The Terminal
Life is waiting.
The Terminal (2004)
Budget
$60 000 000
Revenue
$218 685 607
Director
Scenario
Andrew Niccol
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Tom Hanks
Viktor Navorski
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Amelia Warren
Stanley Tucci
Frank Dixon
Chi McBride
Mulroy
Diego Luna
Enrique Cruz
Barry Shabaka Henley
Thurman
Kumar Pallana
Gupta Rajan
Zoe Saldaña
Torres
Short description
Viktor Navorski arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as a visitor from an Eastern European country. While he is in the air, a coup takes place at home, leaving his passport invalid and his nationality unrecognized. American authorities will not let him enter the country, and he cannot fly back, so he settles into the airport terminal itself, sleeping on benches and living off what he can find. There he befriends several employees, takes on work inside the terminal, grows close to a flight attendant named Amelia, and draws the attention of Frank Dixon, an airport official who regards him as a bureaucratic problem he would like to remove.
Steven Spielberg directed the film, the twenty-seventh of the forty he has directed in chronological order, following Minority Report and preceding Munich. Jeff Nathanson and Sacha Gervasi wrote the screenplay, and Spielberg produced with Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. Tom Hanks plays Viktor, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Amelia and Stanley Tucci as Dixon, among a credited cast of sixty-two and a crew of ninety-three.
Released in June 2004, the film cost about 60 million dollars and took in roughly 219 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.4 out of 10 from 533,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4 out of 10 from 8,970 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4 out of 10 from 207 reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- When Viktor approaches the immigration officer again, attempting to obtain permission to enter the United States, he holds several documents, including a driver's license issued by the Republic of Belarus in the name of Gulina Gulnar Nazirovna (in Cyrillic), issued in the city of Gomel.
- The jazzman from whom Navorski gets an autograph for his father – Benny Golson (who plays himself in the film's final scenes) – is a famous American jazz saxophonist who was actually present in the famous photograph “Harlem-1958,” which gathered many great jazz musicians of the 20th century.
- During dinner scenes with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gupta juggles the tableware. He was played by Kumar Pallana, who was previously a juggler and toured various countries.
- The role played by Chi McBride was originally intended for Bernie Mac.
- Officer Torres, played by Zoe Saldana, states in the film that she is a fan of "Star Trek." The actress actually appeared in the films "Star Trek" (2009) and "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013).
- The film is based on a true story that happened to Merhan Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian citizen who “got stuck” in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in France in 1988 (his briefcase with all documents was stolen).
- Filming of the movie began on October 1, 2003, after Tom Hanks finished filming “The Terminal” (2004).
- Initially, Andrew Niccol was supposed to direct the film, having rewritten the first version of the script.
- Initially, it was planned that the main character, played by Tom Hanks, would come from Slovenia, but the former Consul of Slovenia to the USA pointed out (quite rightly) that some call Slovenia "Eastern European Switzerland," so a civil war would hardly break out in such a country.
- To film the movie, director Steven Spielberg had to build an exact replica of a modern airport terminal.
- The airport sets replicated Düsseldorf International Airport in Germany. The sets were built to almost full scale in one of the vacant hangars. They included three working escalators and replicas of popular brands (such as 'Burger King' and 'Mrs. Fields' restaurants and the 'W.H. Smith' bookstore and stationery retailer). It should be noted that working equipment, such as ovens and cash registers, was even installed in some places. 'DreamWorks Pictures' sought permission from some of these brands to feature them in the film, while others proactively contacted 'DreamWorks Pictures' with similar offers. The same construction crews who actually built these stores and food outlets in airports were involved in the construction. In any case, the presence of any brand's set pieces on the set did not guarantee its appearance in the film, as the final editing of the picture was exclusively the responsibility of 'DreamWorks Pictures', and some brands appeared on screen only fleetingly, while others did not appear at all.
- The main character's driver's license was issued in Gomel, Belarus in 1995, and its validity expired at the start of filming. The "Name" field in the document reads "Gulnara Gulina" in Cyrillic. These were the genuine rights of Gulina, who worked in the American film industry. The filmmakers only added the name "Viktor."
- Construction of the airport sets took 16 weeks. Approximately 10,500 square meters of glass, almost 7,000 square meters of space (enough for 600 extras) and 2,000 miniature lighting fixtures were used. And that's not including the working escalators and actual food courts.
- Before flying home, Viktor passes by the flight schedule. On the board, before the line "Krakhozhia - departure authorized," in the "Country" column, there is a note UA – this is not Ukraine, it is United Airlines. An Indian janitor was stopping the aircraft of this airline that came for Viktor.
- The plot is based on the real story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who became stranded in a Paris airport in 1988 after being denied entry to the UK because his documents were stolen. French authorities did not allow him to leave the airport grounds, and he remained in the terminal. Over time, Nasseri was granted permission to enter France or return to his native Iran, but he chose to remain living in the terminal. It is claimed that his condition deteriorated significantly over time. In August 2006, he left the terminal for the first time and was hospitalized with an unspecified illness. He subsequently moved to a hotel, where he lived on money received for this film. (It is claimed that 'DreamWorks Pictures' paid him $250,000 for the rights to film his life story.) In October 2022, Nasseri returned to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he died on November 12 of the same year.
- In the episode with Milodragovich, the lines were not written for Valery Nikolaev. The actor speaks the Russian text extemporaneously, simply knowing the general situation. Nevertheless, the scene turned out to be very expressive. As the 'Krakoshian' language, Tom Hanks uses Bulgarian (in the Russian localization; in the original, Hanks uses Russian, with a strong accent). Milodragovich speaks Russian in the original, and Ukrainian in the localization.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
