Movie Review : Non-stop

Non-Stop (2014)

IMDb Rate : 7.3 stars/10 stars (38,837 votes)

Cast

• Liam Neeson as Bill Marks
• Julianne Moore as Jen Summers
• Scoot McNairy as Tom Bowen
• Michelle Dockery as Nancy
• Anson Mount as Jack Hammond
• Lupita Nyong'o as Gwen
• Corey Stoll as Austin
• Linus Roache as David McMillan
• Jon Abrahams as David Norton

Director

• Jaume Collet-Serra

Screenplay

• John W. Richardson
• Christopher Roach

Genre                   : Action, Mystery, Thriller

US Box Office    : $90.5M

Rated PG-13

Duration              : 106 minutes

Non-Stop is a 2014 French–American mystery-action film starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Lupita Nyong'o and Scoot McNairy and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. This is the first Silver Pictures film to be distributed by Universal Pictures after the end of the production company's deal with Warner Bros. The film received mixed reviews from critics but turned out to be a box-office success.

Plot

Bill Marks is an alcoholic U.S. federal air marshal; he enrolled in the Air Marshal service after he was discharged from the police force. On a non-stop flight from New York to London aboard British Aqualantic Flight 10, midway over the Atlantic Ocean, Marks receives text messages on his secure phone stating that someone on the plane will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred into a specific bank account. Breaking protocol, Marks consults with Jack Hammond, the other air marshal on the flight. Hammond is revealed to be smuggling cocaine in a briefcase and following an altercation Marks ends up killing him in a lavatory. This occurs exactly at the 20 minute mark, resulting in the first death. As Marks attempts to stall for time with the texter, he works with the flight crew and Jen Summers, who sat next to Marks, to discover the texter's identity. When the time runs out again, the pilot suddenly dies of poisoning.

The public becomes convinced that Marks is hijacking the plane, as the bank account is in his name and a passenger uploads video footage of him treating passengers aggressively with no explanation. Co-pilot Kyle Rice has been instructed by the TSA to ignore Marks and land in Iceland, the closest destination; he diverts the plane but continues to cautiously trust Marks. Marks has cell phone programmer Zack White design a hack which will cause the texter's cell phone to ring. Ringing the phone, he discovers it in the pocket of a passenger, who claims to have never seen the phone before. Following a fight with Marks, the passenger dies in a similar fashion to the captain.

In the lavatory, Marks finds a hole in the wall that allowed someone to shoot a poison dart at the captain; he finds that the most recently deceased passenger was struck with a dart as well. While Marks and Summers try to gain access to the texter's phone, it suddenly activates, sending automated messages to TSA implying that Marks is suicidal and is going to detonate a bomb on the plane. Marks finds the bomb hidden in the cocaine smuggled by Hammond. Unable to land the plane in time, he attempts to initiate a protocol of least damage: by bringing the plane to 8,000 feet to equalize air pressure, placing the bomb in the rear of the plane, covering it with baggage and moving the passengers to the front in order to contain the explosion and minimize casualties. As he begins to initiate these actions, some of the passengers attempt to disable Marks, convinced by the media that he is a terrorist. They overpower Marks but are stopped when passenger Tom Bowen uses Marks's gun to make them move away. Marks finally explains the situation to them, and they agree to work with him.

Watching a video clip of himself handling passengers, Marks notices Bowen—whom he had initially cleared of any suspicion—slipping the texter's phone into the pocket of the second poison victim. Realizing that Bowen is the culprit, Marks engages him in a fight, and by then it was revealed that Bowen's father was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and White was a soldier. Bowen was appalled by the lack of security at U.S. airports after 9/11, hoping that framing Marks as a terrorist will lead to drastically increased security. Bowen is prepared to die with the plane and shoots White, who planned to get off the plane with the money, after Marks convinces him to disarm the bomb. Following another fight, Marks shoots Bowen in the head. White recovers and attacks Marks with a knife, but White dies in the explosion as Marks retreats to the front of the plane.

Rice manages an emergency crash-landing at an air base in Iceland after the bomb explodes, disregarding orders from his fighter plane escort. Despite their warnings, the fighter planes do not shoot the plane down. The plane is damaged in the landing and a young girl is almost sucked out the hole in the plane, but ultimately there are no casualties. Marks is hailed as a hero in the media, and the film ends with him and Summers beginning their friendship.

If "Non-Stop" proves anything, besides confirming that 61-year-old Liam Neeson is not going to be knocked off his perch as the elder statesman of B-movie tough guys any time soon, it’s that snakes on a plane have nothing on texts on a plane when it comes to in-flight annoyances.

If I wanted to read my way through a film that features words dancing around the screen as if they were waltzing Post-Its, I would have sat through a foreign movie with subtitles instead.

But what would modern-day thrillers be these days without cell phones as a shorthand way to advance the plot and reduce the need for any actual clever repartee between characters? Especially when the clock is ticking down the minutes until something either goes boo or boom.

Certainly, this mile-high action flick would barely get off the ground without such technological aids, considering its premise is as reliant on Miss Marple mysteries—specifically, the gathering of potential perpetrators who conform to certain types—as it is on digital devices.

The rather ingenious if preposterous premise, one that only goes way off course in the heavy-handed third act: Neeson’s burned-out alcoholic air marshal struggles to find the fellow passenger aboard his New York-to-London flight who has sent him anonymous messages threatening that someone on the plane will be killed every 20 minutes until $150 million is deposited in a special account.

As most frequent flyers, know there are rules about phone use once you leave the gate. But ignoring such regulations is just one of the reasons "Non-Stop" is so ridiculously entertaining in spite of its occasional lapses in real-world logic. Nicotine addicts might vicariously appreciate how Neeson’s Bill Marks disables the smoke detector in the lavatory—duct tape is the key—so he can puff away while aloft with impunity. Others may be awed by how our grizzled hero takes advantage of the narrow confines of that same bathroom to efficiently pulverize an attacker to death.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra and veteran producer Joel Silver ("The Matrix" franchise, "Die Hard" and "Die Hard 2"), who both previously teamed with Neeson on 2011’s "Unknown", happily settle for economy-class storytelling. They know that their not-so-gentle giant of a star will emote just enough to keep the audience satisfied as he forcefully strides through the aisles and shouts orders in his resonant Irish burr. They also know how to humanize him, as Neeson kindly reassures the mandatory unaccompanied minor, a blonde moppet with stuffed animal in tow.

They do, however, indulge in upgrades when it comes to the supporting cast—most suspicious characters in their own special way. Many are over-qualified for the assignment, similar to the way stage legend Helen Hayes played a little old lady stowaway in 1970's "Airport". Rest assured none will be winning an Oscar like Hayes did for her ride in the sky, but attaching themselves to the coattails of a late-career box-office titan like Neeson is a reward in itself.

Look, there's "Downton Abbey"'s Lady Mary—Michelle Dockery—as the main flight attendant (I kept wishing she would pull a Karen Black and commandeer the cockpit, but there is always the possible sequel). That bald NYPD cop who keeps grousing? Corey Stoll from Netflix's "House of Cards". And isn't that Scoot McNairy of "Argo" as the skinny nervous guy with glasses?

And what about four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore as an over-stressed businesswoman who is lucky enough to be seated next to a grimacing Neeson? And, speaking of Academy Awards, current supporting actress nominee Lupita Nyong’o of "12 Years a Slave", who spouts barely five lines on camera in a fetching British accent, is Lady Mary's fellow attendant. There is also a Muslim doctor (racial profiling opportunity, naturally) and a nerdy black computer specialist for added diversity.

The twist, which is revealed in the trailer, is that the terrorist mastermind behind this stunt has figured out a way to manipulate matters so that Neeson's disgruntled marshal appears to be a hijacker holding everyone hostage. It doesn't help that he keeps waving his gun and roughing up the passengers while increasing the ever-present post-9/11 levels of paranoia. In one of several welcome comic-relief moments, as the passengers appear ready to mutiny against their supposed captor, Neeson suddenly offers everyone free international travel for a year on behalf of the airline.

Overall, it is indeed a recommended movie to watch.