX, an archival featurette on the use of CGI to bring the snakes to life
• Snakes on a Blog, an archival featurette on the online hype surrounding the film prior to its release
• Snakes on a Plane music video
• Making of the music video
• Gag reel
• Trailers and TV Spots
• Image gallery
• Easter eggs
• South Pacific Airlines safety instruction card
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Daniel Burnett and Charlie Brigden
There’s a fair amount of archival features that have carried over on to this new disc and the commentary with Jackson, Ellis and senior members of the crew is a lot of fun, far more so than the new commentary by a pair of critics. The Snakes on a Blog and Snakes on a Page are interesting featurettes making this a decent enough disc.
When Snakes on a Plane was finally released back in summer 2006 it was a modest success earning $62m off a $33m budget but it wasn’t enough to prompt a sequel being greenlit which is a shame as Snakes on a Plane remains one of the ultimate Saturday night popcorn movies.
related feature : ‘Fall’ – director Scott Mann tells us about his 2000ft in the air disaster film
related feature : Career Ruining Movies – Part 3
Here’s the Snakes on a Plane trailer ……
Snakes on a Plane – Blu-Ray LIMITED EDITION is available from 19th Jan 2026
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