Jonah Naplan   January 13, 2023

As far as middle of January movies go, “Plane” is a lot of fun, if a bit unremarkable. At its center, the movie is a survival tale that eventually devolves into action movie, bullet-flying extravaganza in the third act, with Gerard Butler—playing the same gruff, determined, average Joe-turned hero that he always does—finding himself in the chaotic midst of it all.

Directed by Jean-François Richet, “Plane” is about as self-serious as an action movie can get, without its sometimes bloated pieces becoming too unbearable. With a concept that starts off simple, and ends up intricate, Richet uses tension and sometimes the threat of extreme blood and gore to keep us on edge. And most of the time he nails it all.

Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is a pilot for Trailblazer Airlines en route to Tokyo from Singapore, handling a plane with only 14 passengers inside, but most notably Louis (Mike Colter), a convicted felon and powerful soldier who committed a homicide fifteen years earlier. But not to worry, because he’s safely handcuffed to a police officer at the back of the plane. But that’s not what causes the chaos. The chaos begins when the plane gets struck by lightning what seems like multiple times, and is vulnerable to plummeting to the ground at any moment. Torrance and his co-pilot Samuel (Yoson An) try their hardest to keep the plane in the air, but after some literal casualties on the flight, and time running out before they crash, the two are forced to land the plane somewhere on a foreign island with no cell service or radios.

“Plane” begins as a tale of survival as we wonder how these characters are going to survive the heat, (even though the movie takes place before or around New Years?) a lack of food and water, and no outlet to the outside world. But it very quickly devolves into an action/thriller once Torrance goes looking for some sort of a radio or phone on the island and has a run-in with a vicious mercenary instead.

But like Louis, Torrance is a talented fighter himself, as we learn from a video in another scene with Trailblazer Airlines headquarters trying to get the passengers home. “I like this guy,” says Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn), the new man put in charge. And once the militants on Jolo Island begin to kill and take the passengers hostage, Torrance has no problem busting out a gun and pushing right through any and all armed men standing in his way. And it turns out there’s quite a few of them. “Plane” is a movie that may not be all smiles and giggles with its concept, as most of it is played with a straight face, but the filmmakers find a way to make the movie fun, without any of it coming off as dumb.

“Plane” could have very easily turned into a “Fast and Furious” type of movie, in fact, the pieces are all there. But the way that they’re handled force the film to adapt into something so much more, even if the movie does heavily rely on action more than storytelling. Much of the storytelling that comes with action movies can only work if it has strong central characters.

And “Plane” has two semi-sturdy leads, but even Gerard Butler can’t afford enough runtime to make his character really shine. The real stand out here is Colter’s vigilante, who certainly has the most dramatic character transition, although still not one that shakes us to the core. Don’t even bother mentioning the other stranded passengers, some of whom get more screen time than others, but all of them get little to do, and Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor), the Filipino militia leader whose presence is intimidating yet somehow laughable, has to keep up with everyone else in order to maintain his villainous role. “Plane” is always at its strongest when the tension slowly starts to rise between the rebels and the passengers, and when all hell inevitably breaks loose in an epic third act shoot out.

All of that to say, the majority of “Plane” is shot with the same shaky-cam footage we come to see from more inferior January action movies, that makes it harder to follow what’s happening. There are things about “Plane” that remind me of the grimiest Liam Neeson action movies—although I refer to the most violent rather than the best. “Plane” is a movie that’s a lot of fun to watch on the big screen, but doesn’t provide anything beyond slightly more than cheap entertainment to stuff your face with popcorn while watching.

Now playing in theaters.