Review of Non-Stop (2013) by Movie K — 03 Apr 2017

Warning: This Review May Contain Spoilers.

I think that Liam Neeson is a talented actor. However, I feel that he has just picked the wrong roles to star in most of the time. Most of the action films he has starred in are either average at best, mediocre, or bad. Sure, Schindler's List is a masterpiece. Also, The Grey, The Lego Movie, and a few of his other films are amazing. However, most of the films he stars in end up being average at best, mediocre, or very bad action thrillers. Non-Stop does a few things right, but it's ultimately brought down by a unbelievable final act and a seemingly incomplete terrorist plan which I felt needed more work.

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) plays a U.S. Air Marshall who is on a flight from New York City to London. During the flight, he gets a text message from someone on the plane who says that someone will die every 20 minutes unless he instructs the government to transfer $150 million into an off-shore account.

Firstly, there are large aspects to this film that I like. The movie actually did a good job at keeping me guessing who the terrorist would be. The person who I thought would be the terrorist turned out not to be the one so the movie did a great job at hiding its plot twist at the end. In fact, I don't think that I would've ever successfully predicted who the terrorist would be even if I had all the time in the world to do so.

Also, the movie does a great job building up the suspense. It starts off quiet, but the movie slowly picks up pace as more things are discovered about the plane and what the terrorists are going to do. Also, the fact that the passengers start to suspect Neeson of being the terrorist adds a whole other layer of suspense to the film. It gives us another thing in the film to be worried about.

However, there are also large aspects to this film that didn't work.

My biggest problem with the movie is the terrorist plan itself. Large parts of it were unexplained. Firstly, the movie didn't explain how the terrorists were able to hack Neeson's phone. Also, it wasn't explained how they were able to get a bomb through airport security onto the plane. Also, it wasn't explained how they were able to know that Neeson was smoking in the plane bathroom (they could've used a camera, but the movie didn't mention one at all). Finally, it wasn't explained what they used to drill a hole in the bathroom wall which enabled them to kill the pilot with a poison dart. These aren't necessarily plot holes, but the movie didn't explain how the terrorists were able to perform these parts of their plan so the movie seemed sort of incomplete in these parts.

On top of the unexplained sections of the plan, there were also parts which seemed to rely on pure luck and coincidence. As for the first victim, how did they know that Liam Neeson would eventually kill the passenger in the fight they had. He could've just knocked him out or he could've just surrendered. Also, Liam Neeson could've been the one who was killed and their whole plan would've failed. As for the third victim, how did they know that Liam Neeson would pin him against the wall in the exact place where they hid the poison dart. He could've just pinned him down in the aisle or he could've pinned him against the wall in a different spot. The plan didn't seem that realistic and it didn't feel like any real terrorist would rely on luck based events and coincidences that small as was shown in the film.

Also, the final act fell apart and seemed thoroughly unrealistic. The way they landed the plane basically defied all laws of physics and science. The final act needed work. On top of the unrealism from the final act, the reveal of who the terrorists were seemed like an abrupt way to end the film and it seemed like they couldn't find a better way to introduce the final plot twist and ending.

In conclusion, this film has its strong parts and the first 2/3 of the film are pretty good since it keeps you guessing and it has a good amount of tension. However, there were still unexplained bits to the terrorist plan and a few luck based events which made the terrorists plan seem incomplete and unrealistic. You'll have to stretch your suspension of belief to the breaking point with this movie, but I can't say that this is one of the worst action films ever since it does do a few things right.