Which I suppose is the whole point. In going absolutely nowhere, Hank's character Victor Navorski, actually gets a unique albeit strange experience. As an aside, about six months after 9/11 I spent an entire night in the terminal at Dulles International airport waiting for a morning flight. I thought it would be fun - actually I mean I thought it would be cheap. I spent about 10 hours in the airport. I slept on the floor, various chairs, and the floor again. It was uncomfortable so I watched "Thirteen Days" on my laptop, tried to sleep some more, and even made a few trips to the small store that was open all night. No one ever once gave me a quizzical look and the janitor never mocked me for slobbering all over the cold floor. One thing Spielberg's terminal missed that Dulles had, in spades, was the constant, loud, robotic messages about not leaving your baggage around. Sure they stopped at about 4 in the morning for about an hour; then again, maybe I was just hallucinating at that point. Oh well, details.

Sure in an era of Post-9/11 and tight security, the whole thing seems mildly absurd. But there is a certain reassurance in how Navorski deals with being stranded in a bureaucratic purgatory between his homeland and America. Part of the fun of traveling is that idea of simply going somewhere, anywhere, but the adventure along the way are what make the whole thing worth while.

Jackson Murphy is a commentator from Vancouver, Canada. He is a senior writer at Enter Stage Right and the editor of "Dispatches" which serves up political commentary and more 24-7.