Airplane Mode is a 2019 American surreal action comedy film directed by David Dinetz and Dylan Trussell, and written by Dinetz, Trussell, Logan Paul and Jake Paul. Logan Paul portrays the main character, a fictionalized version of himself, who is put in a situation where he has to overcome his fear of flying in order to land a plane containing a group of famous social media influencers. Chloe Bridges, Stephen Guarino, Arielle Vandenberg, Kevin Heffernan, Nick Swardson, Mikaela Hoover, Chris Wylde and Erik Griffin have supporting roles in the film, and it was also the final screen credit for Beverly Polcyn, who died 16 days after the film's release, at the age of 90.
Filming began in 2016, and it was supposed to be released a year later. However, the film was shelved due to the controversy surrounding Logan Paul and the suicide forest video, and it was eventually released on August 2, 2019, on iTunes. Airplane Mode only has one professional review, which was negative. In December 2020, Logan Paul was sued for upwards of $3 million after his controversial Suicide Forest video led to the companies exclusive publishing deal with Google to be suspended. Planeless Pictures, who secured a deal with the popular influencer in 2016, believes that Paul uploaded the Suicide Forest video in a deliberate attempt to sabotage the film's production, claiming that Paul should be held responsible for paying back the production company's losses.
Plot
YouTuber Logan Paul is videocalling his Australian girlfriend, Ariel, with whom he has an online relationship. The two attempt to have cybersex, but are interrupted from doing so, firstly by Logan's foreign exchange brother Juanpa Zurita, and secondly by Lele Pons who tries to capture Logan's face when he is masturbating. Logan's friends tell him of a convention consisting of social media influencers called "Hashtagacon", which is being held in Sydney, giving him a chance to finally meet Ariel. However, he has to get over his fear of flying, which was set off ten years ago when Juanpa told him to jump from a tree as part of a YouTube stunt.
Logan, Juanpa and Andrew Bachelor take a taxi to the airport, and Andrew tells Logan that prankster Vitaly Zdorovetskiy will be on the same flight, as he is being extradited back to Australia to be put on trial for an incident involving dingoes. Juanpa goes to immigration where the customs officer believes that he is an illegal immigrant, and deports him back to Mexico, although Juanpa convinces him to deport him to Australia as he is desperate to lose his virginity. Logan goes through customs smoothly, but his fear of flying gets the better of him and has to be forced to get on the plane by his friends. Logan takes his seat next to a woman named Jenna, who has similar femur scars as him, and she holds his hand as the plane is about to take off. The pilots announce over the intercom that all passengers should put their smartphones on airplane mode, which they refuse to do. The phone signals causes havoc within the plane's wiring, resulting in the pilots getting electrocuted to their death. One of the flight attendants, Clarice, looks through the peephole, walks in and then immediately walks out, thinking that the pilots are having oral sex.
Logan asks for Jenna's Instagram handle, but she tells him that she is not on social media, before realizing that he is part of the "Hashtagacon" group. Logan plays this down and says that he is actually on the flight to meet his girlfriend for the first time. Jenna asks Logan about his girlfriend and how he can love someone that he has not met. Logan tells her that Ariel is the only person that can make him snort while laughing. Jenna proves to Logan that she can do the same thing, and flings a chocolate mousse at a sleeping passenger across the aisle, making him snort as well. Jenna then goes to sleep, using Logan's shoulder as a makeshift pillow. Hours later, Clarice discovers that the co-pilots are actually dead, and gets the air marshal over to the cockpit to deal with the situation, leaving Vitaly on his own. Logan gets up from his seat and overhears the conversation in the cockpit. He opens the door and asks if everything is okay, but freaks out when he realizes that the pilots are dead. Suddenly Vitaly appears, killing the air marshal by breaking his neck, while Clarice and Logan both faint and collapse on the floor.