Shelter From The Storm

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In Jason Reitman's Up In The Air, airports are cavernous antiseptic places in which people like George Clooney's Ryan Bingham feel very much at home. Comforted, even. That's my feeling also. No man-made atmosphere makes me feel quite as serene as an airport. When I'm waiting for a plane, I mean. (And after I'm through the security scan.) A blissful feeling of being neither here nor there. All my cares and anxieties suspended. It's actually kind of beautiful.

I know and accept, of course, that airport environments are no substitute for anything, least of all the real rock 'n' roll of life. I only know what I feel when I'm inside them. I'm in a kind of womb -- a place in which the normal heave and pitch of things doesn't happen or disturb. The appointments, challenges, pressures, deadlines -- all that will surround me and more after I've landed. Expected, understood. But what a charmed feeling it is to be within an airport with all of that stuff outside, and with nothing to do inside but chill. I especially love three- and four-hour layovers. I adore browsing around, having a cafe au lait, leafing through magazines, looking at the hundreds of travellers. (Especially the women.)

I feel especially calmed by airports in Europe. Especially those in Germany and Switzerland. Maybe because the wifi is always fast and accessible. And because the technologies in both countries always seem to be state of the art or even ahead of the game. I guess I'm mainly thinking of Zurich Airport. I could live at Zurich Airport -- live in an actual apartment there, I mean -- and almost be happy. I could almost die there. Tony Gilroy used it as a backdrop in Duplicity (just an exterior shot, actually -- the interiors were shot in Newark). And of course, Roman Polanski was arrested there yesterday. What a nice place to be cuffed and kept in a holding cell. I mean that.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 27, 2009 at 1:47 PM

comment #1

bluefugue says ...

I know the feeling -- that sense you get when you've passed security and you're just chilling in an airport lounge or something. Neither at your starting point nor your destination, in some kind of warp-space limbo. And the jets taking off and landing through the windows and the multinational travelers walking by lend a great sense of "things happening" and cosmopolitanism to the atmosphere.

Posted by bluefugue at September 27, 2009 3:41 PM

comment #2

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

I get the sense of limbo. Like you're neither here nor there. In some artificial town of sorts that nobody lives in.

But airports are pretty stressful. I can't fully switch off until the plane is in the air. You can stick your headphones on, close your eyes, or just look out of the window down on the houses and roads and feel like you're floating above it all. That's fairly serene, as long as you don't have a chair-kicker or screaming child behind you.

But I've had too many gate changes and delays and lack of seating and endless announcements and whatnot in the actual waiting area. If you have to keep an eye out for the flight status, or weather conditions mean you have about three planes worth of people waiting in one gate area for updates on their flight, it's not peaceful at all. Only when you're on the plane are you totally without a care; you've no option to do anything but just sit there and wait.

Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey at September 27, 2009 3:56 PM

comment #3

Travis Crabtree says ...

It's particularly cavernous and antiseptic in the ghost town that is Terminal D of Lambert Airport, St. Louis, where much of "Up In The Air" was filmed.

It's a sad, empty relic of the glory days when TWA was based in the Lou and it was one of the seven busiest airports in the country. Now it might as well be Topeka Regional.

But I digress.

Posted by Travis Crabtree at September 27, 2009 4:06 PM

comment #4

Geoff says ...

I used to fly from Oakland airport to Los Angeles a couple of times a year, and I always looked forward to finding the same empty departures lounge with a large floor to ceiling window. After all the hustle and bustle of getting into the terminal, I'd sit down, flip open my laptop, pop in my earbuds for my iPod, and just chill out. But the best part was the view through the window - big storm clouds were brewing and the early afternoon light was beautiful. Very calming.

Posted by Geoff at September 27, 2009 4:09 PM

comment #5

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Regional airports are far more peaceful than international ones. Like Portland, ME, or Burlington, VT. Small enough that they are just pleasant. JFK is a hellhole.

Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey at September 27, 2009 4:10 PM

comment #6

Colin says ...

I really like McCarran in Vegas. I actually appreciate the long wait before my flight. Watching other people's interactions in a large area is strangely zen-like for me.

Posted by Colin at September 27, 2009 4:12 PM

comment #7

scooterzz says ...

i used to feel what wells describes but now air travel just depresses me...at the risk of sounding like the geezer i am, it just isn't what it used to be... for fifteen years i did the twice monthly l.a./n.y. commute and had some of the best times of my life (almost always on twa so i know that st.lou hub all too well).......it's just so disappointing these days that i do everything i can to avoid it.....

Posted by scooterzz at September 27, 2009 4:23 PM

comment #8

JosephB says ...

Odd how so many of us feel this way about airports. My job last year had me traveling 2-3 times a month and, yes, I'd kinda look forward to the hour or so wait before my flight. Check the phone email one last time, then shut off, turn on the Ipod and soothe as the music makes invisible tempos with the people walking back and forth. The anticipation of wanting to get home would eventually kick in on the flight itself, but there's something that's so.... out of our control... when it comes to waiting on a flight that one can't help but let go and relax.

Posted by JosephB at September 27, 2009 4:41 PM

comment #9

Ponderer says ...

More than any other airport, I get that feeling from Munich - I got the feeling of both being very safe and very engaged there, which is a rare combination of emotions.

Posted by Ponderer at September 27, 2009 6:13 PM

comment #10

COCO says ...

After security...what a feeling....wonderful.
Chicago is ok, but Frankfurt is great. The people
watching makes the time fly.....and the German
women!!

Posted by COCO at September 27, 2009 6:59 PM

comment #11

lipranzer says ...

Having flown a lot in college (my college was Gonzaga, in Washington State, and my parents lived in Walnut Creek, which is near San Francisco), I'm pretty used to airports, though I haven't flown in about three years. As long as I have a book or two to read, and music to listen to (to show my age, back then it was a Walkman), I was fine. And I remember one memorable time at an airport when the concert band I was in senior year in high school was supposed to fly to Hawaii for a festival, but we had a five hour plane delay, so I learned to play hackey sack during the wait.

And yeah, JFK sucks. Hard to get to, or around in. Much prefer LaGuardia or Newark.

Posted by lipranzer at September 27, 2009 7:26 PM

comment #12

bluefugue says ...

On a side note, I always seem to see lots of attractive women walking around at airports. I particularly note this when I am waiting at LAX terminals to meet friends I'm picking up. I don't know particularly why this is. Maybe the percentage is no moreso than anywhere else, but it seems heightened to me...

Posted by bluefugue at September 27, 2009 7:27 PM

comment #13

plastiqueelephant says ...

I'm with you Jeff. My favourites are the spanking new airports in Asia:: Bangkok, Singapore Terminal 3 and Hong Kong. I'm flying into Bangkok tomorrow and just the thought of touching down there feels like I've popped half an Ambien. Airports are also a great place to pick up clever, interesting, attractive women. There's always lively stuff to talk about and it's usually easy to get the hostess to switch boarding passes if you're getting on like a house on fire and want to sit next to each other. And if so, there's plenty of fun date activities if you land and are both on foreign soil.

Posted by plastiqueelephant at September 27, 2009 7:37 PM

comment #14

dangovich says ...

I've been dying to see the new terminals at Beijing and Madrid:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2008/04/21/080421crsk_skyline_goldberger

Posted by dangovich at September 27, 2009 7:54 PM

comment #15

BigJim says ...

[The poster, the same asshole who was banned yesterday under the name "Ominum Gatherum" and whose life mission seems to be to agitate yours truly, has been banned again for spewing ugliness, personal insults & poison snark in his posts.]

Posted by BigJim at September 27, 2009 8:17 PM

comment #16

Nick X says ...

Hey BigJim, wipe the oatmeal off your chin and get back in your cage. Your mother will be here to pick you up shortly.

Posted by Nick X at September 27, 2009 8:47 PM

comment #17

BigJim says ...

Posted by BigJim at September 27, 2009 9:22 PM

comment #18

Nick X says ...

You seem like you have a lot of free time to spend stewing in bad broth. "Go for it, loser."

Posted by Nick X at September 27, 2009 9:24 PM

comment #19

BigJim says ...

Posted by BigJim at September 27, 2009 9:37 PM

comment #20

Markj74 says ...

Nice trailer, hope this one turns out to be as good as everyone says it is.

Count me down as an airport fan too. Recently flew Edinburgh - Amsterdam - Abu Dhabi and had a great time zoning out in Schiphol. The lack of security at Abu Dhabi airport is a little worrying though...

Posted by Markj74 at September 28, 2009 12:21 AM

comment #21

evil robot ted says ...

Travis Crabtree -

"It's particularly cavernous and antiseptic in the ghost town that is Terminal D of Lambert Airport, St. Louis, where much of 'Up In The Air' was filmed."

No kidding. I had a couple hours to kill before a flight there, and spent the time wandering that terminal. It's completely abandonned. Just to amuse myself, I even purchased an old local newspaper from one of the coin-op racks that was still stocked. It was from 1995.

The weird thing is they keep it relatively spotless, so if you were just passing through quickly you wouldn't really notice the ghost town vibe.

Posted by evil robot ted at September 28, 2009 6:39 AM

comment #22

Chase Kahn says ...

I can definitely sense that this is will be a snark-and-contrarian feeding frenzy come January/February.

Like with Jeff's "Jerry Maguire" post -- this will be "sentimentally branded in a People magazine way".

It's definitely one of the few films I'm really looking forward to this year, but that's what Oscar attention and unanimous love will do to a film like this...

Posted by Chase Kahn at September 28, 2009 7:23 AM

comment #23

Enio says ...

Watching it nearly made me through up -- in the air. I don't mean the airports.

Posted by Enio at September 28, 2009 2:19 PM

comment #24

mscsmyrpln says ...

I didn't really care that much for UP IN THE AIR. Just about every scene with Vera Farmiga was exceptional, but much of the rest gave off a screenwriting vibe that was a bit too cold and self-satisfingly-quirky for me to feel anything for.

Also, is it just me or were the trailer moments of Clooney on a treadmill and swimming not actually in the film?

Posted by mscsmyrpln at September 30, 2009 9:13 PM

comment #25