BEFORE: Again, I apologize for the radical shift in theme - but is it, really? After watching "Gandhi", I was sort of struck by how non-passively aggressive his "non-violent" resistant tactics were as he led the fight for Hindu equality and Indian independence. And maybe there's a fine line between aggressive social tactics and terrorism? I don't know, it's not for me to say.
And let me point out, I do not advocate terrorism in any way, shape or form. The recent attacks on media outlets in France are, of course, despicable. But if you should hear about someone getting arrested after losing it in the Manhattan service center of Crime Warner Cable, well, then my blog might have to be dark for a few days. (Don't worry, I'm kidding.) (I think)
Linking from "Gandhi" was a challenge - direct linking was out of the question, given what's left on my watchlist. But at least Ben Kingsley was also in "Schindler's List" with Liam Neeson (last seen in "Husbands and Wives").
THE PLOT: An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages that put his fellow passengers at risk unless the airline transfers $150 million into an off-shore account.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Flightplan" (Movie #1,542), "United 93" (Movie 1,537)
AFTER: Whenever I book a flight that's labelled "non-stop", I like to have a bit of fun with the ticket agent. I say, as seriously as I can, "It stops at the end, though, right?" They usually have to think about this for a moment before they see what I mean. Really, the term is stupid, a flight that we call "non-stop" should really be "one-stop", and a "one-stop" should be "two-stop", and so on down the line.
Back in the day, they used to have a thing called "locked room mysteries". These were stories where someone would be found dead in a room, locked from the inside, with no apparent way in apart from the door, and some clever detective would need to determine how the person was murdered if there was no access to them. The modern day equivalent of this type of story seems to be action films set on planes - the most recent being "Flightplan", which was itself a sort of riff on the Hitchcock film "The Lady Vanishes", which was set on a train. "La plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose", as the French say. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
I've done a couple of airplane/action movie chains, watched the whole "Airport" series, and then in 2013 took on everything from 9/11 movies to "Red Eye". As if flying across an ocean weren't stressful enough, worrying about terrorism and planes that seem to vanish, and whether someone on board might have a cold or a peanut allergy, this film throws every problem you can imagine at our hero, an air marshal. Someone is texting him threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes, even though ground control has checked out the passenger list, and everyone seems clean. Also, his cover is blown, and the other air marshal on board might be in on the plot. Which would only be a problem if air marshals carried guns and were trained to suspect everyone. Oh, wait.
To make matters worse, every action that he takes only makes the outside world believe that he is hijacking the plane HIMSELF. Plus, after taking several overt actions to determine the identity of the real terrorist, a number of the plane's passengers decide to band together in one of those "Let's roll" type mind-sets that seemed so heroic on 9/11/2001, but unknowingly leads to more confusion and misplaced actions in this particular case. All in all, that's a pretty shameless and despicable nod to the post-WTC world order.
It's also a long way to go to force a character to admit his own shortcomings, to get a man to a place where he has to lay it all out on the line, just to prove his intentions are good and that he is who he says he is. (In this sense, the film also resembles "Flight", in addition to "Flightplan".) Implying that an air marshal COULD be a terrorist, just because life's kicked him around a bit, well that's a knock against the whole system we've got in place, and without it, we've pretty much got chaos. Yes, I realize that someone (within the film) was trying to take down the whole system and prove that our in-flight security is nothing but an illusion, but what practical goal does it serve to make that point in a larger sense, outside the film?
And using text messages on the screen to advance the plot? It's already trite and corny, and please, Hollywood, don't ever do it again. Something tells me, though, that we haven't seen the last of this trend. I'm sure there are NITPICK POINTS a-plenty to be made about people using cell phones on planes - first we were told that we couldn't use our phones at all because the plane would crash, now they say you probably can, or you have to pay them a fee for the wi-fi. You know what? I'm not going to be that guy, and I won't give the airlines an extra dime - I turn off my phone when the plane starts to taxi, and I don't turn it on again until it's landed again and we've made it to the gate.
Also starring Julianne Moore (last seen in "The Shipping News"), Scoot McNairy (last seen in "Killing Them Softly"), Michelle Dockery, Corey Stoll (last seen in "Midnight in Paris"), Linus Roache (last seen in "The Chronicles of Riddick"), Nate Parker, Lupita Nyong'o, Anson Mount, Omar Metwally, Frank Deal.
RATING: 5 out of 10 drink carts
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