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CinemaSins (a YouTube channel of movie critiques) often points out movies that 'instantly make themselves unavailable for in-flight viewing due to plane-crash sequence' (e.g. their review of Fight Club).

Is this true; are there guidelines that major carriers follow for entertainment selection? Are depicted incidents with private craft (e.g. a Cessna) okay?

Oddthinking
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Nick T
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  • I've seen a documentary on the effects of counterfeit airliner parts on air plane security on a plane before, including reporting of the Concorde accident. – drat Oct 23 '14 at 12:40
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    The economist J.K.Galbraith noted that airport bookstalls never sold his economic history book ["The Great Crash, 1929"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Crash,_1929) even when they sold his other books – Henry Oct 23 '14 at 12:59
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    A bit offtopic but… I remember I made a long trip in a bus a few years ago (in Europe), and the whole topic of a projected movie was the crash of a bus in a tunnel. I thought at this time the movie was not very well chosen. – Einenlum Oct 24 '14 at 08:37
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    I suspect this is somewhat dated; the types of movies shown (and violence levels) seems to have broadened since passengers have their own screens and can self-censor what they see. – Oddthinking May 11 '20 at 19:00
  • @Oddthinking Exactly. I can recall if I've seen a plane crash in a movie while on a plane, but certainly the gravity of the content in general is at all time highs. –  May 11 '20 at 20:41
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    @fredsbend: I feel sure I have seen such a movie on an individual screen, but can't recall the details. I can also recall seeing a Bruce Willis action movie about 25 years ago that the whole cabin could see that had so much of the violent parts edited out, the plot made no sense. I wondered why they hadn't just made a movie selection that didn't need to be butchered to get it to a G rating. – Oddthinking May 12 '20 at 08:19
  • With the rise in individual seatback IFE I've noticed far more un-cut movies, at least on some airlines. I've watched unedited movies on the Qantas IFE that contained uncensored nudity and violence. But plane crashes specifically I can't say. I'm guessing this was much more of an issue during the period where everyone on the plane had to watch the same movie, or when there was no netflix-style choose-your-own IFE where everyone had to scroll through the same 5 IFE "channels" – Mark Henderson May 13 '20 at 20:44
  • About two months ago I watched Terminator Dark Fate while flying on an Emirates A380 - thats got more than one plane crash in it, and was uncut. – Moo May 14 '20 at 20:25
  • The above flight also offered “Flight” and “Sully” as options for inflight entertainment as well. – Moo May 14 '20 at 20:27

1 Answers1

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I'm not aware of entire movies being rejected, but scenes can get deleted. This happened with "Rain Man". From Uneasy Airlines Get Final Cut on 'Rain Man'

Passengers on at least 15 different airlines have been treated to Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise's Academy Award-winning road trip in "Rain Man" since the beginning of June, but the crucial scene that propels them on their highway odyssey in the first place has been edited right out of the picture.

...

"I think it's a key scene to the entire movie. That's why it's in there," Levinson told the Associated Press. "Without that scene, it comes down to this: You basically lose an enormous impact of the film. That scene tells you that they, mechanically, are forced to drive across country and, secondly, that Charlie can only push Raymond so far because he knows what will happen."

And at least a passenger organisation (not an airline organisation) has guidelines about this. From Curious cuts to in-flight films

The Airline Passenger Experience Association sets out a quick checklist of standards of what’s considered appropriate mid-air viewing: “No airline crash scenes or references to airline disasters; caution in depicting or referencing terrorism or; no nudity/sex scenes; no profanity; no racist comments or denigrating references to cultures, religions, or nationalities; caution in depicting violence, drug and physical abuse.

Andrew Grimm
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