Remember the days when all you had to do to describe certain action movies was to finish the sentence “Die Hard in/on a (insert final word here)? Ah, those were the days. Of course now we have a whole wealth of other films to compare any new knuckle bruising pulse pounder that comes down the pipe that has a distinctive tone or fighting style. Obviously most actioners get compared to John Wick these days, but in a bizarre occurrence, the arrival of aircraft-based punch-a-thon invokes a new film to be held up to scrutiny because their literally isn’t any other way to describe Fight Of Flight than to simply declare it Bullet Train on a plane.
In fact, I’m stunned no one thought to name it “Bullet Plane” at any point during production (although I’m also willing to bet that lawyers would have been quickly dispatch if it had), but while this movie has been made for Sky Cinema and is yet another colourful thriller destined to debut in the comfort of your own homes, does Fight Or Flight take off with style and stick the landing? Chaos is currently boarding at gate 6.
A government agency of the shadier kind suddenly sees their day of overwatching and dodgy missions suddenly spike in urgency when they finally get a lead on a blackhat terrorist known as The Ghost who has been a digital thorn in the side of numerous countries. Racking up such achievements as obliterating Yemen’s old reserves and screwing with the gross domestic product of over dozen other countries, this legendary hacker has been stumbled upon in Bangkok and various black suits (led by the glacial Katherine Brunt) soon scramble to try and find any asset they still have in the area to track them down.
Enter burned and burnt out former agent Lucas Reyes who was left to rot in Bangkok two years earlier after being stranded thanks to a flight risk, but after shaking off the vast amount of boozing he does to pass his days as best he can, he reluctantly agrees to pursue the Ghost In order for a chance to get his life back. Step one is to collect his shiny new passport and hop on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco in order to figure out which of the many passengers is his target, but almost immediately, his mission is complicated by the mother of all metaphorical turbulence – thanks to word getting out that the Ghost is on the plane, a worryingly large amount of passengers turn out to be assassins sent by various furious countries on order to extract their pound of flesh from the ubiquitous hacker.
Before you know it, Lucas is racking up quite the body count with the help of plucky-but-horrified flight attendant Isha, but as the flight progresses, the bedraggled and bloody ex-agent finally figures out that the one he seeks might be under his very nose.
It’s a nose that might well be repeatedly broken once a double cross also slaps his face on the phones of every killer on board, so can Lucas survive the flight from hell and grab the Ghost without actually becoming one?
So, as you may have guessed from me comparing the film to many other action flicks of a similar ilk, Fight Or Flight isn’t exactly burdened with an overabundance of originality. But the thing about a derivative movie is that it can be saved by infusing matters with ridiculous amounts of energy and a goofy sense of humour and this ultimately the fuel that allows the movie to fly as high as it does. There’s nothing remotely new here when it comes to setting or story, but the few stand out wrinkles it does have add enough to make all the difference.
For a start, it feels weirdly overdue that Josh Hartnett has finally joined the ranks of the action star (Black Hawk Down notwithstanding) and the fact that the star seems to be hugely enjoying pounding the living shit out of colourful assassins while wearing an impressive array of schlub-wear such as rumbled Hawaiian shirts, stained pink t-shirts and ill-fitting complimentary pyjamas. In fact, what with this and his hugely entertaining turn in M. Night Shyamalan’s notoriously batshit Trap, it seems that Hartnett’s resurgence is based on him having as much fun as humanly possible; and guess what – it’s totally contagious. Be it witnessing him snapping limbs with reckless abandon or chainsawing all comers while tripping balls on toad venom (stick with it), he’s definitely one of the more entertaining actors to take the late-stage plunge into bleach blonde bad assery.
He’s surrounded by a game cast too, headed up by Charithra Chandran who has turned her delicate features away from the more sensible and refined likes of Bridgerton and tried out some that allows her to get some blood under her nails and she adapts endearingly well, even if her character arc is somewhat obvious in hindsight. In fact, the kind of role she’s playing is probably one that the likes of Katie Sackoff might have taken herself a few years ago, which turns out to be rather fitting considering that the actress is on the ground as the stoney faced, no nonsense Brunt who gets to do all the usual gawping at screens that most office-based characters in spy films get to do.
However, while the actors are legitimately having a ball, director James Madigan steps up from second unit work from larger than life films such as The Meg, Snake Eyes and Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, to deliver hid own brand of anarchy thanks to some trippy visuals (the aforementioned toad venom) and some deliriously gruesome fights that sees volcanoes of blood spew from wounds while the rare, non-assassin passengers scream in horror. Yes, the plot is so familiar that you probably recite it in your sleep, but who cares when people are violently dispatched via fire sprinklers, ice picks and champagne flutes that require an extra headbutt to really drive it home. Actually, when was the last time you saw a baddie dispatched by being sawn in half with a chainsaw while on a plane before? Never? There’s your originality right there.
It isn’t perfect and Fight Or Flight suffers from the annoying motion that the filmmakers have no intention of ending the film in a remotely satisfactory manner just in case Sky wants a sequel, but it certainly manages to keep its freak flame burning longer than some other, recent “crazy” action movies, who managed to burn itself out long before the end credits roll.
So is this a start of a new action franchise – or maybe even a new dawn of Josh Hartnett becoming an action hero? I’d be greatly happy if we got both, actually, but only if it means that it’s presented in the same, gonzo, lunatic, toad venom-powered energy we’ve gotten with this film. Sure, it’s overfamiliar and carries itself with all the weight and reality of a Johnny Bravo episode, but Hartnett and an unrestrained, absurdist, violent streak manages to pilot us nicely over the more bumpier parts of the flight.
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