Qantas apologises after explicit film Daddio plays on flight

The film played as an error with in-flight entertainment made it impossible to individually select films. Photo / 123rf

Qantas has apologised to passengers after an explicit film played across all entertainment screens during a flight from Australia to Japan.

A technical issue with the in-flight entertainment system meant passengers flying from Sydney to Haneda could not select individual movies, news.com.au reported.

Qantas staff reportedly asked passengers to recommend a movie they would play across all screens and the final choice was Daddio, a 2023 film starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn.

One traveller said they were shocked by the graphic film and said there was “no way to turn it off” so they were forced to watch.

The movie is focused on a young woman (Johnson) who starts chatting to her taxi driver (Penn). During the drive, she reveals she’s having an affair with a married man while Penn begins to divulge his own secrets.

Graphic nudity, explicit material and images of genitals mean the film has an R16 rating in New Zealand yet was shown to passengers of all ages.

One passenger shared their experience on Reddit and claimed the film went on for almost an hour before crew turned off the movie and changed it to something child-friendly.

“It was super uncomfortable for everyone, especially with families and kids on-board,” they wrote, sharing photos of the screen, which played out an explicitly sexting scene between two characters.

Qantas has apologised to customers for the experience and said the movie was “clearly not suitable” for the entire flight.

“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,” it added.

The airline would also review the process by which the film was selected.