10 Terrifying Movie Plane Crashes

8. Knowing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqfmEd4fQ8 I would never begin to suggest that Alex Proyas' Knowing is a good film because, of course, it isn't; in fact, it's pretty terrible, and only furthered our assertion that Nicolas Cage has one of the most maddenningly inconsistent careers in Hollywood, but dammit, the guy has some pretty nifty plane crash sequences on his CV too. This brief scene from Knowing is easily the best and most memorable moment in the entire film (aside from the absolutely bats**t crazy ending), as Nicolas Cage's character, chasing up another clue in the film's scarcely comprehensible mystery, arrives at some co-ordinates, believing that something terrifying is about to happen. And boy, is he right or what? One second he's talking to a cop, and the next they're all diving cover and running for their lives. Cage turns around to see the money shot of the film; a plane bounding out of the clouds with a one-way ticket for smouldersville. What makes the scene really work is the stunning quality of the visual effects and the physics of the crash; this is among the most believable plane crashes ever put to film, with the plane landing wing-first, which disintegrates as it contacts with the ground, causing a trail of fire to burn along the floor. The plane careens further along before exploding in a giant fireball. Brilliant and disturbing.