Passengers aboard a Qantas flight from Sydney to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport last week were shocked when an R-rated movie played on every screen due to a technical glitch. The airline confirmed the incident, stating that the inflight entertainment system prevented passengers from selecting movies individually. “Our crew members had a limited list of movies that they were able to play across all screens on the aircraft and based on the request from a number of passengers, a particular movie was selected for the entire flight,” Qantas said in a statement.
While the airline did not name the movie, social media posts from passengers revealed it to be “Daddio,” a 2023 drama starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. The film is rated R by the US Motion Pictures Association “for language throughout, sexual material and brief graphic nudity.”
One passenger on Reddit described the movie as featuring “a lot of sexting – the kind where you could literally read the texts on screen without needing headphones.” The user added, “It took almost an hour of this before they switched to a more kid-friendly movie, but it was super uncomfortable for everyone, especially with families and kids onboard.”
Qantas said the crew tried to fix the screens for passengers who did not want to watch the movie.
Qantas inflight entertainment mishap
When they realized it was not possible, they changed it to a children’s film. The airline apologized to passengers, particularly those who complained about the content, and said they will follow up with them. “The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologize to customers for this experience,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“All screens were changed to a family friendly movie for the rest of the flight, which is our standard practice for the rare cases where individual movie selection isn’t possible. We are reviewing how the movie was selected.”
