The Aeronauts (2019) on Netflix
PG-1320191h 40mAdventureDramaRomance
In 1862 London, scientist James Glaisher sets out to prove that weather can be predicted. Balloon pilot Amelia Wren agrees to fly him in the largest balloon ever built.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.6/1040,512 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
James Glaisher, a scientist in 1862 London, tells the Royal Society that he can predict the weather, and its members mock him and refuse to finance his research. His parents at home urge him toward another field. Amelia Wren, a balloon pilot, is drawn back into society by her sister Antonia, and at that function James asks whether she will fly his balloon on a privately funded expedition. Amelia, who has lost her husband Pierre, agrees, and the pair launch the largest balloon ever built before a cheering crowd, rising through the cloud layer until a violent storm sets the balloon spinning.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Aeronauts (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The real flight behind the film was made on 5 September 1862 by James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell, whose coal-gas balloon broke the world altitude record at 9,000 m; the film keeps Glaisher but replaces Coxwell with the fictional Amelia.
- Keith Moore, head of library at the Royal Society, told The Daily Telegraph it was a great shame that Henry Coxwell was not portrayed, saying Coxwell saved the life of a leading scientist, and asked why no film had been made about a deserving real female scientist instead.
- Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said that, as of January 2020, The Aeronauts was the most viewed movie of all time on Amazon Prime.
- The film's Amelia and her husband Pierre are chiefly drawn from the real aeronauts Sophie and Jean-Pierre Blanchard, while Pierre's death was inspired by that of Thomas Harris on 25 May 1824.
- The balloon's Latin motto, Caelum certe patet, ibimus illi, was actually used on a much earlier real balloon flight, and its source, Book VIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses, tells of Icarus, who fell to his death after flying too near the sun.
