Sticking closely to the source, resisting any urge to 'flesh out' Frederick Forsyth's lovely little Christmas ghost story this film is all the better for it. I'm sure it was done this way because Travolta had his own near death experience thanks to a total electrical failure in 1992, so he felt no need to explain to the hard of learning.
An RAF pilot, having already phoned his mother to say that he won't be able to get home in time, unexpectedly gets the chance to fly home from Germany to England on Christmas Eve in 1957, heading out into the night sky just before the station shuts down for the night.
As he crosses the Dutch coast his compass, and then all of his electrical systems, fail and he has no idea where he is and is unable to raise anyone on his radio. He begins flying a triangular pattern in the hope of being detected, but gradually comes to accept that he is lost and will have to ditch in the North Sea with absolutely no guarantee of being found and with nobody expecting him. He composes a note to his girlfriend and prepares to meet his fate.
And then below him he sees, scudding along the cloud tops, a WWII era RAF Mosquito...
To clear up a couple of misconceptions:
* The Vampire had only been retired from front line fighter service by 1957 - and you can see its successor in the role, a Hawker Hunter, in the background as the Vampire is pushing back. Vampires were still in use as trainers;
* But anyway a Vampire is what Frederick Forsyth flew in the RAF (you did notice that the pilot was called Freddie, yes?);
* It's a ghost story - the wrong call signs are a *clue* that something is abnormal - Freddie was using NATO standard;
* The "bad CGI" is nothing of the kind - all of the flying visuals are references to Chris Foss's illustrations of the original novella, which are beautiful and somewhat impressionistic;
* He couldn't just turn back, he was over the sea and had lost his compass. Night flying over the sea is incredibly dangerous if a pilot loses situational awareness. Also, he would risk flying into East German airspace and being shot down (Cold War, innit?). So he followed established emergency procedure and flew triangles...which is also how his fuel was used up;
* Oh yes, and a backup magnetic compass is no use if you don't know your position.
Blimey, some people don't deserve nice stuff.
An RAF pilot, having already phoned his mother to say that he won't be able to get home in time, unexpectedly gets the chance to fly home from Germany to England on Christmas Eve in 1957, heading out into the night sky just before the station shuts down for the night.
As he crosses the Dutch coast his compass, and then all of his electrical systems, fail and he has no idea where he is and is unable to raise anyone on his radio. He begins flying a triangular pattern in the hope of being detected, but gradually comes to accept that he is lost and will have to ditch in the North Sea with absolutely no guarantee of being found and with nobody expecting him. He composes a note to his girlfriend and prepares to meet his fate.
And then below him he sees, scudding along the cloud tops, a WWII era RAF Mosquito...
To clear up a couple of misconceptions:
* The Vampire had only been retired from front line fighter service by 1957 - and you can see its successor in the role, a Hawker Hunter, in the background as the Vampire is pushing back. Vampires were still in use as trainers;
* But anyway a Vampire is what Frederick Forsyth flew in the RAF (you did notice that the pilot was called Freddie, yes?);
* It's a ghost story - the wrong call signs are a *clue* that something is abnormal - Freddie was using NATO standard;
* The "bad CGI" is nothing of the kind - all of the flying visuals are references to Chris Foss's illustrations of the original novella, which are beautiful and somewhat impressionistic;
* He couldn't just turn back, he was over the sea and had lost his compass. Night flying over the sea is incredibly dangerous if a pilot loses situational awareness. Also, he would risk flying into East German airspace and being shot down (Cold War, innit?). So he followed established emergency procedure and flew triangles...which is also how his fuel was used up;
* Oh yes, and a backup magnetic compass is no use if you don't know your position.
Blimey, some people don't deserve nice stuff.