'Flight' Exclusive: Denzel Rolls With It

Denzel Washington has been nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his turn as a heroic pilot whose miraculous efforts save the crew and passengers of a crashing commercial airliner in Flight, and we have an exclusive first look at how Denzel and director Robert Zemeckis pulled off that intense crash scene from the new Blu-ray, out February 5.

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In Flight, Denzel plays Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot who crash-lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, still managing to save nearly every person on board. After the crash, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault, and he soon finds himself facing criminal negligence charges.

Denzel is not actually a pilot, but he got to practice in the same type of flight simulator that pilots use for practice – not to mention enduring similar conditions of a plane about to crash.
"You get to get in that thing and act like you're flying a plane and hang upside down," says Denzel. "You know, it's still being a kid, I mean that's the fun of it, I've got a great job."

The man does his own stunts when he can, and he has a sense of humor about it, evident after he walks out of the cockpit and proclaims, "Yeah, I'm taller now."

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The Flight Blu-ray, out February 5, includes Q&A Highlights and several behind-the-scenes featurettes, including Anatomy of a Plane Crash.