Even the stupidest movie can make me cry when I fly. On those long-haulers, when the lights go down and the airplane socks go on, Sandra Bullock rom-coms become cathartic triumphs. Vim Diesel is elevated into the finest actor of his generation. Turns out I'm not the only one wiping away the tears beneath my blanket. Lots of people confess to having hyper-emotional responses to inflight entertainment. There are various theories why crying while flying occurs...
1) Everyone is subconsciously shitting their pants.
Flying at 700 miles per hour at 7000 feet is fucking scary, whether you like it or not, and the crying is caused by fear.
2) Travelling is a time for reflection.
Being in a plane can be a transitory period where we can sit and think about our lives and the people them. New beginnings, long good-byes, emotional reunions, blah blah blah.
3) It's all chemical.
Crying while flying could be caused by altitude messing with the oxycotin receptors in our brains, which govern our levels of empathy.
4) You're wasted.
The combination of those mini-bottles of wine and those sleeping pills might have made you slightly more sensitive than normal.
5) You've been audio-visually brainwashed.
My friend Saam blames the conditions in which you watch films on a plane. For him, the experience of being strapped to chair, headphones on, in front of a bright screen positioned close to your face for several hours, is a bit like the brainwashing scene in Clockwork Orange where the dude was force-fed TV with metal hooks holding his eyeballs open. Enough to make anyone cry.
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