Snakes on a Plane

The plot of the movie Snakes on a Plane encompasses a murder witness being protected by FBI agent Samuel L Jackson. Mobsters who want the witness dead, smuggles snakes onto the plane they are traveling on as to prevent the witness from testifying. From the title of the film, the general story-line is fairly obvious. We decided to review this film due to it’s relevance to our line of work as snake removal and relocation specialists.

The chaos is not only ridiculous but also episodic, and ends up producing bloodied, swollen bodies and a lot of X-rated language. In the film Claire, a flight attendant and her Agent Flynn are determinedly fight off the trouble posed by these pests. Something that doesn’t quite seem to make sense is the fact that they are helped by Rick, the co-pilot who gets bitten numberous times, yet manages to survive these snake bites, while other passengers died off fairly quickly. The couple is also helped by Troy, a rapper’s bodyguard.

Corn snakes were used in the film due to their docile nature, reluctance to bite, moderate size, and attractive patterns. These snakes are only found in the United States and not in Australia. The species comes in a variety of colors, ranging from loud red to pure white. Another benefit of using the corn snakes for the film was the fact that they have an appearance which is often perceived to look “fake”. This enabled them to blend in nicely with the rubber snakes which were also used in the movie.

While this film is entertaining, albeit a little ridiculous the graphics are on point, in that the snakes did not look at all plastic. Only about a third of the snakes were actually real, however. The rest were either computer generated or animatronic. The film is a little bit lacklustre in part and somewhat predictable; but amusing nonetheless. This is not a move that will test your imagination or brainpower, but it was never meant to be anything more than a laugh. Some of the action in the movie gets a little repetitive, consisting of passengers getting bitten, clutching their wounds, gasping for air, and then dying.

It was almost inevitable that the movie would be bit of a letdown after it’s launch, however it certainly is a talking point. Snake expert Jason Clarke describes the movie as “comical”, stating that he could not even take the movie seriously due to the movement of the snakes. We’re pretty sure however, that this movie was never really meant to be taken seriously.

Many of the actions performed in the film are not able to be made by real snakes. The film crews were adamant that the snakes were brought to life through CGI and that none of the live specimens were harmed during the shooting of the movie. We certainly hope this to be true, knowing how docile and friendly corn snakes can be in person. Other scenes we found funny include one where the snakes switch from the real ones to the rubber snakes during an attack.

While this wasn’t Samuel L. Jackson or David R. Ellis’ (the Director) greatest movie, it was entertaining enough for us to recommend watching it if you haven’t already. The film does get tiresome in parts but there are enough moments with comedic value, whether they be purposeful or not, to make it worth a watch.

If you like movie reviews feel free to take a look at our recent review of Bee Movie as well.