The Captain, 中国机长

Based on and modified from a true event, The Captain is a rather simple movie that regales us about how a pilot successfully lands an aeroplane that suffered from a massive loss of cabin pressure due to window breakage at few thousand metres above ground.

I didn't know much about Sichuan Airlines 8633 incident that happened in May 2018, where the window unexpectedly broke and the co-pilot was nearly sucked out from the cockpit. There wasn't much coverage about the incident and I couldn't find any news that explained the aftermath and any investigation report as to why a seemingly robust glass could miraculously gave away on flight. I'm not doubting that everything is made up, in fact I believed everything about it is real, but the lack of coverage and transparency seem odd, though probably typical of Chinese bureaucracy.

Anyway I knew about this movie because it was given much hype from the media and apparently a lot of enthusiasm was running because of it. It was released as a celebratory movie on the 70th anniversary of PRC independence, or founding. Not exactly know which is it, sorry.

The movie was good. It wasted no time talking about stuffs that aren't relevant or would doze you off. It began with the airline crews prepping, going through the procedures, and within 20 minutes of the movie, the plane has departed and the action was about to begin.

The adrenaline started pumping hard after the glass broke. With sudden loss of cabin pressure only within the cockpit, and with not much time to despair but to gain control of the aeroplane despite the chillingly low temperature and wind pressure that silence out all other noises, cutting off all radio contact and the subsequent loss of oxygen, the pilot has to find a way to land the aeroplane at the nearest airport without any radio contact and assistance from the ground.

The actors of the movie, together with some
of the real survivors of the accident.

What really made this movie amazing is the skill of the pilot in maneouvring the aeroplane into safety. The climax of the movie has to be the part where the pilot made a judgment call and deems it absolutely necessary to penetrate into the dense turbulent horrific weather, despite the loss of windshield and subjecting themselves to the horror of the nature, and therefore loss contact with the outside world and every authority thought the plane must have crashed to suffer from such cut off. It became a huge relief where the plane emerges from the clouds and reappears on the radar.

The movie lasts about 1 hour and 40 minutes, and none of your time would be wasted. Your adrenaline would be pumped at its maximum rate and you'll feel at times that you marvel at the skills of the pilot while at the same time deeply touched to know, a single action from a single person could really change the lives of many people.

I would highly recommend you to watch this movie. It's so far the best Chinese movie I've watched and one of the best ever, surpassing some of Hollywood's top.

It would also be great that we understand that airline crews, not only the pilots, but also the co-pilots, stewardess, ground crews, those who work in the aviation authority and the control tower, all play an important role in guiding all flights safely. Their role in the flow of air traffic shouldn't be overlooked and forgotten, even though most of the time we don't appreciate what they do because we don't interact with them.