If Airport was a prestige thriller with Oscar credentials, Airport 1975 is its glossier, louder, unapologetically pulpy little brother. And honestly? That’s its charm. Released just four years after the original, this mid-air mayhem machine dials everything up — the cast, the tension, the absurdity — and somehow, it soars.

Our entry point this time is Nancy Pryor (Karen Black), a capable stewardess suddenly thrust into the most chaotic situation imaginable: a 747 with a dead flight crew, a blind pilot, and no one left at the controls. She’s the only one onboard with any idea how to keep the plane from nosediving into the Rockies — and her only hope is the man she’s half-dating, Captain Al Murdock (Charlton Heston), a sky god with a square jaw and zero time for nonsense.

The plot is classic 1970s disaster excess: a midair collision, a helicopter mid-flight rescue, Linda Blair (The Exorcist) as a sick child in need of a transplant, Gloria Swanson playing herself (yes, really, she’s credited as Famous Actress Gloria Swanson), and a flight crew that includes Helen Reddy as a singing nun. You couldn’t make this movie now, but thank God they made it then.

Director Jack Smight (Harper, Midway) knows the assignment and delivers. He keeps the pace snappy and the melodrama bubbling, even when characters are saying things like “He’s flying blind… and so are we!” with absolute sincerity. Smight doesn’t waste time — at a breezy 107 minutes, Airport 1975 gets in, creates some airborne chaos, and gets out before the concept wears thin.

Black has taken flak over the years for her “deer-in-headlights” performance, but give her credit — she’s acting against blue screens, shouting into radios, and trying to land a plane while being directed to act terrified and heroic simultaneously. It’s a tall order, and she holds the film together with real determination. Heston, of course, brings his granite-jawed gravitas and then some. When he finally gets into that cockpit, you just know everything’s going to be fine. Probably too fine.

Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD restoration looks gorgeous. The HDR/Dolby Vision transfer, sourced from the original 35mm negative, gives Philip H. Lathrop’s cinematography real polish. Night scenes have depth, the cockpit glows with warmth, and the model work looks both charming and oddly impressive. This is ‘70s blockbuster filmmaking preserved with modern-day care.

Extras include a new audio commentary by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson, who dive into the era’s TV-star-heavy casting, the production’s practical effects wizardry, and why this wild film still works despite its cornball script and unintentional camp.

Airport 1975 isn’t trying to be high art — it’s trying to entertain, and on that front, it absolutely delivers. With a fearless stewardess, a shirt-clenching Heston, and a plot that’s one step removed from Mission: Impossible, this is peak ‘70s disaster-movie energy. Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride.