The Captain

The Captain (2019) is a Chinese disaster drama you can watch online on iFILM, built from the real Sichuan Airlines flight that nearly ended over the Tibetan plateau on May 14, 2018.

Just under ten kilometers up, the cockpit windshield tears away. The cabin loses pressure in seconds, the co-pilot is half sucked through the gap, and the roar and the cold drown out every radio call while the instruments shake into a blur. There are 128 people on board. Captain Liu Chuanjian has to bring it down by hand.

Andrew Lau stages the descent close to real time — turbulence, frostbite, oxygen thinning out — and Zhang Hanyu plays the pilot as a man with no room to flinch. The actual landing went into the books as one of aviation's modern miracles. It's a white-knuckle watch for anyone who prefers tension earned through procedure over CGI. Stream The Captain (2019) online on iFILM.