Flightplan (2005)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Robert Schwentke

Writers (WGA):

Peter A. Dowling (written by) and
Billy Ray (written by)

Release Date:

23 September 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

If Someone Took Everything You Live For... How Far Would You Go To Get It Back?

Plot:

A claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.

Plot Keywords:

Casket | Apartment | Air Marshal | Home | Coffin

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Jodie Foster	...	Kyle Pratt
Peter Sarsgaard	...	Carson
Sean Bean	...	Captain Rich
Kate Beahan	...	Stephanie
Michael Irby	...	Obaid
Assaf Cohen	...	Ahmed
Erika Christensen	...	Fiona
Shane Edelman	...	Mr. Loud
Mary Gallagher	...	Mrs. Loud
Haley Ramm	...	Brittany Loud
Forrest Landis	...	Rhett Loud
Jana Kolesarova	...	Claudia
Brent Sexton	...	Elias
Marlene Lawston	...	Julia
Judith Scott	...	Estella

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and some intense plot material.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Arabic | Italian | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Taiwan:PG-12 | Finland:K-11 | Indonesia:Dewasa | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | Germany:12 (f) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Brazil:14 | Sweden:11 | Czech Republic:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Iceland:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41961) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | South Korea:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

The cartoon that is played on the monitor when Kyle wakes up is "Kenny the Shark" (2003).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The PA at the airport in Berlin welcomes the passengers to "Berlin International airport". However, Berlin does not have one, but two international airports, Tegel and Schönefeld (and at the time of the movie, also Tempelhof), so the PA would have specified which one.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mortuary Director: [in German, subtitled] Would you like a moment of privacy before the casket is sealed?
Kyle: [hesitantly] Okay.

Movie Connections:

Features Cast Away (2000)

Soundtrack:

Silent Poet

A mediocre time at the movies

The number one rule in making a thriller is, if you're ripping off Hitchcock, make sure you do it right! The movie's plot is very simply Hitchcockian -- a woman, Jodie Foster, loses her little girl aboard an international flight several thousands of feet in the air, and nobody on board remembers seeing the little girl at all, much less her disappearance. The movie's full of simple plot elements: a desperate mother, the claustrophobic atmosphere of the plane and the helpless skepticism of the airline personnel. The problem is the plot ultimately makes no internal sense, and the underlying emotional issues, while beautifully played by the talented Ms. Foster, are idiotic as well. All movies like this are manipulative by nature, but the really good ones hide the strings (Hitchcock was a Master of this art) while the bad ones, like Flightplan, display their flaws so obviously you find yourself sitting in the theater snorting at the improbability of what's happening. The big twist that's supposed to shock doesn't make sense, supposedly intelligent characters act extremely stupidly and the emotional manipulation is ham-handed and ineffective.

So -- what did this movie do right? The performances are uniformly decent, though not in themselves interesting enough to save the movie. And the director keeps the movie from utter pointlessness by keeping the movie visually interesting. The movie's color palette is blue and grays, and the airplane is full of sleek curves and surfaces. The camera does all sorts of tricks, like filming a conversation from the outside of the windows, but which ultimately does nothing for the story or the movie overall.

I didn't hate this movie, mostly I was dismissive of it. Nothing engaged me, or interested me, and the ending made me roll my eyes. It's true: a bad script kills a film every time.