"Do you like gladiator movies?" Huh?

The famous exchange with the captain and the kid on Airplane!, what exactly is he asking?

If the kid is gay?

Or he is a pedo and feeling the kid out?

Another question is have you ever seen a grown man naked, which I imagine most boys have at some point. :dubious:

I think the implication is that Captain Oveur is a homosexual pedophile, testing the waters – it says nothing about Joey, who seems like an average boy.

Also, please remember that it’s a joke. The film is a comedy. Don’t take it all so seriously…

Yea I know, but I hear it quoted a lot but no one can ever really articulate what they mean by it, or what it meant in the original movie. I’m leaning toward the Captain is a pedo myself:)

Really!?

The point being that gladiator movies (this was before Gladiator) usually showed buff men shirtless.

Shirley you can’t be serious!

How would you not get that Captain Oveur is a homosexual pedophile and he’s feeling the kid out? It was probably a bit funnier before the whole Joe Patterno thing.

Now that you mention it yes. If only because the famous actor that looks most like Sandusky is probably Nielsen.

There was a whole progression of questions. Have you ever seen a grown man naked. . . Have you ever been in a Turkish prison. . . Do you like gladiator movies? It’s clear he was testing the kid.

Think of Frank N. Furter in Rocky Horror: “We could take in an old Steve Reeves movie!” It’s the same reference, to the campy sword and sandal epics, usually featuring a muscleman like Reeves, which proliferated in the 1960’s. You can see from the poster in the wiki article why this might appeal to gays.

The trashy movies from that era are mostly forgotten, and Gladiator has one might say restored the genre to respectability. I can see why the line in Airplane might seem odd to young people.

Actually, it is Peter Graves.

Not what he meant.

If only I would learn to read for comprehension…

You’re right, I missed it.

He’s talking about an entirely different actor, altogether.

He’s talking about an entirely different actor

He’s talking about an entirely different actor

He’s talking about an entirely different actor

I remember listening to the DVD commentary from the directors, where they talked about initially having the line of dialogue “Joey, have you ever been in a cockpit before?” followed by “Joey, have you ever sucked a grown man’s cock?”

They rejected it for being a bit too on the nose.

Yeah, that would have been too much; the way it ended up is just subtle enough.

Yes.