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Long flights can be tedious, but they also present a chance to watch movies both new and familiar. So we asked The Atlantic’s writers and editors: What is the perfect film to watch on a plane?
The Dark Knight Rises (streaming on HBO Max)
Moviegoing in an airplane may not elicit the same cinematic thrill as sitting in an IMAX theater, but it can bring a different emotional vulnerability. Perhaps you’ve just said goodbye to a lover you will never see again, or you’re flying home to fix a fraught situation with your parents. Feelings, too, can be heightened at cruising altitude.
I’ll just come out and say it: I’ve teared up more than once over the Atlantic Ocean while watching Bruce Wayne go to war with his inner demons in The Dark Knight Rises. The finale of Christopher Nolan’s morally serious and visually exquisite treatment of the Batman story culminates in Wayne’s showdown with a hulking Bane—ruthless and funnily accented, drunk off his own self-righteousness. I won’t give away the ending, but suffice to say, the moment when Alfred glances up from his caffè lungo in Florence is when I lose it.
— Thomas Chatterton Williams, staff writer
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In Her Shoes (available to rent on Prime Video)
In Her Shoes, the 2005 dramedy, is white noise. No, pink noise—heartfelt but easy. Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz play feuding sisters. Shirley MacLaine is their long-lost grandmother. The movie has cute dogs and witty seniors. It’s an in-flight tonic that beats even benzos and cabernet.
For years, two colleagues and I would refer to In Her Shoes as a sacred text of procrastination; it was always playing on cable at just the right time. I asked them to endorse my nomination of the film.
“There are no banger lines you have to hear, no intricate plot points you have to absorb,” Monica told me. “It’s a low-altitude film to be enjoyed at high altitude.”
“It’s the best movie for just getting through something you don’t want to be doing,” Hank said. “Writing the rest of Chapter 7,” for example. Or: Sitting in seat 24C to LAX.
The film’s 20th anniversary is in early October. So, consider this blurb a commemoration. Cheers.
— Dan Zak, senior editor
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The Fifth Element (available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV+)
On a plane, I prefer to watch a movie that I already know well, and enjoy rewatching. Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element has always been a guilty pleasure, something I’ve seen so many times that I can fill in any dialogue, sound design, or music that might be missed because of noisy passengers or bad headphones.
The movie is unabashedly fun, and Bruce Willis has never been more charming than he is as a taxi driver tasked with saving the world from an evil sentient fireball. It’s easy to watch as an engaged viewer or as a distracted traveler, and the PG-13 rating makes it okay for public viewing. Sure, there is some silly dialogue (such as the phrase “slightly greasy solar atoms”) and subpar acting, but somehow that just adds to the appeal.
— Alan Taylor, senior photo editor
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Crazy Rich Asians (available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV+)
Sleep was elusive on my recent 15-hour flight. Never before had an airplane-movie formula been more important. First, the obvious: I look for anything that is mindlessly fun or otherwise engrossing enough to help me forget that I am hurtling through the air in a bus with wings. I probably will not watch anything worthy of the Criterion Collection. Provided that I am entertained, the movie’s length is no issue. And it doesn’t hurt if there are scenes involving airports or travel, to help me romanticize the experience of crying children and cramped seats.
These are among the many boxes that Crazy Rich Asians ticks. I’ve spaced out my rewatches of this movie enough that it still feels fresh and captivating every time. Michelle Yeoh’s performance as an icy, formidable matriarch is hard to look away from. The lavish scenery and shots of Singapore’s night-market food strengthen my travel urge. Plus, those sweet airplane scenes (no spoilers!). The only downside is that it makes me wish I no longer had to travel in economy.
— Stephanie Bai, associate editor
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The movie the person near you is watching (playing on their screen)
The perfect airplane movie is the movie playing on one of your fellow passengers’ screens, which you watch through a crack between the seats or by glancing across the aisle. There’s an invigorating element of randomness (since you have no control over their selection), and also a pleasing surreptitious feeling about the whole experience, as if you’re getting away with something. Given that you won’t have any sound, subtitles are helpful, but sometimes it’s just as fun without them—consumed this way, even the most clichéd romantic comedy gains a certain art-house surrealism. Some things I have recently watched this way include Pulp Fiction, Dune: Part Two, multiple action films starring former professional wrestlers, and several episodes of the Batman miniseries The Penguin (out of order).
Later, on a different trip, I plugged in my headphones and watched Dune: Part Two with sound and dialogue on my very own screen. I have to say that it didn’t make much more sense.
— Quinta Jurecic, staff writer
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Augmented-reality glasses (available to buy online)
Let’s be honest: The best airplane film is whatever film you personally want to watch. That’s probably going to be different for you than it is for me. But though I can’t tell you which movie to watch in midair, I can tell you how to watch the exact movie you want, regardless of what’s available on the seatback screen in front of you. All you need is a pair of augmented-reality glasses.
As somebody who travels a lot for work, I have perfected the art of bringing my own movie theater with me. Unlike their more famous and expensive VR headset counterparts, these types of glasses are lightweight and won’t leave you exhausted from wearing them or looking like an alien to passersby. Most important, the glasses can connect to your smartphone, laptop, or video-game device, meaning that if you can stream it or download it, you can project it onto your own giant, private silver screen. Companies such as Xreal, Viture, and Rokid offer a range of models, features, and prices. Some even allow you to adjust the display for your prescription. Find the right one for you—you can typically get the same functionality for less money if you buy an old model—and you’ll never fly the same way again.
— Yair Rosenberg, staff writer
Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
- MAGA world is so close to getting it, Tom Nichols writes.
- The states where it’s riskier to have a baby
- The West Bank is sliding toward a crisis.
Today’s News
- The FBI searched the home and office of John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, as part of an investigation into whether he illegally shared or possessed classified information, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
- A federal judge ordered Florida last night to halt construction on the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant-detention facility in the Everglades and to stop bringing in new detainees. The judge also ruled that within 60 days, “all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles” must be removed, citing environmental damage.
- Canada announced that it will remove its 25 percent retaliatory tariffs from about half of the U.S. goods it has targeted this year, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that duties on U.S. steel, aluminum, and automobiles will remain.
Dispatches
- The Books Briefing: For some, including the author Lauren Groff, travel remains a spiritual endeavor, Boris Kachka writes. Read more about her search for an 11th-century novelist in Kyoto.
- The Weekly Planet: The model that once saved the New Jersey Meadowlands is disappearing, and legal protections for such places are now under threat, Kyra Morris writes.
Explore all of our newsletters here.
Evening Read
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
By Clint Smith
In what looks to be an intensifying quest to reshape American history and scholarship according to his own preferences, President Donald Trump this week targeted the Smithsonian Institution, the national repository of American history and memory. Trump seemed outraged, in particular, by the Smithsonian’s portrayal of the Black experience in America. He took to Truth Social to complain that the country’s museums “are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ The Smithsonian,” he wrote, “is OUT OF CONTROL.” Then Trump wrote something astonishing, even for him. He asserted that the narrative presented by the Smithsonian is overly focused on “how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”
Before continuing, it is important to pause a moment and state this directly: Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, believes that the Smithsonian is failing to do its job, because it spends too much time portraying slavery as “bad.”
More From The Atlantic
- Autocracy in America: The view from NATO’s eastern flank
- The culture war over nothing
- What Trump doesn’t understand about “America First”
Culture Break
Watch. The sensitive tween of the animated show King of the Hill is now an adult—with extremely Millennial anxieties, Jeremy Gordon writes.
Take a look. These photos of the week show a sail-in parade in Amsterdam, harness racing in Germany, an independence celebration in Indonesia, and more.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.
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