I was in a flight simulator and the company salesman, who was a former pilot on this model cargo plane tried several times to take us off for a simulated flight. (You could have taken the controls out and installed them on the actual plane. The whole thing was on a huge, movable platform with movie projectors giving a stomach-twisting reality to the experience.) He crashed several times. And this was a guy who was a former pilot on that model. First time, he forgot the flaps. I don’t recall the other mishaps. But the cockpit is mind bogglingly complex. So, no. The average Joe is going to kill everyone. The reason it works in the movies is the author needs it to.
Yep! Agree, Gen B! I landed a 747 via a professional simulator over twenty years ago. Killed everyone... five times in a row.