Non-Stop
Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Neeson, who has seemingly reinvented himself as an action star the past few years replete with a track record of successfully pulling it off, is back with his unique set of skills. Neeson stars as Bill Marks an Air Marshall with a past and a drinking problem. While on a flight to Bill gets a text letting him know that every 20 minutes someone is going to die unless 150 million dollars is put into an account. At 30,000 feet the tension quickly mounts as Bill must figure out what is going on.
While one would think that it would be pretty easy to flush out the culprit with a limited number of people in a contained space; there are plenty of twists that lead you to focus your suspicions on many of the players. Where Non-Stop gets it right is that they cover their tracks on the obvious solutions to the problem. Why doesn’t Bill Kill the network that he is being contacted on? Well then he won’t be able to try to figure out who is doing this and if it’s real or a prank with more death left to ensue. Why doesn’t Bill just strap in, open up the door and throw a bomb out the window letting everyone live happily ever after? Simple differential between the indoor cabin pressure and the air pressure outside will cause the bomb to explode. There are a multitude of small things that are actually accounted for to make the premise plausible. When I am dealing with Liam Neeson battling his demons and a terrorist that’s all I ask for, plausibility. The dramatic gravitas of Neeson is enough to deliver a suspension of disbelief that a muscle bound action hero can’t deliver.
The cast is solid with Julian Moore bringing a human element to the action film along with comedic levity one wouldn’t expect from her. The biggest misstep is that they gave Nate Parker and Lupito Nyong’o hairstyles that looked like they belonged more in ‘‘ circa 1989 rather than in 2014 though that’s a small bone to pic.
Lupito Nyong’o and her hightop fade intently watching Liam Neeson “Fight The Power”
While Non-Stop could have gone the easy action route there is more of a mental game than one would expect. Ultimately the third act gets a little weak but leading up to the ending is where the fun is at. It’s the true definition of the journey being more important than the destination.
Grade – 88
