ITunes rented movie download refuses to play!

2022, I survived travel by watching my iTunes rented movies on the plane, train…etc.

I bought two rental movies for a recent flight, and with a lot of searching eventually finding them in my Apple TV App (?) - Library …and neither would play.

Of course, I’m offline! No wifi? Maybe I now need it to ‘kick start’ before watching offline… (grabbing at straws out of frustration). A hellish 5 hour flight. Both ways!

I ended up watching them. At home. Online.

Question: WHY did two downloaded movies refuse to play? They were rented days before and completely loaded.