Snakes on a Plane - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Snakes on a Plane



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The early 2000s was the wild wild west for dumb action movies post The Fast and the Furious. We had stuff like xXx, Torque, The Transporter, and Biker Boyz. So why not go fully metal in the horror department too and bust into the 21st century with a horror comedy about Samuel L. Jackson shooting up a bunch of snakes on a plane? Snakes on a Plane grossed a moderate 62+ million on a 33 million budget, and while solidly successful, has become sort of the whipping boy for early 2000’s horror movies. But lets be real. The movie was never marketed as a proper horror movie, but 100% as a horror comedy that knew it was as dumb as could be and still was having fun with it. And in that vein I’ve always had a soft spot for the snake filled creature feature. It’s not going to win any awards, but much like 1992’s Under Siege it was seen specifically to watch Samuel L. Jackson make memeable one lines, and bad 2006 era CGI snakes eating up dumb passengers.

Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) witnesses the murder of his riding buddy, a Hawaiian prosecutor, by mobster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson). Thinking he’s gotten away without his identity being breached, Sean hides out back at his place only for Eddie’s men to come hunting for him. Pulled out of the fire by tough as nails FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson), Sean agrees to give testimony against Eddie Kim and put the mobster away for good. Only thing is, Sean has to actually make it to the trial, and Eddie is going to do EVERYTHING he can to take Sean and Neville out before they get to their destination in Los Angeles.

Naturally Eddie catches hold of the flight that Neville and Sean are using, and instead sending hitmen after the duo, he gets hundreds of highly venomous snakes from all over the world, hops them up pheromones to make them super aggressive, and ships them in the plane. That way when the snakes get off from the agitation of travel, they’ll bust out of their cages and go hog wild biting everyone and everything they can possible get their fangs on. And that’s exactly what happens. Sean and Neville are forced to lead a ragtag group of misfit passengers and flight crew into barricading themselves into the front of the plane and try to survive the 2 hour flight to Los Angeles that they have left. If they can stay alive long enough.

As a film that is SPECIFICALLY designed to be an over the top cult film, Snakes on a Plane actually succeeds pretty well. It’s stupid, over the top to the nth degree, and filled with all sorts of crazy encounters with unnaturally violent snakes. It’s downright hilarious watching the early 2000s CGI that looks about as funky as Iron Man’s first suit up scene, or and with a fraction of the budget. Samuel L. Jackson is hamming it up like he usually does, cursing at every snake in the plane, while shooting them with everything from a makeshift flame thrower, to a harpoon gun.

Fitting right in with the absurdity of everything is the acting. Jackson does his normal Jackson thing, but we have a wide array of colorful characters across the board. Ranging from the stewardess on one last tour (you know, kinda like the cop who had 3 days till retirement), the hot stewardess who has a thing for the older leading man. A Paris Hilton wannabe celebrity with a puppy, and of course a rapper with his entourage (with Kenan Thompson included in the entourage) and general cliches out the wazoo. And to be fair, the over the top nature of the acting and the action make the movie fun. It’s silly, goofy, and generally just a fun time if you like “check your brain at the door” horror comedies that don’t lean TOO far into the comedy aspect.




Rating:

Rated R for language, a scene of sexuality and drug use, and intense sequences of terror and violence




4K Video: Video:

As usual, Snakes on a Plane has been restored by Arrow films in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, and completed with Dolby Vision and HDR via Duplitech. Then QC’d by Pixelogic.

While the disc looks great in many ways, this is one of those films that doesn’t show massive detail improvements considering it was taken a from a 2K DI for much of the elements. That being said, the Dolby Vision/HDR10 are where most of the improvements come from, adding more punch and richness to the entire film. Colors are genuinely nice, with heavy Sepia tones bleeding through most of the time. Primary colors can look really good, but oranges and dulled reds tend to be the most prominent. Costumes and props look appropriately detailed, with indoor shots strangely looking the best (whenever things take place outside, that weathered Sepia look comes out). Shadow detail is good, but comparing to my old Warner Bro’s Blu-ray, they’re not as spectacular as I would have hoped. Again, none of this is bad, as this is a definite upgrade over the aging Blu-ray. It’s just not the night and day difference that I was hoping for.









Audio:

While Warner most likely provided the stems for the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track found on board the 4K disc, I did notice some minor differences over the 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track that Warner put on the aging Blu-ray. Mostly in the surrounds and LFE, which get a bit more activity and a bit more depth in terms of the low end. Other than that, they’re strikingly similar mixes. Dialog is well placed and never in question, and the craziness of the entire film bleeds through into the audio. Bass packs a wallop when needed, and the surrounds are nearly always active with all of the snakes hissing, people screaming, and general chaos of the situation.







Extras:

• Brand new audio commentary by critics Max Evry and Bryan Reesman
• Archival cast and crew audio commentary, featuring director David R. Ellis, actor Samuel L. Jackson, producer Craig Berenson, associate producer Tawny Ellis, VFX supervisor Eric Henry, and second unit director Freddie Hice
• Snakes on a Page, a brand new mini-documentary exploring the movie tie-in novelization phenomenon, featuring publisher Mark Miller, historian David Spencer and Christa Faust, author of the Snakes on a Plane novelization
• Pure Venom, an archival feature on the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast and crew
• Meet the Reptiles, an archival featurette on the work of snake wrangler Jules Sylvester and the various snakes featured in the film
• VFX, an archival featurette on the use of CGI to bring the snakes to life
• Snakes on a Blog, an archival featurette on the online hype surrounding the film prior to its release
• Snakes on a Plane music video
• Making of the music video
• Gag reel
• Trailers and TV Spots
• Image gallery
• Easter eggs
• South Pacific Airlines safety instruction card
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
• Collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Daniel Burnett and Charlie Brigden

Final Score: ​

Snake on a Plane never meant to take itself seriously, and those who do are sort of missing the joke. This was a ludicrous event from the get go, and everyone involved is winking directly at the audience in just about very shot (the “snake” button on the microwave is downright hilarious). It’s stupid, gory, cheesy, and just plain fun if you love trash cinema. And Snakes on a Plane is trash cinema to the core. Arrow’s 4K UHD disc looks good, sounds great, and has a whole host of extras to enjoy, so fans of the movie will definitely appreciate this collector’s edition package.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Steven Seagal, Gary Busey, Tommy Lee Jones, Damian Chapa, Glenn Morshower, Erika Eleniak
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Written by: John Hefferman, Sebastian Gutierrez, David Dalessandro
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow
Rated: R
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 20th, 2026

Recommendation: Cult Cheese Watch