Airline Apologizes for Showing R-Rated Dakota Johnson Movie on Its Flight

Passengers of the Australian airline Qantas got a surprising in-flight entertainment viewing on their flight to Japan. The film shown on every seat was the Dakota Johnson movie Daddio which contained racy nudity and sexting scenes. As a result, Qantas has issued an apology for accidentally showing the R-rated Dakota Johnson movie during their flight.

Normally on flights, passengers have the option to pick their own movie they’d like to watch. However, Qantas suffered technical issues that prevented individual selection from happening. Therefore, the crew selected a movie based on what passengers wanted to watch. Their pick was Daddio which led to that choice of movie to play on all screens. After the graphic sexting scenes led to complaints by off-putting passengers, an airline spokesperson issued an apology.

“The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologise to customers for this experience. 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. We are reviewing how the movie was selected,” said the airline to news.com.au.

The plot of the Dakota Johnson-Sean Penn drama may seem harmless when reading about it. It follows a woman conversing with her cab driver about her affair with a married man. However, it still contains inappropriate content that isn’t family-friendly. The MPA gave Daddio an R rating “for language throughout, sexual material, and brief graphic nudity.”

When Qantas realized the drama film wasn’t appropriate for all passengers, they tried to change the screens for people who didn’t want to watch the movie. When that attempt failed, the airline decided to change the screens and have everyone watch a children’s movie instead.

What were the passengers’ reactions to the R-rated Dakota Johnson movie?

Daddio’s scenes where Dakota Johnson’s character looks at photos of exposed genitals and sexts offended plenty of Qantas passengers. They were unable to pause, dim, or turn off the movie. One Reddit user wrote a long complaint saying Daddio was “extremely inappropriate:”

“It featured graphic nudity and a lot of sexting – the kind where you could literally read the texts on screen without needing headphones. ? 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 onboard. […] How is this acceptable for a major airline?”

Outkick reported that another person felt bad for the children and parents forced to watch the R-rated drama:

“These poor kids and their parents because you should’ve heard the audible gasps across the plane.”

Another passenger expected to see a different Dakota Johnson movie that came out this year:

“[The film] was featuring Dakota Johnson, and I really thought they were playing Madame Web or something – I honestly don’t know if that would’ve been worse.”

For those who still want to watch Daddio from the comforts of their home, it’s available to rent on digital streaming platforms.