Review of Non-Stop (2014) by Spangle — 30 Oct 2017

A cliche, oddly preachy, and yet entirely thrilling endeavor, Jaume Collet-Serra's Non-Stop is a solid mindless entertainment. Fun and gripping for its first two acts, Non-Stop oddly slips into a preachy and rushed third act that is not just poorly written but highly implausible to the point that it is practically comical. Set aboard a transatlantic flight, Non-Stop puts Liam Neeson as an alcoholic and grieving air marshal on a flight to Britain. Half-way across the Atlantic, he receives a text message that a passenger will die every twenty minutes unless the sender gets $150 million deposited into a bank account. With a talented cast around Neeson - for some reason this one put together Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong'o, Michelle Dockery, and Corey Stoll - Non-Stop manages to be a gripping thriller that does truly entertain even if it hardly good enough to give it a full endorsement.

Of course, it is always impossible to truly critique films such as this. At some point, you have to take off your "critic hat" and just enjoy a film. Non-Stop in particular has a climax where the plane rapidly descends, launching Liam Neeson into the air and throwing him back just as he lines up a shot against a hijacker, hitting him right between the eyes. One can only hope Neeson yelled out, "Kobe!" as he took that last second shot. As a gripping, even if cliche, contained thriller, Non-Stop allows the audience to comfortably enjoy the film and not worry about plausibility. It is a film that knows it is goofy, but manages to find tension in the panicked search for who is sending these texts, who is framing Neeson, and who could possibly die next. Though it is a film that always feels very "same", it nonetheless manages to entertain and really builds up terrific anticipation and excitement ahead of its climax and final reveal.

Issues with the film's logic are inherent to such an absurd piece of fiction and it is even worth ignoring the fact that the film seems to forget its premise of killing somebody every 20 minutes. The real problem with the film comes in the climax. As a fun mindless action film, Non-Stop is always going to end up being unsatisfying. Not only is the reveal of the hijacker incredibly stupid with no clues leading up to the reveal, but the film's ending is massively rushed. While in the air, everybody believes Neeson to be the hijacker. Videos and images sent back to the ground and communication between the pilots and TSA both lead to news reports that Neeson is the hijacker (ignore the fact that they could text and watch television while in the air). Yet, once they land, Neeson is given a hero's welcome and there is no confusion whatsoever about him not being a hijacker. Somehow, without any communication about him not being a hijacker, the authorities and his bosses have entirely forgiven him and moved on. This ending is far too neat and implausible given the events we literally just witnessed. It also wastes the inclusion of his alcoholism and sketchy past, which could have been used against him regardless of his guilt or innocence.

Where the film also slips up is in the reveal of the motive behind the hijacking. As he has a stare down with Neeson, the hijacker goes into a rant about the false sense of security in America. Talking about 9/11, the change in security protocols, how they signed up to fight in the war against terrorism, their disillusion with the country as they began to wonder what they were really fighting for, and how they wanted to take down this plane to make people wake up to realize how unsafe they really are, the hijacker's rant really takes the air out of this film. After smartly dealing with the theme of the spread of misinformation in the digital age without calling too much attention to it, Non-Stop's preachy turn at the end is really what makes Non-Stop not as successful as it could have been. As a silly airplane hijacking movie, Non-Stop is good fun. When it tries to become a heady comment on the current situation with America's foreign policy, Non-Stop winds up killing itself.

Liam Neeson is back with another action movie and this time, he is able to get a 360 no-scope headshot while in mid-air. Non-Stop is suitably silly, convenient, cliche, and predictable, but entertaining all the same. Unfortunately, a preachy reveal of the hijacker and a rushed ending leave Non-Stop feeling more like a film that had an interesting premise but no idea where it should take that idea to turn it into a good film.