The Terminal

The Terminal is a 2004 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stanley Tucci. The film is about an Eastern European man who becomes stuck in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal when he is denied entry into the United States and at the same time is unable to return to his native country because of a military coup.

For other uses, see Terminal (disambiguation).
The Terminal
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySteven Spielberg
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by
Starring
Zoe Saldana
Music byJohn Williams
CinematographyJanusz Kamiński
Edited byMichael Kahn
Production
company
Distributed byDreamWorks Pictures
Release date
  • June 18, 2004 (2004-06-18)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish, Bulgarian
Budget$60 million[1]
Box office$219.4 million[1]

The film is partially inspired by the true story of the 18-year stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in Terminal 1 of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, from 1988 to 2006.[2] After finishing his previous film, Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg decided to direct The Terminal because he wanted to next make a film "that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world". Due to a lack of suitable airports willing to provide their facilities for the production, an entire working set was built inside a large hangar at the LA/Palmdale Regional Airport, with most of the film's exterior shots taken from the Montréal–Mirabel International Airport.

The film was released in North America on June 18, 2004 to mildly positive reviews and was a commercial success, earning $219 million worldwide.

Plot

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a traveler from the fictional nation of Krakozhia, arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, only to discover that his passport is suddenly no longer valid. The United States no longer recognizes Krakozhia as an independent country after the outbreak of a civil war, and Viktor is not permitted to either enter the country or return home as he is now stateless. Because of this, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizes his passport and airline ticket.

Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), the temporary customs director of the airport, sees no other option but to let Viktor stay in the transit lounge until the issue is resolved. Viktor settles in at the terminal with only his luggage and a Planters peanut can. Viktor finds a gate currently under renovation, and makes it his home. He befriends and assists airport employees and travelers. Among them is a flight attendant named Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom he sees periodically and tries to woo, after she mistakes him for a building contractor who is frequently traveling. Dixon, who is being considered for a promotion, becomes more and more obsessed with getting rid of Viktor. Viktor begins reading magazines and newspaper articles to learn English. After he impulsively remodeled a wall at the renovation zone, he is hired by an airport contractor and paid under the table.

One day, Dixon pulls Amelia aside and questions her regarding Viktor and his mysterious peanut can. Amelia, who realizes Viktor hasn't been entirely truthful, confronts him at his makeshift home, where he shows her that the Planters peanut can contains a copy of the "A Great Day in Harlem" photograph. His late father was a jazz enthusiast who had discovered the famous portrait in a Hungarian newspaper in 1958, and vowed to collect the autographs of all 57 of the musicians featured on it. He died before he could get the last one, from tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. Viktor has come to New York to do so. After hearing the story, Amelia kisses Viktor.

After nine months, his friends wake Viktor with the news that the war in Krakozhia has ended, and he gets a green stamp, allowing him to leave the airport. Amelia also asked her "friend"—actually a married government official with whom she had been having an affair—to get Viktor a one-day emergency visa to fulfill his dream, but Viktor is disappointed to learn she has renewed her relationship with the man during this process. Moreover, Viktor finds out that Dixon must sign the visa. Seizing the opportunity, Dixon threatens to cause trouble for Viktor's friends, most seriously by deporting janitor Gupta (Kumar Pallana) back to India to potentially face a charge of assaulting a police officer. Unwilling to let this happen, Viktor finally agrees to return home to Krakozhia. When Gupta learns of this, however, he runs in front of the plane which will take Victor back to home, effectively taking the burden off Viktor.

The delay gives Viktor enough time to get into the city. Dixon orders his officers to arrest Viktor, but they instead let him leave the airport. As Viktor is getting in a taxi, Amelia arrives in another taxi, and they briefly make eye contact. Dixon himself arrives at the taxi stand only moments after Viktor's taxi left. When his officers arrive, Dixon pauses for a moment before telling them that they have incoming travelers to handle. Viktor arrives in New York at the hotel where Benny Golson is performing and finally collects the last autograph. Then he gets in a taxi, telling the driver, "I am going home."

Cast

Production
The gigantic airport set built for the film.

Some have noted that the film appears to be inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, also known as Sir Alfred, an Iranian refugee who lived in Terminal One of the Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris from 1988 when his refugee papers were stolen until 2006 when he was hospitalized for unspecified ailments.[2][3] In September 2003, The New York Times noted that Spielberg bought the rights to Nasseri's life story as the basis for the film; and in September 2004 The Guardian noted Nasseri received thousands of dollars from the filmmakers.[4][5] However, none of the studio's publicity materials mention Nasseri's story as an inspiration for the film. The 1993 French film Lost in Transit was already based on the same story. In deciding to make the film, Steven Spielberg stated that after directing Catch Me If You Can, "I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world.... This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times."[6]

Spielberg traveled around the world to find an actual airport that would let him film for the length of the production, but could not find one. The Terminal set was built in a massive hangar at the LA/Palmdale Regional Airport. The hangar, part of the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 complex was used to build the Rockwell International B-1B bomber. The set was built to full earthquake construction codes and was based on Düsseldorf Airport. The shape of both the actual terminal and the set viewed sideways is a cross section of an aircraft wing. Because of this design, the film was one of the first to use the "Spider-Cam" for film production. The camera, most often used for televised sports, allowed Spielberg the ability to create sweeping shots across the set. The design of the set for The Terminal, as noted by Roger Ebert in his reviews and attested by Spielberg himself in a feature by Empire magazine, was greatly inspired by Jacques Tati's classic film PlayTime. Hanks based his characterization of Viktor Navorski on his father-in-law Allan Wilson, a Bulgarian immigrant, who according to Hanks can speak "Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek, little bit of Italian, little bit of French", in addition to his native Bulgarian.[7] Hanks also had some help from a Bulgarian translator named Peter Budevski.[8]

Soundtrack
The Terminal: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by
John Williams
ReleasedJune 18, 2004
StudioSony Pictures Studios
GenreSoundtrack
LabelDecca
ProducerJohn Williams
John Williams chronology
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(2004)		 The Terminal: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(2004)		 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
(2005)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Empire
Filmtracks
Movie Wave
SoundtrackNet
Track listing

All music is composed by John Williams.

No.TitleLength
1."The Tale of Viktor Navorski"4:12
2."Dinner with Amelia"8:02
3."A Legend Is Born"3:16
4."Viktor and His Friends"4:43
5."The Fountain Scene"5:33
6."The Wedding of Officer Torres"5:01
7."Jazz Autographs"3:45
8."Refusing to Escape"3:01
9."Krakozhia National Anthem and Homesickness"1:49
10."Looking for Work"3:17
11."Gupta's Deliverance"3:18
12."Finding Coins and Learning to Read"4:02
13."'Destiny' ... 'Canneloni' ... and the Tale of Viktor Navorski Reprise"5:05
14."A Happy Navorski Ending!"2:47
Total length:57:51

The clarinet piece "Viktor's Tale", also composed by John Williams, is taken from the movie's soundtrack.

Emily Bernstein recorded the clarinet solos for the score. Director Steven Spielberg - a former clarinetist himself - insisted that Bernstein's name appear in the film's end credits, although traditionally, individual musicians performing in studio orchestras remain anonymous.

Reception

Box office

The Terminal grossed $77.9 million in North America, and $141.2 million in other territories, totaling $219.4 million worldwide.[1]

The film grossed $19.1 million in its opening weekend, finishing in second, then made $13.1 million in its second weekend, dropping to third.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 61% of 206 sampled critics gave The Terminal positive reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Terminal transcends its flaws through the sheer virtue of its crowd-pleasing message and a typically solid star turn from Tom Hanks."[9] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[11]

Michael Wilmington from the Chicago Tribune said "[the film] takes Spielberg into realms he's rarely traveled before."[12] A. O. Scott of The New York Times said Hanks' performance brought a lot to the film.[13]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave The Terminal three-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "This premise could have yielded a film of contrivance and labored invention. Spielberg, his actors and writers... weave it into a human comedy that is gentle and true, that creates sympathy for all of its characters, that finds a tone that will carry them through, that made me unreasonably happy".[14] Martin Liebman of Blu-ray.com considers the film as "quintessential cinema", praising it for being "a down-to-earth, honest, hopeful, funny, moving, lightly romantic, and dramatically relevant film that embodies the term 'movie magic' in every scene."[15] For critic Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com, he regards The Terminal alongside War of the Worlds and Munich (also directed by Spielberg) as the three best films made within the studio system that comment upon the September 11 attacks.[16][17]

Krakozhia

Krakozhia (Кракозия or Кракожия) is a fictional country, created for the film, that closely resembles a former Soviet Republic or Eastern Bloc state.

The exact location of Krakozhia is kept intentionally vague in the film, sticking with the idea of Viktor being simply Eastern European or from a former Soviet republic. However, in one scene, a map of Krakozhia is briefly displayed on one of the airport's television screens during a news report on the ongoing conflict and its borders are those of the Republic of North Macedonia, but in another scene the protagonist shows his driving license, which happens to be a Belarusian license issued to a woman bearing an Uzbek name. The film presents a reasonably accurate picture of the process of naturalistic second-language acquisition, according to linguist Martha Young-Scholten.[18]

John Williams, the film's composer, also wrote a national anthem for Krakozhia.[19]

Tom Hanks’ character speaks the Bulgarian language as his native Krakozhian, but in one scene where he helps a Russian-speaking passenger with a customs related issue, he speaks a constructed Slavic language resembling both Bulgarian and Russian.[20][21]

See also

References
  1. The Terminal at Box Office Mojo
  2. Gilsdorf, Ethan (June 21, 2004). "Behind 'The Terminal,' a true story". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  3. Duncan Walker, "Life in the lounge", BBC News Online Magazine, August 17, 2004.
  4. Matthew Rose, "Waiting For Spielberg", The New York Times, September 21, 2003. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
  5. Berczeller, Paul (September 6, 2004). "The man who lost his past". The Guardian. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  6. Total Film (September 1, 2004). "The Total Film Interview - Steven Spielberg". GamesRadar+. Future plc. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  7. "Season 12 Episode 9." Inside the Actors Studio. Bravo. 14 May 2016. Television.
  8. "Tom Hanks' character in The Terminal speaks Bulgarian", YouTube.
  9. "The Terminal (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  10. "The Terminal reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  11. "Find CinemaScore" (Type "Terminal" in the search box). CinemaScore. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  12. "Flight of fancy", Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2004. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  13. A. O. Scott, "Movie review: An Émigré's Paradise Lost and Found", by The New York Times, June 18, 2004. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  14. Ebert, Roger (June 18, 2018). "The Terminal Movie Review & Film Summary (2004)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  15. Liebman, Martin (April 26, 2014). "The Terminal Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  16. Matt Zoller Seitz [@mattzollerseitz] (June 28, 2016). "That, WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE TERMINAL are the 3 best 9/11 films made in the studio system, all by the same guy" (Tweet). Retrieved August 19, 2018 – via Twitter.
  17. Matt Zoller Seitz [@mattzollerseitz] (April 1, 2018). "I keep saying I'm going to write a piece about how THE TERMINAL, WoTW and MUNICH are the 3 greatest American films about 9/11 even though none of them actually mentions it until the very last shot of the last film" (Tweet). Retrieved August 19, 2018 – via Twitter.
  18. Young-Scholten, Martha. "Hollywood: smarter than you think? Maybe". Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2007. Abstract for talk given at the University of Leeds Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, April 26, 2006.
  19. Clemmensen, Christian (June 10, 2004). The Terminal soundtrack review at Filmtracks.com
  20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dHO3naOgMc
  21. https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/31778/what-does-viktor-navorski-say-to-milodragovich-in-bulgarian
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