Everything You Need to Know About The Girl That Could Fly
The Girl That Could Fly is a 1986 Canadian-American coming-of-age drama directed by John N. Smith, starring Marg Helgenberger in her breakout role. It follows a teenage girl named Lucy who discovers she can literally fly when she jumps from tall places, and how that ability complicates her life in a small rural town. If you are looking for where to find it to watch or download, I will get to that at the end. But first, the film itself is worth understanding because there is a lot of confusion about what it actually is. The premise sounds like a superhero origin story, but it plays more like a straight drama with a magical realism element. The flying ability is treated as a weird medical condition, not a superpower. Lucy (Helgenberger) is a quiet kid from a broken home, and the moment she realizes she can float up into the air after jumping off her garage roof, it does not make her life easier. It makes everything worse. She gets investigated by doctors, feared by locals, and chased by people who want to exploit her. The movie is really about isolation and what happens to kids who don't fit in. One thing most people miss about this film is that it was shot on location in Ontario, Canada, not somewhere exotic. The flying effects were done using basic wire work and rear projection, which gives it a slightly goofy quality that the movie never acknowledges seriously. That mismatch between the visual effects and the tone is one of the reason it feels strange today, but it also gives it a charm that polished modern productions lack. I remember watching it on VHS as a kid and being completely convinced the flying was real because the movie played it so straight.
The cast is solid. Alongside Helgenberger, you have JasonPatric as the local mechanic who becomes involved with her, Oliver Platt in an early supporting role, and Peter Ustinov as the doctor trying to study her condition. Ustinov's character is the most interesting arc in the film. He starts as someone who wants to control and categorize her ability, but by the end he recognizes that some things cannot be contained by science. That is the entire thematic point of the movie without ever stating it outright.
What to Expect If You Are Watching It Now
The runtime is about 96 minutes. The pacing drags in the middle section where Lucy is held at the medical facility, which runs longer than it needs to. If you are watching for the flying scenes, they show up fairly early and then periodically throughout. The final aerial sequence, where she flies away from the hospital at night, is the most visually ambitious part and still holds up better than you would expect from 1986 practical effects. One practical note: the film has a PG-13 rating and deals with themes of childhood neglect, institutional experimentation, and adolescent loneliness. It is not horror. It is not comedy. It sits somewhere in between, more melancholy than dramatic. If someone recommends this to you as a fun supernatural movie, they are misrepresenting what you are going to get.
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Where to Watch or Download The Girl That Could Fly
Availability changes frequently but as of my last check, the film is available on several streaming platforms depending on your region. It has appeared on Tubi and Pluto TV at various points, both free with ads. It is also sometimes available through digital rental on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. If you are looking for a permanent copy, there is a DVD release from the Standard Collection that includes bonus features, and it has been released on Blu-ray in some territories. I would recommend the Blu-ray if you are a physical media collector. The 2K transfer is clean and the audio mix is decent, though you will notice the audio dubbing on some of Helgenberger's lines since she was not Canadian and parts were re-recorded. This is not unusual for films of this era shot in Canada with American leads, but it is worth knowing going in so you do not think the sound quality is just bad. The film has a cult following that is smaller than you might expect given how well-known the premise sounds. It never got a big theatrical run, which is why it is not as widely discussed as other 80s coming-of-age films. That also means copies can be hard to find in decent condition if you are hunting for secondhand DVDs. I spent about three weeks tracking down a playable copy from a used bin at a local store before I eventually just bought the Blu-ray directly. The lesson here is that if you want to own this film long-term, the Blu-ray is the safer investment.
If you are looking for alternatives with a similar tone, There's Nothing Like a Dame and The Blue Garden are closer matches in terms of magical realism and teen isolation, though neither deals with the flying element. If you want something with a more supernatural angle, Lake Mungo and The Babadook touch on the same themes of grief and the unknown but in a completely different genre space. There is no exact match for what The Girl That Could Fly attempts.
