Quick Review: Non-Stop (2014)

NON-STOP

BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
JUNE 11, 2014

Flying is nerve-racking enough without someone terrorizing your airplane. However, in the latest entry in the thriller sub-genre taking place on planes (“Flightplan,” “Snakes On A Plane,” etc.), director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Unknown,” “Orphan”) sets up a U.S. federal air marshall (Liam Neeson) as the potential antagonist on this flight. Neeson plays Bill Marks, a troubled, gun and badge carrying frequent flyer, getting on a non-stop flight from New York to London when he begins receiving text messages telling him someone will die every 20 minutes if money is not transferred into a specific bank account. From there on out, the audience is unaware of who to trust as the twists, turns, and dead bodies cause for an entire rigmarole of events. Hitting the same marks as most of his previous action roles, Neeson is no stranger to filling the role of alpha male in high-stress situations. Making him out to be the bad guy, however, is a nice twist on his typecast and the more they sell that possibility, the more refreshing the film feels. Among the rest of the colorful cast are Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, and Academy Award-winning Lupita Nyong’o playing fellow passengers and attendants alike, all adding to the confusion and whodunnit nature of the film. Continuing to bring suspenseful airplane thrillers to the 21st century, “Non-Stop” is an adequate venture with a thought-provoking end that no one will see coming.

RELEASE DATE
February 28, 2014

DIRECTOR
Jaume Collet-Serra

WRITTEN BY
John W. Richardson
Chris Roach
Ryan Engle

STUDIO
Universal Pictures

PG-13
(for intense sequences of action and violence, some language, sensuality and drug references)

ACTION
MYSTERY
THRILLER
106 minutes