7 Movies to Never Watch on a Plane
I travel a fair amount. While I typically use my time on airplanes to read or catch some zzz’s, inevitably I’ll peek across the aisle to see what the person diagonally ahead of me is watching. These are the 7 movies I always hope it’s NOT:
Plane – No one ever wants their aircraft to have to make an emergency landing. But diverting to another airport or landing unexpectedly in a random field is a lot better than having to touch down on a rebel-controlled island off the coast of the Philippines after two people are killed during extreme flight turbulence. That’s exactly what happens in this thriller, and Pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) must band together with fugitive murder suspect Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter) to figure out how to get the remaining passengers back to safety. Don’t judge it by its simple title — Plane is an action-packed trip. Just not one you want to watch while 36,000 feet in the air.
Snakes on a Plane – This movie’s title is a great illustration of the phrase, “It is what it is.” Because there are indeed snakes on the plane Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) finds himself in while escorting a murder witness from Hawaii to Los Angeles. Turns out a crime lord arranged to set loose a crate of deadly vipers in the cargo hold and … his plan worked. Chaos erupts, snakes literally fall from the sky, and if you’re on a flight while this movie plays you’ll never be able to look at overhead oxygen masks the same way again.
Flight – Come for the performance that earned Denzel an(other) Oscar nomination for his turn as a drugged-out, alcoholic, commercial airline pilot. Stay for the fact that he saves most of the people on his doomed flight by choosing to fly the plane upside-down after it loses its engines. Just don’t watch it while you yourself are also on a plane.
Sully – While I would definitely not want this one playing if I was taking off from anywhere in New York (especially LaGuardia), overall it’s just better to watch the heroic, real-life story of Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger’s miraculous Airbus A320 water landing from the comfort of your own couch, nowhere near the Hudson River.
Flightplan – Years before the concept of “gaslighting” would become widely talked about and understood, Jodi Foster starred as airplane engineer Kyle Pratt in this 2005 mystery-thriller set entirely on an airplane bound to New York from Germany. Pratt remembers boarding with her daughter, but after dozing off, she awakens to find the girl missing and absolutely no one remembering her daughter at all. Even the captain (Sean Bean) and air marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) insist the child was never on board. Pratt then takes matters into her own hands and uses her extensive knowledge of the plane’s layout to search for her little girl. So now you’re saying I can’t even nap on a flight with my kids without fearing some major drama? PASS!
Non-Stop – Liam Neeson stars as an air marshal and ex-NYPD officer who gets an anonymous text claiming that one passenger on his flight will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a certain bank account. The air marshal isn’t sure he can believe it … until the first victim goes down. This is one of those of those movies that — now that it’s almost a decade old — it’s fun to watch because there are so many cast members in it who became more famous later. In addition to Neeson and Julianne Moore, there’s also Lupita Nyong’o, Corey Stoll, Shea Whigham, Corey Hawkins, Michelle Dockery and Scoot McNairy onboard. I’ll watch this one again soon for kicks, but I’ll have my feet firmly planted on the ground when I do.
The Grey – So yeah, if you see Liam Neeson on your plane, just turn around and deboard right then and there. Otherwise, if you’re not caught in the middle of an in-flight murder mystery, you might find yourself crash-landing with Neeson in Alaska, surrounded by packs of hungry wolves like in this movie. No thanks!
Safe travels, all!