Oppenheimer is the gift that keeps on giving. Josh Hartnett was in the acting doldrums until Christopher Nolan gave him the call. Fortunately for us Hartnett was ready…and delivered. I guess M. Night Shyamalan and now James Madigan were wowed by his work there, giving him real chances for the dadaissance he’s currently running. Fight or Flight leans hard on it’s star, who’s ready to give all his heart to it…blood and guts and all.
It’s trying times for Aaron Hunter (Julian Kotsov). His mission to capture The Ghost has been botched, and he’s about to lose the elusive assassin who’s on their way to Bangkok airport with no other mercenaries in sight. Well, as Hunter’s boss Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackoff) realizes, that’s not technically true. Reluctantly, she rings up Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett), whom Hunter has never heard of. Currently drinking himself into oblivion, Reyes agrees to a compromise: he brings in the Ghost alive, and his red ledger is wiped clean, and he can go live his life again. Onto the Bangkok to San Francisco superplane we go!
And boy, are we flying! Fight or Flight really tries to challenge Snakes on a Plane’s supremacy for most batsh*t plane action movie. We’ve turned off any modicum of decency here: this is a bloody, frenetic fever dream of violence, that keeps changing things up and upping the ante. All aspects of a plane are used: we’re battling in the bathroom, then first class, then the flight attendant area, then coach, then in storage, even a bit in the cockpit. So many glasses are broken and used and bludgeoning objects. Not enough blood for you? Cool, let’s break some arms with clarinets, police batons, etc. Need more chokeouts? Great, let’s use seatbelts and the plane seats in the most visceral way possible. Still not enough? Ok, let’s stash a chainsaw on this flight for some reason. Punctuating each of these sequences is a snide comment or joke from some character, hammering home the point we’re not really supposed to be taking this too seriously (one of the funniest involves Mormons).
For a long time though, the movie’s success rides on Josh Hartnett, and his ability to make the movie work. He’s opted for the Die Hard approach: a chiseled veteran of action above all the lunacy. In addition to lots of fun wisecracks, it’s Hartnett’s expressive face that does a lot of heavy lifting here. He really telegraphs to the audience exactly how he’s feeling moment to moment: exasperation, surprise, annoyance, and my personal favorite: high out of his mind on hallucinogens. While watching Hartnett convinces us all he’s gonna go wherever the nonsensical psychotic movie has to go, so might as well enjoy the ride. Hartnett does get people to play off of to mix things up for the audience: Charithra Chandan and Danny Ashok are great Robin’s to Hartnett’s Batman, and JuJu Chan Szeto, Nora Trokan, and some of the random people that show up on this plan give deranged one off moments that help Hartnett get to where the scenes need him to go. Most importantly, he’s believable enough in the action sequences, eventually winning but not without a stabbing or heavy bruise to deal with.
So action sicko’s I present to you Fight or Flight. The movie set’s this up a sequel but even if it’s a one and done, it still delivers cause Madigan, Hartnett and the cast really give a damn about this, for some insane reason. I like the triple feature of Con Air, Snakes on a Plane, then Fight or Flight on Mayhem Memorial Day Monday, to get the adrenaline flowing right before the barbecue starts.