The Scene Of The Jet Crashing Into The Terminal Is From The Comedy Movie "AirPlane" (edit)

Orderly: You Murdock?
Murdock: Sometimes. (edit) Hannibal: You've been found sane. (edit) Murdock: You've got to come up with some kind of plan.
B.A.: If you ain't crazy no more, why don't you come up with a plan?
Murdock: Well, why don't you make up your mind? First I'm crazy, then I'm not. Then I'm crazy, then I'm not. She loves me, she loves me not.
B.A.: Shut up, Murdock! Shut up! (edit)

Hertzog: Okay, Smith, we're gonna bring you in VFR.
Hannibal: VFR?
Murdock: That's pilot talk. It just means you're flying this baby on your own.

VFR stands for "Visual Flight Rules," and it means flying by what you can see, not solely by what the instruments tell you; the latter is IFR: Instrument Flight Rules. Most commercial flights are IFR, and in the U.S., all planes flying in Class A airspace (18,000 feet or higher) must fly IFR. (edit) Goof: When the gun goes off, blinding Murdock, the close-up shows the bullet going into a burgundy seatback. But the scene takes place in economy class, where the seatbacks are gray; the burgundy seats are in first-class, where Hannibal is sitting. (edit) The high-altitude shots of the hijacked airliner are actually of a TWA plane; in some of the shots, the film has been flipped, so that the initials on the tail read "AWT" instead. (edit) Goof:
Watch carefully at the scene where the plane crashes through the terminal. A lady tosses her prop baby up in the air. (edit)

Murdock: My good sir, this doctor has released me because I'm sane! I have papers and everything!

Murdock's voice from this point until the ending credits roll is an imitation of Richard Burton. (edit) Murdock: By the way, B.A., I thought that now that I'm not nuts anymore, maybe you and I could room together.
(B.A. glares at him.)
Murdock: On the other hand, good fences do make good neighbors.

"Good fences make good neighbors" is a line from Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall." (edit) Murdock: Did any of you guys ever see that old Doug McClure movie Terror in the Sky?

Terror in the Sky was the fifth incarnation of a well-used story by Arthur Hailey. The story began as Flight into Danger, a 1956 television movie that Hailey wrote for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It was remade as the feature film Zero Hour in 1957; then Hailey novelized the story as Flight Into Danger: Runway Zero-Eight in 1958. It was remade as a television movie in West Germany in 1964; in 1971, Terror in the Sky was adapted into an American television movie from Hailey's 1958 novel. The rights to Zero Hour were eventually sold to the makers of the 1980 cult classic Airplane!, which used much of the original screenplay verbatim. (edit) Jackson: You and Tonto can crack your lousy jokes as you go into the ocean.
Face: Get 'em up, Scout.

Moments earlier, Hannibal had referred to himself and Face as "Lone Ranger types." In these lines, Jackson and Face continue the allusion: Tonto was the Lone Ranger's sidekick, and Tonto's horse was named Scout. (edit) Murdock: (singing) Pardon me, Roy, is that the catatonic choo-choo?

This is a parodied allusion to the Glenn Miller hit, "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." (edit) Murdock: Hey, I'll just shrink down and squeeze through the cracks.

Murdock is doing a fair imitation of Marlon Brando here. (edit) Murdock: I have been kicked out. Caine has been kicked out of the harbor. So pull up the gangplanks, Mr. Roberts, and tell all the officers to meet me in the wardroom.

This is Murdock's impression of James Cagney from the 1955 film Mister Roberts. (edit) Murdock: Don't be silly, pal. You're taking a fall. When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It's bad business to let a killer get away with it -- bad all around. Bad for detectives everywhere.

This is Murdock's impression (imitation) of Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. (edit) The title is a twist on the phrase "belly of the beast," which may have originally come from the story of Jonah in the belly of the whale. Jack Abbott, a career criminal, published a book called In the Belly of the Beast in 1981; the book, however, is unrelated to the events in this episode. (edit)