By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

I can finally end my search for an action adventure thriller set entirely in a hot air balloon after watching 2019’s The Aeronauts. While we can get into the nitty gritty about how it’s “based on true events,” as depicted in the 2013 Richard Holmes book Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air, anybody with access to Wikipedia can do that. Instead, let’s talk about the film itself. Since we’re ultimately dealing with a fictional piece of cinema inspired by multiple real-life balloon ascents, it’s all but expected that creative liberties are taken, and composite characters are stitched together from their historical counterparts for the sake of a cleaner, more dramatic story.

The Aeronauts, like most films that carry the biographical label, is no exception. As long as you’re not treating it like a history lesson, it’s well worth your time for the visuals and sheer level of suspense alone. I never thought a movie about a giant balloon could be this intense, but here we are, watching two deeply committed people float through the troposphere without even packing proper winter coats.

Floating High And Above

Set in 1862 London, The Aeronauts centers on scientist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) and balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones). James believes that ascending to unprecedented heights will allow him to study atmospheric patterns in a way that could eventually make weather prediction possible. When the Royal Society refuses to take him seriously enough to fund the project, he turns to Amelia, whose skill and nerve make the entire expedition feasible. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about the political resistance and personal motivations surrounding the journey, but that groundwork is not the main reason you’re here.

The real spectacle unfolds once James and Amelia leave the ground, rising beyond 30,000 feet and shattering the standing record for balloon travel. Completely devoted to his research, James pushes forward as Amelia repeatedly urges him to descend. Awestruck by the vast skyscape around them, James loses track of the balloon’s physical limitations and just how drastically the temperature has dropped while he continues taking notes and running tests.

When it becomes clear they’ve gone far too high for their own good, Amelia takes decisive action after recognizing the signs of James’ worsening hypoxia. That plan immediately falls apart when she realizes the gas release valve at the top of the balloon has frozen shut. Reduced to a speck drifting through the sky, Amelia braves brutal conditions in her attempts to bring both of them back to land. The elements are not on her side, and she soon begins suffering from frostbite as well. With their lives and James’ research hanging in the balance, every split-second decision carries real consequences, and the margin for error disappears fast.

Stunning Cinematography All Around 

While the flashback sequences in The Aeronauts are necessary for context, they lean into familiar tropes tied to dangerous missions. Both characters are haunted by their pasts and repeatedly revisit traumatic moments while grappling with their present situation. If I’m being completely honest, I have a hard time taking people in top hats seriously, so these scenes occasionally play as unintentionally funny for me. I fully recognize that I might be a sample size of one here, and your mileage may vary.

What truly impressed me were the sequences that take place inside and around the balloon itself. The horizon, the clouds, and even butterflies drifting through air currents at what were once unheard-of altitudes are the real draw of The Aeronauts. Ice crystallizing across the balloon as Amelia struggles with the frozen gas valve, along with wide shots that emphasize how small she and James are against the open sky, are genuinely striking. The storms that threaten to consume them as they push higher in the name of science add another layer of tension, made all the more effective by how grounded and tactile everything looks.

It’s safe to assume The Aeronauts received a healthy dose of VFX in post-production, but it’s difficult to spot while watching. The visuals feel real and cohesive, creative liberties with characterization aside, and the result is an immersive experience even from your couch. If you’re looking to challenge your fear of heights, or you’re simply in the mood for historical fiction that focuses on discovery rather than warfare, you can stream The Aeronauts on Prime Video as of this writing.

Captain Kirk and his crew soon discover their advanced technology is due to cultural interference by a Federation scientist called Bayne. Bayne was to be played by the iconic and notorious Milton Berle.

By Saralyn Smith
| Published 22 seconds ago

Norman Spinrad thought the script he wrote in 1967 called “He Walked Among Us” had been lost to time until it showed up with an autograph-seeking fan at a convention.  The fan scanned the faded script and emailed it to Spinrad, who has published it as an e-book.

Captain Kirk Versus Milton Berle

The script had the Enterprise encountering a primitive race called the Jugali, who used technology that should have been well beyond their ability to develop. Captain Kirk and his crew soon discover their advanced technology is due to cultural interference by a Federation scientist called Bayne. Bayne was to be played by the iconic and notorious Milton Berle.

Bayne had good intentions, but as things often do in science fiction, those good intentions result in unintended consequences. Because of his interference, the Jugali begin worshipping Bayne as a god. Captain Kirk’s job is to get him out of there without further damaging the Jugali.

The whole Bayne is a god mess would have ended up being comedic, had the script made it on screen. But that’s not what the script’s writer, Conrad Spinrad intended. So he set out to sabotage his own episode of Star Trek.

How Conrad Spinrad Killed His Own Star Trek Script

By Spinrad’s own account, the screenplay was a victim of a sometimes terrible but integral part of big- and small-screen productions: the rewrite. Roddenberry originally commissioned a dramatic script from Spinrad that would feature Milton Berle (and an “overgrown backlot village set” Roddenberry was apparently fond of). Berle — who was commonly referred to as “Mr. Television” — was arguably the biggest television star in the medium’s history and was mostly known for comedy.

The Star Trek line producer wasn’t aware that Berle could also do drama, though, and rewrote Spinrad’s script into “an unfunny comedy.” Spinrad was so disgusted and ashamed of the rewrite that he campaigned against its production: “This is so lousy, Gene [Roddenberry], that you should kill it!” I told him. “You can’t, you shouldn’t shoot this thing! Read it and weep!”

His pleas paid off, and the script was never filmed, but that also meant he never received any of the residuals that would have gone along with a produced syndicated episode.  Eventually, Spinard made at least a little money off his work by publishing the script for fans to read. 

By Robert Scucci
| Published 18 seconds ago

One of the common pitfalls post-apocalyptic thrillers run into is trying to do too much at once, because there are a lot of angles to consider. The Mad Max franchise works because there is dense, folklore-driven worldbuilding that we’re made aware of as a smaller group of people navigate the wasteland looking for answers. The 28 Days Later films handle this well too. We’re briefed on what’s happening globally, and then things are handled locally.

2025’s Uncontained, despite the fact that it has a lot going for it, struggles with this balance. The result is a tonally inconsistent film that I wish stuck the landing better, because the potential is clearly there.

Found Family During End Times

Billed as a zombie horror drama, Uncontained tells a much more personal story through the eyes of Dan (portrayed by writer director Morley Nelson). Dan is a drifter who appears to be immune to the zombie virus that has decimated society, and he eventually happens upon a smart house occupied by two children, Jack (Jack Nelson) and Brooke (Brooke Nelson).

Their mother, simply billed as The Woman (Nicole Nelson), works for Homeland Security and is desperately searching for a cure, because Jack carries a latent version of the infection.

Dan, initially just looking for shelter, slowly becomes a surrogate father figure for Jack and Brooke. The Woman is also glad to have him around, mostly because he’s able to clock an intimidating amount of time on the treadmill that doubles as a power source for the house.

Jack handcuffs himself to the bed before going to bed, because he occasionally turns into a bloodthirsty zombie in his sleep and needs to wait out his episodes so he doesn’t harm his family. He also sets elaborate snare traps in the backyard and spends his time studying captured zombies, which initially disgusts Dan, who doesn’t yet realize that he and Jack have more in common than either of them would like to admit.

The B Story

Meanwhile, Uncontained introduces additional conflict in the form of militia leader Brett Carson (Peter O’Meara), who refuses to leave the property because he’s searching for his missing daughter, Melanie (Courtney Blythe Turk). This entire plot line feels largely unnecessary, as it neither helps nor meaningfully disrupts the dynamic inside the house that Dan and the family are occupying.

The limited value these scenes provide comes mostly from comic relief, particularly when Brett talks shop with a police officer who grows more visibly concerned with each passing exchange, as if silently thinking, “dude, you need to go home before you get killed.”

Speaking of comic relief, Uncontained earns genuine points for the dynamic it establishes between Dan, Jack, and Brooke, and The Woman. Dan has a gruff exterior and doesn’t look like the kind of guy who enjoys screwing around. But the moment Brooke offers him her hair clips, he immediately takes her up on it just to be kind. These subtle moments are both funny and disarming, and they say a lot about Dan’s character. The world is effectively ending, and nobody is obligated to be pleasant if they don’t want to be.

Uncontained ultimately leaves a lot on the table, and it’s because it tries to think globally and locally at the same time. Had the film committed to being a bottle story focused on the house and its occupants, I think it would have landed more cleanly. It simply tries to do too much at once, when the initial survival story is already compelling on its own. The moments I enjoyed most came directly from this central dynamic. The idea that an infected child could be the key to a cure while the family battens down the hatches and rides out the proverbial storm is strong enough without a side story pulling attention away from it.

Uncontained is streaming for free on Tubi.