Is the New A24 Movie About 'Rawdogging' a Flight?
The new travel trend is taking over the internet and possibly cinemas, too.
Let's start with what's what. In case you missed it, "rawdogging a flight" means going through an entire flight without entertainment of any kind. This means no movies, no music, no screen time, no reading, no nothing—just staring blankly toward the back of the seat in front of you for hours.
It's a wild practice, which we might see play out to some degree on the big screen. As Deadline reported, A24 is set to produce The Entertainment System Is Down, the newest movie by Palme d'Or winner Ruben Östlund, who previously directed the award-winning film Triangle of Sadness.
Described as a social satire, the movie takes place on a super long-haul flight (think more than 20 hours). While passengers would usually have access to digital entertainment, the protagonists of the movie find themselves in a situation in which the entertainment system is, in fact, down, and they are, as Östlund put it in an early interview, "doomed to deal with their boredom." So, while we're sure there'll be a lot of action due to this forced digital detox, it is possible we'll come across some characters who simply sit in it.
It doesn't take too much scrolling on the internet to realize that this behavior is a hot topic of conversation right now. On TikTok, it's almost a competition. On the platform, users are trying to beat their own personal records to see how long they can actually go on a flight without watching movies or listening to music. Whether the attempts are sincere or not, we can't say.
"Just rawdogged it," reads the overtext in one viral video, which reached more than one million views. "15-hour flight to LA, no movie, no music, just flight map (new pr)."
If you think you could easily do this, wait until you hear the commonly accepted requirements for the practice. As TikTok reveals in many videos, it's not just about avoiding entertainment. Real "heroes" of the trend avoid everything.
"Just rawdogged a 7-hour flight," reads the overtext in another viral TikTok, which racked up more than 13 million views. "No headphones, no movie, no water, nothing. Incredible. The power of my mind knows no bounds."
What about bathroom breaks or snacks, you ask? Those are a no-no as well.
If you ask me, I could never exist that long on a flight by doing absolutely nothing, but I will gladly watch someone else do it for entertainment.