The 15 Best Movies to Watch on a Plane

Watching a movie on a plane is its own oddly specific genre of movie night. You are working with a small screen, questionable headphones, someone climbing over you to reach the bathroom, and the very real possibility that you will miss ten minutes because dinner suddenly arrived. This is probably not the moment for a visually meticulous masterpiece you have been saving for years. The best plane movies are easy to sink into, entertaining enough to make the flight feel shorter, and forgiving when the person next to you decides it is time to open every window shade. Some travelers even prefer familiar favorites they can drop in and out of without losing the plot. Here are 15 of the best movies to watch on a plane.

Crazy Rich Asians

Bright, funny, romantic, and extremely easy to settle into, Crazy Rich Asians is almost built for killing a couple of hours in economy. One traveler in the Reddit thread even named it as a regular plane pick.

The Big Short

A movie about the financial crisis does not exactly scream relaxing travel entertainment, but The Big Short moves surprisingly fast. Its jokes, celebrity cameos, and constant explanations make all that finance considerably easier to follow.

Rush Hour

Sometimes you just need Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker for 98 minutes. Rush Hour is funny, moves quickly, and does not demand absolute concentration, which explains why one Reddit traveler said they always look for it.

The Martian

Being stranded on Mars suddenly makes a cramped middle seat seem pretty manageable. The Martian has enough suspense to keep you watching, but Matt Damon’s problem-solving and humor keep it from becoming exhausting.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Travel going disastrously wrong is considerably funnier when your own biggest problem is limited legroom. Steve Martin and John Candy turn one terrible journey home into an ideal distraction from yours.

The Departed

A long flight gives you permission to finally choose something with a little more commitment. The Departed runs more than two and a half hours, but there is enough betrayal, suspicion, and double-crossing to make those hours disappear.

Ocean’s Eleven

Ocean’s Eleven asks almost nothing from you besides keeping track of a very charming group of people robbing a casino. It is slick, funny, familiar, and still works if turbulence steals your attention for a minute.

School of Rock

There are few situations that cannot be improved by Jack Black teaching children to play rock music. It is upbeat, endlessly rewatchable, and exactly complicated enough for a screen attached to the seat in front of you.

The Devil Wears Prada

You can miss five minutes of The Devil Wears Prada because someone brought the drink cart around and be completely fine. Come back, Meryl Streep is still terrifying everyone and the outfits are still doing half the work.

Knives Out

If you want something that actually keeps your brain occupied, Knives Out gives you a mystery without becoming homework. There are enough suspects and twists to keep the little flight-map button from becoming tempting.

Top Gun: Maverick

One Reddit traveler named this alongside Crazy Rich Asians as a movie familiar enough to work as background entertainment. There is something slightly unhinged about watching it at 35,000 feet, but perhaps that is part of the appeal.

Oppenheimer

For once, the three-hour runtime is an advantage. One Reddit user chose Oppenheimer on an almost 12-hour flight specifically because a longer movie meant a bigger chunk of the journey was taken care of.

The Intern

The Intern is the movie equivalent of choosing the comfortable travel outfit. Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway give you low-stakes workplace drama, some laughs, and almost nothing likely to make the stranger beside you glance nervously at your screen.

Legally Blonde

Elle Woods getting into Harvard and proving everyone wrong works pretty much anywhere. It is short, familiar, funny, and requires approximately zero adjustment when a flight attendant interrupts the best part to offer you pretzels.

Airplane!

Yes, several people gave the most obvious answer possible. Airplane! is short, packed with jokes, and probably the rare movie where watching an aviation disaster while physically aboard an aircraft somehow makes the whole experience less stressful.