I have a definite weakness for films set entirely or mostly on a plane* (or a train or a boat come to that!). So, it was with some anticipation that I went to see the new Liam Neeson action thriller Non-Stop. Neeson’s had an odd career. Since the success of Taken he has seemed to concentrate almost exclusively in playing grizzled action heroes. Until now, the best of his efforts was Unknown, but this enjoyable silly movie probably tops that.
This time around, Neeson plays a worn out US Air Marshall, with a fear of flying and a serious drink problem. A couple of hours into a flight to the UK, he starts receiving text messages threatening to kill passengers if the sender isn’t paid $150 million into an off-shore account. The first three quarters of the film clip along terrifically.
There is an intriguing whodunit element that is far from obvious ** and a neat twist in that the evidence seems to mount that Neeson is behind the plot. The tension is ratcheted up by the fact that the messages say that a passenger will be killed every 20 minutes.
Admittedly there are plenty of holes in the plot and the film does become pretty ridiculous as it reaches its climax (though it is good to see that as always a bomb in a movie has a helpful countdown display in red!) but Neeson’s performance keeps it afloat. It is quite a surprise to see Julianne Moore in a supporting role as the woman in the seat next to Neeson, but she does pretty well with slight material.
Recent Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o has almost nothing to do as stewardess though Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery impresses as her colleague.
If you are prepared to disengage your brain, you should find this a lot of fun
Rating: 7 out of 10
*You can find aeroplane confined films throughout cinema history. In fairly recent years I have enjoyed Flightplan, Red Eye, Turbulence, Snakes on a Plane, Executive Decision and Air Force One. Back in the 50s Zero Hour was the first true plane based disaster movie, and Doomsday Flight was a very early TV movie in the mid-60s.
However, the 1970s was the golden age of aeroplane based disaster movies, starting with the terrific Airport in 1970 (although the book it was based on was superior). Airport’s 3 sequels were all enjoyable, especially Airport ’75 with Charlton Heston at the plane controls. Airport ’77 was a little weaker despite Jack Lemmon and James Stewart appearing in the cast and Airport ’79 was very trashy fun.
Heston had a trial run in a very similar part in 1972’s overlooked Skyjacked, and another film trying to cash in on the Airport franchise, Mayday at 40000 Feet, with the peerless David Janssen is a personal favourite. The little seen Murder on Flight 502 from 1975, was, like Non-Stop, a whodunit set on a plane.
Inevitably for the 1970s, inferior but still enjoyable made for TV films were produced in the wake of the box office success of the Airport movies.
The best of those are SST: Disaster in the Sky (featuring a very young Billy Crystal) and The Horror at 37000 Feet, which as the title suggests was more of a horror than a disaster movie.
Airplane (largely parodying Zero Hour) and its sequel in the early 80s seemed to kill off the straight airborne disaster film, though Kate Jackson starred as a stewardess trying to land a stricken plane as late as 1998 in Panic in the Skies! More recently, mini-series adaptations have been made of top author John J Nance’s Mayday and Pandora’s Clock, so there is life in the genre yet…
** Unless you look at the cast list on IMDB where the prominence of a seemingly minor character gives the game away. Fortunately, I looked after I watched the film.