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Growing up during the Evangelical heyday of purity rings and the Left Behind  book series, I heard many things about faith and God, including the old adage that the Lord works in mysterious ways. But there's no mystery why the religious film “On a Wing and a Prayer” fails to take off. It falls short of the glory of competent filmmaking and gorges on cheap sentimentally and cliches, undermining its own message. The best preachers always know how to tell a story and tie it back to a Biblical lesson, but director Sean McNamara has less than a youth pastor’s grasp on his main character’s crisis of faith. 

Based on the true story of the family who survived a similar ordeal, “On a Wing and a Prayer” follows Doug White ( Dennis Quaid ), a dutiful husband to Terri ( Heather Graham ), dad to his two girls Maggie ( Jessi Case ) and Bailey (Abigail Rhyne), a loving brother to Jeff ( Brett Rice ), a friendly neighborhood pharmacist, a budding pilot, and a proud Louisiana resident. He is a man of faith whose religion is shaken by the sudden death of his brother. Looking to pick his spirits up on Easter Sunday, Terri talks the pilot of their next flight into letting Doug sit in the co-pilot seat up front. It’s blue skies as far as the eyes can see—until their pilot slumps in his seat, dead. Now it’s up to Doug to protect his family and get them back to earth with a little help from Divine Intervention and some well-timed radio and phone calls to get the worldly coaching he needs to fly his plane. 

McNamara, who previously ventured into religious movie waters with “ Soul Surfer ,” boils the premise down to familiar beats and motifs. The grieving patriarch who turns his back on God course-corrects back onto his religious tracks when facing doom. A control tower worker named Dan ( Rocky Myers ) struggles with alcohol and chasing women until the events of that day and magically reforms by nightfall. A couple in Connecticut, Kari ( Jesse Metcalfe ) and Ashley ( Anna Enger Ritch) are on their way to a breakup when they instead team up to avoid disaster. Nothing is surprising or interesting about these shallow one-note stories. We know where they’re going because screenwriter Brian Egeston ’s dialogue painstakingly overexplains what’s happening as we’re watching it happen, and because some moments of the movie have all the acting and visual finesse of a Hallmark Channel movie. If you missed the earlier signs, maybe the obvious music cues will help: “Spirit in the Sky” accompanies take off, and then a cover of Leonard Cohen ’s “Hallelujah” is used in the film's climax. 

My frustrations with “On a Wing and a Prayer” go beyond its simplistic “1+1=2” screenwriting, cheap visual effects, and cable-ready cinematography. McNamara and Egeston don’t trust the suspense of their story to work on its own, so other issues are thrown into the mix, like a surprise storm; a random allergic reaction; and a precocious aspiring aviatrix named Donna ( Raina Grey ) and her clueless but enthusiastic friend, Buggy ( Trayce Malachi ), who spend much of their screentime explaining the air control tower jargon and how they’re doing it wrong. These are not characters; they are storytelling devices at their most obvious and annoying. At one point, as the kids are following the potential disaster, Donna says that she wants to become a pilot like her dad “Because one time after science class, Mr. Jones said I couldn’t.” The moment feels wildly glib, like the filmmakers tried to shoe-horn in a girl interested in airplanes because the rest of the women in the cast are just along for the ride. 

By high school, I felt there was no place for me in the church. Women were supposed to be their husband’s greatest supporters, but where was the reciprocated effort for wives’ ambitions? Giving God our best would never be enough because we, as girls then and later women, were not meant to lead. This sentiment is subtly echoed in “On a Wing and a Prayer.” When things look bad, and Doug is starting to give up hope, Terri prays, holds his hand, and jumps in the co-pilot seat to help him. When Terri prays with her daughters on the plane, she says she wants to see them grow up, get married, and have their own kids and then tacks on, “Whatever they want to do,” because our plans come third after taking care of marriage and family. Ashley’s greatest contribution to the story is that she suggests and then helps Kari build a cockpit in their garage so he can guide Doug with exact instructions. I know it’s Doug who’s going through the spiritual journey, but these women are on their own paths as well, even if this story doesn’t acknowledge their full existence. 

“On a Wing and a Prayer” is a simple thriller with a last-minute final message delivered by an apparition: “let go,” a lesson that’s not really mentioned before. But this movie is no fine-tuned sermon. Everything in this film moves forward on a predictable trajectory that won’t challenge or overextend viewers. Each mini-story neatly resolves itself before the credits roll and the photo montage of real-life people with their on-screen counterparts begins. Then thankfully, the ordeal is over for all.

On Prime Video now.  

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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On a Wing and a Prayer (2023)

Rated PG for peril, some language, suggestive references and thematic elements.

102 minutes

Dennis Quaid as Doug White

Heather Graham as Terri White

Jesse Metcalfe as Jesse White

Abbey Rhyne as Bailey White

Jessi Case as Maggie White

Brett Rice as Jeff White

Rocky Myers as Dan Favio

Selena Anduze as Lisa Grimm

E. Roger Mitchell as Brian Norton

• Sean McNamara
• Brian Egeston

Cinematographer

• Christian Sebaldt
• Jeff Canavan
• Brandon Roberts

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‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ Review: Faith as Flight Insurance

A family receives impromptu flight lessons when their pilot dies in the middle of a chartered flight in this spiritually insincere action film.

• Share full article

By Teo Bugbee

Doug White (Dennis Quaid) is a person whose happiness has grown from deep roots. He possesses a steady Christian faith. He has a warm and loving partnership with his wife, Terri (Heather Graham), and together, they are the proud parents of two teenage daughters. But when Doug’s beloved brother suddenly dies, Doug’s faith in a higher power is shaken. And his spiritual crisis is amplified when Doug charters a small plane to return from his brother’s funeral.

The action-driven drama “On a Wing and a Prayer” is based on a true story of the ordeal that the White family faced when they entered the air in 2009 . Their pilot suddenly died of a heart attack in the cockpit, leaving the severely inexperienced Doug to guide the plane to a safe landing. The movie follows Doug and his family as they work and pray to defy the odds stacked against their survival, with remote assistance from air traffic controller‌s and flight instructors.

The director Sean McNamara includes plenty of computer-generated action, with the plane darting through storm clouds, and narrowly swerving away from the ground. The images portray a weightless crisis, and the film’s emotional narrative feels similarly insincere, with the balance of fate seeming to sway on the placement of a well-timed prayer. Doug and his family call upon their faith as a kind of invisible parachute, a deus ex machina that can always save them from harm. It’s a cynical view of faith, one which removes the mystery and terror from life’s unforeseen calamities, and instead frames survival as a matter of calling into the correct belief system.

On a Wing and a Prayer Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video.

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On a Wing and a Prayer Reviews

This may be a true story, but its drama veers closer to Airplane!-like hysterics and parody of faith-tested films down to song choices and all the references to Heather Graham's special sauce.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 15, 2023

On a Wing and a Prayer never justifies the scale and scope of film as its form, operating more like a high-budget TED Talk.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.8/10 | Jun 2, 2023

Dull faith-based film.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Apr 19, 2023

Because so much of this plays out like a made-for-TV movie, it’s hard to feel many of the emotions.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 19, 2023

At times, the script inadvertently approaches slapstick Airplane! territory, while a subplot that ends with two children cycling onto the runway is just daft.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 18, 2023

The promise of a "true" story drags you into the film and turns your emotions loose. Quaid has found his director person in Sean McNamara.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 17, 2023

Throw in slow-mo as the go-to whenever something potentially really emotional is about to happen and the end result is a real cinematic trainwreck.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 13, 2023

Donna might be an overall irritant, but at least one of her comments sums up the movie pretty well. At a particularly discouraging moment in the White family flight, when everything looks bleak, she observes, “This is, like, so bad."

Full Review | Original Score: D | Apr 13, 2023

I hope your family gets to experience this prayerful, moving film together and come out with a smile on your face and a little more faith in your heart.

Full Review | Apr 13, 2023

Chalk this up to a predictable outcome and some heavy-handed faith-based messages and anthems wedged into On a Wing and a Prayer.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 12, 2023

It’s a film glorifying someone who thinks they’ve made God their steering wheel when, instead, they’ve really just relied on God as a spare tire. While a halfway competent disaster film, it takes a nosedive when shoehorning in its faith-based component.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2023

Like Airplane! except with unintentional humor, this faith-based chronicle of airborne heroism never gets off the ground.

Full Review | Apr 8, 2023

Terrible writing and corny dialogue cause this otherwise inspiring story to stall in mid flight.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 7, 2023

[On a Wing and a Prayer] falls short of the glory of competent filmmaking and gorges on cheap sentimentally and cliches, undermining its own message.

On a Wing and a Prayer is incredibly flat-looking and visual choices like recurring split-screens only inspire giggles, rather than the sense of dread you'd expect.

Full Review | Apr 7, 2023

On a Wing and a Prayer gets off to a rocky start but once it finds its wings it becomes a pretty smooth flight. Yes, it can be a little preachy at times, but the tension of the flight itself is well done.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 7, 2023

On a Wing and a Prayer has so much going for it. It’s a shame the script is such an awful mess.

[Sean] McNamara’s largely inept direction, coupled with Brian Egeston’s heavy-handed screenplay that touches on the crisis of faith and religion often resulted in a series of painfully histrionic moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 7, 2023

Sticks to the essentials of panic...a mostly lean, procedural endeavor with occasional questioning of God’s way.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 6, 2023

I was baffled that a movie about an average joe with minimal flight experience, who was forced to to land a plane after the pilot died of a heart attack, could be so boring.

Full Review | Original Score: D- | Apr 6, 2023

‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ Review: Dennis Quaid’s Spiritual Thriller Flies on Bad Faith

Re-creating a civilian pilot's emergency landing, 'Soul Surfer' director Sean McNamara mines a true-life rescue mission for faith-based melodrama.

By Todd Gilchrist

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With nominal experience behind the yoke, Doug promptly panics, and air traffic control prepares for the worst; the likeliest outcome is a crashed plane and multiple lives lost, especially without any experienced pilots available to coach him. But in a last-ditch effort to find a solution, aspiring controller Dan Favio (Myers) makes a cellular call from inside the center — a federal offense — to connect with Kari (Metcalfe), an experienced pilot living in Connecticut who also knows the plane that Doug is flying, but is also carrying the weight of another plane crash in his past.

A cursory Google search didn’t produce a detailed enough account to determine how faithful this film is to the event that inspired it, but even taking its depiction at face value, what’s remarkable about “On a Wing and a Prayer” is how lazily it reduces some profound personal, professional and spiritual epiphanies to bullet points in a checklist of “uplifting” clichés and dramatic pivots. The Doug White on screen isn’t just inexperienced as a pilot, he’s absolutely terrified of the prospect — despite taking lessons; he reasonably asks what kind of God would take the life of his brother (and his father, long before the start of the movie), yet his faith is fully restored after his Lord and savior sends him up in an airplane whose pilot promptly dies, threatening not just his life but his entire family’s.

One of his daughter’s sins is excessive pride in the family’s achievements, and the other’s is in not suitably honoring her father and mother. Dan Favio hopes to become an air traffic controller, but he’s a combative alcoholic who breaks the rules and does his job with a hangover. Haunted by a plane crash that he couldn’t prevent, Kari Sorensen bottles up his feelings and alienates his girlfriend Ashley (Anna Enger Ritch) until she announces plans to leave him. Then there’s Donna (Raina Grey), a neglected preteen who dreams of flying herself and provides a layman’s play-by-play as the rest of the adult characters trade piloting lingo. Only Doug’s saintly, devout wife Terri doesn’t face a pivotal personal crisis, a blessing that elevates Graham’s steady-handed performance above those of her co-stars.

Regardless of how ham-fisted those other turns are, McNamara simply handles the material all wrongly, from the way he navigates the cramped space of the airplane to his treatment of an emotional arc that telegraphs its genuflection to God’s grace before the story takes off. Even being kind to a production that was obviously limited in its resources, he bafflingly swoops over, around and outside the plane instead of putting us in the co-pilot’s seat alongside Doug and Terri, yet re-creates piloting methodologies and language so exactingly that the experience becomes impossible to penetrate, perhaps except as a training video for future air traffic controllers to learn from.

“On a Wing and a Prayer” begins streaming April 7 on Prime Video.

Reviewed online, April 4, 2023. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 101 MIN.

• Production: A Prime Video release of a LightWorkers, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures presentation, in association with Autumn Bailey Entertainment. Producers: Autumn Bailey-Ford, Roma Downey, Karl Horstmann. Executive producer: Marco Henry.
• Crew: Director: Sean McNamara. Screenplay: Brian Egeston. Camera: Christian Sebaldt. Editor: Jeff W. Canavan. Music: Brandon Roberts.
• With: Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham, Jesse Metcalfe, Brett Rice, Rocky Myers, Anna Enger Ritch, Raina Grey.

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• DVD & Streaming

On a Wing and a Prayer

• Action/Adventure , Christian , Drama , Thriller

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Dennis Quaid as Doug White; Heather Graham as Terri White; Rocky Myers as Dan; Jesse Metcalfe as Cory; Selena Anduze as Lisa; Roger Anthony as Bill; Jessi Case as Maggie White; Raina Grey as Donna; Brett Rice as Jeff White; Anna Enger Ritch as Ashley; Wilbur Fitzgerald as Joe; Abigail Rhyne as Bailey White; Trayce Malachi as Buggy

Home Release Date

• April 7, 2023
• Sean McNamara

Distributor

• Amazon Prime Video

Movie Review

You never want to hear your surgeon say, in mid-operation, “Oops!” You don’t want your accountant to admit that he’s a little fuzzy on the concept of percentages. And you certainly don’t want your pilot to have a heart attack—while flying your plane.

Which means you wouldn’t have wanted to be Doug White on Easter Sunday in 2009.

Doug was having a pretty rough day anyway. He and his family (wife, Terri; two teen daughters, Maggie and Bailey) had just buried Doug’s brother in Florida. His girls were fighting again. Oldest daughter Maggie was still spending way too much time glued to her phone. Neither seem to appreciate all the gifts their family had been given—including the wherewithal to rent a private plane to shuttle them all home to Louisiana.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Doug himself was dealing with a crisis of faith.

“I’m just tired of losing people, Terri,” he tells his wife after his brother’s funeral.

“God’s going to get us through,” Terri says.

“Is that the same God who let this happen?” Doug asks.

Well . If Doug was angry about losing a brother, he’s sure to be asking some tough questions of the Almighty when he loses his pilot at 11,000 feet.

Still, it could be worse.

Doug had been up in the cockpit when the pilot lost consciousness. And he had taken a flying lesson. One .

Thing is, though, Doug had been a horrible student—so horrible that his brother (still alive at that point) advised him to take up a new hobby. And the tiny Cessna he had flown was a toy compared to the King Air he and his family are aboard. Might as well learn how to pilot an F-15— literally on the fly.

Yep, Doug will have some hard questions for God when he and his family inevitably crash.

Or it could be that God is right there with them, ready to work in some powerful, and unexpected, ways.

[ Note: Spoilers are contained in the following sections. ]

Positive Elements

On a Wing and a Prayer is based on a true story—and one with a happy ending. The real Doug White and his family landed safely, in part to some level-headed work by Doug and some experienced, conscientious people on the ground. The movie showcases and dramatizes that real-life heroism.

In the movie, Doug might not be a great pilot, but he seems to be a pretty good person. He clearly loves his wife and kids (even if the latter can be a bit exasperating). And when he and his brother win a barbecue contest, he brings some of his winning goodies to share with the homeless.

Wife Terri is at least as conscientious as Doug is—reminding younger daughter Bailey to be “humble and respectful” during the barbecue competition. And when older daughter Maggie complains about feeding the homeless, Terri tells her that she needs to change her perspective—and that a night with the less fortunate just might provide it.

But when disaster strikes on the private plane they’re on, that’s when Doug and Terri’s character really shines.

Both are remarkably calm in what is clearly a stressful situation. Terri even cracks a joke or two. And, of course, every member of the White family has a renewed appreciation for each other: Petty squabbles are forgotten in this atmosphere of peril, and only the desire to love and help each other remains.

As the Whites struggle to survive in the clouds, several people on terra firma work to bring the family home safely. Conscientious air traffic controllers bring their expertise and calm to the situation. Cory, a pilot in Connecticut with thousands of hours of experience flying an Air King, talks Doug through the process as best as he can. That pilot’s girlfriend constructs a mockup of an Air King cockpit in minutes , helping her beau in his critical, potentially life-saving work. Doug’s hand might be on the wheel, but it takes a community to bring him and his family safely home.

And the movie suggests that lives aren’t just saved on the plane: Lives are significantly impacted on the ground, too. A man with a drinking problem sets aside liquor and instead considers a new relationship. A couple on the outs appears to patch things up. A girl gets some quality time with her dad. (In truth, that doesn’t seem to have much to do with the story, but still it’s a good thing on balance.) And a handful of people get a measure of closure regarding some old emotional wounds.

Spiritual Elements

The word prayer is, obviously, right in the movie’s title; and it fittingly takes a place of primacy in the movie itself.

We can see early on that the Whites are a praying family. When they’re taking food to the homeless, they pause for a minute to bless the food they’re delivering. (They encourage recipients to have a “blessed Easter,” as well.) The pilot tells Doug, “I usually say a prayer before takeoff.”  And, of course, when the pilot has a heart attack while the plane’s in the air, we see a whole lotta praying going on upstairs. (It’s a reflection of the real-life story, where Doug White told his wife and daughters to “pray real hard.”)

But as mentioned, Doug’s dealing with some spiritual disillusionment during the movie’s middle frames. Rocked by loss and tragedy, Doug finds Terri’s unwavering faith a bit pollyannish.  During his brother’s funeral, the pastor tells the attendees, “We never know why” tragedy happens, but “we always know the answer: God is with us.”

Doug then stalks out of the church before giving his prepared eulogy—either too grief-stricken or distinctly unmoved by the pastor’s attempted words of comfort. “This is either some kind of test, or maybe all the stuff they told me in church just doesn’t mean what I thought it did,” he tells Terri.

But in the plane, Doug tells the folks on the ground that it’s “just me and the good Lord flying the airplane.” (Later, the film hints that God took a more active role in handling the plane.) And once safely down on the ground, Doug himself prays—apologizing for his doubt and thanking God for His goodness.

We see a Bible on a nightstand beside Doug and Terri’s bed. Another house has some crosses hanging from the walls, along with a sign that says “Believe.” We hear some expressions of divine thanks. A girl says that she doesn’t believe in anything she can’t see anymore. “This includes the Easter bunny, the bogeyman and Dad.” (It’s possible that director Sean McNamara intends for that oft-absent father to have some spiritual resonance; the girl is cautioned to “always be prepared” for her father to come back.)

Sexual Content

Doug and Terri seem to have a healthy love life. At the barbeque contest, Terri flings out a double entendre related to the sauce she’ll save for him “later tonight.” We see Terri in a somewhat revealing robe, and she and Doug kiss and giggle together. When they fall off the bed, one exclaims that “love hurts.”

Bill, an air-traffic controller in training, goes to a local bar and eyes a female singer entertaining the audience. She wears a top that reveals a bit of cleavage, and she comes over after her set to talk and flirt. She asks why he’s drinking so heavily (more on that later), telling him, “I try to get inside a man’s head before he tries to get me in his bed.”

“Is it working?” Bill asks. She says no and walks away. (Later, they again meet, and the two walk out holding hands.)

Violent Content

We don’t really see any violence on screen. But themes of death and peril are constant.

We don’t see the pilot, Joe, suffer from his apparent heart attack. He does seem to experience some pain in his arm shortly before, but the camera cuts away. It returns to find him unconscious in the pilot’s seat. And when Doug and Terri try to remove the body, the pilot falls forward and sends the plane falling, too.

From then on, obviously, the lives of those aboard the Air King are imperiled—and everyone knows it. Air traffic specialists soothingly encourage Doug one moment, then flip off the mic and lament how doomed the family is. Some of them worry that the plane will crash into a populated area. Two young teens, eavesdropping on the ground-to-air communication, follow this airborne disaster-in-the-making via their own radio. “And we’re going to hear everything?” one of the kids says to the other, worried they’ll be front-row witnesses to a disaster. “That’s messed up .”

Doug’s brother, Jeff, dies off camera, and we hear about other natural deaths as well. Someone deals with a life-imperiling peanut allergy, and we see her suffer a severe reaction. Another character slams into the back of a truck. We hear about how Doug crashed the family truck into the lake. There’s a reference to corporal punishment.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear more profanity here than we do in most Christian films we review, but it’s still pretty mild compared so secular movies in general. We hear four uses of “d–n,” one of “h—” and two of “crap.” We also hear a half-dozen exclamations misusing God’s name.

Drug and Alcohol Content

An air traffic controller, Dan, drinks heavily at a bar. He has the bartender pour him three shots—one each of tequila, vodka and gin. (It’s apparently not his first round of shots, either.) When a woman comes up and asks him why all the clear liquor, he tells her that it’s the closest he’s going to get to water tonight. (Later, when describing his encounter with that woman to a friend of his, Dan says that she liked a lot of bourbon—a lie, it would seem, to deflect the fact that he drank so much all by himself.)

The next morning, he comes into the airport clearly hung over. He’s cautioned that if he still has alcohol in his system, “They can fire you on the spot.” (It’s suggested that the events that take place that day lead Dan away from alcohol and down a more positive path.)

Characters drink wine.

Other Negative Elements

During Doug’s lone flying lesson, his brother Jeff is in the back seat. He complains of getting air sick (joking that he’s sitting in his lunch) before actually vomiting off camera.

The two young teens eavesdropping on the airborne drama, Donna and Buggy, eventually sprint out of Donna’s house, hop on their bikes and pedal to the airport in order to see the drama come to its conclusion. They speed past security. “Don’t stop!” Donna shouts. “We’re minors! They’ll never take us to jail!”

Doug’s daughters, Maggie and Bailey, start the movie engaged in almost constant conflict, and Maggie seems far more interested in her phone than her family.

“You be in charge of praying,” Doug tells Terri after their pilot keels over. “I’m going to try to figure out how to fly this airplane.”

In context, it makes sense. I mean, what else can Doug do? If his family dares hope to get out of this mess alive, Doug will need to take some agency, right? He’ll need to learn how to fly this monster of an airplane.

But Doug’s words reveal more than just his will to live and desire to save his family. They perhaps unintentionally reveal his mindset in the moment. You pray , he tells his wife. I’ll fly .

Back in the day, I’d sometimes see bumper stickers that would say, “God is My Co-pilot.” I think that’s the way many of us, if we’re Christians, sometimes like to think of our relationship with the Almighty. He’s in the cockpit with us every step of the way. But unintentionally, it reinforces our own vanity, our own reliance on our own self-reliance. We have a hard time turning over control. We like to chart our own course, direct our own plane. We’re comforted that God is sitting beside us if something goes wrong—but we figure we don’t really need Him if everything goes right.

You’d think we’d know better. You’d think we’d remember that God is in control, not us. It’s only through relinquishment, through submission, that we give God a chance to work His majestic miracles in our lives. Too often we, like Doug, don’t turn the tiller over until we have no other choice. We are brought to our knees when there’s nowhere else to go.

In On a Wing and a Prayer , Doug and his family have literally nowhere else to go but … down. And while Doug’s unflappable courage and calm is laudable, both he and we understand that to touch this bird down safely, he’ll need more than his own strength and skill. He’ll need help. He’ll need God.

The true story of On a Wing and a Prayer is indeed a remarkable tale of courage, teamwork and perhaps supernatural help. All those elements find their way into this Prime Video film. And while the movie brings some unfortunate elements along for the ride—some references to sex and drinking and some mildly profane language—most of those elements have reason to make the trip. This is, after all, not just the story of the White family: It’s about those on the ground that were changed by the experience, too.

The film doesn’t always work. The dialog can feel a bit contrived in spots, the acting a bit soft. But the story keeps On a Wing and a Prayer flying.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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On a Wing and a Prayer Review: Faith-Based Airplane Crisis Stumbles

Doug White (Dennis Quaid) takes control of a plane after the pilot dies on an Easter Sunday flight in this new film on Prime Video.

A Christian family suffering a tragic loss experiences a harrowing crisis while flying home on Easter Sunday in 2009. On a Wing and a Prayer tells the remarkable true story of how Doug White (Dennis Quaid) landed a private plane after the pilot's death midair. A man questioning his faith finds strength in God as strangers rally to help. If only the film captured the moment without strained melodrama, contrived subplots, and poor editing. What should have been a riveting tale of survival under pressure feels hokey and staged.

Doug (Quaid) panics with his brother, Jeff (Brett Rice), on a training flight in Southwest Florida. They laugh before attending a barbeque competition. Doug's wife, Terri (Heather Graham), has made her delicious sauce. Their teenage daughters, Bailey (Abigail Rhyne) and Maggie (Jessi Case), argue afterward. Maggie doesn't understand why they're giving leftover food to homeless people. Terri chastises her selfishness. They must share God's blessings with the less fortunate.

The family receives awful news the following day. Doug can't process what has happened. He wonders why God would heap such loss on him. Terri consoles him. Their savior has a higher purpose. The Wrights decide to return home to Louisiana. Doug books a private plane with King Air. Their pilot, Joe (Wilbur Fitzgerald), promises a smooth trip after an initial bumpy ride.

Into the Sky

Doug sits at the controls with Joe. He stares longingly into the sky before realizing Joe has passed out. A check of Joe's pulse reveals the unthinkable. Doug grabs the controls and radios the Fort Meyers airport for help. He's only had one flight lesson and doesn't have a clue what to do. At the tower, Dan Favio (Rocky Myers), an air traffic controller in training calls Kari Sorenson (Jesse Metcalfe), a grieving flight instructor, for help. Meanwhile, in an airport suburb, young Donna (Raina Grey) monitors the dangerous situation on her computer.

Related: The Best Films With Religious Themes

On a Wing and a Prayer pours the narrative batter thick from the start. Characters are quickly introduced in different settings. The supporting ensemble gets their own exposition before joining the fray. This makes sense to a certain extent but goes way overboard. Prolific director Sean McNamara ( Soul Surfer, The King's Daughter ) spends an inordinate amount of time outside the plane. This dilutes valuable tension by constantly cutting away from the primary protagonists. Donna serves as a tool explaining aviation lingo in layperson terms. But this is already done as Kari teaches flight controls. The entire kid subplot should have been cut from the film.

The editing choices are problematic throughout. Split screens are used to show different viewpoints. It works when we see the family on the plane, Kari in his garage, and the airport staff springing into action. What's puzzling is when each wheel in the landing gear gets their own dedicated shot. There's too much going on in frame during key scenes. I understand the idea of visually spreading the action, but it needed better execution.

A Faith-Based Film

On a Wing and a Prayer is chock-full of twangy Southern accents, country music, and Christian gospel references. That's not unexpected in a faith-based film geared towards a specific audience. But dialing down the proselytizing might have made the heavy-handed plot more accessible.

On a Wing and a Prayer is a production of MGM Light Workers. It will have an April 7th exclusive Prime Video streaming premiere from Amazon Studios.

On a Wing and a Prayer (2023)

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Movie Review – On a Wing and a Prayer (2023)

April 6, 2023 by Robert Kojder

On a Wing and a Prayer , 2023.

Directed by Sean McNamara. Starring Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham, Jesse Metcalfe, Abbey Rhyne, Jessi Case, Brett Rice, Rocky Myers, Selena Anduze, E. Roger Mitchell, Joe Knezevich, Brandon Quinn, Roger Anthony, Raina Grey, Trayce Malachi, Anna Enger Ritch, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Holly Morris, Rachael Markarian, and James Healy Jr.

After their pilot dies unexpectedly mid-flight, Doug White’s (Dennis Quaid) has to safely land a plane and save his entire family from insurmountable danger.

Coming from director Sean McNamara and screenwriter Brian Egeston, On a Wing and a Prayer takes various characters surrounding a potential flight disaster (both inside the plane and air control towers, not to mention a young girl aviation enthusiast listening in on the commotion from home and getting far too involved), without missing a chance to play up sentimentality or Christianity in eye-rolling fashion.

There’s nothing wrong with these Easter-timed stories (quite literally in this case, as the event takes place over Easter weekend 2009) encouraging family and faith; the movie means well. Still, they really don’t have to be so basic and corny, and in this case, downright absurd and embarrassingly schmaltzy (Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah drops on the soundtrack at one point, at such a time that you’re practically guaranteed to burst out laughing).

Dennis Quaid plays Doug White, your standard family man with a wife named Terri (Heather Graham) and two bickering teenage daughters (one is rude and obsessed with technology, while the younger child still enjoys hanging around her parents). As previously mentioned, it’s Easter weekend, and he is fairly busy. He is taking lessons on landing a small plane with his terrified brother in the back, participating in a competitive barbecue, and generally enjoying the holiday with his family before returning to the family’s Louisiana home.

When Doug and his wife are about to make love (with the Bible on the nightstand beside the bed), he is distressed by a phone call informing him that his brother has died of a heart attack, which appears to be hereditary. This prompts the family to get back on the flight for the funeral and then return home, where the pilot flying the private aircraft also appears to suffer a heart attack. Doug has been questioning his connection with God for a while now, so landing this plane and saving his family in the heat of the moment will likely repair that fracture or permanently sever that divine bond.

The filmmakers also can’t themselves from introducing air control personnel with varying degrees of flight experience (zero hours to 6000 hours) while also tacking on some personal drama for them as well (such as one character assisting the family already having been traumatized by another crash, and unable to properly show affection and commit to his current girlfriend because of it). Then there are shockingly dumb scenes where one of the daughters consumes a type of candy she shouldn’t, thus requiring an insulin shot.

For anyone hoping that Doug and his wife working together with air control to land the plane will yield drills or excitement, unfortunately, it mostly boils down to watching people read manuals. At the same time, one of them occasionally spouts some religious scripture. There’s also an entire subplot about how one of them might lie to the family about what to do because they are convinced he will be unable to land the plane, which is never addressed further.

Admittedly, the cast is trying here, but On a Wing and a Prayer never takes off. It’s a disaster harping on overused clichés and cornball sentimentality that doesn’t know hard to convey a single emotional beat from a human and grounded perspective.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★  / Movie: ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ on Amazon Prime Video, A Familiar Faith-Based Tale That Doesn’t Take Off

Where to stream:.

• On a Wing and a Prayer
• Faith-Based

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘An Easter Bloom’ on the Hallmark Channel, A Faith-Based Romance About A Flower Farmer Who Finds Love With A Minister

Is ‘the chosen’ season 4 available to stream, stream it or skip it: ‘the baxters’ on prime video, a family drama based on karen kingsbury’s popular novels, even russell crowe is surprised ‘noah’ is in the netflix top 10.

It’s a bird … it’s a plane … it’s a MIRACLE! God is the true Superman in the faith-based On a Wing and a Prayer , now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. This true-life tale of an improbable rescue in the skies is the kind of thing that makes for a viral Upworthy video. But is it cinematic?

ON A WING AND A PRAYER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Novice pilot Doug White (Dennis Quaid) isn’t exactly feeling too charitable toward the big man upstairs after losing his brother, friend, and flight instructor Jeff (Brett Rice) to an unexpected heart attack. On Easter Sunday 2009, he steps into the cockpit with another pilot to help get his wife (Heather Graham) and daughters home. But when the flight’s main pilot dies suddenly, it’s up to him to fly the plane and get everyone safely on the ground. That becomes a particular challenge given that the air traffic controllers on duty have little to no experience with the aircraft he’s flying. With a little help from distant flyers both experienced (Jesse Metcalfe) and green (Raina Grey) – not to mention a little divine intervention, if you take the movie’s word for it – an unfathomable landing gets underway.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Sully , but if he were spiritual. (And in that department, think something like Miracles from Heaven , Heaven is for Real , or 90 Minutes in Heaven which always seem to sprout up like April flowers around Easter time.)

Performance Worth Watching: There’s a true standout child performance from Raina Grey, the defiant youngster determined to become a pilot because an adult once told her she couldn’t. Hopefully this leads to her booking some bigger roles in projects more deserving of her talents.

Memorable Dialogue: “Sometimes you have to believe in things you can’t see,” exhorts Jesse Metcalfe’s Kari Sorenson as he tries to convince Doug to trust his guidance from afar. It’s the line that dutifully ties together the spiritual and practical elements of the story.

Sex and Skin: Sex is present in the film insofar as a character making a suggestive remark at a barbecue and receiving a rebuke, “We got children around here!” The retort is a real down-home knee-slapper: “Well, how do you think they got here?”

Our Take: Christian entertainment doesn’t get much more color-by-numbers than this miraculous wish-fulfillment fantasy. Get this – the finale uses not only a dramatic recitation of the Lord’s Prayer but also an unplugged cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Oof. The film starts by envisioning God like a distant relative they speak about affectionately in gatherings, then forgets Him entirely in the meat of the action, only to invoke His protection at the very brink of destruction. On a Wing and a Prayer is nothing more than shallow pandering that simplifies the complexities of faith for an audience it is afraid to challenge.

Our Call: SKIP IT. On a Wing and a Prayer has all the sophistication of a “God is my co-pilot” magnet. It’s a film glorifying someone who thinks they’ve made God their steering wheel when, instead, they’ve really just relied on God as a spare tire. While a halfway competent disaster film, it takes a nosedive when shoehorning in its faith-based component.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

Watch On a Wing and a Prayer on Amazon Prime Video

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• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Summary After a pilot dies unexpectedly while flying the plane, passenger Doug White (Dennis Quaid) is forced to land the plane safely in order to save his entire family.

Directed By : Sean McNamara

Written By : Brian Egeston

On a Wing and a Prayer

Where to watch.

Dennis Quaid

Heather Graham

Terri white.

Jesse Metcalfe

Kari sorenson, tonglan qiu, abigail rhyne, bailey white, maggie white.

Rocky Myers

Selena anduze, e. roger mitchell, brian norton, joe knezevich.

Brandon Quinn

Roger anthony, trayce malachi, anna enger ritch, ashley harrison.

Wilbur Fitzgerald

Holly a. morris, rachael markarian, james healy jr., pastor williams, critic reviews.

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ON A WING AND A PRAYER

"the miraculous power of prayer".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: No other objectionable content.

More Detail:

ON A WING AND A PRAYER is a new movie starring Dennis Quaid about the true story of Doug White, a father and husband with no flight experience who’s forced to fly a private plane with his family on board when the pilot dies.

The movie opens with Doug and his family travel from Louisiana to Florida for his brother’s funeral. Doug, who spends his weekends winning BBQ competitions, has his faith shaken because all the men he looked up to in his life are now gone.

Despite his loss, his wife (played by Heather Graham) supports him and encourages him to lean on God in his time of grief. Doug, his wife and their two daughters decide to take a private flight home with a friend because they’re leaving Florida on Easter Sunday and other flights are full. Doug joins the pilot, Joe Cabuk, in the front seat for the flight home.

However, their short flight home soon turns into chaos when Cabuk suffers a heart attack and dies. Doug panics but calls the nearest Air Traffic Control to get help. Due to it being Easter Sunday, all experienced pilots aren’t working. One air traffic controller thinks it’s impossible for Doug to safely land the plane.

The family pray for a miracle, but bad turns to worse when a storm hits, and they are unable to land. A flight instructor with hours of experience hears news of the emergency from his home in Connecticut and calls one of his friends, who happens to be an air traffic controller. Through a cell phone call, Air Traffic Control is able to relay messages to Doug as he tries to keep the plane in the air. However, when the air traffic controller’s cell phone dies, Doug and his family can only pray to God for a miracle.

ON A WING AND A PRAYER is an intense movie throughout. It tells an inspiring story of faith, prayer and God’s sovereignty as He uses dire circumstances and flawed people to keep Doug White and his family safe. There are several powerful scenes of prayer in the movie, and God is glorified. At times the CGI lacks polish, but the movie’s inspiring and uplifting message about family, prayer and God’s faithfulness is one that discerning moviegoers won’t want to miss. ON A WING AND A PRAYER has some intense action, a few light obscenities and a scene where an air traffic controller gets drunk at a bar. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.

Screen Rant

On a wing and a prayer review: dennis quaid’s doug white story flails then fails.

On a Wing and a Prayer will find its audience & pays respect to a man who did the impossible, but as a viewing experience, it misses the mark.

Sean McNamara’s On a Wing and a Prayer doesn't stand a chance from the opening frame. The flat comedy and ham-fisted themes from screenwriter Brian Egeston ( The Game ) don’t do the film any favors and, sadly, the performances range from bad to worse. The occasional moment of tension or interesting use of split screen is about all the film has to offer, which is a shame because the real-life actions of Doug White are nothing short of extraordinary. On a Wing and a Prayer is a tale of two halves and neither is entertaining.

Doug (Dennis Quaid) wants to learn how to fly and drags his brother along for the lesson. Once safely on the ground, the brothers enter a barbeque contest and win in a landslide. Rejoicing with their families over the victory, it seems life couldn’t be sweeter. That is, until Doug gets a call in the middle of the night saying his brother has died. Stricken with grief, Doug begins to spiral. His wife (Heather Graham) tries to calm him down but the grief, combined with the pressures of being a father, are getting to him. Doug is forced into dealing with his trauma faster than he thinks when, while flying with his family, their pilot suddenly dies. Air traffic control calls in a specialist (Jesse Metcalfe) and it’s up to Doug to land the plane safely.

The first half of the film is spent on character development the story does not need. It’s hard to critique these elements in films based on real stories but, in the case of On a Wing and a Prayer , the same theme is repeated over and over. Grief and loss of belief in a higher power can be fascinating concepts to grapple with, but the film literalizes everything and offers no nuance. Even the plot mechanics themselves are redundant.

There is a subplot about two kids tracking the events of the film; they are one of three sets of characters doing the same thing. Meanwhile, air traffic control calls in a consultant to walk Quaid through flying the plane. The consultant's wife who is in the room with him calls Quaid even though they are already in contact. Cell phones themselves are an unnecessary bit of plot that keeps showing up. Two different characters are warned about the danger of using cell phones in plane environments and there are no consequences for either. So, why include that in the movie twice?

Bad southern accents and a truly confounding lead performance don’t help this already struggling film. The entire family sounds closer to a Saturday Night Live skit than they do to real people and every line of dialogue suffers as a result. Quaid is inaudible in certain scenes, but his accent is not distracting to the plot of the film. The same cannot be said for the rest of the cast. Graham’s affectation is so noticeable one simply cannot pay attention to anything else that’s going on. Similarly, her daughter Bailey, played by Abigail Rhyne ( Where’d All The Time Go ), is clearly invested and working hard in this role, but is held back by the twang in every word.

On a Wing and a Prayer will certainly find its audience and pays respect to a man who did the impossible, but as a viewing experience, it misses the mark at every turn. When Quaid lands the plane there is a triple split screen of each wheel releasing and hitting the tarmac. That instance of visual language commands attention, but unfortunately, it is the only scene in the film that does.

On A Wing And A Prayer begins streaming on Prime Video Friday, April 7. The film is 102 minutes long and is rated PG for peril, some language, suggestive references, and thematic elements.

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Is On a Wing and a Prayer based on a True Story? Movie Explained

Is On a Wing and a Prayer based on a True Story? We discuss whether the 2023 Amazon Prime Video movie is based on real events.

Academy Award dodging Texan Dennis Quaid , roller skating ex- Twin Peaks resident Heather Graham , and Jesse Metcalfe are the lead cast members in this gripping new survival thriller On a Wing and a Prayer .

As the title might suggest, this is a thrilling drama set on a plane when every passenger’s worse nightmare transpires. Almost everything that could go wrong does go wrong, and you almost feel like checking off a bingo board as problem after problem arrives to test the resolve and faith of our characters.

With such a premise, you find yourself wondering if this could happen, so with that in mind, this disastrous article will ask the question, is On a Wing and a Prayer based on a true story, and we hope to stick the landing.

What is the movie On a Wing and a Prayer about?

The movie follows a series of events on a privately chartered plane with the White family returning home after a family member’s funeral.

Dad Doug, mum Terri and their two daughters have been mourning the death of Doug’s brother and are now en route back to Louisiana, and Doug has managed to get a seat next to the pilot at the front of the plane. Doug, a man of faith, has had his world rocked by the death of his brother, and his faith will be tested further as the pilot slumps down dead, leaving Doug at the wheel.

Doug manages to get in touch with air traffic control, and the tension mounts as he attempts to bring the plane down in one piece.

Is On a Wing and a Prayer based on a True Story?

This film is based on a true story. The setup is all true, as depicted in the movie. The real-life Doug White and his family had attended his brother’s funeral and were on a flight back to Louisiana in April 2009. The private chartered plane took off from Marco Island, Florida, and tragically, after the take-off, Joe Cabuk, their retired jet pilot, became unconscious.

Doug took the plane’s controls and contacted the control tower to explain their position. The Fort Myers International Airport was in a position to accept the plane that would have to essentially perform an emergency landing, and all other flights were re-routed.

On the front line was Lisa Grimm, an experienced pilot and an air traffic controller at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Centre. To enable Doug to take control of the plane, she asked Doug to turn off the auto-pilot and handle the controls manually in what must have been a nightmarish moment.

Incredibly, Doug had taken flight lessons for 150 hours, but he had learned in a single-engine Cessna 172, and that was a completely different craft than the one he was in charge of now.

Is On a Wing and a Prayer based on a book?

No, the film is based on the true story of the events that happened, but the screenplay was written by Brian Egeston, and Sean McNamara directed the film.

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Louie Fecou joined the Ready Steady Cut writing team back in August 2018 as an Entertainment Writer and, since then, has published over 1,000 articles for the site. Louie has proven experience in various publications, print and online. To kickstart his journalism career, in 2013, he was a columnist and writer for The Irvine Herald Newspaper.

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Dennis Quaid is a real-life passenger forced to land a plane in On a Wing and a Prayer first look

Quaid and Heather Graham star in the true-life survival tale.

If you need a midair miracle, Dennis Quaid's your guy.

EW has the exclusive first look at On a Wing and a Prayer , the upcoming Amazon Prime Video film about a real-life man who took control of a twin-engine plane after the pilot died mid-flight.

Quaid plays Doug White, with Heather Graham along for the ride as Doug's wife and eventual co-pilot, Terri. Jesse Metcalfe also stars as the pilot who connects with Doug from the ground to help him safely land the plane at a nearby airstrip.

The real Doug and Terri White were on their way back to Louisiana after his brother's funeral in Florida in 2009 when their pilot suffered a fatal heart attack mid-air. With the lives of his wife and two daughters on the line, Doug took command of the twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air 200 despite having no experience flying.

The odds were heavily stacked against the Whites' survival until an air traffic controller broke protocol and put Doug in contact with Cory (Metcalfe), a pilot who offers Doug step-by-step advice from his home in Connecticut.

On a Wing and a Prayer is directed by Sean McNamara, who also helmed Soul Surfer , another true story of survival about teenage surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm to a shark.

The film was written by Brian Egeston ( Tyler Perry's House of Payne ) and produced by Roma Downey ( Touched by an Angel) , Autumn Bailey-Ford ( Tulsa ), and Karl Horstmann ( The Case for Christ ).

Egeston was inspired to write the script after one of his first flight instructors played White's actual flight recording to demonstrate the importance of knowing how to communicate with air traffic control.

He then reached out to White the old-fashioned way: "I wrote him a letter and crossed my fingers."

Downey, too, knew right away that the White family's tale of survival was extraordinary.

"I've always been drawn to stories that deal with ordinary people who find themselves in exceptional situations and overcome the odds," Downey said in a statement. "It's a wonderful, uplifting story with a triumphant ending, and a great thrill for all of us to tell."

O n a Wing and a Prayer premieres on Prime Video on April 7.

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On A Wing And A Prayer

In this extraordinary true story of faith and survival, On a Wing and a Prayer follows passenger Doug White’s (Dennis Quaid) harrowing journey to safely land a plane and save his entire family from insurmountable danger, after their pilot dies unexpectedly mid-flight.

(*This is releasing worldwide on Prime Video, excluding the following territories: Spain, C.I.S, Russia, Germany, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Belgium/Luxemburg, UAE )

Marco Henry

Sean McNamara

Autumn Bailey-Ford, p.g.a., Roma Downey, p.g.a., Karl Horstmann

102 minutes

Brian Egeston

Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham, and Jesse Metcalfe

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• KEY ART (1)
• STILL PHOTOS (17)
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On a Wing and a Prayer Parent Guide

This movie crashes under the weight of its poor script and clunky acting..

Prime Video: After a pilot dies suddenly mid-flight, a man has to save his family by taking the controls and landing the plane.

Release date April 7, 2023

Run Time: 102 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

On the way back from his brother’s funeral, Doug (Dennis Quaid) grapples with a minor faith crisis brough on by his bereavement. But things get much worse: the pilot of the small twin-engine aircraft his family has chartered has a fatal heart attack mid-air, leaving Doug and his wife, Terri (Heather Graham) to fly the plane. Unfortunately, the only flying experience the two of them have is a quick discovery flight Doug went on a few weeks prior – one which he was unable to land without his instructor taking the controls. With their daughters Bailey (Abigail Rhyne) and Maggie (Jessi Case) on board, Doug is going to have to learn, and fast. He’s getting some help from the air traffic control tower, but no one there has much flight experience, and none at all with the type of aircraft he’s in. Worse, a large tropical storm is approaching right along his flight path, and if they don’t get the plane on the ground soon, there’s a good chance that it’s going to end up in the ocean.

You’d think that an ongoing air disaster would make for a compelling story, but I’d rather have been in one myself. Even if we ignore, for the moment, the bad acting and profoundly irritating writing, the film fails to focus on what it wants. We’ve already got a fistful of characters: Doug and his family, the air traffic controllers in two different airports, and some guy in Connecticut who is somehow the only person around with experience on this aircraft – and his girlfriend. That bloated cast is already more than we need, but why does this movie keep cutting to some teenage girl who’s listening in on the radio? She isn’t part of the story, has no influence on the outcome of the flight, and doesn’t explain anything to the audience that air traffic control didn’t explain five minutes earlier. The pacing is already bad, and it’s decisions like this that make this movie feel bloated, boring, and more than a little scattered.

This film also commits a cardinal sin in filmmaking, namely using an excruciatingly bad cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah . Am I the only person who’s actually listened to the lyrics for that song? I think Shrek might be the only film that’s used the song anywhere near appropriately. I wish that were the biggest problem here, but it’s just the rancid icing on this dumpster fire of a cake. This film succeeds at nothing apart from unintentional self-parody of soulless pseudo-Christian filmmaking. On a Wing and a Prayer has all the entertainment value of cleaning public restrooms and twice the irritation. Surely you can think of something you’d rather do.

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Keith hawkes, watch the trailer for on a wing and a prayer.

On a Wing and a Prayer Rating & Content Info

Why is On a Wing and a Prayer rated PG? On a Wing and a Prayer is rated PG by the MPAA for peril, some language, suggestive references and thematic elements.

Violence: A man dies of a heart attack. Sexual Content: A married couple are seen kissing and making very vague sexual remarks. Profanity: None. Alcohol / Drug Use: An adult character is seen drinking heavily and it’s implied that he’s a problem drinker.

Page last updated December 27, 2023

Related home video titles:

A more realistic depiction of air traffic control in a disaster can be found in United 93 or Sully . Other films about trouble in the sky include 7500 , Flightplan , Non-Stop , Die Hard 2, Plane , and another Christian film, Left Behind . More family friendly options include Planes , Planes: Fire and Rescue , and Devotion .

‘Thank You, Goodnight’: A (Very Long) Reminder That Even Jon Bon Jovi Is Mortal

IT’S THEIR LIFE

Gotham Chopra (the son of Deepak) directs Hulu’s Bon Jovi docuseries in a spirited portrayal of the band—even if you’ll be “Livin’ on a Prayer” that it was so damn long.

Jordan Hoffman

Disney/Hulu

“We’re halfway there,” I said to myself at the two-and-a-half-hour mark of Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story , a four-part early Christmas gift to hard-core Bon Jovi fans and a ludicrously detailed look at the pop-rock luminary’s career for everyone else.

Like the anthemic songs the platinum-selling New Jersey -born singer is known for, it would take an extra step to actively dislike this very by-the-numbers Hulu documentary, but the excessive length and the overblown manner in which it tries to manufacture drama does get a bit irritating. Put bluntly, there just isn’t much going on in this sanctioned and manicured portrait, yet it still goes on forever.

Bon Jovi at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania in 2013.

David Bergman/Courtesy of Hulu

Jon Bon Jovi is, was, and always shall be an extremely handsome and charismatic fella. That smile! Those eyes! Even in the deepest archive footage, striking a pose in preposterous ’80s hair-band outfits, the guy still looked good. What’s more, you can tell, you can just tell , that he’s a nice guy. Have you ever heard anyone say anything nasty about Jon Bon Jovi? Think a minute. No. The answer is no.

He’s been married for 35 years to a gal he’s known since high school. He became one of the biggest stars in music with his band’s third album, Slippery When Wet , in 1986. And while the more recent stuff hasn’t dominated the charts in the same way, he’s continued to sell out arenas all over the world and hasn’t been out of the public eye since. A Bon Jovi song on the radio is like a side of fries with a meal: not necessary, but always welcome.

The most interesting chapter in the documentary focuses, as is frequently the case, on the early years. Much is made in Thank You, Goodnight about what a hard-working, salt-of-the-earth guy he is, and this is in keeping with the Jersey acts that came before him, like Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and, of course, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Quite frankly, I believe it to be true. But the film can’t hide the fact that Bon Jovi (née Bongiovi before a record exec wisely suggested he follow Van Halen’s naming structure) was second cousins with the producer Tony Bongiovi, who ran the Power Station studio in New York City where a young Jon had a first job. He was gigging his brains out in the clubs of Asbury Park, but he was also hanging out with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and watching David Bowie and Queen record “Under Pressure.” On off-hours he got to play around in the studio and record his first track, “Runaway.”

“Runaway” found radio airplay and eventually got Jon a record deal. From there he set up his band—a perfect Jersey blend of Italian Americans, Jews, and Hispanics—simply named Bon Jovi. Many, like future Tony winner David Bryan, were already in his orbit, but he recruited others, like the significantly older drummer Tico Torres (who speaks with such blunt Jersey wisdom in this documentary he ought to host Learning Annex sessions) and the eventual Keith to his Mick, guitarist and co-songwriter Richie Sambora.

Their first two albums did OK, but they kept at it, hired a ringer ( Desmond Child ) to help co-write some tunes, then hit pay dirt just as MTV became arbiters of the monoculture. “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and “Wanted Dead or Alive” were the anthems American society needed in 1986, and they followed it up two years later with “Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There For You.” As a representative not just of Gen X but also New Jersey—and one whose older sister had her hormones laser-targeted on this group—there was nothing in the world bigger than Bon Jovi at the time.

Bon Jovi in concert at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia in 2010.

If you’ve paid any attention to the personnel changes of Bon Jovi over the decades (and no shame if you haven’t—you can still call yourself a fan if you only sing along when their songs come on at CVS), you know that at a certain point Jon and Richie parted ways. The band plays on, though, and has a new album coming out just in time for this documentary.

Director Gotham Chopra (son of Deepak Chopra ) squeezes as much as he can from this schism but fails to find its root or bang out a conclusion. (This is a far cry from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster .) When Sambora makes his first appearance in a current talking-head interview at the end of episode one, he puffs out his chest and asks, “So are we telling the truth here?” The movie ultimately whiffs on this test, I feel.

The other dramatic arc is Jon’s decision to get vocal-cord surgery . He’s a perfectionist, and he knows that his recent shows have been “100 percent of 80 percent.” I do not want to belittle anyone undergoing major surgery, but Thank You, Goodnight drags this decision out like it’s Hamlet . Jon Bon Jovi is facing 60, and this is a reminder that he’s mortal, but the guy still looks like a dream. He’s loaded, he’s got a loving wife, and a zillion gold records on his shelf. If he had to retire, is it really the end of the world? We can always see Def Leppard this summer instead.

Bon Jovi from the Live 2011 Tour at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.

What’s most strange about this film is how devoted it is to the minutiae of Jon’s work (a whole chapter on forming his own management company! What am I, his accountant?) but there’s so little about anyone’s personal life. He’s got kids, but they aren’t in the movie. Richie Sambora was married to Heather Locklear, but that’s not mentioned at all. Jon has always been famously drug-free, but the rest of the band wasn’t. There are zero tales of debauchery from the road. Did Jon screw around with groupies before he got married in 1989? You’ll never know from this film. It’s also a miss that there isn’t more footage of the early fans. The Jersey girls of the mid-’80s were like nothing else ever seen, and we only get a glimpse.

But you will know about the time in Mexico that student unrest forced them to perform two shows in one day—this is detailed in two different episodes, to show just how crazy life is on the road, and how hard they toiled. Jon, I love ya, but some people work in uranium mines! You had to sing about the loaded six string on your back at a doubleheader. You’ll live!

OK, clearly I am only a middling Bon Jovi fan. For some, this will all be catnip. But for a group who made it big on radio hits under five minutes, you’d think they’d know how to cut the fat.

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