What Happens At The End Of The High And The Mighty?

Question

That dramatic final scene before the landing felt so tense! Did the novel explain the pilots' decisions in a way that changed your view of the climax?

Rosia · Answer

I can’t easily verify this information online, as the book is not available in print or online. But, from my recollection, it does end safely with the aircraft that had experienced problems during the day flying in to land, and the damaged crew, plus a few of the main characters from the flight, hashing out their collective trauma. The book is a great example of a ‘disaster’ style book – lots of tension, and lots of danger and near-misses that keep the reader on the edge of their seat. The main character’s survival, and her heroic journey, in ‘The Dark Protector’ is also another good example of survival against the odds. Here, however, the dangers are mostly supernatural in origin, and are faced by our heroine in a post-collapse world that’s a very hazardous place indeed.

Theo · Answer

This movie has been playing rent-free in my head for weeks. That would be the ending of The High and the Mighty (circa 1950). My main recollection of the last act is pure adrenaline. The passengers are all dealing with their own fear of impending doom as the plane falls apart around them. One man is laughing uncontrollably, another is puking, a newlywed couple is clinging to each other for all time while the Captain, Dan (played by the great John Wayne) seems completely unbothered by the crisis unfolding around him. He is done. He walks off the screen and that is that. So much different than I had expected. In fact, instead of a dramatic speech or a reunion with an old love, we are left in silence with the sounds of waves crashing in the background. A very powerful scene that makes you wonder how you would handle such a crisis. My bet is that I would be the guy puking his guts out. The one shot in particular that I have to give great credit to is the empty runway stretching out before us with the sun setting in the background and the plane, all battered and bruised, sitting forlornly at the end of the runway. Great. Just great. Poetry in motion.

Reagan · Answer

The finale of The High and the Mighty was a great suspenseful scene to watch as a young aviation enthusiast many years ago. The movie portrays a damaged plane flying on low fuel with much stress and tension among the passengers and crew. Captain Dan Roman, played by the great John Wayne in one of his lesser known but excellent performances, is cool as a cucumber throughout the stress filled scenes leading up to the emergency landing. I particularly enjoyed how the scenes were portrayed after the landing with much realistic shock and disappointment among the various passengers. Some are crying while others are laughing in shock and yet others are behaving dazed and seemingly unaware of what has just transpired. The images of Dan walking away from the plane after it has come to a stop on the runway and he lights a cigarette are powerful and truly a masterful performance by one of cinema’s greatest stars. As the scenes continue to unfold and we are given insight into the lives of various passengers and how they have been affected by their near death experience, we are reminded of our own human struggles to deal with similar severe crises in our lives. The various emotional scenes were often showcased in detail by the great director William Wellman allowing us to connect with each of the characters in turn. The music was also superb, especially during the closing scenes of the movie. To this day I find myself humming the main theme while stuck in traffic envisioning that DC-4 crippled by extensive damage somehow struggling to stay in the air.

Heidi · Answer

The ending of 'The High and the Mighty' is a very quiet and triumphant moment for the characters after that heart-stopping emergency landing on the strip. John Wayne's Captain Roman and the other passengers stagger out, some hugging each other, others in shock. Captain Roman is relieved. It was just another job for him. What's lovely is that we get to see the very, very small details of the ordeal. A stewardess's hands are shaking as she tries to light her cigarette. A child's eyes are wide with fear as he looks at the mangled remains of the airplane's engine. It's all very realistic and a far cry from the disaster flicks of today.

Flynn · Answer

This brings back lots of memories because it was the first film that my Grand Father took me to see, and he said it was ‘the real deal’ in flying films. All I can say is the last few moments of this excellent film are as superb as the rest of it. As for the ending itself, it is so simple and in keeping with the rest of the film: no monuments are dedicated to Captain Dan Roman, nor does he have a cup of coffee poured over his hands as the passengers cease to stream out of the plane. He is left to his own thoughts of the journey and of his colleagues as he walks off into the anonymity of the world. It is the sort of ending that very few films are able to pull off today and is a massive reason for me to go and re-watch it in the very near future.

It’s so rare that I get to see real movies like this anymore. I actually saw this with my granddad a long time ago because he said it was one of the real deal movies and it really is. The ending is so simple yet so powerful. It’s all about survival and respect of each other as a crew and there are no long monologues or forced romantic plot lines that seem to characterize so many current blockbusters. It’s a movie that I find myself wanting to re-watch again and again.

ayooo · Answer

I like how the author treats faith in the ending. He doesn’t get too pompous or give answers to what happens. Some of the characters pray to whatever they believe in. Others don’t. Some even find a kind of grace helping other people. None of them find the “right” way of reacting. A religious character can feel blessed while a skeptic can feel lucky. Both are treated with respect to their views. The randomness of events is huge. In the end people can search for meaning in whatever way they need to. In this book a flock of birds could be divine intervention or human ingenuity. The ending has a humble tone and shows that even in the midst of huge circumstance there are many ways to look at things. This is a very unifying ending to a very diverse group of people.

Sapna Uppal · Answer

I especially like that the ending of the book leaves a few threads dangling. We get to make our own decisions about many of the characters. Does the businessman really change or does he just go back to his old self? Does the runaway wife return to her husband or not? Does the young sailor get to marry the girl of his dreams? We are given a lot of information that implies certain outcomes, but they are never actually confirmed. The book follows a very realistic view of how traumatic events cause change in people. Seeds of change are planted, but it is up to each individual to nurture them or let them wither. We are given the moment of maximum potential, the catalyst for change, and the rest is up to our imaginations as to how things work out for the various characters. I think that Gann trusted his readers and that is confidence in the greatest form. The story is greater than the sum of its pages.

Mary Herrera · Answer

This is really interesting. I had never thought of Treasure Island in terms of the post-war metaphor, but reading this has made me want to go back and read the book again with this in mind. Literature is really cool because on the surface a story can be read as a straightforward adventure, but as you ‘unpeel’ the layers there is so much more to read.

Rosemary Akemon Shaw · Answer

The book ends on a note of extreme exhaustion and depression. As the adrenaline of previous scenes fades away, characters move slowly and think slowly. The world seems too bright and too loud. Instead of big music for big moments, there is the sound of emergency vehicles and rain. People want to sit down and call their loved ones. They want to be still. The book’s anti-climactic realism is beautifully executed. After reading through the whole book of soaring tension, it brings the reader crashing back down to earth in the most literal way possible. And what they find there is that the real triumph of the book is the simple act of survival, and the way that in that moment, survival looks, not like some sort of celebration, but rather like taking a deep shaky breath and putting one foot in front of the other.

IamBlueRed · Answer

This is compared with other disaster movies of the era. Many of these end with a clear moral to the story or with a heavy-handed commentary on society. However, as was stated earlier, ‘The High and the Mighty’ ends on a completely different note. The change that takes place in the film is between individuals, and not between society as a whole and the airline. The airline is not condemned in the film, the pilots are heroes. Instead of concentrating on the passengers and their interior lives instead of looking for blame or a way to reform society the focus of the film is with the passengers as they go through change because of a disaster. The disaster is not the plane crash at the end of the film, the disaster is the emotional and spiritual stagnation of the passengers. Their rescue from this disaster is the crisis that occurs and leads to change in their lives. The safe landing of the plane is simply the means to an end.

What Happens At The End Of The High And The Mighty?

10 Answers

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