New Netflix Documentary on Boeing Is Leaving Viewers Deeply Unsettled

Rory Kennedy has spent her career making documentaries about institutional failure and its human cost, from the Abu Ghraib torture scandal to the final days of the Vietnam War. Her 2022 film ‘Downfall: The Case Against Boeing’ seemed, at the time, like a complete accounting of how the company’s “profits over people” approach led to two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people combined.

Kennedy has now returned to the subject with ‘Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing,’ a sequel documentary that premiered at the DC/DOX Film Festival in June and arrived on Netflix on August 19. According to Kennedy, she initially believed her work on Boeing was finished, telling TIME that after ‘Downfall,’ the company had “assured the flying public, as well as the airlines and Congress, that it had learned its lesson and changed its ways.” That belief didn’t last.

‘Freefall’ centers on the death of John Barnett, a former Boeing quality manager who spent 32 years at the company and became one of its most prominent whistleblowers before his death in March 2024. Barnett died from a gunshot wound that the Charleston County coroner ruled self-inflicted, found in his truck the day before he was scheduled to give his third day of deposition testimony in a legal case against the company.

Barnett had been a personal friend of Kennedy’s and a key subject in her original film, and his interviews form what she calls a “defining thread” running throughout ‘Freefall.’ Kennedy has described the circumstances surrounding his death as “quite suspicious,” and the film includes an argument from Barnett’s own lawyer that, while Boeing may not have directly caused his death, the company’s treatment of him contributed to it. Kennedy has said she agrees with that assessment, calling it “a very poignant moment” in the film.

According to a review from RogerEbert.com, the documentary largely dispels more extreme internet theories suggesting Boeing was directly responsible for Barnett’s death, while still making the case that the pressure and retaliation he faced played a role in his final decision. The film also revisits some of the specific safety concerns Barnett raised during his time at Boeing, including malfunctioning emergency oxygen systems that the company’s own internal investigations corroborated.

Beyond Barnett’s story, ‘Freefall’ also features additional former Boeing quality control workers describing continued safety and manufacturing concerns, along with accounts of resistance or retaliation they say they faced after raising those concerns with management. That testimony arrives as Boeing has continued expanding production, including opening a new 737 MAX assembly line in Everett, Washington, as part of an effort to increase output from 47 to 52 planes per month.

Kennedy has been direct about what she hopes the film accomplishes, telling Variety that with the current Department of Justice having failed, in her view, to properly hold the company accountable, responsibility now falls to the public. “My hope is that people watch this film and they put pressure on the company,” she said, expressing a wish that viewers reconsider flying with Boeing aircraft if the company doesn’t change its culture.

Critics have described the film as difficult to watch by design, with RogerEbert.com noting its focus on “the people in this increasingly terrifying dynamic,” from current employees who still fear for their safety to the millions of passengers flying on planes they describe as potential risks. For viewers already unsettled by ‘Downfall,’ ‘Freefall’ appears determined to make clear that the underlying problems never actually went away.

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