Scouring the Skies: A bit too much altitude, not enough oxygen

Is it worth your time?

If you are the kind of person who gets excited about vintage cockpit dials or the specific sound of a radial engine coughing to life, sure, dive in. If you want a movie with characters you can actually care about, you might find this one colder than the upper atmosphere. It’s for the aviation nerds, mostly. The rest of you might find the pacing a bit... stagnant.

The film starts off with a lot of ambition. It wants to cover everything from the first fragile gliders to the steel birds that changed how we see the map. Sometimes it works. Other times it feels like you're watching a slideshow made by someone who really loves aviation manuals but forgot to invite the audience to the party. ✈️

There is a segment in the middle that focuses on an engine failure over a remote coastline. It felt oddly similar to the tension in The Bay of Death, just with less water and way more screaming. The editing choice to keep the camera locked on the pilot's sweating forehead for three minutes straight? That was a bold choice. It was also, honestly, a bit tedious.

I found myself wondering if they ran out of footage at one point. The transitions between the historical reenactments and the real archival clips are jarring. One minute you're watching a grainy, black-and-white clip of a pioneer pilot, then suddenly you're thrust into a dramatized scene that looks like it was lit with a single desk lamp. It’s distracting.

The movie does have a strange, quiet rhythm to it. It’s almost hypnotic if you let your mind wander, which I did. A lot. There’s something about the way they frame the clouds—it’s like they wanted to make a poem out of aerodynamics but got distracted by the technical specs. It reminded me a bit of the aimless beauty found in In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea, though obviously with a lot more metal and fuel involved.

• The sound design during the takeoff sequences is genuinely startling.
• I still have no idea why they chose that specific narrator for the final act.
• That one shot of the propeller spinning in the sunset? Gorgeous, but lasted forever.

I wouldn't say the movie is a disaster. It’s just very focused on the wrong things at the wrong times. You can tell the makers really love planes. They just don't seem to love the people flying them very much. It’s a bit like watching Smoky if the horse was a Boeing 747 and the director was bored of the story by the third reel.

At the end of the day, it's a niche project. It has heart, but it’s a heart encased in rivets and aviation fuel. Don't go in expecting a thriller. Go in expecting to learn way more about landing gear failure than you ever thought you’d need to know. ☁️