The Aeronauts

    The Aeronauts
    2019

    Synopsis

    In 1862, daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren teams up with pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history. While breaking records and advancing scientific discovery, their voyage to the very edge of existence helps the unlikely pair find their place in the world they have left far below them. But they face physical and emotional challenges in the thin air, as the ascent becomes a fight for survival.

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    Cast

    • Eddie RedmayneJames Glaisher
    • Felicity JonesAmelia Wren
    • Tom CourtenayArthur Glaisher
    • Phoebe FoxAntonia
    • Himesh PatelJohn Trew
    • Rebecca FrontAunt Frances
    • Robert GlenisterNed Chambers
    • Vincent PerezPierre Rennes
    • Anne ReidEthel Glaisher
    • Lewin LloydCharlie

    Recommendations

    • 90

      Screen Daily

      A thrilling, action-packed, wide-vista yarn from the sharp quills of Jack Thorne and co-writer and director Tom Harper, this Amazon-backed project is deceptively simple yet surprisingly deft.
    • 80

      The Hollywood Reporter

      The Aeronauts achieves impressive elevation as a bracing and sympathetic account of two early and very different aviators who together reached literal new heights in a perilous field of endeavor.
    • 80

      Empire

      The title might sound like something from Marvel Phase Six, but The Aeronauts is an exhilarating period flight of fancy, occasionally weighed down by backstory, but buoyed by Redmayne and especially Jones.
    • 80

      The Observer (UK)

      Inspired by real events, the film is at its best when it leans into the action-adventure genre; director Tom Harper smartly uses camera-shake and closeups to immerse the audience in the weather’s volatility.
    • 75

      The Playlist

      A hodgepodge of a story that only really works when Glaisher and Wren are in the sky. And when they are it’s absolutely gorgeous.
    • 75

      TheWrap

      The Aeronauts serves an important purpose as an aspirational film for young girls who either love science, or whose parents hope they see the movie and understand that women can be just as excited about taking a hero’s journey as any man.
    • 70

      Variety

      The duo [of Redmayne and Jones] hand-in-hand elevates [The Aeronauts] ... from a flimsy action-adventure to something worth watching on the biggest possible screen, even if it operates on a handful of clichés with little character-based substance to speak of.
    • 67

      IndieWire

      There’s enough potential with the balloon’s feats to justify an entire feature-length experience set within its basket, but The Aeronauts constantly interrupts the journey to shoehorn random tangents on the ground, and busies up the drama with underdeveloped side characters.