The Terminal
Movie, 2004, The 2000s, Set in JFK Airport
The Terminal is #22 of 35 in release order and #22 of 35 in chronological order in the Steven Spielberg.
The story
An Eastern European tourist unexpectedly finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.
The Terminal recap
The Terminal (2004) strands a traveller at New York's JFK Airport when a coup in his home country voids his passport mid-flight. Steven Spielberg directs, drawing loosely on an Iranian refugee who lived for years in a Paris airport. Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia, cannot enter the United States or fly home. Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), the airport's acting field commissioner, wants him to be someone else's problem before a promotion review. Viktor sets up home at a gate under renovation, learns English from guidebooks, earns quarters returning luggage carts, and is hired under the table by a construction crew. He befriends the janitor Gupta Rajan (Kumar Pallana), food service driver Enrique Cruz (Diego Luna), whom he helps woo customs officer Dolores Torres (Zoe Saldaña), and baggage handler Joe Mulroy (Chi McBride). He falls for Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a flight attendant stuck in an affair with a married man. The Terminal comes after Catch Me If You Can and before War of the Worlds.
The Terminal ending explained
The Terminal ends with Viktor finally walking into New York. After nine months the war in Krakozhia ends, and Dixon threatens to have Gupta deported unless Viktor flies home. Gupta runs out in front of a departing plane to stall it and is arrested, and Viktor walks out of the airport. Dixon's officers let him go. In the can of Planters peanuts he has carried all along is the photo "A Great Day in Harlem"; at a hotel, he gets the last autograph his late father wanted, from saxophonist Benny Golson. Then he takes a taxi home.
Post-credits scenes
No. The Terminal has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Where to watch The Terminal
The Terminal is streaming on fuboTV, Paramount+, Kanopy, and Hoopla in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.4/10, Rotten Tomatoes 61%
Where it fits
- Release order: after Catch Me If You Can, before War of the Worlds.
- Chronological order: after Catch Me If You Can, before War of the Worlds.
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski
- Catherine Zeta-Jones as Amelia Warren
- Stanley Tucci as Frank Dixon
- Chi McBride as Mulroy
- Diego Luna as Enrique Cruz
- Barry Shabaka Henley as Thurman
- Kumar Pallana as Gupta Rajan
- Zoe Saldaña as Torres
- Eddie Jones as Salchak
- Jude Ciccolella as Karl Iverson
- Corey Reynolds as Waylin
- Guillermo Díaz as Bobby Alima
Directed by Steven Spielberg.