Comments on: Inflight Entertainment

By: Tom Zimmermann

Tom Zimmermann — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:41:03 +0000

There’s always money in the banana stand.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:25:11 +0000

I think the film I’ll associate most with flying is “Next Goal Wins” – the 2014 documentary, not the 2023 dramatisation. I haven’t watched the 2023 one: what made the 2014 one so great was that it was real.

For those who don’t know, it’s about the American Samoa national soccer team, ranked by FIFA as the worst in the world, who bring in a remarkably sweary Dutch coach to try to get off the bottom of the ladder. The people in it are brilliant, and you really grow to care about the team.

I watched it on Qatar Airways, on a flight from Doha to Kuala Lumpur. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but at one point I was shouting at the screen and then cheered loudly. Everyone stared at me.

—-

Reading other people’s comments about watching bulkhead films and listening through stethoscope headphones… When I was about 18 or 19, I was on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Taipei via Bangkok. They showed Beethoven – the one about the puppy that grows into a full-size dog with “hilarious consequences”. There was an eight-year-old Dutch kid next to me. I tried watching the film, and it was abysmal. I took my headphones out and sighed, and the kid said in English, “I agree. This is childish nonsense.”

By: Scott H.

Scott H. — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:00:47 +0000

The last movie I watched on a bulkhead screens was memorable. I was flying from Frankfurt to Sydney via Bangkok on Thai Airways (which, at least then, was a Star Alliance partner to United; not sure if they still are). I believe this was in 2008. It was my first flight on that corridor. For a fairly lengthy stretch of the flight, the bulkhead screen showed our route map (which, different story, was similar to the route followed by MH17 when it was shot down in 2014). At a certain point, I realized we were about to leave Turkmenistan and cross into Afghanistan. At almost exactly that time, the map blanked out and the movie started: “Charlie Wilson’s War.” I’m not sure who was responsible for that choice, but I’ve been delighted ever since in the fact that I actually watched Charlie Wilson’s War while flying over Afghanistan.

By: Salty D.

Salty D. — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 02:55:00 +0000

Ugh I remember those terrible headphones… they were just tubes basically and the sound was horrible.

Meanwhile I loaded up my MBAir before leaving and had plenty of stuff to watch both ways to Japan last week. In steerage the seatback thing is pretty weak.

By: Joseph Muller

Joseph Muller — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:37:46 +0000

In steerage, it is evolving to content being provided to our personal devices: there is little else less than inspiring than seeing Dune on a smartphone.

By: Blair

Blair — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 04:02:08 +0000

I’m old enough to remember the days when it was routine that movies were projected on the bulkhead. I was on an Aerosvit flight from JFK to Kyiv and was surprised to see the movie projected on the bulkhead…in December 2011.

By: Bibi desaintleger

Bibi desaintleger — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 18:40:14 +0000

So I checked Wikipedia in-flight entertainment
The history of it
Made me think of my first transatlantic flight on TWA
1978 I saw Animal house
And returned was Heaven can wait
My English wasn’t that good then so I paid attention and it turned out that was a great language class for me

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:36:02 +0000

I agree with you about David Lynch’s output, but would add Twin Peaks to the worthwhile list. Eraserhead is one-of-kind. I’ve never understood why Mulholland Drive is so well-regarded.