Sully (2016)

IMDb plot summary: When pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger lands his damaged plane on the Hudson River in order to save the flight's passengers and crew, some consider him a hero while others think he was reckless.

Directed by Clint Eastwood. Stars Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, and Laura Linney.

Sully is a film based on a true story, starring Tom Hanks as a pilot who ends up landing a large passenger plane in the Hudson River after both of its engines are taken out during takeoff. Miraculously everybody survives, but the story follows the investigation afterward, where Hanks must prove that his decision to land the plane in the river rather than try to make it back to LaGuardia or to a neighboring airport was the best decision in the moment. For having such a narrow focus of story, over only a few days and focusing on one specific incident, there's a lot of suspense here, as well as some psychological exploration. While it's fairly certain from the get-go that Sully did do his due diligence as a pilot, we still get to see him grapple with self-doubt and lingering trauma from the event, which would of course be part of anybody's experience in this case. The story is surprisingly restrained, not really leaning into melodramatics. In fact, the final climactic moment of the movie revolves entirely around watching a series of simulated flight landings, with no added on drama to it. But watching  airplane simulations has never been as tense as it was in this film. Tom Hanks often manages to play restraint or reservedness with some deep subtext underneath, and he does that very well here. Not a film I would have expected it myself to get invested in, but this is pretty solid.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Sully (2016)

📊 Ranked #1185/4036 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 71

beat The Sea Gull (#2016 → #2020)

lost to What's Eating Gilbert Grape (#1006 → #1011)

beat Nothing in Common (#1510 → #1584)

beat The Exterminating Angel (#1256 → #1400)

beat Henry V (#1135 → #1195)

lost to The Philadelphia Story (#1035 → #161)

lost to Barbie (#1103 → #1078)

lost to Room (#1097 → #231)

lost to Cradle Will Rock (#1106 → #239)

lost to The Bad Seed (#1131 → #1106)

lost to It (#1134 → #1131)

lost to The Secret of NIMH (#1130 → #1124)