I exclusively watch shitty action movies when I fly. What about you?
This is a question I’ve been posing to my friends for a while now, instigated by my decision to watch 65, a film where Adam Driver fights dinosaurs. A total dumpster fire of a movie, and yet…one that I thoroughly enjoyed from 35,000 feet up. That is roughly the altitude from which I’ve also seen all of the new Jurassic Park movies, The Meg and Meg 2, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House andTransformers: Rise of the Beasts.
Before you chalk all this up to a proclivity for remakes, sequels and generally bad action movies, know this: I would never watch any of the aforementioned movies at home, on the ground, nor would I ever recommend them to a friend. And I know I’m not the only one with very specific habits surrounding inflight movie-watching. I’ve met travelers who will only watch second-rate rom coms or, in other cases, films they’ve already seen many times over. One of my co-workers told me she routinely watches children’s movies because they’re “safe.”
So what’s the deal? To start, altitude levels and air conditions on an aircraft can heighten people’s emotions. A 2017 study commissioned by London Gatwick Airport revealed that 15% of men and 6% of women said they were more likely to cry while watching a movie in the air than they would if they were to watch that same movie anywhere else.
“For some people, travel makes them nervous, but hypoxia is the main differentiator in air travel in terms of impact on the brain physiologically,” neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart told Condé Nast Traveler. “The lower than usual air pressure causes mild hypoxia in the brain (low oxygen levels). These affect our cognition and make us less able to regulate our emotions and manage stress. This is usually manifested by people crying when watching sad movies or generally feeling on edge.”
It stands to reason that, because of this, we subconsciously gravitate towards movies that we know won’t push us too far in any one direction.
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“Do you know how many times I’ve watched Crazy, Stupid, Love on a plane? I don’t. I’ve lost count. What I do know, however, is that Ryan Gosling is a goddamn dreamboat, and Steve Carell is hilarious,” travel writer Ben Groundwater wrote back in 2016 on the topic of flying, crying and his subsequent movie choices. As for myself, I am a very emotional person at base level — perhaps my inclination towards garbage action movies stems from not wanting my seatmates to catch me weeping. (Full disclosure: I still cried during 65.)
On top of that, there’s frankly little else to do on a plane. These days, it’s exceedingly rare to find yourself in a position of having no distractions — where there isn’t anything at all that you should, or could, be doing. “Even if the screen is small and audio is non-optimal, there’s something isolating and immersive about being in a dark cabin surrounded by people, but in your own world,” a Reddit user once posted to the r/movies subreddit. “And up until recently, there wasn’t WiFi or outside contact so you had 5-15 hours all to yourself.” A film that’s a waste of time at ground level is suddenly incredibly enticing when all you’ve got is time, and no competing priorities to speak of.
As far as caliber, it’s always tempting to watch a buzzy new release on a plane, but those are usually best enjoyed on a bigger screen with a better sound system. Nothing about watching Meg 2 on a plane with janky headphones warrants any guilt on the viewer’s part. Second-rate movies also require far less commitment. That’s the primary reason another friend cited for only watching films she’s seen before — she doesn’t have to worry about falling asleep and missing any crucial plot points. Maybe I like subpar movies because I have no qualms about turning them off altogether. I don’t need to know how they end.
Except that’s the thing, I do always see them through to the end. I need to see if Adam Driver makes it out alive, because I’ll never finish the movie after I’ve landed.
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