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Long-haul flights are where sanity goes to die. Six to twelve hours can feel like an eternity, especially when the in-flight entertainment (if there is any) promises 400 titles, but somehow has nothing good. On my last transatlantic haul, my mental health survived on one thing–the movies I'd downloaded from before takeoff.
My criteria were simple. Engrossing enough to make the hours disappear, but nothing that would leave me sobbing next to a stranger, too spicy for shoulder-surfing seatmates, and available to U.S. Netflix subscribers as of press time. And absolutely no plane crash movies. It's also a fantastic time to take in all the niche stuff my family refuses to watch with me. Landing gear up.
The entire Hunger Games saga is now streaming on Netflix—from the first time we ever saw J-Law volunteer as tribute as Katniss Everdeen to Rachel Zegler singing her way through the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
That's five movies (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay – Part 1 & Part 2, and Songbirds & Snakes) and more than 11 hours of dystopian comfort food—enough to cover the flight out and a decent chunk of the return home. These are beautifully made blockbusters you've probably seen before, which is exactly what you want in the air. You can doze off for whole chunks of these movies, and not miss a beat when you wake up. The Capitol's quirky costumes still look great on a tablet, the arena battles are reliably tense and creative, and the stories are politically complex and dripping in social commentary that they're good for adults, too.
Added July 1 and already parked in Netflix's top three, Tom Holland's first solo outing as Peter Parker is peak repeat viewing. But if you haven't seen Spider-Man: Homecoming, it's your first layover (see what I did there?) on route to Brand New Day, which hits theaters July 31.
Michael Keaton's Vulture remains one of Marvel's best villains, the ferry battle sequence holds up on a small screen, and the twist ending lands even when you know it's coming. Holland is excellent in the film as the friendly neighborhood webslinger, it's funny, light, and perfect for that mid-flight stretch when your brain wants something familiar.
Netflix's feisty franchise is now a trilogy, and the timing couldn't be better. Enola Holmes 3 recently hit the service and shot straight to No. 1 in the U.S., which means all three adventures of Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) outsmarting her famous big brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and flirting with Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) are there to download. Of course, the quick-witted young detective must get to the bottom of several twisting mysteries in each instalment, and there may even be a wedding on the itinerary.
The Victorian-era capers are witty, fast-moving, and completely seatmate-safe—no need to angle the screen away from anyone. Watched back to back, the trilogy runs roughly six hours, which is most of an Atlantic crossing's worth. And when your teen starts whining that there's nothing good on the seat back in front, you can hand over your tablet and buy yourself some peace.
Christopher Nolan's breakout thriller Memento landed on Netflix on July 5, and it remains one of the director's best mind-bending puzzlers—I've seen it half a dozen times, and I'm still finding new things to chew on. Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce in a breakout role) can't form new memories from the time of his wife's traumatic murder, so he hunts her killer armed with sticky notes, Polaroids, tattoos, and a sordid story told in reverse, trying to find answers.
The Matrix co-stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano support, too, and you're never quite sure if they're allies of Leonard's or enemies. Memento demands your full attention—which, conveniently, is the one thing you have in abundance for a long-haul. The 113-minute runtime is deceptive, and you'll spend an hour afterwards mentally reassembling the movie—and possibly just restarting it immediately.
Here's the real long-haul secret—a flight is guilt-free alone time for the movies your family has collectively vetoed, amirite? Netflix just added a batch of Toho classics, including the incredible Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, but the crown jewel is Shusuke Kaneko's 2001 kaiju masterpiece, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
This dark standalone entry reimagines Godzilla not as a protector, but as a truly evil and angry monster possessed by the restless souls of Japan's dead war heroes. It also flips the script on stalwart bad guys Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Baragon (not mentioned in the title for length, apparently), turning them into the guardians. It's gorgeous, brilliantly cheesy in the best ways, but genuinely eerie, and features some of the best monster action in the franchise's 70-year history. Nobody in my house will watch it with me. Somewhere over the Atlantic, nobody has to.
