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The Terminal (2004)
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 is stuck in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal when he is denied entry to the United States, but is unable to return to his native country because of a military coup.
Directed by Steven Spielberg · Shot by Janusz Kamiński · Cut by Michael Kahn · Music by John Williams · 128 min
How it was made
- Unable to find a real airport willing to host filming for the length of the shoot, Spielberg had the terminal built inside a hangar at LA/Palmdale Regional Airport originally used to construct the Rockwell B-1B bomber; the set was built to full earthquake code and modelled on Düsseldorf Airport.
- Because the terminal's cross-section resembled an aircraft wing viewed sideways, the production became one of the first films to use the Spidercam, a rig normally used for televised sports, to shoot sweeping moves across the set.
- Tom Hanks based Viktor Navorski's accent and mannerisms on his father-in-law, a Bulgarian immigrant who spoke Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek and some Italian and French, with additional coaching from a Bulgarian translator.
- Composer John Williams wrote a full national anthem for the film's fictional country, Krakozhia.
- Clarinetist Emily Bernstein, who played several prominent solos on the score, was being treated for cancer during recording and died less than a year later; Spielberg insisted her name appear in the credits, unusual at the time for an individual orchestra musician.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Steven Spielberg
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