It was the night before Thanksgiving, 1980. An unexpected blizzard had coated central Missouri in inches of snow. And John Morris’ car had just spun off an icy road and into a ditch. John was still ...

Between 1980 and 1989, there were a few down years, but even in those down years there was at least one addition to the subgenre that was truly important. Let’s unpack the whole decade. Halloween ...

Airplane! (alternatively titled Flying High!) is a 1980 American disaster comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker in their directorial debuts, and produced ...

Sci-fi blockbusters like the Star Wars trilogy and Back to the Future may have ruled the ’80s, but it was also a golden age for fantasy movies. This was a decade when Hollywood wasn’t afraid to make ...

Some Pacific Northwesterners woke Tuesday to an unusual sight: A smoky haze shrouded Mount St. Helens, the large, active stratovolcano in Washington state that erupted catastrophically in 1980. But a ...

Nicole Sunderland doesn’t have to ponder the in-flight entertainment options when she looks at the screen on the plane seat in front of her. She’ll be watching the map, thank you very much. “I’ll fly ...

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

This past weekend, I slid into an assigned seat on what I think was the biggest airplane I have ever been on. Stuck between a window and a stranger for a flight over the Atlantic, I decided to seize ...

Liam Neeson's action era may be ending, but his comedy run is just starting in the newly released film The Naked Gun. Fortunately, most of the films by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker are readily ...

Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, and Leslie Nielsen starred as a pilot, a flight attendant, and a deadpan doctor onboard the doomed flight. The comedy earned universal acclaim from critics and was named ...