Los Angeles International Airport in popular culture

Los Angeles International Airport, often called LAX, has been a popular place for movies and TV shows. Many films and shows choose to be set or filmed there because it is close to Hollywood studios. The airport's busy and exciting atmosphere makes it a great setting for stories. From 2002 to 2005, filming at Los Angeles airports, including LAX, helped bring in $590 million for the local area. This shows just how important LAX is not only for travel but also for making entertainment.

1960s–1980s

Many popular movies and TV shows featured Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) during the 1960s to the 1980s. For example, in the 1966 film Hold On!, teenage girls gather at LAX around a famous actress. The 1967 movie The Graduate shows the main character walking through an airport tunnel while a famous song plays.

Several TV shows, like Adam-12 and Columbo, included scenes at LAX. Comedies such as High Anxiety and Airplane! also used the airport in their stories. Other films like No Deposit, No Return, Commando, and To Live and Die in L.A. had scenes filmed at LAX, showing different parts of the airport. Even a music video by the band Tears for Fears was partly filmed there.

1990s

• Stephen King’s 1990 horror story The Langoliers and its 1995 movie version start and end at LAX.
• Japan Airlines made ads with Janet Jackson at LAX to show their fancy flights. One ad was filmed at Tom Bradley Terminal, and another used the airport’s runways.
• The 1991 TV show Going Places opens with a plane landing at LAX.
• The 1994 movie My Girl 2 with Anna Chlumsky was filmed at LAX.
• Parts of the 1994 movie Clifford with Martin Short and Charles Grodin were shot inside LAX terminals.
• The 1994 action film Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock used LAX runways for some scenes.
• The 1995 film Heat with Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, and Al Pacino ends at LAX.
• In the 1995 movie _The Net, Sandra Bullock’s character loses her car in the LAX parking lot.
• The 1997 movie Liar Liar with Jim Carrey has a scene where the main character rushes to LAX to try to catch his son’s plane.
• The 1997 film Face/Off begins with a plane crashing into a hangar at LAX.
• The 1997 film Turbulence with Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly includes a scene where a plane tries to land on an LAX runway.
• The 1997 novel Airframe by Michael Crichton begins with a plane making an emergency landing at LAX.
• In the 1997 film Air Force One directed by Wolfgang Petersen, LAX stands in for another airport where Air Force One takes off.
• The 1999 movie Anywhere but Here with Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon was partly filmed at LAX.
• The 1999 PlayStation game Driver has a mission set at LAX.
• The 1999 film Fight Club with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton opens with both characters arriving at LAX on the same flight.
• The Backstreet Boys’ music video for “I Want It That Way” was mostly filmed at LAX, especially at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, with some scenes in airport hangars. A Delta Air Lines plane also appears in the video.

2000s

• The 2000 film Charlie's Angels had a scene at LAX.
• The 2001 Denzel Washington film Training Day ended with a character trying to escape at LAX.
• The 1999-2006 NBC drama The West Wing showed a former governor meeting his assistant at what looked like LAX, but it was really another airport.
• The 2002 comedy-drama film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, was partly filmed at LAX.
• In the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 1, a character flies from LAX to Japan to get a special item.
• The 2004 film Collateral with Tom Cruise begins at LAX.
• The 2004 comedy Soul Plane showed a flight leaving LAX.
• Two popular video games, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V, used a made-up version of LAX called Los Santos International Airport.
• In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, tornadoes hit an airplane at the airport.
• The 2004 TV series LAX was about people working at the airport, with some scenes filmed at real airports.
• The 2005 video game L.A. Rush featured LAX.
• The 2005 TV show Airline showed stories from LAX and other airports.
• The 2006 film Snakes on a Plane had a plane flying toward LAX.
• The music video for Maroon 5’s song Makes Me Wonder was filmed at LAX.
• In the 2007 animated film Bee Movie, characters fly from LAX to New York City.
• Rapper Game released an album called LAX in 2008.
• Miley Cyrus’s 2009 song Party in the U.S.A. mentions landing at LAX.
• The music video for American Idol winner David Cook’s song Come Back to Me was filmed at LAX.

2010–present

The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has been featured in many TV shows and movies since 2010. For example, it appeared in a 2010 episode of Life After People on the History Channel, showing what might happen to the airport's famous buildings over time. It was also part of a 2011 episode of the British show Torchwood: Miracle Day titled "The Middle Men".

LAX played a big role in the final season of Lost, especially in an episode called "LA X." The airport was also where characters from the movie Rush Hour boarded a plane. In the video game Midnight Club II, players could race in a stage based on LAX. The 2015 film Terminator Genisys showed the airport's ruins in a future world. In All Eyez on Me, the actor playing Tupac Shakur flies into LAX. The 2020 film Tenet used LAX to stand in for another airport. The animated show Amphibia ended with a character arriving at LAX to meet a friend.