“Plane” is a movie best enjoyed with a large and expressive crowd, allowing one to gasp simultaneously along with strangers while enjoying a turbulent, though emotionally surface-level, ride.
With a one-worded movie title, a predictable trailer, and a release date in early January, “Plane” could have been plagued by the tropes of mediocre beginning-of-the-year movies. Directed by Jean-François Richet, “Plane” doesn’t try to go out of its way to make a glamorous artistic statement; it’s a straightforward action movie from the title screen to the ending credits. It’s detached from franchising such as “Mission: Impossible” or any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films by keeping it anxiety-inducing and as realistic as it can.
“Plane” follows in the footsteps of classic 80s action movies, the narrative structure reminiscent of 1987’s “Predator” and 1985’s “Commando” with the flare of modern grit. The movie also felt like a subtle homage to 1997’s “Con Air” starring Nicolas Cage. The plot of the film is a simple action equation: A plane with pilots and 15 passengers is struck by lightning, and the pilots are forced to make a crash landing in unknown territory.
Gerard Butler plays the main protagonist, pilot Brodie Torrence, who is tasked with protecting passengers as they attempt to escape a separatist island near the Philippines. He has to entrust the help of imprisoned passenger and accused murderer Louis Gaspare, played by Mike Colter, after discovering his past in the military. Both Colter and Butler are extremely familiar with the action genre. Colter played the titular role in “Luke Cage” in Marvel’s Netflix series, and Butler has been in the action genre since 2000 with “Dracula: 2000.”
The movie does a good job of playing into the anxiety of the audience member with vertigo-inducing aerial shots of the plane. The audience not only watched from the viewpoint of the survivors of the crash, but also Brodie Torrence’s family, sitting back at home in Hawaii watching the crash from the news and the plane company trying to send a rescue mission to Brodie, his co-pilot and the rest of the passengers on board the flight.
Butler and Colter did all of their own stunts for “Plane,” which added a layered sense of realism to Torrence and Gaspare’s relationship in the thick of the action. Emotively, there isn’t too much chemistry between the pair, but the film doesn’t rely on the development of chemistry between characters. Its reliance is focused on the plane itself and the action sequences. The movie is presented more like a shoot-‘em-up checklist than a buddy-cop bromance, as Torrence finds what he needs to get passengers off the island without much relationship development.
There was a slight detachment from the main antagonists in the film, and, at times, the Philippine separatists felt more like props than actual villains whom Gaspare and Torrence were trying to save the passengers from. There was no humanizing of the villains, but no demonizing as well. These antagonists did not feel as if they served a purpose beyond target practice.
Although there are two action stars in the role of protagonists, the main action hero is the plane itself, hence the name of the film. The plane had to be relied on at the end of the film when it was what brought them to the island in the first place. This movie also relies on real-life anxieties and instances of what happens when a plane goes missing. It is touched on briefly in the movie, but Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 seems to have been an inspiration for this film as well.
The bottom line is that “Plane” isn’t a bad movie by any means, if one can classify what constitutes a bad movie. But at the end of the day, it lacks the character given to some franchised action heroes, and the genuine heartfelt messaging put into action films such as “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was released in 2022.
Overall Review: 3 out of 5.
