In Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski.
Released in 2004, the film follows Viktor after he arrives at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. A political upheaval in his fictional home country leaves his travel documents invalid, preventing him from entering the United States or returning home.
Viktor must live inside the airport terminal while waiting for his legal situation to change. The story uses the airport as a small international community, bringing him into contact with employees, travelers, and other people living between countries.
Catherine Zeta-Jones plays flight attendant Amelia Warren, and Stanley Tucci plays airport official Frank Dixon. The fictional country of Krakozhia is central to the plot, and the film was loosely inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who lived for years in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport.