If you enjoy the type of humor found in movies like Airplane! or The Naked Gun, you’ll have a great time with The Big Bus.
Transport disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure, The Hindenburg, and Airport were all the rage in the 1970s. Most of those films cast a gaggle of big name (or formerly so) actors and put their characters in all kinds of dangerous situations. Eventually, it became formulaic that the genre was ripe for a parody.
Most people think 1980’s Airplane! was the first transport disaster movie parody. But The Big Bus was released four years prior and, while it doesn’t boast the same star power, it features the same type of irreverent humor. One could make a compelling case that Airplane! was inspired by The Big Bus.
The plot centers around a nuclear-powered bus — named Cyclops — designed by Kitty Baxter (Stockard Channing) for Coyote Bus Lines. The bus’s planned maiden voyage, a non-stop trip from New York City to Denver, hasn’t even started but has been plagued by sabotage. An oil tycoon (Jose Ferrer) and his brother, Alex (Stuart Margolin), fear that its success would hurt oil and gas consumption and, therefore, their wallet.
When a bomb injures Cyclops’ original driver, Kitty reluctantly recruits her old flame, a disgraced bus driver named Dan Torrance (Joseph Bologna,) to step in. Dan is struggling to clear his name after an incident involving a bus crash and cannibalism. (A running gag in the film is his insistence that he didn’t eat anyone. “You eat one lousy foot and they call you a cannibal!”) Cyclops eventually starts its journey to Denver, but not until after another bomb is placed on the bus.
The Big Bus was written by Fred Freeman and Lawrence J. Cohen, frequent contributors to TV shows like Gilligan’s Island, The Andy Griffith Show and Bewitched. As a product of the 1970s, there are some gags that haven’t aged well. Surprisingly, though, the majority of the comedic bits are still quite funny. Since comparisons to Airplane! are inevitable, I’d say that, of the two, The Big Bus is more good-natured and less sarcastic. I don’t recall anything that is truly mean-spirited, racist, or vulgar. (Director James Frawley later handled The Muppet Movie.)
I was impressed with the film’s production design especially since an actual double-decker, articulated “big bus” was created for the film. I also enjoyed the many awesome 70s-era touches that one might overlook today, including the shag carpeting on the cockpit’s spiral staircase and a Kit-Cat Klock on the bus’ kitchen wall.
The cast, while not as full of A-list names as The Poseidon Adventure or the many Airport movies, is impressive nonetheless. Ned Beatty, Howard Hesseman, Lynn Redgrave, Sally Kellerman, Ruth Gordon, Rene Auberjonois, and Larry Hagman are among the many recognizable faces in the film.
If you enjoy the type of humor found in movies like Airplane! or The Naked Gun, you’ll have a great time with The Big Bus. I’m not sure why it never registered with the film-going public they way those films have, but it’s just as good. (And it came first.)
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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