Captain William "Whip" Whitaker (Denzel Washington), a commercial pilot, spent a night of boozing, snorting, and sex with a flight attendant. The next morning he had a flight out of Florida to Atlanta with a manifest of 102 persons., 2012's "Flight" tells the story of Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) pulling an extremely unorthodox move to save every single one of his passengers in an, After a night of partying, Captain William ‘Whip’ Whitaker assumes control of a plane and guides it through turbulence. His subsequent nap is broken by his panicking co-pilot, who foresees disaster as the plane nosedives., To play the part of Whip Whitaker, actor Denzel Washington also became familiar with flying. He trained with real pilots to get a better sense of how they behave and take control of a slippery situation., Robert Zemeckis's 2012 movie "Flight" was so realistic that cinema lovers wondered if the film and actor Denzel Washington's performance was based loosely on an actual incident. In the movie, the award-winning actor plays an alcoholic airline pilot called William 'Whip' Whitaker Sr., In 2012, the movie Flight took audiences on a turbulent journey through the life of Captain William “Whip” Whitaker, played by the ever-charismatic Denzel Washington..