Rachel McAdams & Cillian Murphy's Psychological Thriller Is A Netflix Hit 20 Years Later

In 2005, Cillian Murphy gave one of his best-known performances in "Batman Begins," playing Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan's reboot of the Batman franchise. But that wasn't the only villain he played that summer. In fact, some might even say it wasn't the best villain he played that summer. Released just two months after "Batman Begins" hit theaters, "Red Eye," an uncharacteristically cerebral thriller from horror icon Wes Craven, starred Murphy as a scheming and manipulative assassin.

In "Red Eye," Murphy plays Jackson Rippner (don't let that dissuade you from watching), a handsome stranger onboard a red eye flight to Miami that also happens to be hosting Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams), a hotel manager who's flying home following a funeral. The pair soon find themselves sitting together on the plane, which seems like the perfect charming rom-com meet cute. But things quickly take a turn when it's revealed that Jackson is part of a plot to assassinate the head of Homeland Security and needs Lisa to help him do it. In order to coerce the hotel manager into swapping the official's room number at her hotel, he's kidnapped Lisa's father (Brian Cox), prompting a cat-and-mouse game between the two that makes "Red Eye" a study, solid thriller from the late, great Craven.

The director might be best known for slashers such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream," but with "Red Eye" he switched gears somewhat, delivering a taut psychological thriller that, for many fans of the late horror maestro, is easily one of the best Wes Craven movies. Now, the Netflix generation has been given a chance to revisit, or perhaps experience for the first time, this under-appreciated gem — and it looks as though they're loving it.

As most will know, Cillian Murphy's profile received a huge boost in recent years thanks to his Oscar-winning performance as the titular physicist in "Oppenheimer." Hopefully, this prompted some viewers to look deeper into the man's filmography, which is filled with overlooked gems like "Red Eye" — a film that even managed to make /Film's own list of the best Cillian Murphy movies. Now, the thriller has hit Netflix, and a whole new generation is experiencing it for the first time. What's more, if its chart performance thus far is anything to go by, it seems these new viewers are impressed.

"Red Eye" debuted on Netflix on July 1, 2025, and it didn't take long for the streamer's subscribers to find it amid the platform's ever-expanding deluge of "content." According to FlixPatrol, a site that tracks streaming viewership figures, the film managed to crack the United States Top 10 movies chart on July 2 when it hit number eight, before disappearing from the rankings the following day. But on July 5, it made a return, charting at number 10 before falling to number nine the following day and holding strong in that same spot at the time of writing.

For now, the movie is sitting behind Charlize Theron's 2020 superhero film "The Old Guard" ... though, considering /Film's Chris Evangelista called that film an "immortal bore that wastes a great premise," "Red Eye" should be able to at least hold strong if not gain some ground.

The Netflix charts don't always serve up the most intriguing films and shows, but "Red Eye" is one of those movies deserving of a Netflix renaissance. Not only did it make $96.6 million on a $26 million budget and receive critical praise upon its initial release, but it's also more influential than you might think. Just earlier this year, "Drop" director Christopher Landon even managed to pay homage to Craven and his under-appreciated horror-thriller by infusing his own movie with much of what made "Red Eye" so great — most notably with the two films primarily taking place in one location.

If you're still not convinced, consider that "Red Eye" has a very respectable 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, and unlike some movies whose positive RT scores are made up of multiple lukewarm reviews that have fallen into the overly simplistic "Fresh" and "Rotten" binary, the "Fresh" reviews for "Red Eye" are all very complimentary.

Scott Tobias of the AV Club wrote, "If constructing a thriller could be likened to building a house, then Wes Craven's 'Red Eye' is a perfect piece of architecture." This efficiency with which Craven constructed his thriller was noticed by other reviewers, too. The New Yorker's David Denby was impressed by what he called a "complicated duel" between the two main characters, which, he wrote, "depends on precise observation of physical detail and moment-by-moment continuity so closely calibrated that it's impossible to find a wasted shot or an exaggerated emotion." Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post, meanwhile, called the film "tightly focused," observing that it recalled "not so much today's bloated, computer-crazed films, but tighter melodramas of the '50s." The Netflix charts might not always be the best "what to watch" guide, then, but you can't really go wrong with "Red Eye."