Numerous films and television shows have been set or filmed partially at
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), at least partly due to the airport's proximity to
Hollywood studios. Film shoots at the Los Angeles airports, including LAX, produced $590 million for the Los Angeles region from 2002 to 2005.[1]
1960s–1980s
In the 1966 musical film Hold On! there is a riot of teenage girls swarming aspiring starlet Cecilie Bannister at LAX.
A few episodes of the television police drama Adam-12 (1968–75) took place in and around LAX.
The 1976 Walt Disney comedy film No Deposit, No Return has scenes shown around the interior and the exterior of the LAX terminal.
Mel Brooks' 1977 satirical comedy High Anxiety begins with Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Brooks) landing at LAX and having strange encounters inside the terminal.
A few episodes of the television police drama Columbo (1971–78) had scenes that took place at LAX, including inside the terminals and external aerial shots.
The 1984 film
Starman has a scene where a
Japan Airlines Boeing 747 is seen taking off from LAX during the movie's opening credits.
Several scenes of the 1985
Arnold Schwarzenegger motion picture Commando were filmed at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, on the airfield, and in an LAX parking deck.
The 1985 film To Live and Die in L.A. featured a stunt in a terminal at LAX of William Petersen's character running along the top of the dividers between the terminal's moving sidewalk.
The
Japan Airlines commercials featuring
Janet Jackson were filmed in LAX to promote their Executive class (business class) products on the then-brand new Boeing 747-400. One commercial used Tom Bradley Terminal for the "Concourse ad" which featured the song "
Rhythm Nation" and the LAX runways were used for another commercial featuring Jackson dancing against a backdrop of Japan Airlines 747-400's to her single "
Escapade".
The opening sequence of the 1991 television series Going Places begins with the side-view of an airplane landing at the Los Angeles International Airport, followed by the view of a "Welcome to Los Angeles" sign under a highway bridge.
The 1995
Sandra Bullock film The Net features Bullock's character finding her car missing from an LAX parking lot.
The 1997 film Liar Liar starring
Jim Carrey features a climactic scene where Fletcher Reede (Carrey) struggles to keep his son. He hurries to LAX, but his son's plane has already left the terminal. Desperate, he hijacks a mobile stairway and pursues the plane onto the runway.
In the 1997 film Face/Off, a chartered plane crashes into an LAX hangar in the beginning of the film.
The 1999
PlayStation video game Driver contains a mission featuring LAX.
The 1999 film Fight Club starring
Brad Pitt and
Edward Norton features an opening scene where the two arrive at LAX on the same flight.
The music video of
Backstreet Boys' "
I Want It That Way" was filmed and is set mostly at the airport. The Tom Bradley International Terminal is seen in shots and serves as a setting for the chorus. The scenes involving a
Boeing 727 and where they are greeted by fans was filmed in one of the hangars of LAX. Additionally, a
Delta Air LinesLockheed L-1011 TriStar appears when
Howie D. sings the fourth verse.
The 2001
Denzel Washington film Training Day concludes with Alonzo Harris unsuccessfully fleeing to LAX only to be shot dead by the Russian mafia in retaliation for Alonzo’s failure to repay his debt to them.
The 1999-2006
NBC drama The West Wing shows then-former governor Jed Bartlet consoling his assistant Josh Lyman at the Delta gates of then-Delta complex Terminal 5. It was a stand in for Delta gates at O'Hare International Airport.
LAX was the departure point for
Uma Thurman's character in the 2003
Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 1, wherein she takes a flight to Okinawa, Japan, to meet and acquire a sword from a renowned swordsmith as part of her revenge plan against a former comrade who now heads several crime syndicates in Tokyo.
The opening scene of the 2004 neo-noir crime thriller Collateral starring
Tom Cruise and
Jamie Foxx is set at LAX. Cruise's character, a hitman, receives a briefcase in the airport.
The 2004 comedy Soul Plane features airline NWA's first flight from Los Angeles International Airport.
In the second Splinter Cell game, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the last mission takes place in LAX where
Sam Fisher infiltrates LAX via the parking garage, takes out terrorists disguised as LAX employees and rogue CIA agent Norman Soth, and destroys their
bioweapon.
Two games from the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V, featured and parodied the airport as Los Santos International Airport or LSX and was commonly called as Los Santos International. The Theme Building, light towers, and the control tower were also featured.
In the 2004 film
The Day After Tomorrow, two tornadoes are seen approaching the airport.
Susan Raye, who has been retired from the music industry since 1986, made a rare public appearance to sing her classic hit at a concert at the celebration and to be on hand when a proclamation was issued to make the song the official song of LAX.
Los Angeles-based rapper
Game had a 2008 album titled LAX.
The airport is mentioned in the opening lines of
Miley Cyrus's 2009 hit "
Party in the U.S.A.", with the lyrics "I hopped off the plane at LAX..."
In a 2010
History Channel episode of Life After People, the Theme Building and LAX Control Tower are shown what would happen to them after years of neglect.
In the
final seasonpremiere of Lost, notably titled "LA X", the alternate timeline sequences are mostly set in LAX, which was the intended destination of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.
Los Angeles International Airport also featured in the
Brett Ratner film Rush Hour, where Chief Inspector Lee (
Jackie Chan) and Detective James Carter (
Chris Tucker) board a United Airlines Boeing 747-400 bound for Hong Kong.
The LAX Theme Building influenced the stage set up for the
U2 360 Tour.
In the video game Destroy All Humans!, a majestic base appears to be similar to LAX.
LAX was featured as a playable stage in the 2003 video game Midnight Club II.
In 2015 science fiction action film Terminator Genisys, in the post apocalyptic future setting, the ruins of LAX becomes one of Skynet's concentration camps, where it also houses its prototype time machine.
In the 2017 drama film All Eyez on Me, the main character,
Tupac Shakur, is shown flying into LAX airport when going to California.
In the epilogue of the American animated television show
Amphibia, Sasha Waybright arrives at LAX to pick up Marcy Wu from the terminal in order to visit
Anne Boonchuy and celebrate Anne's birthday.
^Peppard, Alan (10 September 2004). "Best of weather for lunch". The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas. Actress Heather Locklear will be on to talk about her new NBC airport drama, LAX, which shot its pilot in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (with Alliance Airport impersonating LAX).