Before boarding his passengers in the new survival thriller Plane, 300  star Gerard Butler says he spent a lot of time preparing, so that he could convincingly portray a commercial air pilot.

Joking that he didn’t want to be sitting around asking what buttons to push, Butler told ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian that he actually took a small plane up a few times, and also spent hours in a sophisticated flight simulator, which gave him a sense for what it would be like trying to perform difficult maneuvers, and navigating a large plane in a populated area.

In the film, which also stars Luke Cage star Mike Colter, Butler plays a pilot who crash lands in the middle of a war zone and has to try to survive a fraught situation with threats coming in from all sides.

“Yeah, I went up in a small airplane a few times, and then I spent many, many hours in this incredible flight simulator down in Orange County in California,” Butler explained.

“I basically was working with 2 pilots the whole movie, and the pilots from the simulator. So I ot to fly all over the place, practice takeoffs, practice landings, practice all the maneuvers in the movie.

You work through the movie, every sequence, and then try to land a plane that’s flying 100 feet above the ground flying over the 405 freeway, the 101 freeway. I hung out in that cockpit a lot, just to get really comfortable. I wanted to know as much as I could so I didn’t feel like that wanky actor who’s sitting there going ‘What button? What button do I press?’

That I actually knew what things were for, and I earned that, because you’ve got to do a bunch of things at the same time. And when it gets into it, you really want the audience to go ‘I actually do believe these two guys are pilots. I’m in this with them. It helps the journey so much.”

Here’s an official synopsis for the film:

In the white-knuckle action movie Plane, pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning.

When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help, and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye.

Plane stars Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Remi Adeleke, Joey Slotnick, Evan Dane Taylor, Claro de los Reyes, and Tony Goldwyn. The film is schedueld to release in theaters now on Friday.