NON-STOP (2014)

NON-STOP (2014)

Tagline: The Hijacking Was Just the Beginning

(Action, Mystery, Please Enjoy Your Flight) [PG-13]

We're midway across the Atlantic. How do you kill someone in a crowded plane and get away with it?

In this one Bill Marks has taken the job of becoming a federal air marshal after some personal problems lead to a bout with depression and drinking. He is not on a flight from New York to London when he starts getting very personal threats. Someone has psychologically hijacked the plane, and if Marks can’t get a large amount of money to the person pulling the strings, everyone on the flight will die. The issue is that Marks can’t trust anyone and as he will soon find out, they don’t trust him. 

With a few exceptions, there are hardly any films that Liam Neeson (THE ICE ROAD) in them, that I haven’t either seen or plan to. The dude just kills it every time and even the bad movies he’s done, aren’t bad because of him. This one however is a certified gem. It is meant to be a serious movie and yes, they do a few things in here that you wouldn’t expect, but to me, it didn’t seem all that over the top. It did make me never want to be on a plane that has to be a really abrupt landing though. I typically only fly once a year, but this is probably another one of those flicks you don’t want to watch before you fly the friendly skies. 

I think I had my mind on other things in 2014 when this movie came out or something because I completely missed it. It’s not like it was completely off the radar or bombed either. The movie made almost 4 and a half times its $50,000,000 budget worldwide. It also has several pretty well-known stars aside from Neeson including the versatile Corey Stoll (ANT-MAN) who plays another cop on the plane named Austin Reilly. He doesn’t have a giant role here, but as usual, he’s more than adequate. We also get Michelle Dockery as flight stewardess Nancy. Dockery is outstanding here and does a great job of seeming duplicitous throughout. She is mostly known for her role as Lady Mary on the TV show and movie “Downton Abbey”.  Julianne Moore (THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK) plays Jen Summers and is very good. The rest of the cast is also excellent. 

This movie does a great job with misdirection and to be honest, I wasn’t sure who the real villain was till it was revealed. Then again, it’s not hard to trick me when it comes to that in movies. A lot of times I find myself thinking “Aww, man, not so and so...what the cow?”. I loved the pacing in this thing it really isn’t a slow burn because mysterious things start happening like 10 minutes in. 

We get a really good score and the dialog is meaningful right up until the last few minutes where it sort of turns into a political point for the writers. Maybe the director, maybe the pimple-faced kid at the back of the plane that wasn’t given any lines… who knows. It just seemed like a pretty weak motive to throw into this thing that was otherwise so close to perfection. Did that ruin the movie for me? Of course not. 

NON-STOP is a fantastic sky ride into mystery, redemption, and deceit all given a not-so-perfect bow. This one gets a 6 out of 7. Neeson is still crushing it into his 70s, but this one, in particular, had one of the better-supporting casts he’s gotten with a storyline that knew what it was doing 98% of the time. 

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