Cillian Murphy's 80% RT Psychological Thriller Is Officially Streaming Free

Published Oct 3, 2026, 8:03 AM EDT

Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.

From the first time audiences saw him on the big screen, whether it was in 28 Days Later or The Wind That Shakes the Barley, they knew Cillian Murphy was special, and winning an Oscar for a transcendent role in a masterpiece was only inevitable. After finally nabbing his Academy Award for playing the titular physicist in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, Murphy is a certified star and renowned actor.

Still, he was once an unsung gem waiting to be discovered by a wider audience. Working in all genres and sizes of filmmaking and giving unique performances each time, Murphy shined in the 2000s, with one of his calling card roles being in Red Eye, a tight, lean, and gripping 2005 psychological thriller that provides audiences everything they want out of a B-movie. Directed by Wes Craven and co-starring Rachel McAdams, Red Eye, available to stream for free on YouTube, is a brilliant demonstration of genre and tonal shifting and the fastest 85 minutes you'll ever experience.

'Red Eye' is a Psychological Thriller Disguised as a Romantic Comedy

Image via DreamWorks

Red Eye's most distinct quality is its unexpectedly stark tonal shift in its first act. In the first 10 minutes, you might be thinking that you're watching the wrong movie: "Hey, this is an airport-set romantic comedy featuring the star of The Notebook, not a new thriller from the director of Nightmare on Elm Street!" Once you get lulled into the nascent relationship between Lisa Reisert (McAdams) and Jackson Rippner (Murphy), you would've been fine watching these two beautiful stars banter during a red-eye flight. In no time, however, Jackson reveals his ulterior motive: this was no fortuitous meet-cute. Rather, he takes Lisa and her father, Joe (Brian Cox), hostage and forces her to set up the assassination of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security at the hotel she manages.

Craven, an expert at manipulating film language and form with his meta-textual horror classic, Scream, subverts audience expectations by placing these traditionally attractive people in a setting of total peril. Released less than five years after the September 11th attacks, setting a psychological thriller on a commercial plane alone was enough to keep audiences' hearts pounding. After Jackson reveals his plan, Craven never lets go, and the result is 85 minutes of unbridled chills and thrills. Moving at a breakneck speed with a stirring premise, the film is an incredible potboiler that audiences deserve, as it is a no-frills and lean story with rock-solid performances, inspired visuals, and a tense dramatic backbone. While it may have been easy to dismiss in 2005, movies like Red Eye are in short supply in theaters these days, and this one has endured on streaming for years, especially since Murphy's post-Oppenheimer surge in recognition.

Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams Are At Their Best in 'Red Eye'

For the benefit of viewers hungry for a delicious, no-frills thriller, Red Eye thankfully doesn't try to punch above its weight class. You won't find any discussion of familial trauma or metaphors for grief in this film, but that doesn't mean its writing, directing, and craft aren't top-of-the-line. Wes Craven, a certified horror master, had never felt more dialed in than he did in Red Eye, shooting and cutting every scene and sequence down to its most diamond-cut form. Even when it operates at a heightened tone, the movie forces the viewers to put themselves in a position where they are stuck in Lisa's predicament. Craven capitalizes on the airplane setting, with its compact space and rigorous security protocols, creating a suffocating pressure valve that rivals the director's scariest images from the '80s and '90s.

The backbone of Red Eye, and the main ingredient of its quiet success as an inventive psychological thriller, is the dynamic between Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, who both utilize their indelible traits as actors. McAdams, who returned to similar territory in 2026 with Sam Raimi's survival horror/thriller Send Help, gives a performance that only she could deliver. Amiable, charming, but ultimately steely, her take on a woman in distress and facing a brutal crossroads separated the film from any typical schlock-fest. Cillian Murphy is a force of nature with a devilish ability to talk himself out of any sticky situation. Although he enters dark places, Red Eye's most unsettling moments lie in what Jackson isn't showing us, as his eyes suggest he's possessed by carrying out deadly missions every day.

Red Eye is a time capsule of when Murphy and McAdams were two of the most exciting young actors to emerge in the 2000s. On the flip side, Wes Craven, in his mid-60s, still proved he hadn't lost his special touch. With both Murphy and McAdams cherished stars, the film has only grown in our estimation.

Red Eye