Land of No Return is a 1978 thriller film written, directed, and produced by Kent Bateman

Kent Bateman

Kent Bruce Bateman is an American movie producer and director who is also the father to both Jason and Justine Bateman.Under the pen name Odin Roark, he has authored a published novel - 3 Way Mirror. Currently, chapters from two unpublished novels have been posted for critical commentary at:...

, who is also the father to both Jason

Jason Bateman

Jason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...

 and Justine Bateman

Justine Bateman

Justine Tanya Bateman is an American actress, writer, and producer. She is best known for her regular role as Mallory Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties...

. The film stars Mel Torme

Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

 and William Shatner

William Shatner

William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

.

The film was shot in Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 and released theatrically by The International Picture Show Company, whose president at the time was legendary B-movie

B-movie

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....

 filmmaker Bill Rebane

Bill Rebane

"Ito" Rebane is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He is best known for low budget horror movies such as Twist Craze] and The Giant Spider Invasion....

.

Alternate titles for the film include Challenge to Survive and Snowman.

Plot

Zak O'Brien (Mel Torme

Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

) is an animal trainer for the popular television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series "Caesar & Romulus", which has been selected for a "Patsy" Award to be presented in Burbank, California

Burbank, California

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

. Zak, along with Caesar (a Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...

), and Romulus (a wolf), board his personal plane

Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...

 in Denver for the flight to Burbank, but en route at night over the Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 wastelands they encounter a sudden blizzard

Blizzard

A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...

. When Zak's radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and engine

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...

fail, he guides the craft down to a crash landing. All three passengers survive, but the plane is destroyed and a struggle for survival begins.