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‘Plane’ Review: A High-Flying Action Movie as Sturdy as Its Star, Gerard Butler

He plays a pilot forced to make an emergency landing, at which point the trouble really starts.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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PLANE, from left: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, 2023. ph: Kenneth Rexach / Lionsgate / courtesy Everett Collection

Ever since the ’80s, action films have been overwhelmingly basic in concept, execution, and title. So when you hear that the new Gerard Butler film is called “Plane,” you’d be forgiven for thinking that you can run the entire movie through your head in the blink of an eye. Gerard Butler on a plane (check). He’s probably the pilot (check). There’s probably a criminal onboard (check). The film will be a low-flying, B-grade “Air Force One,” with Butler’s windpipe-smashing grizzled lug saving the day in the same way that Harrison Ford’s heroically resourceful chief executive did.

Actually, no.

Popular on Variety

But wouldn’t you know it, he spots land. An island of jungle terrain with a road snaking right through the middle of it. How convenient! Putting on his Sully Sullenberger cap, Brodie is able to make an emergency landing, using the road as a makeshift runway and stranding the shorted-out plane and its 14 passengers on what turns out to be Jolo, a remote island in the Philippines controlled by a ragtag militia of separatist renegades.

Butler is 53 now, and his hardass Scottish valor is aging like fine wine — or, at least, pretty good ale. He has a warm and fuzzy side, which comes out in Brodie’s phone chats with his collegiate daughter, Daniela (Haleigh Hekking), who he was supposed to rendezvous with after the flight. He makes contact with her again in one of the film’s best scenes, set in an abandoned communications hut in the middle of the jungle, where Brodie, in just a few minutes, is able to rewire the phone line, so that he can place a call to Trailblazer Airlines. A war room of corporate troubleshooters, led by a former Special Forces officer played by Tony Goldwyn (who’s like Ryan Seacrest’s sinewy sibling), is standing by, trying to pinpoint the vanished plane’s location. But Brodie, in a distressingly funny scene, gets hooked up to an annoying 21st-century company operator who won’t cooperate with him. (She thinks he’s a prank caller.) So he’s forced to call Daniela.

Even when the Trailblazer folks figure out where the plane is, they can’t just swoop in for the rescue. The Philippines government won’t cooperate; only mercenaries will go in there. Which means that Brodie essentially has to fight the rebels by himself, though he does deputize a partner: Louis, the killer in handcuffs, played by the charismatic Mike Colter, who makes this bruiser a wronged man who nevertheless keeps you guessing. The rest of the passengers cower and bicker — or, in the case of the arrogant businessman Sinclair (Joey Slotnick), bark out orders until the rebels, led by Dele (Yoson An), the short-fused commander who’s like a penny-ante Che Guevara, reduce him to wimpy subservience. They need ransom money to fund their war, a plan that Brodie undercuts with fists, machine guns, surgical espionage timing and extreme piloting skills. “Plane” is fodder, but the picture brazens through its own implausibilities, carried along — and occasionally aloft — by Gerard Butler’s squinty dynamo resolve.

Reviewed at the Park Avenue Screening Room, Jan. 6, 2023. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 107 MIN.

Production: A Lionsgate release of a MadRiver Pictures, Olive Hill Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures, G-BASE Film Productions production. Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Marc Butan, Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Jason Constantine, Eda Kowan, Luillo Ruiz. Executive producers: Alastair Burlingham, Michael Cho, J.P. Davis, Vicki Dee Rock, Edward Fee, Tim Lee, Osita O, Gary Raskin.
Crew: Director: Jean-François Richet. Screenplay: Charles Cumming, J.P. Davis. Camera: Brendan Galvin. Editor: David Rosenbloom. Music: Marco Beltrami, Marcus Trumpp.
With: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Evan Dane Taylor, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Joey Slotnik.

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Plane Reviews

"Plane" doesn't look like much in its trailers, but the film manages to be a decent popcorn thriller.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Butler + Plane = Awesome

Plane is a straightforward movie with very few twists to offer, but the trick to making it engaging lies in its execution. Richet hasn’t made a ton of features, but he’s been in the game long enough to carry out a firm-handed and well-paced effort.

Nobody’s going to declare Plane a classic, but between Richet’s visual acumen and Butler doing admirable diligence to a character who’s in over his head... it’s an enjoyable, fast-paced and surprisingly engaging diversion.

Full Review | Jul 12, 2023

Plane is predictable, and its production values are serviceable, but Gerard Butler is comfortably entertaining from beginning to end.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 5, 2023

Plane offers a sometimes breathless, white-knuckle ride that should particularly appeal to those raised on mid-’90s actioners like Con Air, Air Force One and Sudden Death.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 24, 2023

This is pure popcorn entertainment that delivers on nasty-minded action and heroic temperaments that won’t insult your brain cells when you opt to cheer on the unfolding physicality.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 18, 2023

A big part of the fun of Plane - and Plane is a lot of fun - is the way it rapidly cycles through genres fast enough to touch on all the good stuff without ever making it too obvious that we've seen it all before.

Full Review | May 17, 2023

The plot is hardly innovative -- and some of its more outlandish elements really stretch credibility -- but this is still a gripping enough thriller, boosted by the entertaining lead performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2023

Overlook the forced sentimentality and Plane manages to be a taut thriller with a balance of action, blood, shooting, and heroics that seem plausible. You won’t feel silly cheering or cringing and the popcorn will sit satisfied in your belly.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 18, 2023

Solid and enjoyable filmmaking that knows its limits. No overflowing passenger lists, no shoehorned subplots, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and then some. Truly, "redemption can be found in the most unusual places."

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 18, 2023

…Plane is a straight-up, no-nonsense, gritty action flick that delivers plentiful thrills and spills…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 13, 2023

Gerard Butler has that Nicolas Cage thing of not phoning in a performance, he's so magnetic in these movies.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 24, 2023

If you like well-made action flicks that don’t need a sequel setup, it’s money well spent. Butler knows what he's doing, and Colter excels in a role with a few layers.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 19, 2023

It's a dumb but entertaining film.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 14, 2023

A film that will be remembered as "that plane movie with Gerard Butler". [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 14, 2023

Plane does not reinvent the wheel but does land an action-movie punch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 13, 2023

Plane is a film that is an experience to behold in cinemas, and an entertaining one at that.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 10, 2023

... Gerard Butler becomes a worthy heir of the macho hero tradition, the same guy we wouldn't want as a father or a friend, but who comes in handy as a casual 'embedder' or hostage negotiator.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2023

Conceived to be enjoyed on the big screen, with no more fuss over the proper movement of action and emotion itself. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2023

Mike Colter and Gerard Butler crouch in the jungle with assault rifles at the ready in the movie Plane

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Plane nails three things: planes, kicking ass, and planes

Gerard Butler’s still got it, baby

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The folks involved with the new action movie Plane , starring Gerard Butler and Mike Colter , are very proud of the plane. Butler claimed in a recent interview that he fought to keep the title — which, in the handful of times I’ve seen the trailer in theaters, universally elicits laughter — and even called the titular transport “the star of the film.”

Naturally, that sounds ridiculous. Watch the movie, though, and one might start to believe him: The first 20 minutes are full of plane minutiae, like preflight checks, flight attendant rituals, crew small talk, annoying passengers, and lots of accurate-sounding radio chatter. It’s the Chef’s Table of plane movies, until it turns into the Rio Bravo of plane movies.

Like an actual commercial aircraft, Plane does not look like much, but it’s also wildly efficient. Butler plays Brodie Torrance, a longtime pilot for the fictional Trailblazer Airways, knocking out one last New Year’s Eve flight before making his way to see his daughter for an overdue visit. Unfortunately, his lightly attended flight encounters two complications: Louis Gaspare ( Evil ’s Colter ), an accused murderer being extradited by the FBI, and a severe storm that forces Brodie to crash-land on a remote island near the Philippines run by a ruthless warlord. When said warlord discovers the plane, he takes the passengers hostage, missing only Brodie and Louis. The movie unfolds from there with a simple mission: Get the passengers out, get them back on the plane, and figure out a way to get it back in the air and to safety again.

Gerard Butler stands with his hands on his hips in his pilot’s uniform with a bloodied collar, with flight crew on each side in the movie Plane.

Once Plane reaches cruising altitude (not sorry), the most surprising thing about it is its straight-faced execution. Neither overly serious nor entirely humorless, Plane is a movie that adores competence, where the heroes are consummate professionals and the people who get in their way are either terrorists or idiots, or worse, government idiots. This is beautifully summed up in a subplot where Trailblazer executives go into crisis mode in order to address the missing aircraft, a meeting that is effectively overtaken by corporate fixer Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn). The third hero of Plane , Scarsdale does not have patience for governments or corporate face-saving, giving the film much of both its humor and its action — the former by steamrolling the suits in the room, the latter by hiring a crew of private military operatives to help extract the passengers.

None of this detracts from Butler and Colter as the brawny action heroes upon whose shoulders Plane rests. Both actors are deft enough to make their characters feel like vulnerable flesh and blood — Butler as the world-weary and desperate idealist, and Colter as the wrongfully accused and highly skilled pragmatist. Their dynamic is fun without being funny, as Brodie is forced to trust Louis out of necessity, and Louis has every reason to ditch Brodie but recognizes that their odds of survival are better together. Mirroring the real-life actors portraying them, the two feel like underappreciated pros paired together by chance, neither waiting for nor expecting recognition yet committed to the art of ass-kicking. Director Jean-François Richet brings confidence to the cockpit (OK, sorry), guiding Plane with a steady hand. The movie’s drama efficiently ratchets up the tension for its action to hit hard and move on. Again: Like an actual plane, it’s a marvel of craftsmanship so unobtrusive that it’s easily mistaken for mundanity.

I would watch Brodie Torrance and Louis Gaspare save a new vehicle together every year, especially if it’s a movie that has a final-act shootout as good as Plane ’s, where they’re covered by a video game-ass sniper laying waste to generic terrorists with a fucking huge gun. If Plane was this good, sign me up for Boat .

Plane is now playing in theaters.

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Plane review: butler & colter star in mindless, entertaining action thriller.

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Scottish action star Gerard Butler plays the brave and determined pilot, Brodie Torrance, in Jean-François Richet’s action thriller, Plane . Forced to preemptively land his commercial aircraft after it suffers mechanical issues during a lightning storm, Torrance pulls out all the stops to keep his passengers safe. Written by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis, the film combines the best of early action filmmaking with gritty storytelling in a way that will compel viewers to flock to theaters. The film is funny at times and violent in others, but most importantly, it lives up to the standard entertainment factor, yielding the first pleasant surprise of 2023.

The story follows Brodie as he makes a risky landing on a war-torn island in the Sulu Archipelago, resulting in his surviving passengers being taken hostage by threatening rebels. His only hope to save them is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer with a history of military training. Louis also happens to be in transport by the FBI as he is considered dangerous, which proves to be useful in the long run. Together, they traverse through the jungle and unknown threats to retrieve the passengers as they await rescue from an unlikely resource.

Related: Gerard Butler & Mike Colter Interview: Plane

Set mostly on an aircraft or island, Plane is a result of anxiety-inducing action sequences and fun banter among the film’s two leads. As a whole, Davis and Cumming’s story has a great deal going for it. The script is easy to follow, the stakes are high, and there’s non-stop action to keep viewers entertained. But underneath this adrenaline-powered film lies a story about a regular guy trying to do the right thing with the little resources available to him. And as is, this element makes it easy to cheer for the leads and enjoy some great surprises along the way.

As the film progresses, more limitations become apparent with respect to character depth. For example, it is revealed early on that Butler’s Brodie is trying to get to home to spend New Year’s Eve with his daughter Daniela (Haleigh Hekking). Comments like “I’m glad we’re doing this” from his daughter indicate a reconnection that they’re trying to build. Yet, there aren’t many moments in which the relationship between the pair becomes central to Brodie’s characterization. Incorporating such human elements would have strengthened the script even further — even if used in simple dialogue. It’s a missed opportunity to say the least.

As a result of some characterization shortcomings, the film tends to lag in its second act. Moments that would have been perfect to understand who Brodie and Louis are as individuals (outside their current circumstances) rarely happen. This introduces some pacing issues that are too obvious to ignore. Still, plenty of compelling moments follow, with brutal scenes to showcase just how dangerous their situation is. Given these various shifts in pacing and flaws within how certain characters are written, the viewing experience for Plane isn’t entirely balanced. Yet, it’s satisfying enough to be a pleasant surprise for audiences.

The latest white-knuckle action thriller from Lionsgate brings a certain rush. From the thrilling plane sequences and combat scenes to the subtle humor throughout, Plane is the kind of mindless entertainment that viewers will welcome to start their new year. There are plenty of stakes throughout this simple story to justify a viewing in theaters thanks to fun surprises within. Additionally, early promises of keeping viewers on the edge of their seat are thoroughly fulfilled from beginning to end. And though it runs out of steam during its second act, Butler and company do everything they can to keep the energy going, closing out the film with a well-earned bang.

More: The Old Way Review: Donowho’s Standard American Western Has Heart & Humor

Plane releases in theaters on January 13. The film is 107 minutes long and rated R for violence and language.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Action film has violence, language, iffy representation.

Plane movie poster: Wearing a pilot's uniform, Gerard Butler stands in front of Mike Colter, who's holding a gun

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Amid the violence and peril are messages about the

Captain Brodie Torrance and Louis Gaspare, a convi

The cast includes prominent Asian characters, but

Scenes with violence and blood, death, and peril,

Language includes "f---ing," "hell," "f--k," "s--t

Dell Technologies ad is seen on a flight departure

Positive Messages

Amid the violence and peril are messages about the importance of using courage and teamwork to save innocent lives.

Positive Role Models

Captain Brodie Torrance and Louis Gaspare, a convicted felon, work together to save the passengers of the ill-fated plane. They and the rest of the passengers show courage in the face of fear.

Diverse Representations

The cast includes prominent Asian characters, but the Philippines is portrayed as crime-ridden and rife with ineffectual law enforcement. And colorism is also in play, signaling which characters are "good" and "evil": Criminal characters are darker-skinned, while heroic Asian characters are lighter-skinned and present as more East Asian than Southeast Asian. The criminals' leader, Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor, who's Filipino American, African American and Native American), is one of the darkest of the Asian characters in the film. Meanwhile, many of the "good" East Asian characters still suffer, including those amid the stranded passengers who are sacrificed to garner sympathy for the others. And the main East Asian character, co-pilot Dele (Yoson An), is competent and capable, but is presented as a sidekick of sorts to the White Captain Torrance (Gerard Butler). Black characters are also below the White hero on the importance scale, and while Louis (Mike Colter) is heroic, he's also associated with violence, as is the leader (Remi Adeleke) of the mercenaries who help the passengers escape. Other racially diverse characters are present, including chief flight attendant Bonnie (Daniella Pineda, a Mexican American actress). But the majority of these characters have few to no lines. Bonnie does speak, but her characterization is limited to being calm under pressure and efficient despite serious pressure.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Scenes with violence and blood, death, and peril, including a plane crash, kidnapping, and torture. Guns are shown/used, sometimes fatally. Another character is killed via choking/neck breaking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "f---ing," "hell," "f--k," "s--t," "goddamn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Dell Technologies ad is seen on a flight departure board.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Plane is an action film with strong violence, language, and problematic depictions of diverse communities. Gerard Butler plays pilot Brodie Torrance, who teams up with a convicted felon with a military past, Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), to save a plane's passengers from dangerous separatists in the Philippines. Expect many intense scenes with violence and blood, death, and peril, including a plane crash, kidnapping, torture, and weapons (guns are used to kill people). Language is strong, too, with use of "f--k," "s--t," "goddamn," and more. While characters demonstrate courage and teamwork, there are troubling aspects to how the film's non-White characters are represented. Darker-skinned, Southeast Asian-presenting actors are cast as criminals, while lighter, more East Asian-presenting actors are cast as "good guys." And Black characters are coded as heroic but violent. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (4)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Good action film for teens+

A disappointing action-flick may be entertaining, but it's too weak to even get past the drudgery plot., what's the story.

PLANE follows Captain Brodie Torrance ( Gerard Butler ) as the plane he's flying with co-pilot Dele (Yoson An) crash lands. They wind up on an island in the Philippines that's run by separatists who are led by Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor). Torrance and one of the passengers on the plane, convicted felon Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), must work together to take on the separatists, save the passengers, and get off the island alive.

Is It Any Good?

Aside from its problematic representation elements (see below), this movie hits all the major beats you'd expect from both an action film and, specifically, a Butler-led action film. He plays a "average guy" who wants to get home to his family, finds himself in peril, and must fight his way out of it. It's formulaic, but it works. But when you factor in the film's colorism, Plane immediately becomes less fun. Unfortunately, goodness feels directly related to skin tone here. The villains -- led by Junmar, who's played by the African American/Native American/Filipino American Taylor -- are distinctly darker-skinned than the movie's other Asian characters, including co-pilot Dele and some passengers. And Blackness feels associated with violence: Even though characters like Louis and Shellback (Remi Adeleke) are among the "good guys," it's because they have useful -- and violent -- military skills. Of course, their violence is the "good" kind, in contrast to the violence of the separatists, which is used to dehumanize them (we never find out exactly why they're separatists, which could have provided some context, nuance, and humanization to their actions). Overall, Plane says nothing new and reinforces painful cliches, making it feel more like a film from the 1980s or '90s than 2023.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the quality of the diverse representations in Plane . Where does it fall short? What could it have done better? How does colorism come into play?

How do the characters demonstrate courage and teamwork ? Why are those important character strengths?

Talk about the movie's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Do you consider a Captain Torrance a hero? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : January 13, 2023
On DVD or streaming : February 2, 2023
Cast : Gerard Butler , Mike Colter , Yoson An , Evan Duane Taylor
Director : Jean-Francois Richet
Inclusion Information : Black actors, Asian actors
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Action/Adventure
Run time : 107 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence and language
Last updated : October 6, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Plane Review: Gerard Butler Rules the Sky in Tense Thriller

A pilot (Gerard Butler) defends his passengers from militants after a crash landing.

Gerard Butler rules the sky in a tense and unrelenting action-thriller. Plane takes off into a storm but experiences far worse consequences from land-based threats. French director Jean-François Richet keeps a firm grip on the throttle. He establishes a straightforward premise before plunging his characters into non-stop mortal peril. It's an out-of-the-frying-pan and into-the-fire scenario. The initial relief of escaping a harrowing crash landing evaporates when another crisis presents itself. Ruthless baddies show no mercy to innocents. Their butt-kicking pilot makes sure a seemingly cursed flight arrives alive.

Captain Brodie Torrance (Butler) races to the gate in Singapore. He's eager to reunite with his teenage daughter (Haleigh Hekking) in Hawaii. A pair of events unnerve Torrance as the passengers board. Bad weather looms on the flight path to Tokyo. He's given permission to fly above the storm despite misgivings. Also, law enforcement has captured a murderer on the run for fifteen years. Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter) is handcuffed in the back row for extradition to the United States.

The first officer (Claro de los Reyes) has faith in Torrance's skill. That's immediately tested as turbulence rocks the plane. Passengers whimper as Torrance raises altitude. Calm turns to terror when lightning strikes. Bonnie (Daniella Pineda), the head flight attendant, screams for everyone to remain seated. The foolish ignore her order.

Brace for Impact

The aircraft loses power. All electronic instruments have failed. The plane begins a rapid descent over a vast ocean. They have ten minutes before plummeting to certain death. Torrance yells for the passengers to prepare for a water landing. A patch of green with a winding road miraculously appears through the blinding rain. Everyone braces for impact. But the remote island of Jolo isn't a safe haven. An anti-government militia watches as a fresh batch of western hostages crashes in the jungle.

Related: Exclusive: Latest Plane Image Showcases Gerard Butler in a War-Torn Jungle

Plane is guaranteed to never be a part of your inflight entertainment. The opening scene will scare the bejesus out of anyone nervous about flying. My pulse raced as oxygen masks dropped and the unbelted hit the ceiling like cracked eggs. Slick visual effects, editing, and the characters' abject fear sell the precipitous decline. Richet ( Assault on Precinct 13 , Blood Father ) cuts back and forth between the cockpit and cabin calamity. The sense of doom reaches a fever pitch. This sets the stage for the bullet-riddled remaining acts.

Revolting terrorists seize a golden opportunity. The passengers are worth a fortune in ransom money. Torrance finds himself in a desperate situation. No one knows where they are. He has to get help without getting captured. That's no easy feat with bloodthirsty militants swarming. Gaspare becomes another point of concern. Is the murderer friend or foe?

A Trusted Action Commodity

Butler gives Torrance believability in every circumstance. He's fantastic flying the plane, calming the frightened passengers, and then strapping on an assault rifle to take care of business. He has an emotional range with gravitas and a dominating physical presence. Important elements that accompany wicked gunplay to overall success. Butler continues to be a trusted action commodity.

Plane is a production of MadRiver Pictures, Olive Hill Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures, and G-BASE. It will be released theatrically on January 13th from Lionsgate .

Plane Review

27 Jan 2023

First things first: Plane is quite a funny name for a film, isn’t it? The monosyllabic bluntness of it is oddly, unintentionally hilarious — like a toddler blurting out a newly learned word while pointing at something. Plane . What’s perhaps funnier still is that this B-movie-adjacent action-movie only spends 30 minutes of the runtime on an actual plane, abandoning the dunderheaded promise of that title before the first act is even over.

Plane is the latest in a subgenre you might call ‘ Gerard Butler Saves The World’, a cheap-and-cheerful corner of cinema that has seen the Scottish hard man take on world-ending comets ( Greenland ), world-ending weather ( Geostorm ), and a series of increasingly ludicrous world-ending terrorists (the Has Fallen series). Plane , however, initially finds Butler not in action-hero mode, but everyman mode.

He plays airline pilot Brodie Torrance (a classic Gerard Butler character name, to sit proudly alongside ‘Mike Banning’ and ‘Big Nick O’Brien’), an ordinary bloke who loves his daughter, loves his job, and has been known to get into a scrap. When we first meet him, he’s captaining a near-empty flight to Tokyo on New Year’s Eve, making jokes over the Tannoy and offering famous last words (“There won’t be any delays!”).

There could have been a lean, minimalist thriller shaped simply around that opening half-hour, so it’s a shame that the film then immediately switches gears.

A bad omen comes with the arrival of Louis ( Mike Colter — just as in his Luke Cage days, an Absolute Unit), a murderer being transported in handcuffs for extradition; the lightning storm they fly through is a worse omen still. Director Jean-François Richet wastes no time in crafting a genuinely tense emergency landing sequence — destined to be edited out of future inflight versions — which sees the plane’s power killed, forced to land in complete darkness.

There could have been a lean, minimalist thriller shaped simply around that opening half-hour, so it’s a shame that the film then immediately switches gears; what starts in a comfortable disaster-movie mould quickly handbrake-turns into a generic, by-the-numbers action thriller, serving up a stale platter of fist fights, gun battles and hostage-taking. More troublingly, the filmmakers show some insensitivity bordering on xenophobia towards the real Filipino island of Jolo, where the film is set, depicted here as a lawless hellhole run by psychopath gangster terrorists. The half-a-million people who actually live on Jolo might take issue with being characterised as blood-lusting murderers who, unprovoked, freely behead the first Westerners they come across.

All credulity falls apart in the final act, when the modern equivalent of the cavalry riding in to save the day — an ex-Special Forces mercenary unit — bravely gun down the evil terrorists, and the clichés flood through, thick and fast. But Butler is still decent company for this sort of thoughtless silliness, bringing some dad-who-had-a-bad-day charm and hard-as-nails muscularity to the kind of role that has become his speciality. We’re left only to wonder: what will he save the world from next?

Movies | 13 02 2023

Movie Review: “Plane”

“Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome aboard Trailblazer flight 119. If you’re looking for a flight full of adventure, Plane is your movie. If you’re looking for drama or action, Plane is your movie, though we might encounter some rough air there. Please ensure that your seats are upright and tray tables are stowed. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.”

Jean-François-Richet’s Plane , stars Gerard Butler as Captain Brodie Torrance.

When we first meet Torrance, decked out in his full captain’s uniform, he is in a hurried state, trying to get through airport security in Manilla. This is where a gag intended to run throughout Charles Cumming’s and J. P. Davis’ script (story by Cumming) involves Torrance’s I.D. badge. You’d think Torrance is unreliable because he is hurried in conversations with his daughter, Daniela (Haleigh Hekking). He is anything but, as Richet lulls us into this adventure.

Eventually, he clears security, but this is the least of his problems. Or our worries.

Plane is the type of film audiences clamor for. Check your baggage at the box office, turn off your mind, sit back, and relax. What follows is a story with a solid runway, decent action, and overwrought drama involving characters that don’t develop and situations that, while realistic in the modern age, can’t keep this Plane aloft. More on that in a minute.

See, I am a fan of aviation disaster films. No, I’m not combing crashes for evidence; I like the overwrought human drama the classic Airport series evokes. Even dopey modern movies like Turbulence appeal to me. Plane , instead, involves the human drama of survival and a redemptive story for Torrance.

Butler is convincing as Torrance; his only concern is getting his passengers out of this developing situation safely, and he won’t take crap from any passenger. Of course, he won’t take crap from a passenger, yet, when he suggests rerouting the flight around a storm that they are already aware of, the local Trailblazer senior captain denies the request, and he demurs. The film explains this but doesn’t reflect how the character handles himself. This only happens after Torrance meets his first officer, Samuel Dele (Yoson An, Mulan ), for the first time on the flight deck, an activity usually completed in the Pilot’s Briefing Room long before they board the aircraft. To be fair, the story doesn’t waste much time building on the impediments that get them in their situation in the first place.

After Trailblazer 119 encounters the storm, its navigation, radio systems, and cockpit displays fried, Torrance has one objective – to get the 14 passengers down safely. Among the passengers is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter, Marvel’s Luke Cage ), a prisoner being escorted back to the United States for extradition.

Set in the Jolo island cluster of the Philippines, the stranded passengers encounter a band of pirates led by Dantu Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor; The Punisher ). Plane finds its ground in Taylor, who is as fearsome as Dantu, though he does not count on the camaraderie between Torrance and Gaspare. They get in his way as the action kicks in, fueled by adrenaline. “But they say redemption can be found in the most unusual places,” states Gaspare at one point. Redemption is a possibility for Gaspare, but it is a certainty for Torrance, who carries an incredible feeling of responsibility for his passengers, as any captain would. This is where the realism and experience Gerard Butler brings to so many of his films is employed.

That, and his Scots accent.

This is also where the challenges with the script started. Even though the crash, the drama, and the ensuing action are interconnected through Torrance, each of the three elements is disjointed and isolated; Plane feels as if it thought its throughline wasn’t enough of a rivet to hold itself together.

As Dantu captures the passengers, the Trailblazer executive staff tries to locate the airplane (remember, no power and no radio, so there is no way for the downed plane to communicate with the outside world). They bring in Tony Goldwyn’s Scarsdale, a former special forces operative turned corporate troubleshooter. You’d never know from the suit he wears or the smile he carries that he was special forces, but for his body language, Goldwyn sells the role, glibly saying he “can solve the problems you can’t solve” to the airline executives. It is within the situation room that we witness who Torrance is.

The action kicks into high gear as a rescue effort is eventually mounted. However, given the island’s isolated location, the Rambo -level lethality of the third act takes away some of the redemptive angles the film was going for. The rescue effort isn’t The Delta Force -level either, and Butler isn’t Chuck Norris. That isn’t Plane ‘s intent. The key to Torrance is that he’s an everyday, working-class pilot who owns up to his responsibilities.

Aiding Butler, in that regard, is Brendan Galvin’s cinematography. The confines of the 727 and the isolation of Julu visually define the story, opening the audience up to the real-world dangers Torrance faces. The editing from David Rosenbloom isn’t flashy; Plane is cut-and-dry as Galvin and Rosenbloom put us into Torrance’s shoes, defining Plane ‘s foundation.

We’re drawn to Dantu’s piracy and Torrance’s ethics when we get to these points in the film. Richet’s direction is consistent; Butler plays Torrance with confidence that I didn’t expect. Because I don’t watch much television, I didn’t know what to expect from Colter, who gives a solid performance, even if his character doesn’t seem menacing for someone who supposedly committed murder.

The film gestated in pre-production for many years, and you can feel the “too many chefs, not enough cooks” syndrome bearing down on the script. Because I am a fan of airplane disaster classics, action films, and dramas, I should have been the perfect audience for Plane. With a solid foundation in Torrance, the story’s isolated elements of action, drama, and disaster don’t align.

As a survival film, Plane ’s realism ratches up the tension. As a disaster film, I’d question the realities of the aviation procedures depicted. The abilities of a problem solver to get the resources needed to mount the featured rescue happen in the real world. The action is deft and swift, even if they are heavy-handed.

The drama, though, is where Plane builds its flawed foundation, focused on one individual – Torrance. Butler sells the role. By isolating the plot from one individual whose personality is as isolated as the island they land on, the drama improves at the expense of the secondary characters, who become less essential to the immediacy of their situation. However, Joey Slotnick’s Sinclair, a passenger on the flight, gets the sniveling right, at least. A better balance between plot mechanics and character development would have allowed Plane to soar. As it sits, it’s as troubled as Trailblazer 119.

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Plane review – Gerard Butler’s rickety thriller never takes off

The actor plays a pilot tasked with an emergency landing and then an island full of criminals in a B-movie that needs some more thrills

O ne of the many reasons schlock horror M3gan become such a surprise critical darling last week was down to Universal’s crafty release strategy, sashaying into the otherwise dead zone of January, easily leaping over an extremely low bar. This week reminds us of what the month usually offers US cinema-goers – an unwanted comedy remake , a horror film for Christians and a Gerard Butler action thriller – junk that’s easy for the studios to dump and even easier for audiences to forget.

Already the subject of social media jabs because of its ridiculous title, the Butler of it all, a film about a plane called Plane, is a January movie through and through, filling empty screens just because they need filling, doing the least but at an aggressively loud volume. There have certainly been worse B-movies released in this most cursed of months (last year’s kidnapped mermaid saga The King’s Daughter and 2020’s staggeringly, almost satirically, incompetent Blake Lively thriller The Rhythm Section spring to mind) but there have also recently been far better (slay M3gan slay etc) and as such, Plane doesn’t exactly rise above that low bar but sort of meets it head-on.

For a film called Plane, there’s really not as much plane as one would hope here, disappointing given how ideal that setting can be for a B-thriller that might be in need of a lift, exemplified by Rachel MacAdams in Red Eye, Jodie Foster in Flight Plan, Liam Neeson in Non-Stop and, hopefully, Taron Egerton in the upcoming Carry On . Everything you need to know about Plane can more easily be summed up by Butler’s absurd character name – Brodie Torrance, something one would expect to find in a half-price airport potboiler. He’s a salt-of-the-earth Scottish pilot, whose character can best be described as pilot, tasked with flying a tiny number of passengers on a new year’s flight from Singapore to Tokyo (anyone who has been on a plane in the last two years will find the large number of empty seats to be the most far-fetched thing about the film).

But there’s a lightning storm which forces Butler to make an emergency landing on a remote island in the Philippines. While he manages it with the grace of an unshaven Sully, he’s then tasked with keeping his passengers safe from a killer (Mike Colter) who was being transported onboard which would be bad enough until he finds out that the island is run by a violent group of rebels who have a history of kidnapping – and killing – foreigners.

A more accurate title would then be Island, but Plane is perhaps best at least for instructing audience on the best location to watch the film, half-awake, tipsy on wine served from a litre bottle. It’s usually the kind of dross that would arrive straight to one’s rental service of choice (like Butler’s last film, Last Seen Alive) and it’s only when one digs a little deeper, that we see the budget is a pretty considerable $50m, impressive enough whenever the release in this climate but at this time of year, that makes it the equivalent of a Marvel movie (in comparison, M3gan cost just $12m). It therefore needed to launch in your local multiplex to turn a profit although, it’s often a head-scratcher trying to figure out just where that money went. The cast, outside of Butler, Colter and a few scenes of a sleep-walking Tony Goldwyn, are mostly bit-players, the action scenes are mainly just lots of shooting and the plane scenes are often strangely shaky, as if someone is dangling a model plane on a piece of string.

It’s just about diverting enough for the most part but there’s something a little off about its pacing, French director Jean-François Richet (who peaked a while back with his propulsive Mesrine movies) struggling to corral his moving parts, suspense never really arriving as it should. Instead, we get bullets, a boring amount of them in fact, with a finale based around who can shoot the most before that plane comes back into play. There are small mercies throughout: Butler is thankfully not attempting an American or, shudder, Irish accent (even if to prove he’s Scottish he says haggis in the first 15 minutes), his character is also not a readymade action hero (there’s one easy-to-empathise with moment when he takes a good 30 seconds to regain his breath after a fight) and Colter has real movie star presence on show here in bursts (even if it still feels waiting to be utilised properly).

It’s hard to hope for that much more in January and the silliness of Plane will probably do the job for those burned out by the stone-faced seriousness of awards season fodder but for a film all about unpretentious fun, I wish there had been a bit more of it.

Plane is out now in US cinemas and in the UK on 27 January

Gerard Butler
Action and adventure films

Plane: movie release date, reviews, trailer, cast and everything we know about the action flick

Gerard Butler, action star, is still fun to watch for movie fans.

Kick off the 2023 new movie slate with a bang with Plane , an action movie starring Gerard Butler, who has become the king of fan-favorite B-action movies. Under-the-radar movies like Copshop , Greenland and Angel has Fallen have been hits with fans, often because of their maybe silly but earnest concepts and fun action sequences.

If you're caught up with the 2022 movies you needed to see and you're looking for something different after the movies up for Oscars , Plane could be just the thing to go and see. Here's everything you need to know.

Plane movie release date

Plane is one of the first new movies of 2023, arriving exclusively in US movie theaters on January 13. It arrives in the UK on January 27. Here's what you need to know on how to watch Plane .

It's set to be an alternative if you've already seen M3GAN (releasing on January 6) and are not interested in the new Tom Hanks movie, A Man Called Otto (going wide in the US on January 13).

Plane movie plot

Here is the official synopsis for Plane from Lionsgate:

"In the white-knuckle action movie Plane , pilot Brodie Torrance saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island — only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare's help, and will learn there's more to Gaspare than meets the eye."

Plane movie cast

Gerard Butler stars as Brodie Torrance. Butler broke out with the epic action movie 300 and while he has tried his hand at a few different genres and been a part of some major hits (like the How to Train Your Dragon franchise), action is where he shines. He's led the Fallen trilogy ( Olympus Has Fallen , London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen ), while also getting solid notices for movies like the aforementioned Greenland , Copshop and more.

Sharing top-billing with Butler is Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare. Colter's biggest role to date was as Luke Cage in the Marvel original series, but he has also had a starring role on the Paramount Plus original series Evil . Other notable roles have included The Good Wife and Million Dollar Baby .

The rest of the Plane cast features Yoson An ( Mulan ) as Dele, Danielle Pineda ( Jurassic World: Dominion ) as Bonnie, Paul Ben-Victor ( Pam & Tommy ) as Hampton, Remi Adeleke ( The Terminal List ) as Shellback, Joey Slotnick ( Twister ) as Sinclair, Evan Dane Taylor ( The Enemy Within ) as Junmar, Claro de los Reyes as Hajan and Tony Goldwyn ( Scandal ) as Scarsdale.

Plane movie trailer

Gerard Butler and Mike Colter team up to save the day in the official trailer for Plane . Watch right here.

There's also this minute long trailer that came out in early January:

Plane movie reviews — what the critics are saying

The reviews for Plane are rolling in, including What to Watch's Plane review . In it, we say that if you're ready to turn your brain off and just enjoy the action as its being presented to you, the latest Gerard Butler action movie is not going to disappoint.

It seems that Plane is teetering on a similar kind of line with other critics, with those who can live with its routine action movie proceedings and those who wonder why we needed another example of this. As of January 11, Plane is "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes , right at the cut line of 60%.

How long is Plane movie?

Plane has a runtime of one hour and 47 minutes.

What is Plane movie rated?

Plane has been given an R rating in the US for violence and language. At this time there is no official rating for the UK.

Plane movie director

The director of Plane is France's Jean-François Richet. Most of Richet's movies are primarily in French, including Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 , though he has done some English-language films like 2005's Assault on Precinct 13 and the Mel Gibson movie Blood Father .

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

Anora: cast, reviews, plot and everything we know about the Sean Baker movie

How to watch Hit Man

This new thriller topped all other TV shows in 2023-2024. Did you watch?

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Plane review: This Gerard Butler thriller desperately needed to be more stupid

A jungle thriller with the star of ‘olympus has fallen’ should be a lot more fun than this, article bookmarked.

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Plane isn’t stupid enough. The title of this Gerard Butler action thriller, which should only be said with the monosyllabic matter-of-factness of a toddler at an airport, is so boneheaded that it craves chaotic genius in return. But Plane is stifled by just how ordinary it is, and how closely it hews to the standard tropes of action films with longer, more descriptive – yet less ridiculous – titles.

Here, Butler is parachuted into the exact kind of cheap, vaguely racist action flick that dominated the Eighties and Nineties. He plays Brodie Torrance, a commercial pilot heading up a New Year’s Eve flight from Singapore to Tokyo. It’s a budget airline. There are only 14 passengers onboard – plus, of course, a convicted criminal named Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), who’s being transferred between prisons. The plane (just a normal plane, remember) is caught up in a violent storm that Brodie is ordered to fly through. A single lightning strike later, and Brodie is guiding the aircraft back down to Earth for an impromptu landing on what turns out to be a lawless island run by separatists and criminals.

The film’s by-the-numbers, macho mentality can be neatly summed up by the fact that when Brodie evacuates from the plane, director Jean-François Richet pointedly cuts away from his hero. You can’t risk emasculating your leading man by capturing him slipping down one of those big, inflatable slides now, can you? Louis is supposedly the more experienced and ruthless of the two men – he’s at one point caught by Brodie near-skipping out of the jungle after executing a captured separatist, and the guilty look he returns is somewhat close to that of a dog who’s just been found with his nose in the cookie jar. The ever-dependable Butler, one of the least self-conscious of today’s crop of action stars, gives Brodie just a touch of panicked witlessness in contrast.

But Brodie and Louis are conveniently both military veterans, so it doesn’t make all that much difference. Plane , in fact, sees such little separation between their characters that it only bothers to offer a proper conclusion to one of their storylines. What’s important is that they are men, with sweat-soaked shirts and suppressed trauma. There’s also one woman onboard, with Daniella Pineda’s stoic cabin crew member Bonnie being the character third-closest to having any discernible personality.

Beyond a cross-cut series of shots between a guy in a plane and a guy in a jeep caught in a vehicular Mexican standoff, there’s not much that’s genuinely fun about Plane . It exists in that tiresome world of just-about-believability, with none of the gung-ho spirit that stops you questioning how any of this would work. Maybe Butler should make something like “Truck” next time – see if he has better luck there.

You People review: Netflix’s star-studded culture clash romcom is a disjointed mess

Dir: Jean-François Richet. Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Remi Adeleke. 15, 107 minutes.

‘Plane’ is in cinemas from 27 January

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the blue angels.

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"The Blue Angels," a nonfiction film about the Navy's flight demonstration team, was made for IMAX, in two senses of the phrase.

First, technically: according to Cineworld's website , "'The Blue Angels' was shot with Sony's Venice 2 IMAX-certified digital cameras and features IMAX exclusive Expanded Aspect Ratio (EAR) throughout."

Second: it's mainly, perhaps almost exclusively, a spectacle, and as much of a demonstration of new technology and the professionals who've mastered it as the Blue Angels themselves.

There are lots of low-angled "heroic" shots of the pilots and moving shots taken from over their shoulders with a Steadicam as they stride through long corridors, and slow-motion shots of them walking towards and away from planes, taking off sunglasses and putting them on, and moments where they move abreast in a "power walk" formation familiar from many a Hollywood action flick. The movie is an ad for The Blue Angels, the Navy, planes, the military generally, and an iconography-based sense of patriotism, as much as the " Top Gun " films, the first of which was memorably described by New Yorker critic Pauline Kael as "a recruiting poster that isn't concerned with recruiting but with being a poster." (The precision flying showcased in the "Top Gun" movies is inspired by The Blue Angels, and it just so happens that one of this film's producers is Glen Powell , costar of " Top Gun: Maverick .")

And the flying itself? And the filming of it? It's technically impressive. Not surprisingly framed, much less poetic (probably almost no one wanted that), but impressive. I saw The Blue Angels a couple of times as a kid and remember thinking that it seemed physically impossible for such large metal objects to fly so close to one another while roaring through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour. But they did it. They do it here, again, for the IMAX cameras, which seemingly were affixed to multiple parts of the planes' exteriors and cockpits. (How is it possible that we never see those cameras in the shots? Were they digitally erased later? Or are the cameras just that small, and the camera crew just that smart?)

Director Paul Crowder , who also helped edit the movie, tries to find a narrative through-line by sketching out the members of the Blue Angels team. He focuses mainly (though not exclusively) on the Commanding Officer and Flight Leader, aka " Boss ," Captain Brian Kesselring, who eventually left the Angels and is now Deputy Commander, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5. "My feeling is, you should never feel too comfortable in the suit," he says.

Other members of the squadron drift in and out of the foreground. There's a bit of material about the strain placed on marriages and families by the pilots being on the road 300 days a year, but no talk of affairs, divorces, or anything like that (the Navy wouldn't have permitted it anyway). Towards the end of the movie, through a fluke of production timing, we also get to meet the Blue Angels' first-ever female pilot, Amanda Lee , and watch her be inducted.

But make no mistake: the planes are the stars of this production, and as hard as the filmmakers try to reassure us that there are human stories going on as well, the precision flying and all the training and practice that allow it to exist are what everyone paid to see, and the movie never forgets it.

The cutting almost never lingers on shots, though, which may seem odd. If you're going to shoot and exhibit in IMAX, complete with state-of-the-art, bone-rattling surround-sound, why not let the viewer experience a " scissors cross ," a " delta breakout " or a " loop break cross " from the perspective of one of the flyers for a long enough stretch that it feels as if the G-forces are bearing down?

Still, the totality does leave an impression, thanks to the crystal-clear imagery (by Jessica Young , Lance Benson, and Michael FitzMaurice ) and the diving, climbing, rolling aircraft. The moments that resonate aren't just about the flying, but the emotion the pilots feel as they appreciate what it was like to become part of an elite group that has inducted just 260 people since its creation in 1946.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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<p>Airplanes changed travel. They also changed movies. Over the years, many a film has been set on a plane, or largely revolved around a plane. There have been thrillers, horror movies, and comedies built on the back of the fact sometimes people are way up there in the air with nowhere to go. Here are the airplane movies that have stuck in our memories.</p>

Airplanes changed travel. They also changed movies. Over the years, many a film has been set on a plane, or largely revolved around a plane. There have been thrillers, horror movies, and comedies built on the back of the fact sometimes people are way up there in the air with nowhere to go. Here are the airplane movies that have stuck in our memories.

<p>Sure, maybe it’s a little weird to begin with a plane movie that is a parody of previous plane movies. However, the plane-related disaster movie era has kind of been forgotten, but “Airplane!” remains an iconic comedy. When we think of movies about commercial flights, the one we think of first is this, perhaps the greatest parody film ever made. It's also one of the <a href="https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_best_movies_to_watch_on_an_airplane/s1__38828966#slide_1" rel="noopener noreferrer">best films to watch while flying on an airplane</a>, incidentally.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/23_cast_members_you_probably_forgot_were_on_saturday_night_live/s1__38839921'>23 cast members you probably forgot were on 'Saturday Night Live'</a></p>

“Airplane!” (1980)

Sure, maybe it’s a little weird to begin with a plane movie that is a parody of previous plane movies. However, the plane-related disaster movie era has kind of been forgotten, but “Airplane!” remains an iconic comedy. When we think of movies about commercial flights, the one we think of first is this, perhaps the greatest parody film ever made. It's also one of the best films to watch while flying on an airplane , incidentally.

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<p>“Get off my plane!” With those words, Harrison Ford’s President James Marshall became an action movie icon. “Air Force One” isn’t the best ‘90s political action flick, but <a href="https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_facts_you_might_not_know_about_air_force_one/s1__37717559" rel="noopener noreferrer">it is a fun one</a>. Terrorists get on the President’s plane, and he’s left to try and thwart them.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Air Force One” (1997)

“Get off my plane!” With those words, Harrison Ford’s President James Marshall became an action movie icon. “Air Force One” isn’t the best ‘90s political action flick, but it is a fun one . Terrorists get on the President’s plane, and he’s left to try and thwart them.

<p>You may have never seen “Zero Hour!,” but if you watch it, the film will likely feel familiar. “Airplane!” is primarily a parody of this film. It’s a solid enough ‘50s thriller from a time when movies set on planes weren’t exactly ubiquitous. “Zero Hour!” really helped set the standards, which then also set up the parodies.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_stupid_movies_that_are_actually_genius/s1__38437935'>20 stupid movies that are actually genius</a></p>

“Zero Hour!” (1957)

You may have never seen “Zero Hour!,” but if you watch it, the film will likely feel familiar. “Airplane!” is primarily a parody of this film. It’s a solid enough ‘50s thriller from a time when movies set on planes weren’t exactly ubiquitous. “Zero Hour!” really helped set the standards, which then also set up the parodies.

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<p>Denzel Washington rolls a commercial airliner. It’s wild. This is the first film on this list where a plane is crucial to the plot, but it is not set almost entirely on a plane. There is a lot of this Robert Zemeckis film where Washington is on the ground, using drugs, getting drunk, and dealing with the inquiry into what happened when, again, the dude rolled a commercial plane.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Flight” (2012)

Denzel Washington rolls a commercial airliner. It’s wild. This is the first film on this list where a plane is crucial to the plot, but it is not set almost entirely on a plane. There is a lot of this Robert Zemeckis film where Washington is on the ground, using drugs, getting drunk, and dealing with the inquiry into what happened when, again, the dude rolled a commercial plane.

<p>Clint Eastwood directs a Tom Hanks movie wherein Hanks plays a heroic pilot. A pilot named Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, at that. It’s Eastwood, which is to say, straightforward and to the point. However, that isn’t a bad thing. Many people talk highly of “Sully” as the kind of quality adult drama that doesn’t get made all that often anymore.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_most_controversial_moments_cma_awards_history/s1__27716366'>The most controversial moments CMA Awards history</a></p>

“Sully” (2016)

Clint Eastwood directs a Tom Hanks movie wherein Hanks plays a heroic pilot. A pilot named Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, at that. It’s Eastwood, which is to say, straightforward and to the point. However, that isn’t a bad thing. Many people talk highly of “Sully” as the kind of quality adult drama that doesn’t get made all that often anymore.

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<p>Here is a “one memorable stretch on a plane in a film not largely about planes” entry. When you think of “Bridesmaids,” what set piece do you think of first? OK, now forget about the Brazilian restaurant experience and think about the second iconic comedy set piece from the beloved Kristen Wiig comedy. It’s when the whole crew is on that plane. Wiig’s character is drugged out. Melissa McCarthy seduces an air marshal. Good times.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Bridesmaids” (2011)

Here is a “one memorable stretch on a plane in a film not largely about planes” entry. When you think of “Bridesmaids,” what set piece do you think of first? OK, now forget about the Brazilian restaurant experience and think about the second iconic comedy set piece from the beloved Kristen Wiig comedy. It’s when the whole crew is on that plane. Wiig’s character is drugged out. Melissa McCarthy seduces an air marshal. Good times.

<p>Suddenly, in the 1970s, airport movies became a big thing. Specifically, the “Airport” series, of which they made four in the decade. “Airport,” the first film, was a true sensation, and a critical darling. Helen Hayes won an Oscar for the film, and it was nominated for Best Picture as well.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/horror_ble_21_terrible_scary_movies_we_still_love_to_watch/s1__38499797'>Horror-ble: 21 terrible scary movies we still love to watch</a></p>

“Airport” (1970)

Suddenly, in the 1970s, airport movies became a big thing. Specifically, the “Airport” series, of which they made four in the decade. “Airport,” the first film, was a true sensation, and a critical darling. Helen Hayes won an Oscar for the film, and it was nominated for Best Picture as well.

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<p>The anthology movie based on the anthology sci-fi show is flawed. Also, the John Landis section is effectively unwatchable for multiple reasons. That being said, George Miller directed an adaptation of one of the quintessential “Twilight Zone” stories, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” John Lithgow plays an airline passenger who sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane, but nobody believes him.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983)

The anthology movie based on the anthology sci-fi show is flawed. Also, the John Landis section is effectively unwatchable for multiple reasons. That being said, George Miller directed an adaptation of one of the quintessential “Twilight Zone” stories, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” John Lithgow plays an airline passenger who sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane, but nobody believes him.

<p>“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” the TV episode, helped stoke the rise of the horror story set on a plane. “Red Eye” is a straight-up horror film, or maybe more of a thriller, directed by none other than Wes Craven. The horror master helmed a story where Rachel McAdams’ character finds herself sitting next to Cillian Murphy who, unsurprisingly, turns out to be a menacing man with sinister motives.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_facts_you_might_not_know_about_theres_something_about_mary_032024/s1__37717079'>20 facts you might not know about 'There's Something About Mary'</a></p>

“Red Eye” (2005)

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” the TV episode, helped stoke the rise of the horror story set on a plane. “Red Eye” is a straight-up horror film, or maybe more of a thriller, directed by none other than Wes Craven. The horror master helmed a story where Rachel McAdams’ character finds herself sitting next to Cillian Murphy who, unsurprisingly, turns out to be a menacing man with sinister motives.

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<p>Look, in the end, the title delivered more than the movie. “Snakes on the Plane” was a meme that came to life. The film was a shrug, and it was kind of a flop. However, “Snakes on the Plane” still amused people on the internet, and Samuel L. Jackson got to say that one line. as well as give us <a href="https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_best_samuel_l_jackson_roles/s1__38238376" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of his best on-screen roles</a>.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Snakes on a Plane” (2006)

Look, in the end, the title delivered more than the movie. “Snakes on the Plane” was a meme that came to life. The film was a shrug, and it was kind of a flop. However, “Snakes on the Plane” still amused people on the internet, and Samuel L. Jackson got to say that one line. as well as give us one of his best on-screen roles .

<p>This may be the only wacky comedy, non-parody version set on a plane. It’s the kind of film where Snoop Dog plays an airplane pilot. Does hilarity ensue? Not so much, and it was a flop. That being said, we definitely remember the ads for it, and the fact that “Soul Plane” exists.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/21_celebrity_siblings_that_prove_talent_is_genetic/s1__38832288'>21 celebrity siblings that prove talent is genetic</a></p>

“Soul Plane (2004)

This may be the only wacky comedy, non-parody version set on a plane. It’s the kind of film where Snoop Dog plays an airplane pilot. Does hilarity ensue? Not so much, and it was a flop. That being said, we definitely remember the ads for it, and the fact that “Soul Plane” exists.

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<p>“Con Air” is an out-there ‘90s action film, and one look at the cast would make that clear. When Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and John Malkovich come together, you know things are probably going to get bonkers. Especially since, you know, this is a movie about a plane full of convicts where things, shall we say, go awry. Check out <a href="https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_facts_you_might_not_know_about_con_air/s1__38618716" rel="noopener noreferrer">20 facts you might not know about the film.</a></p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Con Air” (1997)

“Con Air” is an out-there ‘90s action film, and one look at the cast would make that clear. When Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and John Malkovich come together, you know things are probably going to get bonkers. Especially since, you know, this is a movie about a plane full of convicts where things, shall we say, go awry. Check out 20 facts you might not know about the film.

<p>Speaking of planes full of convicts, “U.S. Marshals” is the sequel to “The Fugitive.” It’s not as good, but it makes the decision to one-up the prisoner-escape scene from the classic original. This time, a plane full of convicts, and law enforcement officials, crashes, into the water no less. Here, Wesley Snipes’ not Dr. Richard Kimble is able to make his escape.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_top_selling_rock_albums_of_all_time/s1__38500633'>The 25 top-selling rock albums of all time</a></p>

“U.S. Marshals” (1998)

Speaking of planes full of convicts, “U.S. Marshals” is the sequel to “The Fugitive.” It’s not as good, but it makes the decision to one-up the prisoner-escape scene from the classic original. This time, a plane full of convicts, and law enforcement officials, crashes, into the water no less. Here, Wesley Snipes’ not Dr. Richard Kimble is able to make his escape.

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<p>There are a few distinct segments of “Dr. Strangelove,” Stanley Kubrick’s indelible war satire. While Peter Sellers is not in the plane portion, it is still quite memorable. Slim Pickens plays Major “King” Kong, who has received an inaccurate message that leads him on a mission to bomb the Soviet Union, which would trigger a civilization-destroying war. Cue Pickens riding a nuke like it’s a bucking bronco.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Dr. Strangelove” (1964)

There are a few distinct segments of “Dr. Strangelove,” Stanley Kubrick’s indelible war satire. While Peter Sellers is not in the plane portion, it is still quite memorable. Slim Pickens plays Major “King” Kong, who has received an inaccurate message that leads him on a mission to bomb the Soviet Union, which would trigger a civilization-destroying war. Cue Pickens riding a nuke like it’s a bucking bronco.

<p>What about “Non-Stop,” though? Liam Neeson was in his bag as a guy making B-minus/C-plus action flicks and thrillers during the time “Non-Stop” dropped. This time, it’s on a plane. There is actually quite a supporting cast in this film as well behind Neeson, and the film was a big hit.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_facts_you_might_not_know_about_avengers_endgame_032024/s1__38010735'>20 facts you might not know about 'Avengers: Endgame'</a></p>

“Non-Stop” (2014)

What about “Non-Stop,” though? Liam Neeson was in his bag as a guy making B-minus/C-plus action flicks and thrillers during the time “Non-Stop” dropped. This time, it’s on a plane. There is actually quite a supporting cast in this film as well behind Neeson, and the film was a big hit.

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<p>A psychological thriller that dips into the world of horror, “Flightplan” starts Jodie Foster on a plane with her daughter, and then her daughter disappears. All throughout the plane, Foster runs into people who insist her daughter was never on the plane. What’s going on? How could a person disappear entirely on a plane? That’s the crux of “Flightplan.”</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Flightplan” (2005)

A psychological thriller that dips into the world of horror, “Flightplan” starts Jodie Foster on a plane with her daughter, and then her daughter disappears. All throughout the plane, Foster runs into people who insist her daughter was never on the plane. What’s going on? How could a person disappear entirely on a plane? That’s the crux of “Flightplan.”

<p>“Final Destination” spawned a lengthy, low-budget horror franchise. It’s built to churn out cheap, satisfying films, as it is about the abstract concept of death coming to kill people who cheat death and to do so in elaborate, ridiculous ways. First, though, death must be cheated. “Final Destination” kicks it all off with Devon Sawa playing a teenager who foresees a plane explosion and convinces his friends to get off the plane.</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_20_best_marvel_and_dc_movies_that_arent_part_of_the_mcu_or_dceu_032024/s1__38791213'>The 20 best Marvel and DC movies that aren’t part of the MCU or DCEU</a></p>

“Final Destination” (2000)

“Final Destination” spawned a lengthy, low-budget horror franchise. It’s built to churn out cheap, satisfying films, as it is about the abstract concept of death coming to kill people who cheat death and to do so in elaborate, ridiculous ways. First, though, death must be cheated. “Final Destination” kicks it all off with Devon Sawa playing a teenager who foresees a plane explosion and convinces his friends to get off the plane.

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<p>“View from the Top” doesn’t fully work. It doesn’t seem to land on a tone. However, it’s still remembered as the comedy(?) where Gwyneth Paltrow plays a flight attendant. While it didn’t fully work, it’s the one flight attendant comedy we can think of.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“View from the Top” (2003)

“View from the Top” doesn’t fully work. It doesn’t seem to land on a tone. However, it’s still remembered as the comedy(?) where Gwyneth Paltrow plays a flight attendant. While it didn’t fully work, it’s the one flight attendant comedy we can think of.

<p>This is the second Wesley Snipes film on the list. He was a massive action star in the ‘90s, whether on a train or a plane. “Passenger 57” is kind of like a smaller-scale “Con Air” without the wilder elements. Snipes plays a guy who has been a soldier, a cop, and a Secret Service agent who just so happens to be on the same flight as…the world’s most infamous terrorist who is being transported for trial? Sure, why not?</p><p>You may also like: <a href='https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_movies_you_might_not_know_that_were_adapted_from_books/s1__38836882'>20 movies you might not know that were adapted from books</a></p>

“Passenger 57” (1992)

This is the second Wesley Snipes film on the list. He was a massive action star in the ‘90s, whether on a train or a plane. “Passenger 57” is kind of like a smaller-scale “Con Air” without the wilder elements. Snipes plays a guy who has been a soldier, a cop, and a Secret Service agent who just so happens to be on the same flight as…the world’s most infamous terrorist who is being transported for trial? Sure, why not?

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<p>“Money Plane” delivered in the ways “Snakes on the Plane” just didn’t. Oh, it’s a bad movie. Nobody was expecting a good movie, though. “Money Plane” delivered what we expected from everything “Money Plane” promised. It’s dumb but fun in its dumb way.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Money Plane” (2020)

“Money Plane” delivered in the ways “Snakes on the Plane” just didn’t. Oh, it’s a bad movie. Nobody was expecting a good movie, though. “Money Plane” delivered what we expected from everything “Money Plane” promised. It’s dumb but fun in its dumb way.

<p>It was the title revealed in a trailer heard around the world. Yes, the movie is called “Plane.” It’s a shrug of an action movie starring Gerald Butler. How could we not include a movie that is called “Plane” on a list of plane films? It may not be good, but it is, in multiple ways, a plane movie.</p><p><a href='https://www.msn.com/en-us/community/channel/vid-cj9pqbr0vn9in2b6ddcd8sfgpfq6x6utp44fssrv6mc2gtybw0us'>Did you enjoy this slideshow? Follow us on MSN to see more of our exclusive entertainment content.</a></p>

“Plane” (2023)

It was the title revealed in a trailer heard around the world. Yes, the movie is called “Plane.” It’s a shrug of an action movie starring Gerald Butler. How could we not include a movie that is called “Plane” on a list of plane films? It may not be good, but it is, in multiple ways, a plane movie.

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'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' spoilers! Here's what the ending really means

Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points and the ending of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ( in theaters now ), so swing to another treetop if you haven’t seen it yet.

The original "Planet of the Apes" movie rocked audiences in 1968 with its combination of astounding makeup and shocking ending. Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston), free of his ape tormentors and on a horseback trek along a beach, comes across the vestiges of the Statue of Liberty.

Thinking he had landed on a distant planet, Taylor suddenly is confronted with the grim reality that he's actually journeyed to a future Earth decimated by warmongering humans. "You maniacs!" he screams. "You blew it up!"

After eight follow-up films − including a recent reboot trilogy that wrapped in 2017 − comes "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," with final scenes that seem poised to launch a new series.

Set generations after the death of Caesar, the simian leader in the rebooted trilogy, "Kingdom" features a brave but naive ape, Noa (Owen Teague), who befriends an intrepid human, Mae (Freya Allan). Their intertwined journeys culminate in an intriguing ending about which the actors and director Wes Ball offer cryptic comments.

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What happens in the ending of 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'?

Noa lives in the blissful world of the Eagle Clan of chimps, who have made their home in overgrown utility pole towers. But that bliss comes to an end when his camp is overrun by aggressive apes from a nearby valley who like to hunt humans − who are now feral, nonverbal beasts − for sport.

In one such invasion, the apes capture both Noa and Mae, who we later learn has retained the ability to speak. The two of them are brought to a chimpanzee labor camp, where they learn to trust each other. Mae reveals that a cave the evil apes are trying to break into contains important technology that can help her reconnect with other sentient humans.

The duo succeeds in their mission, allowing Noa to rebuild his clan and Mae to deliver a critical computer cartridge to a group of humans who live in a bunker filled with satellite technology. In the final scene of the movie, Mae is with these scientists, all clearly survivors of the human-dominated Earth, who reboot radio telescopes and make voice contact with other humans. Noa meanwhile is shown taking his close friend Anaya to an abandoned telescope and she peers through the lens. What does Anaya see in space?

The screen suddenly fades to black.

Is the planet Noa and Anaya are looking at through the telescope Earth?

It's tempting to think that the twist here is that the apes no longer live on Earth and that the humans on this planet are using a radio telescope to connect with people back on our blue marble.

But no, the action takes place on Earth. The giveaways are found not just in the various overgrown buildings and streets seen in the film, but in the specificity of one shot that features the remnants of the parabolic arches that define the center of Los Angeles International Airport.

"Imagine that, if we weren't told (as actors) that we are all actually on Mars," Allan says with a laugh. "But no, my character has maps of towns." Addes Teague: "We're all in LA."

So what planet are the chimps looking at through the telescope at the end of 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'?

Earlier in the movie, Noa comes across a huge abandoned telescope and peers through its small eyepiece and is startled by what he sees. But we don't know what it is. At the end of the movie, he feels compelled to bring his friend to see for herself.

The decision to fade to black instead of revealing what the two saw was an easy one for Ball. "I figured there is nothing I could show you that would be stronger than what the audience's imagination would conjure up," he says. "Sure, it might turn some people off, but some people will like it. I have ideas of what they're looking at."

Mars, maybe? Ball laughs. "Right, they're looking at (SpaceX founder) Elon Musk flying around on his Falcon 9 rocket," he says. "But I'll just say this. Space obviously is a key idea in all of these movies. So, maybe it's them looking to the future?"

Why Did Tom Hanks' FedEx Plane Crash in Cast Away?

The plane crash in Cast Away is a mystery that's never definitively explained. But could the cause of the accident be hidden in the movie?

In Cast Away , a sudden plane crash kicks off Chuck Noland's journey to discover fresh hope and the will to survive.
The cause of the plane crash is never explicitly confirmed in the film, which prefers to focus on Noland's adventure and the theme of self-discovery.
However, a few key details reveal the true cause of the plane crash in Cast Away .

The 2000 film Cast Away is a riveting tale of a man stranded on a deserted island with nothing but his wits and will to survive. Director Robert Zemeckis lays out the evolution of Tom Hanks' character as he reaches the beach, lost and confused, and leaves it determined and hopeful. It helped the film become a critical and commercial hit, as well as scoring an Oscar nomination for Hanks in one of the better roles of his career. The film even created a small but notable pop-culture icon, Wilson, the volleyball Hanks' character anthropomorphizes to fend off loneliness.

Hanks' Chuck Noland is a FedEx systems engineer devoted to his job and delivering packages on time. However, just before the holidays, he takes a last-minute trip to Malaysia that ends in disaster. While flying through a storm, something happens that causes the plane to crash, leaving Noland as the sole survivor. Even though he survives, the real trick is to continue living on the island he washes ashore. However, while his journey is detailed throughout the film, the cause of the plane crash that strands him is left ambiguous. What happened to the FedEx plane? The film is told almost entirely from Noland's point of view, and he himself is uncertain what happened besides the fact that it goes down. The other details require a little sleuthing to spot.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on May 25, 2024: Almost twenty-five years after its release, Cast Away remains an important part of Tom Hanks's and Robert Zemeckis's shared filmography. This article has been updated with additional info from the film and to meet CBR's updated formatting guidelines.

What Caused the Plane Crash in Cast Away?

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The crash in Cast Away is abrupt to both Tom Hanks's Chuck Noland and the audience. He's seen in the bathroom removing a bandage before a bang decompresses the cabin. The plane entered a violent storm and encountered turbulence, which didn't initially concern him. It's a key moment because it helps the audience identify with him more closely. Most people have been on an airplane when it hits a little turbulence and are invariably informed that it's nothing to worry about.

Noland is no different and even chats amiably with the pilots for a bit before it becomes apparent that something more serious is wrong. Communications have gone down, and the plane is some 200 miles off-course. Noland goes into the bathroom rather than buckling up as the pilots tell him. Shortly thereafter, the plane runs into a serious problem, leaving him to hold on for dear life. It's generally believed the storm caused the accident because the pilots are seemingly lost and without communication.

It makes for a key plot point because it means Noland is unlikely to be rescued if he remains on the island. Although it doesn't happen as often as it used to, plane accidents due to storms still occur, and it's not beyond reason to assume the same happens to Noland. Furthermore, he's sufficiently confused, and the conditions are sufficiently chaotic to hide the true cause. Regardless of the cause, Noland's life is in peril, and he's left stranded with little hope of anyone coming for him. The reason — storm or otherwise — is superfluous to his circumstances.

Mislabeled Materials Caused the Plane Crash in Cast Away

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However, following Noland's rescue, his ex-wife Kelly explained the storm had nothing to do with the accident. Instead, it was likely caused by potentially mislabeled hazardous material in the cargo hold. While the explanation seems as outlandish as flying through a storm, multiple clues are given throughout the crash scene to help confirm Kelly's explanation. The first occurs right before Chuck's life is turned upside down.

While in the bathroom, audiences hear a bang just before the cabin depressurizes. Although the focus is on Chuck, who is scared and confused about what's happening, it's essential to hear what the pilots say as one reaches Chuck. In the background, one of the pilots yells, "explosion!" Seconds later, he also says a partially muffled line that sounds like "somewhere in the hold," potentially discussing the origins of the accident. This is further justified when Hanks escapes the plane and stares at the plane's wreckage as it sinks.

There's a massive fire and explosion that, while possible due to an engine, is more likely from hazardous materials . It would also result in the decompression the plane experiences while sending it crashing into the sea. The explanation is particularly interesting for off-camera reasons. FedEx is a major corporation . Its business is connected to its ability to get anything anywhere in the world safely and swiftly. If the film's fictional plane crash comes down to the company mishandling a package or carrying unsafe materials — however inadvertently — it strongly suggests that they're not as safe and reliable as they claim.

Nonetheless, FedEx agreed to put its name and logo on the film, either because they felt the free publicity was worth it (the FedEx logo is front and center much of the time) or because they felt audiences wouldn't associate the company with a fictional plane crash, or because Noland's status as a dedicated and efficient employee offset the negative implications. Whatever the reason, the gamble paid off since the film has aged well and gives the company long-term visibility. But it's enough to leave media-savvy viewers looking to the storm as an explanation rather than a fatal in-universe mistake from FedEx.

Cast Away Uses the Storm as Symbolism

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One of the big reasons the storm looms so large in people's minds is the potent (and overt) symbolism it holds. While the cause of the explosion turns out to be something different, the storm itself is a spot-on representation of a sudden cataclysm. It stresses one of Cast Away's big points: that the comforts of civilization breed complacency , and modern lives can still fall into dire peril through happenstance and fate.

That feeds into another of the film's central themes about how unexpected situations can define a person for the rest of their life. It also reveals to Noland how important it is to live in the moment and to appreciate small victories, such as his successful creation of fire on the island and the one FedEx package he leaves unopened (and ultimately delivers to its intended recipient).

In light of that, the cause of the crash remains irrelevant. Cast Away isn't meant to explore the mysteries of why Noland ends up in his situation. Indeed, had he known for sure why the plane crashed, it would have diminished his experiences on the island and reduced the impact of his slow evolution into a self-sufficient survivor over the next four years. To some extent, the mystery stays with him all that time, leaving him to wonder what happened and find a zen-like peace in understanding that it really doesn't matter.

That being said, for a good story, it's important to give audiences an explanation for certain events. So rather than spend too much time on it, Cast Away puts viewers in Chuck's shoes and provides only information he would hear, leaving the crash loosely ambiguous. That allows the audience to better identify with him as he struggles to survive on the island. The explanation becomes secondary to that journey, and Cast Away is willing to chance a little viewer uncertainty to focus on the protagonist. It arrives organically as part of the story, making it easy to overlook amid the viewers' focus on Noland. In that sense, the obscurity of the explanation for the plane crash proves how well Cast Away adheres to its purpose.

How Does Tom Hanks Escape The Island In Cast Away?

Thankfully, the survival film doesn't end on a note of tragedy but rather a triumph. After four years of isolation, Tom Hanks's Chuck Noland finally manages to escape the island. After discovering a piece of a destroyed porta-potty on the shore, Chuck fashions a makeshift raft and embarks on a daring voyage. Knowing that his best chance at survival is to leave the island, Chuck braves the open waters and sails with his good friend, the volleyball Wilson, toward salvation. However, he is caught in yet another storm, which knocks him into the churning waters.

Without any recourse, Chuck falls victim to the raging sea, losing Wilson in the process. Unable to save his "friend," Chuck is alone in the world once more. However, in a positive twist of fate, Chuck is reduced by a passing cargo ship, which brings him back to civilization. At long last, Chuck's long trial is ended and he returns to his family and friends.

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A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.

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