THE TERMINAL

:''For other uses, see Terminal (disambiguation).
'''The Terminal''' is a 2004 comedy-drama film based on a story by Andrew Niccol and Sacha Gervasi , which was inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri. The film is co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. It is about a man trapped in the JFK International Airport Terminal when he is denied entry into the United States and at the same time cannot return to his native country due to a revolution.

Contents

Plot

Krakozhia

Main characters

Cast

Language

Trivia

Filming locations

Production companies

See also

Notes and references

External links

Plot

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a man from the fictional country of Krakozhia arrives at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, only to discover that during the flight his country's government has been overthrown by rebels, invalidating his passport and thus leaving him stranded. Over the next nine months, Viktor is forced to live in the terminal building, unable either to set foot into the United States or to go home. He befriends the staff at the terminal, including flight attendant Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whilst being under the watchful eye of Immigration Officer Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), who wants the "Navorski problem" removed from the airport.

One day, Viktor explains to Amelia that the purpose of his visit to New York City is to collect an autograph of the jazz tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. His father, who has died, was a jazz enthusiast. He had discovered the "Great Day in Harlem" photograph in a Hungarian newspaper in 1958, and vowed to get an autograph of all the 57 jazz musicians featured on the photograph. Over the next 40 years, he had managed to collect an autograph of all of them, except for one person: Benny Golson. Viktor wants to collect this last one to fulfil his father's dream.
A few months later, the news reports that the war in Krakozhia is over, but Dixon will still not allow Viktor to enter the United States. Amelia reveals that she had asked her 'friend', actually a married government official with whom she had long been having an intermittent affair, to assist Viktor in obtaining permission to travel within the U.S., but Viktor is disappointed to learn she has renewed her relationship with the man during this process.
To make matters worse, Dixon needs to sign the form granting Viktor the right to remain in the United States, but refuses, instead deciding to deport him out of spite. Thanks to the timely interference of the friends Viktor has made during his stay in the terminal, he is allowed to leave the airport. As Viktor prepares to take a taxi to the Ramada Inn, 161 Lexington Avenue, in New York, where Benny Golson is performing, he observes Amelia exiting from a cab, where she gives him a wistful smile. He attends the show and collects the autograph, finally completing the collection. Afterwards, Victor leaves and hails a taxi, telling the driver that he wants to go 'home'.

Krakozhia

'Krakozhia' (Кракожя) is a fictional country created for the movie, the smallest republic in Eastern Europe and may have been a former Soviet republic. The natives speak the Krakozhian language. From January 16 2004 to November 2004 the country was in civil war. When the war began, the President of the country was held hostage. As such, a new regime is installed, this leads to Viktor finding his passport and visa are now useless and held as the United States government does not recognize the new Krakozian government. As such, Viktor must stay in the airport terminal for nine months, after which peace is declared in Krakozhia and he is able to return home.
Little else is known about Krakozhia, except that there was a lot of fighting which made the international news. We hear of the "northern area" being taken by rebels. Krakozhia has a national anthem almost exactly like that of Albania save for the lyrics.
Navorski's driver's license is Belarusian. One can see the words ''Вадзіцельскае пасведчанне'' (''Vadzicielskaje pasviedczannie''), which means ''driver's license'' in Belarusian and the name of the Belarusian city of Homel. Curiously, the Belarusian name on the driver's license is ''Гуліна Гульнара Надыраўна'' (''Hulina Hulnara Nadiraŭna''); presumably the Belarusian driver's license shot in the movie belonged to a Belarusian girl who immigrated to the USA [1].
The language which Hanks' character speaks in the film, "Krakozhian," is supposedly close to or a dialect of Russian to the point of mutual understanding, but is actually slightly-accented literary Bulgarian. Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, whose father is Bulgarian, is reported to have coached Hanks in Bulgarian in the course of the shooting of the film. In the same line the name of Victor's father is ''Dimitar Asenov Navorski'', shaped after the Bulgarian three-section pattern and contains one name popular among contemporary Bulgarians—Dimitar (Димитър). The surname Asenov derives from one Bulgarian medieval dynasty and was borne by several Bulgarian Tsars, Ivan Asen II for example.
The "Krakozhia" could be an allusion to Polish (or slavic generally) immigration in the US. One of the biggest cities in Poland is Cracow, (Kraków in Polish, Cracovia in Latin), which sounds very similar to "Cracozhia".

Main characters

★ Viktor Navorski – a traveller from Krakozhia who finds himself stranded and forced to live in the terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, unable to either enter the United States or go home.

★ Amelia Warren – a 39-year-old United Airlines flight attendant who started her job at the age of 18. For seven years, she has been involved in a relationship with Max, a married man.

★ Frank Dixon – the Area Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection at JFK and nemesis to Viktor. Frank is on the brink of an impending job promotion that could upgrade him to being the new Regional Director.

★ Joe Mulroy – a smart alecky baggage handler who likes smoking cigars and smuggling booze into the airport for himself and his co-workers.

★ Enrique Cruz – an employee of the airport who drives the food transport truck, and the main source of Viktor's meals, in exchange for Viktor acting as an intermediary between him and Officer Torres, with whom he is in love. Due to Viktor's help he marries her.

★ Ray Thurman – a quiet customs officer and Frank's number two man.

★ Gupta Rajan – a janitor at JFK who is wanted in Madras, India for assaulting a police officer in 1979 who had come to ask for bribes; after he cleans the floor he always puts plentiful large warning signs; however, many people slip on the wet floor anyway, which he enjoys watching.

★ Officer Torres – an immigration officer whom Viktor sees every day to get his visa. She is a Trekkie, and goes to ''Star Trek'' conventions dressed as Yeoman Rand.

★ Max – a married man who has been involved in a relationship with Amelia Warren for seven years.

Cast

★ Tom Hanks .... Victor 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

★ Zoë Saldaña .... Torres

★ Eddie Jones .... Salchak

★ Jude Ciccolella .... Karl Iverson

★ Corey Reynolds .... Waylin

★ Guillermo Diaz .... Bobby Alima

★ Rini Bell .... Nadia

★ Stephen Mendel .... First Class steward

Language

In fact Victor speaks slightly accented literary Bulgarian language when he is represented to use his Krakozhian mother tongue. When Viktor first arrives at the airport he speaks little to no English; however, within the time frame of the film, he learns to speak English by immersion and picking up Russian and English versions of a New York City tour guide and comparing the wording. He also learns meanings by watching news programs at the airport.
The exact location of Krakozhia is kept specifically vague in the film, keeping with the idea of Viktor being simply Eastern European. Throughout the film, it is learned that Krakozhia is bordered with Russia, that the Krakozhian language is akin to or a dialect of Russian, and that the Krakozhian national anthem is musically close to that of Albania (or the tune of Vajacki marš).
The film presents a reasonably accurate picture of the process of naturalistic second language acquisition, according to professional linguist Martha Young-Scholten.Young-Scholten, Martha (2006). "Hollywood: smarter than you think? Maybe" Abstract for talk given at the University of Leeds Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, 26th April 2006.

Trivia

★ One of the few Spielberg directed features that doesn't feature special effects by Industrial Light and Magic.

★ The driving license that Viktor holds in his hands is in the Belarusian language and is issued to a female.

★ The initial ending had Amelia going to New York with Viktor. Various different versions of scenes were filmed to be either more comedic or more dramatic.

★ Lucy, the girl with the pink suitcase Viktor tries to help, is Steven Spielberg's daughter, Sasha.

★ Officer Torres is actually named after the character B'Elanna Torres from Star Trek Voyager.

★ Most exterior shots and those featuring actual aircraft were shot at Montréal-Mirabel International Airport: additional interior shots were also done there including the mezzanine overlooking the immigration desks and the baggage carrousels directly behind them, the jetways showing Aéroports de Montréal signs, and many Air Transat planes in the background, when New York is not one of their regular destinations. Additional pre-production shooting was done at Los Angeles International Airport and at Spielberg's offices at Amblin. Montreal is also mentioned on the loudspeaker at the beginning of the film, around the point where the customs officer tells Viktor to wait in a special line.

★ The 747 was provided by United Airlines. The Star Alliance was a major sponsor and provided uniforms, equipment, and actors in addition to those cast. In spite of the heavy presence of the Star Alliance airlines, you can see a Delta Air Lines pilot pass Viktor in a scene during the last 5 minutes of the movie.[2]


★ Spielberg travelled around the world to find an actual airport that would let him film for the length of the production, but could not find one. The Terminal set was built in a massive hangar at the Palmdale Regional Airport. The hangar, part of the US Air Force Plant 42 complex was used to build the Rockwell International B-1B bomber.

★ The set was built to full earthquake construction codes and was based on the Düsseldorf International Airport. The shape of both the actual terminal and the set viewed sideways is a cross section of an aircraft wing.

★ Everything functioned in the set as in real life. There was real food, ice cream and coffee in the appropriate outlets. The escalators were purchased from a department store that went bankrupt.

★ The design of the set for ''The Terminal'', as noted by Roger Ebert in his reviews and attested by Spielberg himself in a feature by Empire magazine, was greatly inspired by Jacques Tati's classic film ''Playtime''.

★ In the end credits, each person's name is their autograph.

★ When the war in Viktor's home country is over, Enrique Cruz is seen waking up Viktor by saying, "Wake up! The war is over!" This phrase is made in homage to John Lennon. Enrique Cruz is shown with the same John Lennon haircut and facial hair minus the iconic wire-rimmed glasses.

★ A scene in which Viktor repeats the phrase, "Bite to eat, bite to eat, bite to eat... " to his reflection in a mirror is reminiscent of a scene in Stolen Kisses in which character Antoine Doinel repeats girls names to himself. Spielberg is known to be a fan of the French New Wave to which Stolen Kisses belongs.

★ In real life, Ghana football player Ayi Nii Aryee was forced to live in a Philippine airport for six months as his passport lacked the necessary immigration stamp from the country (Singapore) he previously flew to and his student permit there was denied. Prior to coming to the Philippines, Aryee enrolled in a computer class in Singapore and applied for a student permit. While waiting, he went to the Philippines to visit a friend only to find himself stranded much like Tom Hanks in the movie. [3][4][5][6]

★ Each of the outlets featured in the concourse building was actually sponsored by the real company. Many stores are seen and Viktor seeks a job at Brookstone and the Discovery Channel store.

★ At the end of the film, Viktor steps out of the airport and is able to see the eastern New York skyline. However, in real life, the island of Manhattan is not visible from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Filming locations

★ Palmdale Regional Airport, Palmdale, California

★ Mirabel International Airport, Mirabel, Quebec (near Montreal)

Production companies

★ DreamWorks SKG

★ Amblin Entertainment

★ Parkes/MacDonald Productions

See also

★ Mehran Karimi Nasseri

Notes and references

External links

★ ''The Terminal'' official site

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★ Martha Young-Scholten - article at ''Citizendium'' about the linguist who approved the depictions of naturalistic language acquisition in the film.Young-Scholten, Martha (2006). "Hollywood: smarter than you think? Maybe" Abstract for talk given at the University of Leeds Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, 26th April 2006.