‘The Boys” Airplane Rescue Is the Hardest Scene to Watch in Superhero History

The Boys is not a superhero show for the faint of heart. The Amazon Original, an adaptation of the equally intense Dynamite comic from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, puts a spin on the kind of superhero stories we’re used to seeing on screens big and small. Instead of being altruistic crusaders, the superheroes in The Boys have been deeply corrupted by their ultimate fame and ultimate power. They care more about endorsement deals than saving the world and show zero hesitation when it comes to taking lives, good or bad. The show flips the script, and never is that more apparent than in Episode 4’s horrifying airplane scene. Spoilers ahead, incredibly upsetting spoilers.

The scene comes halfway through “The Female of the Species,” as Homelander (Antony Starr) and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) are dispatched by Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) to save a hijacked passenger plane. There is, of course, an ulterior motive to this rescue mission (as there always is when it comes to The Seven). The plane is over the Atlantic, meaning it’s not over foreign soil and the heroes can act swiftly and decisively without worrying about ticking off another country. And, as Stillwell explains, if they can save all the passengers, the United States congress will have to vote in favor of a military bill that she’s been desperately trying to get passed. After all, it would look cowardly to shoot down a bill tying the military to the heroes that just saved a plane full of innocents! So off Homelander and Queen Maeve go to save the day… except nothing goes right.

The heroes, essentially Superman and Wonder Woman, easily trounce the terrorists. She snaps a neck, he eye-beams one in the chest, and everything’s handled. The passengers erupt in cheers, and Homelander soaks up all the adoration. He gives a little girl a thumbs up, because everything is gonna be all right.

It’s not gonna be all right, because Queen Maeve notices the cockpit is locked. And when they kick in the door, they see that their problems are very much not over. The co-pilot’s throat has been cut, and there’s a terrorist holding a gun to the pilot’s head. Great.

The terrorist shoots the pilot in the head, killing him immediately and blowing a hole through the airplane windshield. Homelander instinctively eyebeams the crap out of the gunman, killing him… and unintentionally toasting all the plane controls.

This is when things go from bad to “oh my god.”

Maeve frantically asks if Homelander knows how to fly a plane. He can’t, and besides, the controls are done for. Homelander then casually washes his hands of the situation and turns his back on the cockpit. Maeve isn’t ready to give up, though, and she does what you expect superheroes to do: she comes up with plans.

She comes up with the exact plans you see in superhero movies all the time. Maeve tells Homelander to lift the plane or fly all the passengers to safety one-by-one (that latter plan was essentially how a similar scene in Iron Man 3 played out). He dismisses with a casual shrug, like he’s shooting down fast food options on a road trip. He can’t lift the plane without tearing it apart and he’s not fast enough to fly all 123 passengers to the nearest body of land.

Their work is done. They failed. Time to go home and do literally anything else.

The cabin depressurizes, turbulence sends passengers flying, oxygen masks are deployed, and through all this Homelander, through his biggest smile, tells everyone they’re going to be saved… while he’s making his way to the back hatch. Plane crash scenes are already a nightmare to watch, because they’re probably our most unanimous fear dramatized to traumatize. These passengers are truly helpless and they’re all being played for fools while they’re careening to their deaths.

That’s when Queen Maeve, who I have to point out has been more or less fine with all of Homelander’s other morally dubious schemes, reaches her breaking point. If they can’t save all the passengers, she rationalizes, Homelander can at least save two little girls.

This is also when Homelander reaches his breaking point, dropping the heroic facade and getting in Maeve’s face. No, he’s not going to save them. Why would he? As he snarkily asks, “So they can tell the world that we left the rest of them to fucking die”? The passengers–their shrieks and wails as loud as the turbulence–start to charge Homelander, begging for help. He responds by flashing his laser eyes at them, threatening to murder all of the passengers before they crash if they don’t back off. Then he prepares to depart the death trap, outstretching a hand to Queen Maeve. “Don’t die with them,” he says to her. Maeve, torn between Homelander and the literal children begging her to save them, chooses to live.

The “heroes” watch from a distance as the plane crashes into the ocean, bodies falling or jumping from it on the way down.

This entire sequence is a panic-inducing horror from beginning to end, because it amps up a very real fear and then offers absolutely zero hope. These heroes can’t stop a plane crash, and Homelander’s casual calculations just make the scene sting twice as much. The camera lingers on all the passengers for just a second too long, forcing the viewing to live in their panic as this godlike being peaces out.

We watch superhero stories for moments like these, moments when all hope is lost and the figure in a cape swoops in to the rescue. It’s the ultimate escape, watching a story where certain doom is avoided thanks to the intervention of a pure-hearted, empathetic, courageous stranger. This scene from The Boys knows that’s what we’re expecting, and that we want comfort. It offers no hope, no comfort in this moment, the clearest example of The Boys turning the genre on its head. The show essentially leaves the viewers on that plane, too, falling and screaming to the end.

Stream The Boys "The Female of the Species" on Prime Video