Propeller One-Way Night Coach review: John Travolta’s nostalgia piece
A star rating of 3 out of 5. As Frank Sinatra’s standard Come Fly With Me rings out in John Travolta’s directorial debut, you’re left assured the actor, star of Grease, Get Shorty and Pulp Fiction, wants to take you for a ride. This one-hour movie, bowing on Apple TV after receiving its world premiere out of competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, comes inspired by Travolta’s own love of the golden age of aviation, as he adapts his own 1997 children’s book, Propeller One-Way Night Coach. The Sixties-style opening animated credits sequence sets the tone, orienting us to the time period. It’s December 28, 1962, at Idlewild airport. Jeff (debut actor Clark Shotwell) is an 8-year-old aviation enthusiast and he’s about to take his first ever plane ride, accompanying his actress-mother Helen (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett) as they zig-zag across the States on a TWA propeller plane, stopping at various destinations before reaching Los Angeles. While it might be hard to grasp for modern audiences, back then, you’d save money by taking a circuitous airborne …

