Movie Review: Non-Stop

 

Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore & Michelle Dockery

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
In a few words...: US Air Marshall on a plane over the Atlantic with an unknown passenger threatening to kill another passenger every 20 minutes unless he's paid.

Rating: 8/10

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!

Since the surprise, runaway smash Taken, Liam Neeson’s career has experienced something of a rebirth. Or, if not exactly that, certainly a renaissance. Somehow, he’s now the go-to guy for Hollywood – and those further afield – when a non-stereotypical action hero is needed. You know the type: washed out, perhaps an alcoholic, a divorcee, someone definitely struggling with mental demons. That was Neeson’s Bryan Mills in Taken (and it’s less-impressive sequel) and it’s exactly the sort of character that William ‘Bill’ Marks is in Non-Stop.

Don’t get lulled into thinking that this is just another ‘terrorist on a plane stopped by do-gooder cop/federal agent/Army operative’ film, because it isn’t. Jaume Collet-Serra has done something impressively different. There isn’t nearly as much violence as in movies like Air Force One or Executive Decision, which is not necessarily a bad thing. You don’t need a giant dose of explosions and gunfire to make a good thriller. Non-Stop proves as much.

Neeson’s character Marks is a US Air Marshal after a career with the New York Police Department that didn’t end well who, crazily, has a fear of flying. How does he get past that fear? By holding a ribbon that once belonged to his infant daughter, and by having a drink and a smoke in the plane’s lavatory – cleverly utilising a roll of duct tape to cover the smoke detectors in the ceiling – after the seatbelt signs come off.

Trouble starts when Marks receives an anonymous text message on his phone. It’s from someone claiming to be a passenger on the flight, one with some intimate knowledge of Marks’ life, who threatens to kill a passenger inside twenty-minutes, unless his demands are met. Those demands: the usual, a large sum of money deposited into a bank account. In this case, it’s $150 million.

Obviously, we are advancing forward a few years, to a time when telephone devices will be able to be used by passengers – imagine the sort of hell that’ll be; every flight’s going to have at least one loudmouthed passenger whose entire conversation will become public knowledge from first class to the cabin crew in the back – and Marks is immediately on the case, recruiting a trustworthy passenger next to him (Moore) and Nancy (Dockery), a cabin attendant whom he has a little professional history with. But all is not as it seems.

From here on out, the suspense and intrigue ratchets up a notch seemingly every minute, as Marks races against time to ferret out those responsible – and also to clear his own name, as the account into which the unknown terrorists want their money deposited into is in Marks’ name. The TSA, the flight’s captain and some of it’s passengers start to believe that Marks is responsible for everything. A slice of video footage from someone’s phone appears on news broadcasts around the world, seemingly depicting Marks abducting a passenger. 

As with much else in this taut, interesting thriller, nothing is as it seems. The acting is as good as the script, and the claustrophobic nature of the aircraft, helped along by tight angles, and plenty of Neeson anguish, seems to make everything more intense. He plays the tortured, confused soul very well, and those close-in shots make you feel like you’re right there, as the walls almost-literally close in on him.

I can honestly say that it wasn’t until the final reveal that I had any real inkling of who was responsible. The script was brilliant, keeping you guessing from the beginning, right up to the moment where culprits were uncovered and motives explained. There are many clichéd types on the plane – a Middle Eastern man, for example, whom Marks is suspicious of early on in the piece. Just as well that was soon a non-event. I think we’re all getting tired of the same old Middle Eastern terrorist on a plane plot.

Refreshingly, in Non-Stop, the identity of the passenger killing someone every twenty minutes and, in between, taunting Marks, is one that you wouldn’t quite expect. You know them, because you know all the major characters, but it’s still a shock. At least, a shock as compared to the way the bad guys in these terrorist movies are generally represented. And the reasons behind everything that happened on the plane was presented in an interesting way.  

I guess you could call Non-Stop a cross between your old-fashioned 1980’s blockbuster actioner and a more modern film with an interesting twist on the tale. Yeah, you get the crash-landing of the plane and a showdown between Marks and his nemesis. In Neeson’s eyes at that moment, you see that classic action hero look. He was fantastic in Non-Stop and I can’t wait for his next one!