Obligatory Snakes on an Obligatory Plane Post
August 21st, 2006
Snakes on a Plane is a not a Hollywood blockbuster. It is not Summer 2006’s version of War of the Worlds or Independence Day. It was never meant to be.
Practically from Day One, Snakes on a Plane was very obviously designed to be a Cult Film, and nothing more - and that’s exactly what it has proven itself to be: an amazingly good, entertaining, and oftimes even downright scary Cult Film whose greatest strength is its cinematic honesty, telegraphed unequivocally in its title. This is a movie about snakes on a plane. The end.
Whether Snakes on a Plane turned out to be any good as a film, or whether it proved to make tons of money or just break even, would ultimately be irrelevant to its fans, its stars, and its scriptwriters/director: as a Cult Film (much like The Blair Witch Project), it had earned its Cult and therefore its place in Cinematic History even before it hit theatres thanks to its creators’ brilliant viral marketing strategies and their brilliant willingness to actually make the film’s audience active participants in the film’s creation.
Snakes on a Plane was a guaranteed hit - albeit of a somewhat “limited” sort - from the second information about its production hit the net. First of all, the name: a true disaster-flick title if ever there was one, beating out even Towering Inferno, Meteor!, and Volcano by not only announcing exactly what the film was going to be about but also doing so in a catchy, tongue-in-cheek way that was bound to get peopled interested. The title was so great that Samuel L. Jackson purportedly signed up for the project just because the name was so great. Whether this is true or not, you now had Samuel L. Jackson, one of the Internet generation’s most beloved quote-generators, starring in a film called Snakes on a Plane that featured - what a premise! - venomous snakes loose on a plane!
Now, the film could’ve easily gotten by on its own merits at this point: it had a catchy title, and interesting basic plot, and a great actor in the lead - but the internet hype was only beginning. In the months following, the studio attempted to change the title of the film to the more understated Pacific Air Flight 121 - and the film’s “fans”, none of whom even really knew what the film would be about other than that it would have snakes plus aviation, went ballistic. Even Samuel L. wouldn’t take none a’that shite! So the title remained, and it was at this point that the nature of the film and the buzz surrounding it began to change.
The Blair Witch Project, arguably the first film to rely on Internet promotion to become a major hit, courted interest through its mysterious official website and by encouraging viral marketing (which back in my day was called “word of mouth”) to drum up excitement. This is prettymuch how Snakes on a Plane got started - but it went a step beyond when the filmmakers actually began to take input from people who wanted to see certain things in the film!
At some point, somebody said, “It just wouldn’t be a Samuel L. movie if he didn’t motherfuck the snakes at some point, as in ’I am tired of these motherfuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin’ plane!’” Weeks of humor and parodies and the usual Internet silliness ensued. And, apparently, the meme was so strong the film’s producers finally decided to add the line to the movie! The film was originally being edited and shot for a PG-13 rating…but fans (or should I call them pre-fas, since, remember, no one had even seen the damn film yet!) wanted more hideous snakebite deaths, more violence, more Samuel L. Jackson cussin’ a blue streak!
And the filmmakers agreed. They called Samuel L. and company back in to film some more snake-attack scenes and, of course, the now-famous “Motherfuckin’ snakes on a motherfuckin’ plane” line.
Hell, you could even send personalized phone messages from Samuel L. Jackson to folks to encourage them to see the film! (I was driving to Washington DC when Samuel L. called me, and, believe me, I wasn’t about to NOT do what Samuel L. told me to do!)
In the week before Snakes on a Plane officially opened, the ‘Net was seething with buzz and anticipation of the film. Hell, some fella even went out and got a Snakes on a Plane tattoo - and he hadn’t even seen a preview for the movie yet! It seemed like every Internet geek in the world was going crazy for the film. Why, when this thing opens (some industry analysts and film-critics noted), it may very well even beat Pirates of the Caribbean 2’s box-office opening records! How could it not with the entire Internet poppin and fizzing with excitement over the film’s opening?!
But Snakes on a Plane only made about $15.3 million on its opening weekend. Now, this is not a bad sum, considerig the film only cost a modest $30 mil to make - so in three days’ time, it made back about half the money spent on it. But, of course, film pundits and blockheaded industry analysts are calling it a failure and saying “so much for the Internet hype” because it didn’t earn enough money to buy a mid-sized African country on opening day.
As usual, the media has equated “internet buzz” with the term “guaranteed blockbuster” - and that’s like comparing “cult” to “Catholic Church”. They’re two totally different things, two completely different orders of magnitude. Devin Faraci of CHUD.com, one of my favorite cinema-related news’n'reviews sites, has this to say about the nature of the hype surrounding Snakes on a Plane and its so-called “disappointing” opening weekend numbers:
What’s funny is that Snakes’ modest showing now positions it to be a legitimate cult movie. You see, a cult movie can’t be touted as such by the studio. It can’t be designated as one before release by glossy Time-Warner magazines. And it certainly can’t be a big hit. By not breaking through to the mainstream, Snakes may actually become the cult movie New Line always thought it would be.
Now, Faraci prefaces this with a rather point-missing explanation that the internet buzz surrounding Snakes on a Plane arose through people mocking the absurdity of the premise, and that Samuel L. Jackson was going to star in it. Oh, certainly - a sense of “WTF?” was always present in the film’s hype from the very beginning…but, no, the film did not do “poorly” on opening day because its hype had burnt out by the time it actually opened. The filmmakers knew, at some point during the filming, that they were creating a Cult Movie, not a blockbuster. One look at the talk circulating around on the ‘Net for the past however-many years clearly would’ve indicated that this film was gathering a small but dedicated, damnear obsessed following…and that come opening day, most of the film’s earnings would come from that relatively small group of people more so than it would come from the General Public, who might be lured into the theatre by the title or the trailers, but certainly hadn’t been sitting around for the past three years creating hundreds of fan parodies, writing fanfic, and otherwise creating an almost Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque air of celebration about the film.
It seems to me that the studio was WELL AWARE of this….Else, why would’ve they brought Samuel L. Jackson back in to film the movie’s fan-supplied punchline? Why would they have spent the money to bump the film up to an R rating when, certainly, a PG-13 would’ve potentially drawn more people in to the theatres? Simple: the film was even before birth destined to be a Cult Movie, and what better way to please your Cultists than to let them take part in the process?
So. If you thought the film was going to be the Next Big Summer Movie of 2006…sorry, but that’s not what it’s all about. As Samul L. himself as said, “It’s not Gone with the Wind. It’s not On the Waterfront. It’s Snakes on a Plane!”
And it will live in film history forever not just due to its director, or its cast, or the studio that produced it…but because of all the people who got so worked up about the film that they literally ended up being a part of it.
And so we come to the Big Question I’m sure you’re dying to know: “Pegritz, what did you think of the film?” Simply put: it’s a great thriller with a great basic concept, a great cast, and a great tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. It is exactly what I expected it to be - no more, no less - and as such, it’s just a damn fun movie. Don’t expect High Art. Don’t expect Great Feeling. Expect snakes. On a plane. It’s almost Zen in its wonderful simplicity.
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Also, I really loved the movie, but I don't think it will have much long-term appeal. Things like Rocky Horror rely on schicky dialogue, bad jokes, and song and dance to keep it fun for decades on end. Snakes doesn't have any of that. Snakes on a Plane has nothing but Snakes on a Plane. I think after the giant money shot of an opening weekend, this movie will become as forgotten as movies like The Towering Inferno - movies that have a big punch the first time you see it in a theatre, but little re-watch value.
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