In a similar vein, in one of Arnold Shwarzenegger’s movies, Commando I think, there is a scene where he is on a large airplane, and he gets from the first class cabin down into the cargo hold via some sort of elevator in the galley.
I don’t look for technical accuracy in Arnie’s movies, I’m there for the slug-fests, chases and derring-do, but is there any such access to the cargo area in any carrier’s airplanes?
I’ve seen the same trick in a few other movies*—all aboard 747s, as I recall. Maybe it’s an actual feature, or maybe they just used the same set.
Still, you never know when an odd, technically accurate fact may turn up in a B-movie. Commando itself featured a four-barreled rocket launcher, which turns out really exists. (Pretty sure they adjusted it’s destructive power, though. But hey, nothing’s perfect. 
)
*They weren’t very good movies, but how many films set onboard airliners are?
Actually I got to see an early showing of this last night, and I can say that luckily he didn’t put out a spoiler by saying that. I had read a lot about the movie and yet had not predicted the ending one bit.
The plane was so cool though - and of course made me curious about the various spaces we don’t see on flights.
Would be pretty cool to be an engineer who works on planes. Think how handy that would be in the case of hijackers or something? Too bad I’m dumb as sh*t at math and science and spatial skills. Oh well - one can daydream eh.
A side question: she traces a finger in thecondensation on the inside of the window ??? I thought airline windows were double or triple paned to make that impossible.
Both the 747 and 777 have access hatches that lead from the forward passenger cabin to the electronics bay just forward of the cargo area. The 747 hatch is just right of center near the forward galley. The 777 hatch is located near door 1 left and the door to the flight deck. Some 747’s have a dumbwaiter between the main deck and upper deck. In all my years of climbing around Boeing airplanes, I have never seen an elevator to the electronics bay on any aircraft.
Some DC-10s had (still have?) two elevators to a lower galley. One was for the flight attendant and the other was for the food cart.
Oh, and here’s a drawing of the 777 overhead crew rest area.
http://www.boeing.com/randy/archives/photos/overhead_rest_areas.html
I’ve seen condensation on the inside of the windows. They may be double-paned, but there’s still quite a temperature differential sometimes and if the air in the plane is moist you can definitely get condensation.
Have y’all seen the virtual tour of the plane? Someone sent me this after I went on and on about how bad-a*s the plane was.
That’s an interesting point about the condensation…but it was really cold out in Germany right? So that could have created the drastic temperature difference that you’re talking about.