'Fight or Flight' Soars
If you like dumb action movies, then this is your film. There's nothing wrong with silly action flicks. They provide great entertainment when they work. Fight or Flight is almost consistently fun, with a few hiccups in the middle act. The movie is a comedic action thriller that has many twists and turns, making you wonder how our protagonist will get out alive. The film features wonderful high-octane action that doesn't go easy on the blood factor. There are some gloriously gruesome kills that will have you giggling if you're sick like me.
The movie starts with a bang. We see the interior of a plane where the passengers are all trying to kill each other. Some have knives, others have Uzis, and some are fighting with their fists. How were some passengers able to squeeze guns into the plane? It's a plothole, but it's also the kind of film where it doesn't care if it has plotholes. Its main concern is for the audience to suspend their area of disbelief and enjoy the ride. A part of the plane breaks open, sending some unlucky passengers falling to their deaths. The Blue Danube Waltz accompanies all of this mayhem for comedic irony. It's a sequence where you don't know what's going on but will find out later, as the film doesn't begin linearly until after the opening scene.
We then cut to 12 hours earlier; we find out that Agent Aaron Hunter (Julian Kostov) is trying to seek someone called The Ghost, a high-profile target the agency is after. We then cut to Bangkok, where our protagonist, Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett), is resting on a beach tanning chair. When he wakes up, he springs out of his chair, indicating that Lucas is suffering from some sort of PTSD. To handle his rude awakening, Lucas drinks from a bottle of hard liquor. He later goes to the bar to drink some more. When his phone rings, it's under the name of "Absolute F****g Co." It's indicated through his former boss, Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff), that she needs him to apprehend a target on a plane and bring them to the United States. After cussing out Brunt, Lucas reluctantly agrees to board the plane, where some madness is about to happen.
Not only is Lucas on the plane to hunt down The Ghost, but we later find out that almost every passenger on that plane is out to get the same target. But then the gears switch again to make Lucas' flight a living hell. Once the picture establishes its premise, things go wild. The movie takes one plot twist after another, which would usually not work in most films, but in this picture, it works to its advantage. The stakes keep getting higher with each twist. Lucas is completely outnumbered. In order to survive, he works with a flight attendant named Isha (Charithra Chandran), who's more than just another flight attendant.
James Hartnett is great in this film. He knows how to play a twitchy, strung-out alcoholic really well. He delivers his lines with an embellished gravitas, where Harnett clearly knows he's doing a comedy. Katee Sackhoff makes for a calm yet verbally abusive boss lady who knows her stuff well. The rest of the performances are serviceable, but nothing really noteworthy. Fight or Flight shine in its bonkers premise that delivers itself in spades. Unlike most action movies, where the action is hard to make out what's going on on-screen, the camera keeps itself wide and focused on capturing all the stuntwork it can.
Fight or Flight is a B movie starring an A-list actor, and it couldn't have worked any better. From Hartnett's funny line delivery to the way-over-the-top action, Fight or Flight is a trip worth taking. It does set the stage for a sequel, but I think the concept alone of a bunch of mercenaries killing each other within a small plane is tight enough to work for only one film. Despite some brief, dull exposition scenes, Fight or Flight is a blast of an action comedy that will make you giddy for the next kill.
