3.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for action, intense suspense, mild profanity, fleeting sensuality and drug content
By Derrick Bang
This is a taut, tidy and
thoroughly engrossing little thriller ... although it won’t do a thing for
people already nervous about flying.
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| The resourceful Bill (Liam Neeson) thinks up several quite clever ways to expose the identity of the indivisual who keeps sending threatening text messages ... but the unknown tormentor/terrorist eludes our hero at every turn. Eventually, even Jen (Julianne Moore) begins to wonder if the situation is beyond Bill's ability to solve. |
John W. Richardson, Christopher
Roach and Ryan Engle have concocted a twisty, danger-laden mystery that Agatha
Christie would have admired: a whodunit and howzithappening that makes clever
use of the claustrophobic setting and modern smart phone technology. Granted,
the premise is preposterous, and interior details don’t withstand much
scrutiny, but director Jaume Collet-Serra and editor Jim May move things
quickly enough to obscure the logical lapses.
I also applaud the casting and
sidebar character development, elements usually overlooked in lesser action
thrillers. Although this is Liam Neeson’s show, and he commands the stage quite
ably, we also get solid work from a dozen or so supporting players.
Neeson and Collet-Serra also
worked together on 2011’s Unknown,
although that initially suspenseful thriller was undone by its sloppy script.
If the improved work here on Non-Stop
reflects learning from that earlier mistake, then it’s nice to know all
concerned paid attention.
The premise is simple: Veteran
air marshal Bill Marks (Neeson) boards a routine flight from New York City to
London, and starts receiving cryptic text messages from some unknown sender who
demands the transfer of $150 million into a numbered account ... or passengers
on the flight will start to die, at 20-minute intervals. It’s immediately
obvious, from what the sender knows, that s/he is on the plane.
Bill’s major issue is
credibility: How can he possibly take such a crazy ultimatum seriously? And
when evidence eventually suggest that this unknown terrorist truly has the means to carry out such threats,
how can Bill get anybody to believe him?
Character back-story muddies the
water, of course. Bill is a man under a cloud: an alcoholic carrying a heavy
personal burden — details of which emerge slowly — and therefore a less than
reliable judge of any given situation, in the eyes of his colleagues and
superiors. Even his fellow on-flight air marshal, Jack Hammond (Anson Mount),
finds it difficult to accept Bill’s story at face value.
Bill does everything by the book;
he immediately confides in the plane’s captain (Linus Roache) and veteran
flight attendant, Nancy (Michelle Dockery). Keeping the situation concealed
from the passengers is essential, but that becomes progressively more
difficult, as Bill’s invisible cat-and-mouse tormentor escalates the stakes.
