It’s been said time and again that the truth can be more wild than any fiction and the best inspiration comes from real life. That was exactly the case for John Travolta getting involved in The Shepherd, a 2023 adaptation of a 1975 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth – with some chilling, near-fatal similarities.
Forsyth’s novel tells the story of a RAF pilot heading home on Christmas. He becomes lost in a dense fog. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that the pilot has no working compass or radio and he’s running out of fuel – fast. The novel takes place in 1957 and 35 years later, Travolta would learn too well what that feeling of looming peril would feel like.
John Travolta had a near-fatal flying incident
The Shepherd follows the efforts of a British pilot, named Freddie Hooke in the upcoming film, to safely land when all the odds are against him. The title refers to another pilot who manages to fly – or shepherd – Freddie to safety through the fog. In the film, Travolta plays the shepherd, although things might have gone differently if the movie had been wheels up sooner.
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Travolta acquired rights to Forsyth’s book but had not had time to work on it until very recently. “Because it was right after Pulp Fiction, I was doing one move after another,” Travolta explained. “After 10 years, I just let it go and decided that I was never going to really get to do it.”
Probably no one is more disappointed in the delay than Travolta, who found himself connecting at a personal level with the original book.
John Travolta needed a shepherd and now he is ‘The Shepherd’
“So, I’m reading this book saying, ‘I’ve lived this,'” Travolta told Variety. “And of course, I was young enough then that I could have played this part [of Freddie]. But I had to wait 30 years to play the Shepherd.”
It’s a role that not just Freddie but he himself needed decades ago. In 1992, Travolta was flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Rockland, Maine. But he was not alone. He was joined by his wife, Kelly Preston, as well as their then-7-month-old son, Jett; they were heading to their vacation home to celebrate Jett’s first Thanksgiving.
But then, the corporate jet Travolta was flying experienced “a total electrical failure.”
“I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you’re going to die,” shared Travolta. “I had two good jet engines, but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing. And I thought it was over.” It took what Travolta called a “miracle” to help them see the next sunrise. “We descended as per the rules to lower altitude,” he recalled. “I saw the Washington D.C. monument and identified that Washington National Airport was next to it and I made a landing just like [Freddie] does in the film.”
Ben Radcliffe plays the young pilot, Freddie, to Travolta’s Shepherd. The film drops on Disney+ on December 1.
