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Best Airplane Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of airplane cinema — measured across 1,670 indexed frames from 24 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Airplane films over-index on pilot, airplane and headset — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    I’m So Excited! (2013)

    Pedro AlmodóvarDP José Luis AlcaineIMDb 5.6TMDB 5.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    A technical failure has endangered the lives of the people on board Peninsula Flight 2549. The pilots are striving, along with their colleagues in the Control Center, to find a solution. The flight attendants and the chief steward are atypical, baroque characters who, in the face of danger, try to forget their own personal problems and devote themselves body and soul to the task of making the flight as enjoyable as possible for the passengers, while they wait for a solution. Life in the clouds is as complicated as it is at ground level, and for the same reasons, which could be summarized in two: sex and death.

  2. 2

    The Wind Rises (2013)

    Hayao MiyazakiDP Atsushi OkuiIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world's most innovative and accomplished airplane designers. The film chronicles much of his life, depicting key historical events, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan's plunge into war. Jiro meets and falls in love with Nahoko, and grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo.

  3. 3

    Top Gun (1986)

    Tony ScottDP Jeffrey L. KimballIMDb 7.0TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    US Navy Lieutenant Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick--an impetuous, daredevil pilot ace--is accepted into Top Gun, Miramar's elite Fighter School. But there, the impulsive young pilot will have to compete with the best of the best, including Iceman, a brilliant and highly competitive fellow student. Now, Mitchell must give his all; however, his father's mysterious and untimely demise still haunts him. Can Maverick prove his worth to Charlie, the flying school's no-nonsense astrophysics instructor? Will he be able to suppress his wild nature to win the prestigious Top Gun Trophy?

  4. 4

    Licence to Kill (1989)

    John GlenDP Alec MillsIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    James Bond is on possibly his most brutal mission yet. Bond's good friend, Felix Leiter, is left near death, by drug baron Franz Sanchez. Bond sets off on the hunt for Sanchez, but not everyone is happy. MI6 does not feel Sanchez is their problem and strips Bond of his license to kill making Bond more dangerous than ever. Bond gains the aid of one of Leiter's friends, known as Pam Bouvier and sneaks his way into the drug factories, which Sanchez owns. Will Bond be able to keep his identity secret, or will Sanchez see Bond's true intentions?

  5. 5

    Goldfinger (1964)

    Guy HamiltonDP Ted MooreIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    James Bond (Sir Sean Connery) is back and his next mission takes him to Fort Knox, where Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) and his henchman are planning to raid Fort Knox and obliterate the world economy. To save the world once again, Bond will need to become friends with Goldfinger, dodge killer hats, and avoid Goldfinger's personal pilot, the sexy Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman). She might not have feelings for Bond, but will 007 help her change her mind?

  6. 6

    Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

    Hayao MiyazakiIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    An animated fantasy-adventure. Set one thousand years from now, the Earth is ravaged by pollution and war. In the Valley of the Wind lives Nausicaä, Princess of her people. Their land borders on a toxic jungle, filled with dangerous over-sized insects. Meanwhile, two nearby nations are bitterly engaged in a war and the Valley of the Wind is stuck in the middle.

  7. 7

    Get Smart (2008)

    Peter SegalDP Dean SemlerIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    American Maxwell Smart works for a Government spy agency in an administrative capacity. When the agency's head office is attacked, the Chief decides to assign Maxwell as a spy and partners him with sexy Agent 99, much to her chagrin. The duo nevertheless set off to combat their attackers by first parachuting off an airplane and landing in Russian territory - followed closely by an over seven feet tall, 400 pound goon, known simply as Dalip. The duo, handicapped by Maxwell's antics, will eventually have their identities compromised, and may be chalked up as casualties, while back in America their attackers have already planted a bomb that is set-up to explode in a concert.

  8. 8

    Jurassic Park III (2001)

    Joe JohnstonDP Shelly JohnsonIMDb 6.0TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Dr. Alan Grant is now a happy man with the previous incidents of Jurassic Park now behind him. Grant is that happy that he announce in public, that nothing on Earth can persuade him back onto the islands. Maybe nothing, except Paul Kirby. Kirby and his wife, Amanda want a plane to fly them over Isla Sorna, with Dr. Grant as their guide. But not everything Kirby says is true. When the plane lands, Dr. Grant realizes that there is another reason why they are there, that he doesn't know of. Now, Dr. Grant is stuck on an island he has never been on before, with what was a plane journey now turned into a search party.

  9. 9

    The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

    Christopher NolanDP Wally PfisterIMDb 8.4TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Following the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for Dent's crimes to protect the late attorney's reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department. Eight years later, Batman encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and the villainous Bane, a new terrorist leader who overwhelms Gotham's finest. The Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

  10. 10

    Donnie Darko

    Richard KellyDP Steven PosterIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Donnie Darko doesn't get along too well with his family, his teachers, and his classmates; but he does manage to find a sympathetic friend in Gretchen, who agrees to date him. He has a compassionate psychiatrist, who discovers hypnosis is the means to unlock hidden secrets. His other companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named Frank, a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and Donnie's escape, seem to have been caused by supernatural events.

What airplane films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a airplane frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — pilot is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • pilot27.1×
  • airplane23.0×
  • headset9.0×
  • clouds2.4×
  • plaid shirt2.3×
  • wristwatch2.3×
  • suit2.0×
  • necktie1.8×

How airplane films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate airplane from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 17%closeupvs 21% baseline
  • 24%widevs 20% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Twelve Monkeys (1995) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,670 frames from 24 films carrying the airplane label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/airplane

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