“Non-Stop” (directed by Jaume Collet-Serra) was released by Universal in February and
seems like a stereotyped B-movie airline hijacking thriller. But it might get more attention now given
news reports that Middle Eastern terrorists associated with ISIS are trying to
design harder-to-detect airline explosives.
Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) admits to the passengers at one
point that he is “not a good man”. He’s
a somewhat stereotyped movie character, especially for a set piece where most
of the action is inside a cabin space (again, not the best use of film). As a flight to London starts, he gets text
messages on his secure smartphone (it’s
on a Droid, with an internal keyboard) that if he doesn’t wire money to some
particular place, someone will die on the plane every twenty minutes.
The passengers become a cast of characters, starting with
the other air marshall (Anson Mount) who was snorting cocaine. He was the first casualty, as is a pilot. The
killer seems to have a way to nick people with poison darts through the plane
infrastructure. Jen Summers (Julianne
Moore), a rather nosy passenger, has helped him discover the texter’s
identity. The nerdy Tom Bowen (Scott
McNairy), who had lost his father in 9/11, seems to have staged the incident to
prove a point. (He’s not very
convincing.) A hacker, Zack (Nate
Parker) knows how to hack cell phones in use (like the NSA) but seems to have
joined into the idealism.
The final crash landing sequence is exciting, although I don’t
think it could really happen.
The official site is here (Universal).
There was one scene where it appeared that plastic explosives were being placed inside a laptop. I don't know whether this can be done, or whether the computer would still work, but it fits into very recent concerns with new terror threats. There was a time, before 9/11, when security screeners used to ask passengers to turn laptops on; it's not sure how much good that does. It could add to the risk that a flight will be missed or laptop or other gear have to be surrendered, with all the data on it.
There is, on the DVD, a Bonus short “Suspense at 40000 Feet”
where the actors and production team comment on the film. They say, with passengers on a plane, you don’t
know who at any moment might do anything.
But all the characters have to come together at the end.
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