In-flight movies: What the airlines aren't letting you see

Fly aboard a Middle Eastern carrier and chances are you won't see the sausage scene in the Nicole Kidman-Will Ferrell movie Bewitched, while Air India blurs spicy romantic scenes, even in a lightweight rom-com. Words such as "bomb" and "terror" are likely to get bleeped from an in-flight movie, but curiously, so might the word "God" if you fly domestic in the United States. The editing of films that airlines show is in the hands of in-flight entertainment content providers, which act as middlemen between the studios and airlines. They provide the airline with a menu of current movies, take care of editing, translating, subtitling and dubbing to an airline's specific requirements and licence the film for a fixed fee, or sometimes on a pay-for-use basis.

Airlines love in-flight entertainment systems because they keep passengers quiet and occupied. They are also acutely sensitive to the tolerances of their audience, with good reason. In 2013, a United Airlines flight made an unscheduled landing at Chicago, well short of its Baltimore destination, when two parents became disruptive when the thriller Alex Cross showed on the drop-down screens, complaining they could not shield their young children from its adult scenes.

When it comes to the editing of in-flight movies, the rule that content providers apply is "when in doubt, leave it out". As a crude generalisation, neither nudity nor profanities are likely to offend a European audience, but extreme violence might. With Asian fliers, it might be the other way round. Nudity and any reference to pork and images of pigs are likely to end up on the cutting-room floor before they screen on a Middle Eastern airline.

Editing for an airline that caters to a mix of Asian, Middle Eastern and European travellers becomes a tricky proposition in the case of a film such as The Wolf of Wall Street, which uses the F-bomb 546 times, features 73 other profanities, offensive religious profanity and 24 scenes of a sexually explicit or graphic nature. Self-interest dictates that any scene showing aircraft or logos of a competitor airline are out, and air disaster films are definitely a no-show.

SWITCH ON AND SWITCH OFF

Four Traveller writers offer their take on the pros and cons of watching movies in the skies.

UTE JUNKER

Best in-flight movie experience Any time you get to catch up on a film that you missed in the cinema.