John Travolta’s new movie, Propeller One -Way Night Coach, was released on streaming on Apple TV today, which means viewers can now watch the movie that had the Grease star wearing multiple berets at Cannes. How can you not be curious?
Propeller One-Way Night Coach was written and directed by Travolta himself, based on his own children’s book of the same name, which he wrote and published back in 1997. The story follows an 8-year-old boy aviation enthusiast named Jeff, who delights in flying across the country via a series of connecting flights with his mother back in 1962.
Both the children’s book and the film adaptation were inspired by Travolta’s childhood. Travolta has had a life-long love of planes, and acquired his pilot’s license when he was 22. The 61-minute film is narrated by Travolta, which adds to the feeling that he’s looking back on his real childhood. But how much of the Propeller One-Way Night Coach is based on a true story?
Is the John Travolta movie Propeller One Way Night Coach based on a true story?
Propeller One-Way Night Coach was inspired by Travolta’s childhood memories of his first flights. Like Jeff, the young John Travolta loved planes and flying long before he got on a real plane. He began taking flying lessons when he was 16, and got his pilot’s license at 22. He even flew his own plane to Cannes earlier this month.
“Prior to my first experience in an airliner, I only had the promise of flight with beautiful toys which were excellent replicas of what the future could bring. My first flight brought it to fruition, and I was off and flying. Although I hadn’t thought about a film adaptation when I wrote my novella, Propeller One-Way Night Coach in 1997, it worked out to be so organically visual because my memories were so vivid,” Travolta wrote in his director’s statement for the film. “It just became natural to make the film version.”
But this movie is not a “true story” in the sense that is an adaptation of a news story or documented evets. While we can assume that Jeff is based on the real-life young Travolta, and his mother is based on Travolta’s own mother, the other characters and events of the film are otherwise made up.
That said, Travolta did name the mother in the movie, Helen, after his own mother, Helen Cecilia, who did have a small acting and singing career before she became a high school drama teacher. She also had the same sense of style you see on Helen in the movie.
“She had great taste and she knew that the wealthy people sold their used clothing at the church basement, so she could get a Christian Dior or Chanel for very little money,” Travolta said of his mother in a recent interview with RadioTimes. “So, at 12, I was in Christian Dior suits that cost $10 because they were someone else’s hand-me-down. So, we had a lot of style, our family, but not the money.”
Travolta further made the movie a family affair by casting his siblings in children in roles. Travolta’s daughter Ella Bleu Travolta plays the flight attendant Doris, whom young Jeff is besotted with.
Travolta’s sister, Ellen Travolta plays Jeff’s grandma, who we briefly see in the beginning of the film. His other sister, Margaret Travolta, plays a fellow passenger, Barbara, whom Jeff’s mother strikes up a conversation with on the flight. Another sister, Ann Travolta, plays a hot dog vendor; brother Sam Travolta makes an apperance as a passenger in seat 12A; and brother Joey Travolta plays a news reporter who interviews the plane pilot at the end of the film.
And of course, John Travolta himself makes an appearance in the film’s final scene, as the airplane pilot who is retiring and just landed his last flight.
So there you have it! While not exactly based on a true story, Propeller One-Way Night Coach definitely took inspiration from Travolta’s real-life, in both the story and the cast.