What age is Plane appropriate for?

Plane is rated R and PopcornCheck recommends it for ages 16+, based on reading the actual screenplay. The film contains graphic executions — including Hajan killing a passenger with a machete and gunshot in front of other hostages — prolonged brutal combat featuring neck-breaking and knife kills, an overwhelming emergency descent sequence with a 10-minute countdown to total system failure, and 78 combined uses of 'fuck' and 'shit' throughout the runtime.

Does Plane have swearing or bad language?

Plane has Extreme language. Characters say fuck or fucking 47 times — this is the dominant profanity in the film and appears throughout virtually every major sequence.

Plane has Extreme violence. Brodie and Gaspare engage in hand-to-hand combat with armed rebels, using neck-breaking, knives, and gunshots to kill multiple fighters in close-quarters sequences.

Is Plane scary for children?

Plane has Extreme scary scenes. A lightning strike disables all avionics at 40,000 feet, leaving the plane in an uncontrolled descent with only a 10-minute battery backup — this sequence is visually and aurally overwhelming with a live countdown to total power failure.

Is Plane OK for Kids?

Name: Plane
Director: Jean-François Richet
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Released: 2023
Duration: 107 min
Cast: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn, Yoson An, Evan Dane Taylor

ActionAdventureThriller

16+

R⭐ IMDb 6.5 / 102023 · 1h 47m

Jean-François Richet● Script verified

Where to Watch

United States

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Streaming data by JustWatch

What's In It

Based on the actual screenplay

🗡️Violence

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Cartoon / Comedic

Action & Peril

Injuries & Death Shown

Graphic & Disturbing

Brodie and Gaspare engage in hand-to-hand combat with armed rebels, using neck-breaking, knives, and gunshots to kill multiple fighters in close-quarters sequences.
Hajan executes a passenger — a missionary named Joshua — with a machete blow followed by a gunshot, carried out in front of the remaining hostages as a deliberate act of terror.
Datu Junmar orders Brodie to be severely beaten as an interrogation tactic and public example; the beating is prolonged and shown clearly on screen.
Brodie is shot in the shoulder during the plane evacuation — a ricochet wound — and the injury is shown and referenced throughout the remainder of the film.
Two dead bodies — crew members or an officer — are discovered in the plane's galley, shown clearly on screen rather than implied.
An extensive firefight erupts between Shellback's private security team and rebel forces during the rescue operation, followed by multiple additional gunfights through village and runway sequences.
Passengers sustain visible injuries during severe turbulence including broken bones, cuts, bruises, and a significant leg injury requiring assistance.
Violence throughout is portrayed seriously and with consequence — no action-movie glamour; injuries are shown, characters die, and the threat feels real and dangerous.

💬Language

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mild Words

(damn, hell)

Moderate

(ass, b**ch)

Strong

(sh*t)

Extreme

(f**k)

Characters say f**k or f**king 47 times — this is the dominant profanity in the film and appears throughout virtually every major sequence.
Characters say s**t 31 times across the runtime.
Characters say hell 8 times and da** or godda** 6 times.
Characters say a** 4 times.
Total strong-to-extreme profanity count is 78 instances of f**k/s**t alone — language is persistent and pervasive, not isolated.

👻Scary Scenes

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mildly Tense

Startling Moments

Genuinely Scary

Deeply Disturbing

A lightning strike disables all avionics at 40,000 feet, leaving the plane in an uncontrolled descent with only a 10-minute battery backup — this sequence is visually and aurally overwhelming with a live countdown to total power failure.
Severe turbulence and hail during the storm passage causes passengers to scream, equipment to fall, and the aircraft to emit structural stress sounds — the threat of the plane breaking apart feels credible.
Passengers are held at gunpoint by Datu Junmar's armed separatist militia, and one hostage — Joshua — is executed on screen in front of the others; this is the film's most disturbing moment.
Passengers are forced back onto the damaged plane for an emergency takeoff while active gunfire is directed at them — a chaotic and genuinely frightening sequence.
Brodie voluntarily surrenders himself to the militia to buy time for the other passengers to escape — a tense, emotionally loaded scene with a clear threat of death.
The final takeoff uses one damaged engine, unsealed doors, a depressurized cabin, and near-stall speed under enemy fire — the sequence is technically credible enough to feel like a real possibility of catastrophic failure.
Scary scenes are generally resolved through competent action and teamwork rather than miraculous luck, but the threat level remains extremely high for much of the film's runtime.

💕Romance

None▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Crushes & Holding Hands

Kissing & Dating

Suggestive

Sexual Content

No romantic content of any kind is present in the film.
No kissing, attraction, dating, sexual references, or implied intimacy appear in the extraction.
The film is entirely focused on survival and action — romance plays no role in the story.

🍺Substances

Mild▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mentioned in Passing

Shown Casually

Featured Prominently

Glorified or Abused

One passenger orders a gin drink during the in-flight service before the emergency — shown briefly and casually.
Alcohol is not a focus of any scene, not glorified, and not connected to any character arc or consequence.
No drugs, smoking, or other substance use of any kind appears in the film.

⚡Stimulation

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Gently Engaging

Exciting

Intense

Overwhelming

The emergency descent sequence — a 10-minute countdown with failing avionics, thunderstorm, hail, and severe turbulence — is the single most sensory-overwhelming sequence and likely to be too intense for sensory-sensitive viewers of any age.
The water landing approach at dangerously low altitude with damaged flight controls is a sustained intense sequence with no relief.
The hostage rescue firefight features rapid editing, close-quarters combat, loud gunfire, and multiple simultaneous threats — pacing is relentless.
The final takeoff with one engine, open doors, active enemy fire, and near-stall speed is a back-to-back culmination of the film's most intense elements.
The island landing sequence with damaged right controls and failing hydraulics adds another prolonged high-tension flying sequence to an already demanding runtime.
The film's overall pacing moves between sustained tension and explosive action with very little downtime — not suitable for sensory-sensitive children or younger viewers.

Parents also checked

Everything Everywhere All at Once

2022

16+✓

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Plane — Heads Up for Parents

The execution of the missionary passenger Joshua — killed with a machete followed by a gunshot in front of the other seated hostages — is significantly more graphic and disturbing than the film's action-thriller marketing suggests; parents expecting a straightforward Gerard Butler action movie should know this scene is the kind of content typically associated with harder R-rated war films.

About Plane

Plane (2023) is a tense action-thriller starring Gerard Butler as commercial airline pilot Brodie Torrance, who makes a desperate emergency landing on a remote island in the Sulu Sea after a lightning strike disables his aircraft mid-flight. With passengers stranded and then taken hostage by a violent separatist militia led by Datu Junmar, Brodie must team up with an unlikely ally — convicted criminal Gaspare — to mount a dangerous rescue before a private security team can reach them. The film is a relentless survival thriller with a serious, grounded tone and very little humor.

⚠️

Watch with your child

The on-screen hostage execution, graphic hand-to-hand kills, severe beating of the protagonist, and 78 combined f-words and s-words make this inappropriate for viewers under 16 without a parent present to provide context — even mature 15-year-olds may need support processing the hostage crisis sequences.

Family Takeaways from Plane

What it gets right

✓The film portrays competent, calm leadership under crisis without machismo — Brodie's strength comes from clear thinking and moral commitment, not recklessness, making his character worth discussing with older teens.
✓Gaspare's arc — a man with a violent past choosing to help rescue innocent passengers — opens a genuine conversation about whether people can choose to be better than their history, illustrated concretely in his decision to fight alongside Brodie.

Plane Cultural & Values Guide

Cultural & Values Guide

Faith & Religion

●Christian themes

Captain Torrance repeatedly prays and references God throughout the crisis, with his faith serving as a source of strength during the hijacking and emergency landing sequence.

Community Notes

Some Filipino and Southeast Asian critics noted that depicting unnamed Sulu Sea separatists as the primary antagonists — with little context for the real and complex Moro political conflict — risks reducing a nuanced regional struggle to a backdrop for a Western action hero's story.

Cast:Gerard ButlerMike ColterTony GoldwynYoson AnEvan Dane Taylor