Poster © Warner Bros. Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreBiography, Drama & History
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 36 mins
ReleasedSeptember 9, 2016
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorClint Eastwood
StarringTom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney
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Sully (2016)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Sully's Details | |
| Genre | Biography, Drama & History |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 09/02/2016 (Telluride); 09/09/2016 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 36 mins |
| Budget | $60M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Highest Duty by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Sully's Interests | |
| General | Flight 1549, the Hudson River, flight simulators, bird strikes, ferry boats, January cold. |
| Music | Christian Jacob and the Tierney Sutton Band, keeping it calm and jazzy. |
| Movies | Flight (2012). Another pilot, another investigation, a very different captain. |
| Television | Air Disasters, but the rare episode where everybody walks away. |
| Heroes | The real Sully. Plus every ferry crew that showed up within minutes. |
| Sully's Crew | |
| Director | Clint Eastwood |
| Writers | Todd Komarnicki |
| Producers | Clint Eastwood, Frank Marshall, Tim Moore, Allyn Stewart |
| Cinematography | Tom Stern |
| Music | Christian Jacob, The Tierney Sutton Band |
| Edited By | Blu Murray |
| Production | Village Roadshow Pictures, Ratpac-Dune Entertainment, Flashlight Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Malpaso Productions, Orange Corp |
| Distributed By | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Clint Eastwood needed a villain for a story where everyone made it home, so he cast a review board. The crash investigators come off as smug people in a conference room rooting for a hero to fail, and it’s the movie’s least fair choice. It also replays the landing more than once, which fills 96 minutes but dulls the shock. Still, the landing itself is gripping. Tom Hanks plays Sully as a calm, private man who did his job in a few awful minutes and then has to relive it under bright lights and second guesses. He barely raises his voice, and you believe every pause. Aaron Eckhart gives Jeff Skiles a dry, loyal steadiness. The rescue on the river is the best part, ferries and first responders racing in from everywhere, ordinary people doing their jobs fast. It got an A CinemaScore and $243.9 million worldwide. A 7.5 because Hanks and that rescue carry a story that never needed a bad guy. $1,227 says you listen to every word of the safety demonstration on your next flight.
What works: Tom Hanks is quietly superb, and the river rescue is a moving tribute to ordinary people doing their jobs well.
What doesn’t: The investigators are flattened into cartoon skeptics, and repeating the landing several times drains some of its power.
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a short, steady true story about competence under pressure.
Spoilers
At the public hearing, the investigators replay the simulations with the reaction time a real crew would need, and the simulated flights no longer make it back to a runway. The board accepts that Sully and Skiles made the right call, and the two pilots share a quiet moment of relief.
On January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks), Sully to his friends, and first officer Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) lose both engines when their plane hits a flock of birds just after leaving LaGuardia. Sully puts the Airbus down on the Hudson River, and everyone on board gets out. New York calls him a hero. The crash investigators are less sure, and their computer simulations say he could have made it back to an airport. Now a veteran pilot has to defend one decision in front of a review board, while his wife Lorraine (Laura Linney) watches from home. Clint Eastwood directs. Ninety-six minutes, one river, no runway.
Anyone who actually listens to the safety briefing. Every single word.
| Tom Hanks | Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger |
| Aaron Eckhart | Jeff Skiles |
| Laura Linney | Lorraine Sullenberger |
| Mike O'Malley | Charles Porter |
| Anna Gunn | Dr. Elizabeth Davis |
| Jamey Sheridan | Ben Edwards |
| Ann Cusack | Donna Dent |
| Jane Gabbert | Sheila Dail |
| Molly Hagan | Doreen Welsh |
| Holt McCallany | Mike Cleary |
| Chris Bauer | Larry Rooney |
| Patch Darragh | Patrick Harten |
| Autumn Reeser | Tess Sosa |
| Rob Treveiler | ATC Supervisor |
| Jerry Ferrara | Michael Delaney |
| Max Adler | Jimmy Stefanik |
| Sam Huntington | Jeff Kolodjay |
| Michael Rapaport | Pete the Bartender |
| Wayne Bastrup | Brian Kelly |
| Valerie Mahaffey | Diane Higgins |
| Jeff Kober | L. T. Cook |
| Molly Bernard | Alison |
| Jeffrey Nordling | Barry Leonard |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 7.4 / 10 (327,372 votes) → 7.4 / 10 (327,412 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +520 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $243.9M; Domestic box office $125.1M; Opening weekend $35M; Profit / loss (est.) +$31.9M; Rotten Tomatoes 85%; CinemaScore A; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 85% (346 reviews); Metacritic 74 / 100; PostTrak audience 90% positive; CinemaScore A; IMDb users 7.4 / 10 (327,372 votes); movie.guru score 8.1.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.