The Aeronauts

The Aeronauts (2019) is Tom Harper's adventure drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. London, 1862. Meteorologist James Glaisher is convinced the weather can be predicted, and to prove it he needs to climb higher into the sky than anyone before him. The pilot willing to take him up is the reckless balloonist Amelia Wren.

Most of the film plays out inside a single balloon basket. They keep rising, punching through a storm front into thin, freezing air where the instruments seize and the head spins. Every thousand metres brings them closer to a record and closer to death: the oxygen thins out, ice coats the balloon, and the descent turns into its own fight to survive. Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones reunite on screen after The Theory of Everything.

The film draws on Glaisher's real record-setting ascent, though Amelia is invented, standing in for the male aeronaut who actually flew with him. It was shot with real balloons and stunts at altitude, which is why the vertigo reads as something genuinely physical. Stream The Aeronauts (2019) online on iFILM.