(NEXSTAR) – Australia’s Qantas Airways is apologizing after showing a movie that contains scenes of nudity, graphic language and sexting to the passengers aboard a recent flight from Sydney to Haneda, Japan.
Because of technical issues, passengers weren’t able to choose their own entertainment, Qantas told The Associated Press, so the crew decided to select a movie to play on every screen “based on the request from a number of passengers.”
“Daddio,” the movie ultimately selected to play during the 10-hour flight, according to reports, features Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn and has an “R” rating.
The 2023 film, which plays out in a New York City yellow cab driven by Penn, has graphic language throughout its 100 minutes as the pair open up about past relationships and some of their darkest secrets.
The IMDB description notes that “photos of nude female breasts & a prosthetic penis are shown on a phone.”
One Reddit user said it was impossible to pause, dim or turn off.
“It featured graphic nudity and lots of sexting – the kind where you could literally read the texts on screen without needing headphones,” the user wrote, adding, “It took almost an hour of this before they switched to a more kid-friendly movie, but it was super uncomfortable for everyone, especially with families and kids on board.”
After determining that the movie was not appropriate for all ages, the Qantas crew attempted to fix screens for travelers who did not want to watch it — but later found that this was not possible and changed course.
“The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologise to customers for this experience,” a Qantas spokesperson said in a statement. “All screens were changed to a family friendly movie for the rest of the flight, which is our standard practice for the rare cases where individual movie selection isn’t possible.”
The spokesperson added that Qantas is “reviewing how the (inital) movie was selected.”
In the days following the incident, the airline has taken some flack online — including from travel rivals.
“Plot twist: We let you choose your movies,” Air New Zealand wrote in a reply to the news on social media platform X.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
