Unrugged in the Air
The poster for Flight Risk advertises it as coming from “the award-winning director of Braveheart, Apocalypto and Hacksaw Ridge,” without sharing that director’s name, Mel Gibson. I guess the idea is that after his numerous controversies, they can market a film off of his past work, but not use his name. It’s something to keep in mind as Gibson begins his fake new job as one of Trump’s “special envoys” to Hollywood.
Flight Risk is dumb fun, and a success on that level. But, notably, while he’s done plenty of low-brow stuff as an actor, Gibson’s body of work as a director (the above-listed films, plus The Passion of the Christ) has been much more ambitious than dumb fun. People forget it, but Hacksaw Ridge, which came out long after Gibson’s scandals, earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 2016.
Looking like an action B-movie from the 1990s—the kind Gibson wouldn’t have bothered with back then—Flight Risk finds creative things to do with an in-flight action scenario that’s different enough from the likes of Executive Decision, Air Force One, and Con Air.
Topher Grace plays Winston, a nervous nerd who was working as an accountant for a criminal organization until he’s busted in a motel room in rural Alaska by U.S. marshal Madelyn Harris (Downton Abbey veteran Michelle Dockery). After Winston immediately agrees to turn state’s evidence, they’re loaded onto a small plane to Anchorage, piloted by Daryl (Mark Wahlberg). Wahlberg turns out to be an assassin working for Winston’s criminal bosses, and removes his hat to reveal the world’s most hilarious bald cap. The bald cap was such a hit in the trailer that they were handing out replicas of it at my screening. Originally set for release last fall, Flight Risk was shifted into its rightful destiny as a January Movie.
The bulk of the film’s set on this small plane, as different characters are incentivized to kill and subdue each other at different times. Wahlberg’s there to kill, but the other two don’t know how to fly the plane, and he does. The well-structured screenplay, clocking in at 90 minutes, is credited to Jared Rosenberg and was a 2020 Black List entry. I guess it’s a sign of personal progress that the director who once ranted about Jews starting all the wars in the world works with a guy named Rosenberg.
The plot gets ridiculous at times, especially in that this East Coast-style criminal organization, for some reason, has undercover moles all over Alaska. There’s also a touch of Roger Ebert’s Fallacy of the Talking Killer, as Wahlberg has a clear chance to kill Winston early on, before threatening to torture him instead, and then not doing it.
I’d call Flight Risk "Snakes on a Plane, without the snakes.” But that unofficial tagline has already been applied to a few different movies, including the Liam Neeson vehicle Non-Stop, as well as 2023’s Gerard Butler January picture, called simply Plane. (Amusingly, actor Paul Ben-Victor has a voice-only role as a honcho on the ground; the same actor played the airline CEO in Plane.)
However, it’s a nice touch that Wahlberg starts by faking a Southern accent, but once we find out he’s evil, the familiar Boston comes back.