Six Days, Seven Nights

Six Days, Seven Nights
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ivan Reitman
Written by	Michael Browning
Produced by	Ivan Reitman Roger Birnbaum
Starring	Harrison Ford Anne Heche David Schwimmer Temuera Morrison
Cinematography	Michael Chapman
Edited by	Wendy Greene Bricmont Sheldon Kahn
Music by	Randy Edelman Taj Mahal
Production companies	Touchstone Pictures Caravan Pictures Northern Lights Entertainment Roger Birnbaum Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date	June 12, 1998 (1998-06-12) (United States)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$65–70 million[1]
Box office	$164.8 million[2]

Six Days, Seven Nights is a 1998 American adventure action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche. The screenplay was written by Michael Browning. It was filmed on location in Kauai, and released on June 12, 1998. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a moderate box-office success.

Plot[]

Robin Monroe (Anne Heche) is a New York editor for a fashion magazine called Dazzle. Her boyfriend Frank Martin (David Schwimmer), surprises her with a week-long vacation in Makatea, an island in the South Pacific. The final leg of their journey to Makatea is in a dilapidated de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, piloted by middle-aged American, Quinn Harris (Harrison Ford). They are accompanied by Quinn's young girlfriend Angelica (Jacqueline Obradors). On their first night on the island, Frank proposes to Robin, who happily accepts. At a bar, a drunken Quinn, failing to recognize Robin, unsuccessfully hits on her.

The next morning, Robin's boss Marjorie (Allison Janney) wants her to briefly interrupt her vacation to fly to Tahiti to supervise a fashion shoot. She hires Quinn to fly her there. While en route, a sudden thunderstorm appears. The plane gets damaged by a lightning strike, forcing Quinn to crash-land on a deserted island, damaging the plane's wheel. Quinn believes they are on an island that has a signal beacon located on a high hill. If disabled, a repair crew will be sent. After climbing a high hill, they discover they are on a different island.

Back in Makatea, Frank and Angelica accompany the aerial search party for their missing partners, but after several days, the search is unsuccessful and is soon called off. Frank, believing Robin is dead, gets drunk and sleeps with Angelica after she seduces him.

After spotting a boat off the island coast, Robin and Quinn head out to it in the life raft. Discovering there are two vessels moored next to each other, they realize pirates have captured and have killed one boat occupant. The pirates spot Quinn and Robin and pursue them back to the island. After briefly being captured by the pirates, the two narrowly escape. While hiding in the jungle, they discover a crashed World War II Japanese float plane. They salvage the pontoons and attach them to Quinn's damaged plane in an attempt to leave the island. As they are about to take off, the pirates reappear and fire shells onto the beach, injuring Quinn. They start the plane and are able to take off. They fly over the pirates, who accidentally destroy their own boat when shooting at the plane.

Quinn quickly instructs Robin on how to land the plane before passing out due to his injury, leaving Robin to fly it herself. Arriving at Makatea, she lands the aircraft on the beach, where their memorial service is in progress. Frank is relieved that Robin is alive, but secretly is disgusted with himself for having slept with Angelica. Robin visits Quinn in the hospital and confesses her feelings for him, but he says their lives are too different.

As Robin and Frank are about to fly back to New York, she says she does not want to get married. Frank confesses he slept with Angelica and she reveals her feelings for Quinn. They realize they are not in love and Robin returns Frank's engagement ring.

Quinn has a change of heart and rushes to the airport to find Robin, but is apparently too late. He then encounters Robin, who got off the plane before it took off and is surprised to see Quinn. Quinn confesses his feelings for her.

Cast[]

Production[]

The film features stunt work with aircraft. The effects were produced without CGI assistance. The crash scene of the de Havilland Beaver was performed with a Huey helicopter suspending the unmanned aircraft with a 200-foot cable with the engine running.^[3]

Harrison Ford is a certified pilot and did his own flying in the film, after fulfilling the insurance company's training requirements.^[4]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Six Days, Seven Nights holds an approval rating of 38% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critics consensus states: "A generally enjoyable, if completely forgettable piece of Hollywood fluff."^[5] At Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[7]

Box office[]

Six Days, Seven Nights grossed $74.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $90.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $164.8 million.

In its opening weekend the film made $16.5 million and finished in second, then made $10.7 million and $7.7 million the following two weekends.^[1][2]

References[]

External links[]

• Six Days, Seven Nights at IMDb 
• Six Days, Seven Nights at AllMovie
• Six Days, Seven Nights at the TCM Movie Database
• Six Days, Seven Nights at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Six Days, Seven Nights at Box Office Mojo