10 Best Airplane Thrillers Like Netflix’s Blood Red Sky

Despite earning mixed reviews from critics and general movie watchers alike, Peter Thorwarth’s Blood Red Sky has remained one of Netflix’s most popular new original movies since its release in July 2021. Praised for its riveting first hour of action, yet criticized for its underwhelming third act, the film joins a long line of intense airplane thrillers that have a terrifying hijacking element and/or a hidden horror subplot.

From armed terrorists, nefarious blackmailers, venomous snakes, rabid zombies, bloodthirsty vampires, and more, fans of Blood Red Sky have plenty of similarly themed movies to check out.

10 Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) – Available On Amazon Prime Video

For a queasy double feature, John Pogue’s Quarantine 2: Terminal is a perfect film to play along with Blood Red Sky. The viral zombie thriller concerns a flight from Los Angeles to Kansas that is gruesomely interrupted when ravenous undead ghouls overtake the airplane.

With relentless, hyper-violent action sequences and unnerving graphic carnage, the film becomes even scarier when the surviving passengers evade their zombie attackers, only to learn they are stuck in an escapable quarantine zone. It’s timely, topical, and truly terrifying.

9 Snakes On A Plane (2006) – Available On HBO Max

Going down in infamy as one of the cheesiest big-budget B movies ever made, Snakes on a Plane also boasts perhaps Samuel L. Jackson’s greatest movie line of all time. Despite the silliness, the plot mirrors Blood Red Sky on a basic plot level as a harrowing airline thriller.

But rather than terrorists hijacking the plane, a collection of venomous snakes is released on a red-eye flight across the Pacific to deliberately kill a key witness before testifying against a crime lord. With a campy sense of humor to go with slithery scares and undying action, the film is an ideal comedic companion piece to take the bite out of Blood Red Sky.

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8 The Night Flier (1997) – Available On YouTube

While the Stephen King miniseries, The Langoliers, is worth a remake, his underrated 1997 horror story The Night Flier is the one to watch alongside Blood Red Sky. The film follows the murderous travails of a cryptic vampire who hitches a ride on the tail of a private airplane.

What makes the movie so interesting is the mystery of unraveling the title character. Unlikable reporter Richard Dees (Miguel Ferrer) is tasked with uncovering the serial killer who has been stalking airports but soon learns of the immortal ghoul’s true nature. The airplane scenes alone are taut, gripping, and extremely nerve-shredding.

7 Executive Decision (1996) – Available On Apple TV

Although it lacks a supernatural element, Executive Decision rivals Blood Red Sky as one of the most breathless action-packed airplane hijacking movies made in the past 25 years.

When ruthless terrorists overtake a commercial 747, intelligence officer David Grant (Kurt Russell) orchestrates a commando team led by Austin Travis (Steven Segal) to thwart the hijacking. With expertly crafted suspense, intelligent characters, and manic over-the-top gunfire, the film is one of the best of its kind.

6 Con Air (1997) – Available On Amazon Prime Video

Although not as supernatural, the frightening villains in Con Air could give those in Blood Red Sky a run for their money. The campy action-thriller atones for its silliness by boasting truly terrifying death-row convicts who overrun a prison transport plane.

With such terrifying baddies as Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich), Johnny-23 (Danny Trejo), Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames), and Garland Green aka The Marietta Mangler (Steve Buscemi), the film fuses the horror-hijack subgenres in the most entertaining and action-packed ways possible.

5 Red Eye (2005) – Available On Amazon Prime Video

The late great Wes Craven delivered an underrated, pulse-pounding horror/thriller in Red Eye, in which a frightening villain named Jackson (Cillian Murphy) coerces innocent passenger Lisa (Rachel McAdams) into a political assassination plot. Bold, brazen, and self-reliant, Lisa turns the tables on her captor and gives him a lethal dose of his own medicine.

Like Blood Red Sky, Red Eye features a strong-willed, independent central female performance and a series of ultra-violent action scenes that take place up in the air. Moreover, it’s masterfully made by one of the all-time horror movie greats.

4 Non-Stop (2014) – Available On Peacock

More mysterious than horrifying, Non-Stop is an indefatigable actioner that concerns Air Marshal Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) in a serious moral quandary while on a transatlantic flight. Marks receives a series of texts demanding that he wire $150 million into an offshore account. For every 20 minutes that he fails to do so, one passenger will die.

Boasting a riveting, unique premise and relentless shoot-em-up action, the film presents a gender-reversal of Blood Red Sky. Both films feature terrorists that seize a plane and a strong protagonist left to their own devices to save the day.

3 Flightplan (2005) – Available On Amazon Prime Video

Inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Flightplan is an underrated mystery-thriller set 30,000 feet in the air. Like Blood Red Sky, the central drama revolves around a single woman and her dogged attempt to keep the young daughter safe at whatever cost.

Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, a grieving woman reeling over her husband’s death. Transporting his coffin on an airplane with her is her six-year-old daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston). When Julia suddenly disappears, there is no sign of her existence, leaving the authorities to question whether she is a figment of Julia’s imagination. With a great central performance and a genuinely compelling mystery, Flightplan will shake Blood Red Sky fans to the core.

2 Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) – Available On Hulu

While it’s only featured in the fourth and final chapter of the anthology film, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” has been universally hailed as one of the scariest airplane thrillers ever captured on film. John Lithgow’s performance as a mortified passenger couldn’t be better.

Directed by George Miller, the story entails paranoid passenger John Valentine (Lithgow), whose fear of flying comes to a head when his flight trudges through a violent storm. After calming down for a moment, John’s heart rate spikes when he sees a horrific goblin standing on the wing of the plane. The vivid direction, creepy creature design, and top-notch performance make it the best episode of Twilight Zone: The Movie.

1 United 93 (2006) – Available On Amazon Prime Video

Due to the historical nature of its unthinkable true story, no airplane thriller is more riveting, realistic, or downright nerve-shattering than Paul Greengrass’ United 93. Told with the utmost respect to those involved, the film’s visceral horror is ultimately trumped by the unmatched heroism of its lead characters.

Made with a documentary film style, the jarring handheld immediacy of the ill-fated flight on 9/11 puts the audience in the shoes of the real-life heroes who sacrificed their lives to save their fellow Americans. This film is not played for cheap exploitation thrills, it’s a genuine article.

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