ALIVE (1992): What's more terrifying than the idea of Ethan Hawke as a Uruguayan rugby player? Try crash landing in the Andes and being forced to eat the flesh of dead passengers. Unless you enjoy imagining what the shanks of your fellow aisle mates taste like with a sprig of rosemary, this is one plane-crash movie that's best to pass on before flying.
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984): Not too keen on the idea of waking up mid-flight to find out the pilot has parachuted out of the plane? Then skip this Indiana Jones flick. Yes, the fedora-wearing archeologist escapes, but on the ground waiting for him are a bunch of human sacrifice loving Hindus and a whole mess of ethnic stereotypes.
EXECUTIVE DECISION (1996): Get ready to be terrified that your plane is chock-full of terrorists just itching to detonate nerve gas. This pre-9/11 action film, starring Kurt Russell and Oliver Platt, eerily anticipated that tragic day. It's a safe bet that this isn't on Delta's greatest hits collection.
CAST AWAY (2000): Tom Hanks' doughy Fed-Ex executive miraculously survives his plane's plunge into the icy ocean waters. His reward for making it out of the wreckage is several years stuck on an island with only a volleyball for company. Oh, and guess who is behing this travel nightmare -- none other than "Flight" director Robert Zemeckis.
SNAKES ON A PLANE (2006): Someone finally figured out a way to toss pythons, rattlesnakes and other venomous critters into the plane disaster genre. The only thing worse than extreme turbulence is having something nasty slither up your seat.
FLIGHT (2012): Is there a director alive whose done more to make plane travel seem terrifying than Robert Zemeckis? These cinematic depictions of aviation nightmares are all the more surprising given that Zemeckis is an avid pilot. In "Flight," he really outdoes himself: Not only is there a crazy, nausea-inducing crash, but you'll leave the theater worried your next pilot will be a coked-up drunk.
FEARLESS (1993): Jeff Bridges stars in this searing drama about a group of plane crash survivors struggling to come to terms with the loss and devastation they experienced when their flight went down in a cornfield. Yes, it's a great film, but one best watched with two feet planted firmly on solid ground.
FLIGHTPLAN (2005): It's a parent's worst nightmare. Wake up from your in-flight nap to find your daughter missing. Throw in an air marshal of dubious moral character and a bomb, then sit back and enjoy one truly horrific trans-Atlantic trip.
