Los Angeles International Airport in popular culture

Numerous films and television shows have been set or filmed partially at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), at least partly due to the airport's proximity to Hollywood studios. Film shoots at the Los Angeles airports, including LAX, produced $590 million for the Los Angeles region from 2002 to 2005.[1]

1960s – 1980s
  • In the 1966 musical film Hold On! there is a riot of teenage girls swarming aspiring starlet Cecilie Bannister at LAX.
  • In the opening credit sequence to 1967's The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's character is filmed passing wearily through an LAX concourse connection tunnel to "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel. In the 1997 film Jackie Brown, Pam Grier walks past the same spot to soaring soul music by Bobby Womack.
  • "L.A. International Airport", a song written by Leanne Scott and first recorded by David Frizzell in 1970, was covered in 1971 by Susan Raye and this version reached No. 9 on the Billboard Country Singles chart (and No. 54 on the Hot 100 singles chart). The song was re-recorded with updated lyrics in 2003 by Shirley Myers for the 75th anniversary of LAX.
  • A few episodes of the television police drama Adam-12 (1968–75) took place in and around LAX.
  • The 1976 Walt Disney comedy film No Deposit, No Return has scenes shown around the interior and the exterior of the LAX terminal.
  • Mel Brooks 1977 satirical comedy High Anxiety begins with Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Brooks) landing at LAX and having strange encounters inside the terminal.
  • A few episodes of the television police drama Columbo (1971–78) had scenes that took place at LAX, including inside the terminals and external aerial shots.
  • The 1980 Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker comedy Airplane! begins at LAX. Additionally, a twist on the iconic public announcement regarding the "white zone" is parodied in the film's opening scene.
  • Several scenes of the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger motion picture Commando were filmed at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, on the airfield, and in an LAX parking deck.
  • The 1985 film To Live and Die in L.A. featured a stunt in a terminal at LAX of Petersen running along the top of the dividers between the terminal's moving sidewalk.
  • The 1987 film The Chipmunk Adventure has its ending scene happen at LAX.

1990s
  • Stephen King's 1990 horror novella The Langoliers and its 1995 movie adaptation feature LAX as the starting point and ending destination for the protagonists.
  • The Japan Airlines commercials featuring Janet Jackson were filmed in LAX to promote their Executive class (business class) products on the then-brand new Boeing 747-400. One commercial used Tom Bradley Terminal for the "Concourse ad" which featured the song Rhythm Nation and the LAX runways were used for another commercial featuring Jackson dancing against a backdrop of Japan Airlines 747-400's to her single Escapade.
  • The opening sequence of the 1991 television series Going Places begins with the side-view of an airplane landing at the Los Angeles International Airport, followed by the view of a "Welcome to Los Angeles" sign under a highway bridge.
  • The 1994 film My Girl 2 starring Anna Chlumsky features LAX.
  • The 1994 film Clifford, starring Martin Short and Charles Grodin, was filmed in part of the terminals of LAX.
  • The 1994 film Speed, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, was filmed in part on the runways of LAX.
  • The 1995 film Heat starring Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer and Al Pacino has its ending scenes filmed at LAX.
  • The 1995 Sandra Bullock film The Net, Bullock's character finds her car missing from an LAX parking lot.
  • The 1997 film Liar Liar starring Jim Carrey features a climatic scene where Fletcher Reede (Carrey) struggles to keep his son. He hurries to LAX, but his son's plane has already left the terminal. Desperate, he hijacks a mobile stairway and pursues the plane onto the runway.
  • The 1997 film Face/Off, a chartered plane crashes into an LAX hangar in the beginning of the film.
  • The 1997 film Turbulence starring Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly features a landing attempt by Holly's character on an LAX runway.
  • The 1997 Michael Crichton novel Airframe starts with a fictional airline from Hong Kong to Denver making an emergency landing at LAX.
  • LAX stood in for Sheremetyevo International Airport, the departure airport of Air Force One, in the 1997 Wolfgang Petersen film, Air Force One
  • The 1999 Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon film Anywhere but Here was partly filmed at LAX.
  • The 1999 PlayStation video game Driver contains a mission featuring Los Angeles International.
  • The 1999 film Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton feature an opening scene where the two arrive at LAX on the same flight.
  • The music video of Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" was filmed and is set mostly at the airport. The Tom Bradley International Terminal is seen in shots and serves as a setting for the chorus. The scenes involving a Boeing 727 and where they are greeted by fans was filmed in one of the hangars of LAX. Additionally, a Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar appears when Howie D. sings the fourth verse.

2000s

2010 – present
  • In a 2010 History Channel episode of Life After People, the Theme Building and LAX Control Tower are shown what would happen to them after years of neglect.
  • The 2011 episode titled "The Middle Men" from the British science fiction television show Torchwood: Miracle Day, featured LAX.
  • In the final season premiere of Lost, notably titled "LA X", the alternate timeline sequences are mostly set in LAX, which was the intended destination of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.
  • L.A. International Airport also featured in the Brett Ratner film Rush Hour where Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) board a United Airlines Boeing 747-400 bound for Hong Kong.
  • The LAX Theme Building influenced the stage set up for the U2 360 Tour.
  • In the video game Destroy All Humans!, a majestic base appears to be similar to LAX.
  • LAX was featured as a playable stage in the 2003 video game Midnight Club II.
  • In the second Splinter Cell game, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the last mission takes place in LAX where Sam Fisher infiltrates LAX via the parking garage, takes out terrorists disguised as LAX employees and rogue CIA agent Norman Soth, and disarms the ND133.
  • In 2015 science fiction action film Terminator Genisys, in the post apocalyptic future setting, the ruins of LAX airport becomes one of Skynet's concentration camps, where it also houses its prototype time machine.
  • In the 2017 drama film All Eyez on Me, the main character, Tupac Shakur is shown flying into LAX airport when going to California.

References
  1. Tony Barboza (January 22, 2007). "L.A. airports fly high with film shoots". Los Angeles Times.
  2. Chris Woodyard (September 9, 2004). "Lights! Camera! Security! Huh?". USA Today. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  3. Peppard, Alan (10 September 2004). "Best of weather for lunch". The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas. Actress Heather Locklear will be on to talk about her new NBC airport drama, LAX, which shot its pilot in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (with Alliance Airport impersonating LAX).
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