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Critics Consensus

Plane charts a standard action-adventure course with its cruising altitude just a few miles above Direct-to-Video -- but with Gerard Butler in the cockpit, thriller enthusiasts will still find this a fun flight. Read critic reviews

Audience Says

Check your critical thinking at the gate: The plot's preposterous and loaded with entertaining action, making Plane plenty of good old-fashioned fun. Read audience reviews

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In the white-knuckle action movie PLANE, pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) 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.

Rating: R (Violence and Language)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Jean-François Richet

Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura , Mark Vahradian , Marc Butan , Gerard Butler , Alan Siegel , Jason Constantine , Eda Kowan , Ara Keshishian

Writer: Charles Cumming , J.P. Davis

Release Date (Theaters): Jan 13, 2023 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Feb 2, 2023

Box Office (Gross USA): $32.1M

Runtime: 1h 47m

Distributor: Lionsgate

Production Co: G-BASE, MadRiver Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Olive Hill Media, The Searchers NV

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Gerard Butler

Brodie Torrance

Mike Colter

Louis Gaspare

Daniella Pineda

Paul Ben-Victor

Remi Adeleke

Joey Slotnick

Evan Dane Taylor

Claro de los Reyes

Tony Goldwyn

Tara Westwood

Haleigh Hekking

Oliver Trevena

Jean-François Richet

Charles Cumming

Screenwriter

Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Mark Vahradian

Alan Siegel

Jason Constantine

Ara Keshishian

Alastair Burlingham

Executive Producer

Michael Cho

Vicki Dee Rock

Deepak Nayar

Gary Raskin

Mailara Santana

Production Design

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"Plane" is the case of an action movie in which the dumb title—the most memorable thing about it—isn't an artistic statement, it's an alibi. If it can convince you that it's so simple, suddenly all of its laziness with character development, plotting, action sequences, etc., seems quaint, if not knowing. Add the pitch of Gerard Butler on a self-rescue mission, saving his flight passengers and crew from angry Filipino militants after a crash landing, and the expectations lower themselves.

This rickety vehicle is produced by Butler, who seems to make these movies to avoid wearing superhero spandex or having to hurl himself off a cliff like Tom Cruise . He's fared better as a last action hero of a certain type of movie, and the biggest problem with "Plane" throughout is that it isn't wilder; it does not revel appropriately enough in its open dumbness. For its junky concept that eventually embraces '80s action storytelling firmer than a handshake in " Predator ," there are so many missed moments in which director Jean-François Richet attempts to get a free genre pass isn't so much as coasting but rushing to get itself over with.

Things are looking up for "Plane" when it's gearing up for a big crash. Our main hero—Plane—is struck by lightning in a large spat of brutal weather, knocking out its power and dooming it to an unforeseen landing. With more of an air of "I can't believe this bad service," the 14 passengers on board start to freak out progressively; things become even direr when someone thinks they can outwit seatbelts. The sequence is cut with a punchy, glad-you-aren't-there intensity, and a couple of illustrative stunts—nasty things involving heads and neck trauma—make a firm point not to test gravity. Butler's pilot Brodie Torrance, who kicked off the flight with some Southwest Airlines-grade jokes over the intercom, executes some macho maneuvering and has his co-pilot Samuel ( Yoson An ) clock the ten minutes they have before they eventually crash land on a remote island in the Philippines.

During this tumultuous descent, it's mighty strange when "Plane" shows a closeup of a drafted text message but not long enough for us to read whatever it says. But that's more of a hint that no characters have any important point to this story, aside, maybe, from a captured fugitive named Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), who is handcuffed to an officer at the back of the plane. His history of committing homicide comes later in handy when the flight lands in progressively hostile territory. Brodie, with his history in the RAF and a gun secretly in his pants, brings him along the mysterious terrain to find help. Butler and Colter proceed to fend off plainly bad guys, with little chemistry between them in the process.

Everything shifts for them when, after making a communications breakthrough at a shady warehouse (bullets on the floor, not a great sign), a bad guy sneaks up from behind and tries to kill Brodie. The scuffle that ensues is impressive, with the camera mostly holding on Butler's face as he wrestles with this bigger dude in tight quarters. But nothing is as exciting or long-lasting from here on out, even when Richet tries to heighten the danger with merciless militia men who roll up and kidnap Brodie's passengers and crew. "Plane" rushes through its emotional and explosive beats so that it can get to the next crisis without having to fill out the previous one, and it wildly skims on the good stuff in the process. Hostage situations are quickly fixed, dull gunfire exchanges are executed as if they were shot on different days, and even Colter's stiff, quiet killer only has his silence to make his stiffness remotely interesting as he doesn't get much of an arc despite the ominous promise at the beginning. It's just a bunch of action filmmaking gruel, presenting the jungle terrain with a color tint that matches the dank sweat on Butler's t-shirt.

The biggest scene-stealer, really, is Gun, a quite large rifle brought by some airline-hired American black ops dudes who later appear, and which can fire bullets that rocket through car doors and exploding rib cages. Gun has a sounder dramatic arc than any other heroes in this assortment of action figurines and scowling cardboard cutouts and at least provides gory over-the-top violence like "Rambo" (2008), given the film's sleazy evolution. (My preview audience audibly adored Gun more than everything and everyone else in "Plane.”) Everyone else on-screen, from Butler's simply exhausted pilot to Colter's fugitive-maybe-looking for redemption to the super-scowling Filipino militia leader named Junmar ( Evan Dane Taylor ), is treated with such little sincerity by the script that you almost start to feel bad for them.

Meanwhile, at Trailblazer Air headquarters back in New York City, the film props up its message that airline companies, not just their pilots, are ready to go to war for you. A group of people sits around a U-shape table with ominous lighting. The airline's CEO, Hampton ( Paul Ben-Victor ), uses his list of contacts trying to locate and then protect the passengers, including those American guys who come with their own equipment. A no-BS PR hotshot named Scarsdale, played by Tony Goldwyn , has all the answers and plenty of 'tude, too, like when he barks, "If you have New Year's Eve Plans, I just canceled them." It's telling how these scenes are filmed with the same feeling of a board room in one of Butler's " Olympus Has Fallen " movies. Like the other bits of wonky heroism in the disappointing vacation that is "Plane," it makes for an exaggerated joke with no punchline.

Now playing in theaters .

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Plane (2023)

Rated R for violence and language.

107 minutes

Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance

Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare

Yoson An as Dele

Tony Goldwyn as Scarsdale

Daniella Pineda as Bonnie

Paul Ben-Victor as Hampton

Remi Adeleke as Shellback

Joey Slotnick as Sinclair

Evan Dane Taylor as Junmar

Claro de los Reyes as Hajan

Haleigh Hekking as Daniela Torrance

Jean-François Richet

Writer (story by)

Charles Cumming

Cinematographer

Brendan Galvin
David Rosenbloom
Marco Beltrami
Marcus Trumpp

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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

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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 Review

The year’s first big surprise..

Plane debuts in theaters on Jan. 13, 2023.

Theatrical audiences were first introduced to Plane — the latest action-thriller rescued from a Redbox premiere by Gerard Butler’s presence — through its head-scratching trailer . It had one of the funniest title reveals in recent memory, between the gravity with which its five simple letters appear across the screen, and the fact that it seemed to have little to do with an airplane at all, beyond its first few seconds (picture watching a Titanic advert only for the movie to be called “Automobile” since that’s how Rose reaches the harbor). However, in an early twist to the new year, not only does the plane in question have a large and vital presence in the movie, but Jean-François Richet’s tale of a plane trip gone awry, and a subsequent escape from a Filipino jungle teeming with militants, isn’t just competently crafted, but pretty enjoyable too.

The marketing may try to sell you a whiz-bang action movie, but Plane is surprisingly measured, starting with an extremely process-oriented, borderline cinema verité look at the titular plane and its passengers — not unlike Paul Greengrass’ approach to United 93 — from the instruments, to the boarding process, to the initial ascent. The mundane has rarely felt so engrossing in a B-movie made with an A-movie budget. However, unlike United 93, a biopic Plane is not, which becomes all too clear when the vessel’s captain, Brodie Torrance (Butler), must suddenly reckon with the fact that he has a dangerous prisoner on board, Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), who’s being extradited from Torrance’s home base of Singapore back to the United States because he’s wanted for murder. Drama is in the air. Something, it seems, is bound to go terribly wrong, as Torrance tries to make it to his teenage daughter in Hawaii in time for the new year (which both makes Plane a fitting January release, and supposedly explains why there are only a dozen passengers on board, making for a more streamlined plot and production).

However, Gaspare’s presence isn’t the problem. The major issue turns out to be a stroke of bad luck coupled with some shoddy maintenance, leaving Trailblazer Airlines flight 119 — the company’s name is just the tip of the iceberg — vulnerable to the elements. The result is distinctly Lost -esque turbulence, and an emergency landing on the Philippine island of Jolo (shot mostly in Puerto Rico). As with J.J. Abrams’ Lost pilot, the air marshal escorting the handcuffed prisoner ends up incapacitated, and the surviving crew and passengers are left radio-less and are forced to ration their food. But unlike Lost’s assortment of ghosts and smoke monsters, Plane’s villainous forces, hiding deep in the jungle, are much easier to parse. Which is to say: they are human militants who have a penchant for kidnapping foreigners. However, their motives remain as mysterious as any of Abrams’ mystery box baddies.

The real Jolo is a stronghold for Abu Sayyaf, a Southeast Asian ISIS offshoot, but you’d need a working knowledge of the region to decipher anything of the sort. The film’s geopolitics never come close to being explicit, which makes it all the stranger when the image-conscious Trailblazer inexplicably sends its own team of private mercenaries (most of them American) to help rescue the survivors and avoid a PR disaster. An implicit West-versus-Asian-Other framework emerges — more specifically, West-versus-Islamic-Terror, if you’re familiar with Jolo’s kidnappings and brutal killings — and it becomes all the more pronounced when it turns out that both the Scotsman Torrance and American Gaspare, who venture into the jungle for help and end up armed to the teeth, have early 2000s military backgrounds of their own. But reality is rarely important in Richet’s film, which turns its militant separatists into two-dimensional video game henchmen, who deserve to be dispensed with by virtue of an inherent ruthlessness that threatens the western passengers.

What's the best Gerard Butler movie?

It would be one thing if this were the basis for a farcical, blood-soaked beat-‘em-up with ridiculous stylings, but Plane stays grounded for the most part, making these racial optics even harder to avoid the few times the movie does try to indulge in gleeful violence. The villains always verge on human; they may not be complex enough to feel sympathetic, but they aren’t dehumanized enough to feel cartoonishly dispensable either. (It, oddly, feels like it’s not committed to its gimmick enough , despite that gimmick’s uncomfortable undertones.)

That said, Richet’s fixations lie less in the story’s violence, and more in winding up the tension as Torrance and Gaspare weave in and out of the larger group, sometimes observing helplessly from afar as the militants take control, while other times getting involved, only to have their asses handed to them until backup arrives. The initial plot unfolds with a procedural minimalism rarely backed by a musical score, forcing Butler to be the film’s emotional center amidst makeshift attempts to get messages to Trailblazer’s dingy boardroom. Don’t let Plane’s realism be a deterrence, though; it also builds to one of the goofiest and most satisfying kills in recent memory, even if the jagged edges of the movie’s bloodshed have been sanded down to an extremely soft R rating. There are times when the violence is presented off-screen by necessity, when the story hopes to introduce an element of mystery to Gaspare’s actions and his character, but when the camera does eventually focus on what ought to be hilariously gruesome, this is seldom the result.

With the likes of Geostorm and Den of Thieves , Butler has become a reliable action presence (where Dwayne Johnson is a brand, Butler is usually an every-dad), maintaining just enough intensity to sell you on a story that, though it lacks any real moral dimensions, at least has the appearance of urgency. Torrance is a straight-shooter who wants nothing more than to protect his passengers and to get back to his daughter, even if it means making the risky decision to uncuff Gaspare and seek his help. However, this ambiguous story, of Gaspare’s humanity being judged and only conditionally granted, is quickly swept away in favor of fireworks, leaving only the more polygonal sketch of men-on-a-mission.

Neither the men nor their mission have surprising dimensions, but the familiarity of Richet’s workman execution keeps things moving smoothly along. You could do a lot worse in January.

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A surprisingly grounded action-thriller, Plane is a competently executed Gerard Butler vehicle about a pilot trying to rescue his crew from unnamed militants with the help of a dangerous fugitive. Its few hints of flair may not cement it as a genre classic, but they’re enough to make it momentarily fun.

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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.

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

Review: In ‘Plane,’ action star Gerard Butler once again sticks the landing

Two men holding weapons and squatting in the movie "Plane."

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The villains of the 2022 holiday season were the airlines, so it’s an apt moment for the Gerard Butler action vehicle “Plane” to take flight. The film’s inciting incident involves a cost-cutting safety checker at Trailblazer Airlines insisting that Captain Brodie Torrance (Butler) pilot through a storm instead of around it in order to save fuel during a New Year’s flight from Singapore to Tokyo. Of course, since this is a Gerard Butler action film, the passengers on Trailblazer Flight 119 don’t end up stranded for days in an airport but rather fighting for their lives on a remote island in the Philippines ruled by a separatist militia whose primary source of income is hostages.

Not to worry though, because Butler’s Brodie isn’t your average airline pilot — he’s an airline pilot who can kill bad guys with his bare hands. Plus, he has backup in the form of Mike Colter, and the two actors make a fine, fun and appealingly masculine pair in “Plane.”

Consider this meet-cute: Brodie Torrance is a widowed former Royal Air Force pilot stuck flying long-haul budget flights thanks to a viral video in which he put down an unruly passenger with a chokehold (his signature move, as we’ll come to find out). Louis Gaspare (Colter) is a convicted murderer who has been on the lam for 15 years, now being extradited from Bali to the United States. When Louis ends up on Brodie’s flight, sparks fly (from machine gun fire) as they battle the aforementioned separatist militia to save the passengers and get Brodie back to his daughter (Haleigh Hekking) in Hawaii.

Jean-François Richet’s “Plane” is as efficient, economical and effective as its title, which is a good one, actually — clear, descriptive, communicates what the film is about. The characterization in the screenplay by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis is lean to the point of scanty, but we’re given just enough to suffice, and any more would be overkill.

Much like the aircraft itself for the majority of “Plane,” this taut thriller remains grounded and gritty, and once we’re on land, Puerto Rico — subbing for the Philippines — offers a sense of texture and realism to the humid setting. Richet methodically strings the tension, alternating with bursts of chaotic violence, showing us that Brodie is capable of both method and madness. Sometimes it’s a carefully orchestrated and silent extraction of hostages; sometimes it’s a brutal, bruising brawl as Brodie wrestles an assailant into submission, captured in a single handheld take. Butler’s fighting style is similar to the film’s: brawny, unshowy, effectual and explosive only when necessary.

Far away from the steamy Filipino jungles, we see the inner workings of the Trailblazer war room, headed up by Tony Goldwyn in full hambone mode as crisis manager David Scarsdale, bossing around the top exec (Paul Ben-Victor) and calling in the mercenaries. With Butler’s stoic heroism, plus the behind-the-scenes corporate jockeying, “Plane” feels like the action-thriller version of “Sully” with a nod toward Tobias Lindholm’s “A Hijacking,” but without the bleak condemnation of a corporate culture that negotiates the price of human lives.

The villains on the ground are a group of bloodthirsty rebels with great hair, and the leader, Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor), is so cool you almost want to root for him (considering they crashed onto his island), but there is, of course, the murdering of innocent hostages. However, don’t expect any political nuance or social commentary out of “Plane.” If you go into it expecting nothing more than to enjoy watching a sweaty Butler manhandle some bad guys while Colter manhandles him, you’ll be more than satisfied with the ride “Plane” offers — a well-executed hunk of pulpy entertainment.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Rated: R, for violence and language Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Playing: Starts Jan. 13 in general release

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January is generally seen as a fallow time of year for film fans. Most studios are more focused on pumping out awards season contenders — artful films with complicated views of the human condition. If you're in the mood for something more straightforward, may I point you to the uncomplicated pleasures of Plane.

That's right. Plane.

Sure they could have called it "Terror at 30,000 Feet," "Turbulence" or "Runway of Death."

But Plane says what needs to be said. (The working title was The Plane. For real.)

It's a movie about a plane. A plane that falls out of the sky after a lightning strike, leading to a crash landing on a dangerous island south of the Philippines.

Now a movie such as Plane requires a hero. But who? It's a peculiar time for action stars. Bruce Willis's a cting days are behind him . There's only so many kidnapping victims Liam Neeson can save, while Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is more focused on feuding with DC.

The 'Old Navy' of action heroes

Enter Gerard Butler. The Old Navy store of action heroes. Like that old hoodie you find yourself coming back to, there's a worn-in quality to Butler that improves with age. The Scottish actor has come a long way since he and his abs aplenty bellowed "This is Sparta" in Frank Miller's 300 . At 53 years old, there's a rumpled and rugged presence to Butler that suits the put-upon characters he plays.

Through the years he's serviced a whole spectrum of spectacular schlock from the unstoppable secret service agent Mike Banning of the Olympus has Fallen franchise to the killer of Law Abiding Citizen.

Like Harrison Ford, Butler is at his best when things are at their worst. The jingoistic charms of bulletproof Mike Banning are fine, but Butler is better as an average Joe, such as the dad from the 2020's disaster film Greenland .

Plane finds him firmly in John McClane mode, playing a pilot trying to get home in time for New Years for a long overdue reunion with his daughter.

Gerard Butler through the years. Left, secret service agent Mike Banning from the Olympus Has Fallen franchise. Center, Cap. Brodie Torrence from Plane, On the right, King Leonidas from 300.

When the aforementioned lightning strike derails those plans, the film pivots into survival mode. On the film's manifest is the requisite collection of thinly-sketched characters/passengers; the annoying business guy, the hothead European, the selfie-happy millennials. But at the back of the plane in handcuffs sits Louis Gaspare, a convicted murderer who is being extradited. Mike Colter plays Gaspare with a simmering stare. You may remember him from the Luke Cage Marvel series or recently on the show Evil .

After the crash landing the passengers and crew face a new threat. The Jolo Island is home to a well-armed group of pirates who fund their operations by hunting for hostages. Short on options, Captain Torrance (a former member of the RAF) soon joins forces with Gaspare, who just happens to have spent time with the French Legion (!) to save the day.

Mike Colter (right) plays a criminal being extradited in a scene from the film Plane.

Not a bromance

Plane is not an overly ambitious film. Like the title, it knows what it wants to do and gets the job done. It would be overselling things to describe what Butler and Colter have as a bromance. Instead there's a begrudging atmosphere of practicality. The jungle is filled with bad guys. Someone has taken the civilians. Let's find them and kill them.

Director Jean-Francois Richet smoothly ratchets up the tension as the film cuts back home to airline headquarters where Tony Goldwyn plays the fast-talking corporate troubleshooter who begins deploying resources, adding a team of mercenaries into the mix. Soon the body count and the tempo of Plane increases.

While it would be a stretch to call Plane gritty, it takes its time establishing the bona fides of the flight crew getting certain details right that will inevitably pay off later. The camera doesn't linger over the dire consequences of the crash, instead moving quickly to the tale of the captain versus the captors. With a brisk 107 minutes runtime, there's a sense of momentum that's refreshing in an age of bloated three-hour blockbusters.

In the end, Plane delivers exactly what it promises. There is a plane and a pilot. Plenty of predicaments and a satisfying thrill ride that arrives with time to spare.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior entertainment reporter

Eli Glasner is the senior entertainment reporter and screentime columnist for CBC News. Covering culture has taken him from the northern tip of Moosonee Ontario to the Oscars and beyond. You can reach him at [email protected].

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Most of the action comes when the plane somehow survives a fierce lightning storm (nice FX here) by crash-landing in the largely uninhabited Jolo Island Cluster in the Philippines (Puerto Rico stands in for the actual location), and wouldn’t you know it — no damn cell reception. Fortunately, the pilot is Brodie Torrance (Butler), an experienced professional who has command of the situation from the cockpit to encounters with rebel pirates up to no good on the otherwise deserted island. With Butler at the helm, we know we are in fine hands.

It all starts out normally, a New Year’s Eve flight that is the most sparsely populated in the history of commercial airline disaster movies (my guess is they were trying to save on hiring extras), thus we only have the usual stereotypical passengers, from a businessman creep (Joey Slotnick) to pretend toughie (Oliver Trevena) to giggling social influencers (Kelly Gale, Lilly Krug) glued to their phones. The fierce weather and lightning strikes mean this plane should have been grounded, but in a timely plot point the airline was trying to cut corners and ordered it into the air.

Torrance and co-pilot Samuel Dele (Yoson An) deftly manage to somehow crash land it on the island, although two souls were lost due to the horrendous turbulence including an FBI agent accompanying a handcuffed murderer Louis Gaspare (a sturdy and imposing Mike Colter) being extradited. With the agent one of the casualties and therefore without authority, we are expecting this prisoner to do some bad stuff.

Meanwhile, cut to civilization and we see corporate troubleshooter and ex-special ops agent Scarsdale ( Tony Goldwyn ) back at headquarters barking orders and jumping into action by setting up a group of mercenaries to send in and find the downed plane, which has disappeared off their radar. Enter actual ex-Navy SEALs-turned-actors (Pete Scobvell, Remi Adeleke) to take on the assignment. What follows is non-stop action led by Torrance and Gaspare, and well, you can imagine where it all goes.

It is mostly predictable, and that is just the way we want it. I think Butler has turned into the most interesting action star out there following his Fallen trilogy and movies like Greenland. With Liam Neeson aging and Bruce Willis retiring, Butler is our guy, and his instinct for just the right kind of material for this sort of thing is top-notch. Colter plays it perfectly too, while the rest of the cast isn’t given much depth but do fine, and that includes Daniella Pineda as Bonnie, the lead flight attendant. However this is Butler’s show from start to finish, and as usual he has been given an emotional hook, just trying to get back home to his daughter (Haleigh Hekking).

It all works within its own ambitions, expertly helmed by Jean-Francois Richet working from a script by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis. Producers are Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Valradian, Marc Butan, Alan Siegel and Butler.

Lionsgate releases it exclusively in theaters (likely not on airlines, thank God) on Friday.

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‘Plane’ Review: A First-Rate Action Thriller

A prisoner on airplane, a crash landing, a desperate attempt to save hostages — there's nothing new here, but gerard butler shines in this vastly entertaining genre film..

There’s always room for another first-rate action thriller, and Plane breathlessly packs its punches in spades. Starring underrated, two-fisted hunk Gerard Butler and tightly directed by Jean-Francois Richet, it’s a satisfying rush of suspenseful excitement that is several notches above its competitors in the same genre.

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Butler plays Brodie Torrance, a Scotland-born commercial pilot who takes off on a New Year’s Eve flight from Singapore to Tokyo carrying 14 passengers, including one last-minute arrival in handcuffs—an accused felon named Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ) who is being extradited by the FBI to stand trial for murder on the mainland. Flight 119 is only supposed to take six-and-a-half hours, but it barely reaches cruising altitude when the plane is hit by lightning in a brutal storm that plunges it into total darkness. An electrical malfunction forces Brodie to make an emergency crash landing over the China Sea, disappearing off the radar and hitting a narrow strip of road in the middle of a jungle-infested Filipino island, killing one flight attendant and the prisoner’s security guard. Controls are smashed, fuel is low, the radio is dead and all contact with the civilized world is suspended, but the survivors are still relieved to land safely—until optimism turns into terror with the realization that the island is occupied by the kind of homicidal political terrorists that only exist in the movies.

Brodie has no choice but to enlist the services of Gaspare, the only other person on the plane with the skills to fight the rebels and save the other passengers, who are taken hostage by the thugs and held for ransom. With his handcuffs removed, Gaspare proves to be a whiz with knives, machine guns, and sledgehammers. (He spent time in the French Foreign Legion.) From here, the film lurches and careens from one violent non-stop action sequence to the next, with enough killings, ambushes, fistfights, fires and explosions to keep fans of Con Air sated. The tight screenplay, by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis, juxtaposes savage jungle action with the frantic and ever-changing strategy back at airline headquarters supervised by the crisis manager on whom so many lives depend (played by the handsome, always reliable veteran, Tony Goldwyn ).

Gerard Butler gets a rare chance to show his humane side playing Brodie, who’s not always been the best father in the past but is anxious to make up for lost time by getting home in time to start the New Year with his daughter. Mr. Buttler proves he needs to branch out more and act in more sensitive roles beyond the limitations of thriller flicks. Most of the characters are one-dimensional cyphers, but the actors are first-rate—especially Yoson An as the mild-mannered but keenly reliable and steadily non-plussed Hong Kong-based co-pilot and Mike Coltor as the juggernaut with the criminal past who turns out to have a heart.

Nothing new here to anyone who has seen Nicolas Cage in Con Air, Stephen Segal in Under Siege, or Liam Neeson in just about anything, but Plane is so well made and vastly entertaining you won’t even think about glancing at your watch.

Observer Reviews are regular assessments of new and noteworthy cinema.

‘Plane’ Review: A First-Rate Action Thriller

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Screen Rant

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

The film is funny at times and violent in others, but it lives up to the standard entertainment factor, yielding the first pleasant surprise of 2023.

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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Action/Adventure , Drama

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In Theaters

January 13, 2023
Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance; Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare; Daniella Pineda as Bonnie; Yoson An as Dele; Tony Goldwyn as Scarsdale; Paul Ben-Victor as Hampton; Evan Dane Taylor as Junmar

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February 3, 2023
Jean-François Richet

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Movie review.

Capt. Brodie Torrance may look like any average, nice-guy pilot as he welcomes his passengers onboard. He may even sound like your typical dad-joke spewing dude while chuckling over the plane’s intercom system.

But he’s more than that.

Truth is, Brodie is pretty no-nonsense when it comes to the safety of his plane, his crew and his passengers. If some drunken idiot gets too loud and starts throwing punches during a flight, Brodie has the experience and wherewithal to handle the situation in whatever way is necessary. He knows his stuff, even when it doesn’t follow the exact letter of the airline’s policy-book law.

And in this case, that’s a very good thing. While piloting his Trailblazer Airlines flight from Singapore to Japan, his plane gets struck by lightning. That devastating electrical hit fries the plane’s avionics. It sends passengers cartwheeling through the cabin, two of them in deadly ways. And it causes the crippled plane to necessarily swoop toward the ocean below, with only 10 minutes of direct battery power keeping it aloft.

It’s Brodie’s skill alone that spots a fog-shrouded little patch of land in the Jolo Island cluster and miraculously sets the huge aircraft down relatively intact.

This, however, is only the tip of Capt. Brodie Torrance’s challenge. Because now he has a plane-full of passengers to care for on an island run by separatist’s and thugs—an island so dangerous that the Filipino government won’t even dare to send its army there anymore.

Trailblazer Airlines flight 119 doesn’t have an army, however. It doesn’t have an armory of weapons. It doesn’t even have any sharp eating utensils. All flight 119 has is Captain Brodie Torrance. And that will have to be enough.

Positive Elements

We meet one other person on the plane with military experience, a guy named Louis Gaspare. The problem is that Gaspare is a fugitive being transported back to the states for a murder he committed 15 years ago. (His police escort is killed in the lightning strike on the plane.) Despite that, Brodie decides to uncuff the man in hopes that his experience will help them all stay alive.

Gaspare and Brodie work together (risking their own lives) to fight off the aggressive killers on the island and save the plane’s passengers. Several other female crewmember risk themselves to help the passengers as well. Both Brodie and his co-pilot are motivated by pictures of family members they love.

Spiritual Elements

A small group of people state that they are missionaries.

Sexual Content

A flight attendant hides the flight manifest inside her shirt, keeping it from the separatists.

Violent Content

When lightning first hits Brodie’s plane, we see people cartwheeling around the plane cabin. Two passengers seemingly break their necks when striking hard surfaces. Brodie gets slammed into an overhead bin and cuts his brow, it bleeds freely.

All in all, though, the majority of injuries and deaths are caused by gunfire after the plane lands on the island. (That combat occurs between the island separatists, Brodie and Gaspare, and a well-equipped rescue team of hired mercenaries.) We see people bloodied, wounded and killed on a regular basis by men brandishing pistols and rifles. In fact, one large gunfight results in scores of people being shot. Several are killed with rifle shots to the head, causing large blood spatters. A large-caliber, high-powered rifle is used to stop vehicles and then to blast open people standing behind the vehicles.

Some characters fight hand to hand, battering and strangling each other. Gaspare and Brodie stab foes and slit their throats. Gaspare slams two guys with a sledgehammer, leaving them unconscious and bloodied (and possibly dead). Brodie gives himself up at one point to aid the group of passengers and he’s beaten by thugs. He’s also shot twice.

Passengers are murdered by the separatists for moving after they were told not to. A man is possibly decapitated with a sharp blade (offscreen) in one such case. We see a room covered in bullet holes and blood smears—indicating torture and murder—and watch a film showing missionaries that were held in that room.

There are several tense, perilous scenes where the large airliner veers about dangerously, nearly crashing. One of the fuel tanks doesn’t empty during one landing, making the plane a potential “firebomb.” One man gets crushed by the front landing gear of the speeding airliner.

Crude or Profane Language

Some 20 f-words spatter the dialogue, along with a dozen or so s-words and one use of “h—.” God’s and Jesus’ names are both misused once each (with the former being combined with “d–n.”)

Drug and Alcohol Content

As the flight begins, we see passengers drinking beer and glasses of champagne.

Other Negative Elements

It’s implied that the separatists regularly hold innocent people for ransom and then either kill them or enslave them.

Some movies invite introspection, thoughtful discussion and maybe even spirited arguments over the deeper themes in play.

Plane is not one of those movies.

No, Plane is as straight flying and no-nonsense as its title suggests. This pic doesn’t mess about with character development, sub-plots or twisty story turns. It’s simply a tight, intense actioner. Granted, it sticks its landing with knotted muscles, gritted teeth and a grunting sigh.

But all the profane language and bloody mess tucked in its overhead bin still spills out on your head.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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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

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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.

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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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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Plane (2023)

February 3, 2023 by Robert Kojder

Plane , 2023.

Directed by Jean-François Richet. Starring Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Remi Adeleke, Joey Slotnick, Evan Dane Taylor, Claro de los Reyes, Kelly Gale, Haleigh Hekking, Lilly Krug, Oliver Trevena, Tara Westwood, Quinn McPherson, Amber Rivera, Modesto Lacen, Jeff Francisco, Ariel Felix, Rose Eshay, Jessica Nam, Ricky Robles Cruz, Ángel Fabián Rivera, Heather Seiffert, and Kate Bisset.

A pilot finds himself caught in a war zone after he’s forced to land his commercial aircraft during a terrible storm.

As hilariously simplistic title Plane is for a film, it’s also a creative choice working in director Jean-François Richet’s (the Assault on Precinct 13 remake) favor. That’s not to say anyone is expecting heavy drama from a Gerard Butler flick, but everything about the marketing has made it clear to leave one’s brain at home. Of course, self-awareness is not alone enough to transcend a preposterous story, but there is an uproarious charm to Gerard Butler again in altruistic action mode.

This time, Gerard Butler plays commercial pilot Brodie Torrance, using his Scottish accent to deliver unquestionably corny one-liners while also busting heads and searching for mechanical airplane solutions as unbelievably dumb situations that elicit cackling unfold around him. Some decisions that push the plot further into motion and strand the passengers aboard this New Year’s Day flight from Singapore to Japan are bafflingly dumb, like unfastening a seatbelt during severe turbulence to stumble around picking up a dropped phone. However, they naturally slide into the vibe of this silly action flick that is, ultimately, an excuse to watch Gerard Butler and Mike Colter save the day.

Handcuffed and set to be extradited, Mike Colter’s violent Louis Gaspare turns out to be an invaluable resource, as lightning destroys the plane’s power, forcing Brodie and reliable co-pilot Dele (Yoson An) to emergency land on an unknown island that turns out to be Jolo, an area run down by religious extremist mercenaries to such a degree that the Philippine army refuses to interfere. Rather than pressure one of the passengers (a mostly interchangeable bunch except for one entitled, whiny jerk) into searching for assistance and information on where they are, Brodie wrestles with his morals before choosing to uncuff Louis.

To the surprise of virtually no one, Louis is a misunderstood person who had his life derailed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, coming around to the idea of supporting Brodie. One wants to make it home to his family while protecting his passengers at all costs (something sappy that Gerard Butler knows how to play up properly), and the other seeks freedom. The character work is solid, finding moments of sincere humanity amidst funny narrative implausibility.

Plane is a contrived movie that requires much suspension of disbelief, but once the characters are stuck on that island and caught in a war zone, with Brodie and the highly intimidating Louis fighting for everyone’s lives, there is a propulsive intensity to the action sequences. One hand-to-hand fight sequence between Brodie and a mercenary is a few minutes long and done in one take, allowing viewers to feel the visceral brutality of the struggle.

There’s also a grittiness to the violence that surprisingly functions well as a counterpoint to the inherent goofiness of the premise. The climactic escape is genuinely exhilarating, with the filmmakers demonstrating throughout a knack for constructing sustained suspense and bloody excitement. Perhaps most surprising is that there are some striking shots courtesy of cinematographer Brendan Galvin, notably using reflective mirrors and varying color palettes.

However, the thin script from Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis has no interest in exploring what is going on in this foreign land beyond them being villains. They hold persons of interest hostage for ransom money, and that’s all we come to learn. There is a desire to know more about what’s happening in this real place, but I suppose a Gerard Butler movie is the wrong place to seek those answers. For what it’s worth, despite little characterization, militia leader Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor) is appropriately heartless and scary,

Frustratingly, there is also a subplot away from the island and at the airline headquarters where corporate crisis manager Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn) formulates a rescue plan with his own mercenary group, increasingly at odds with a chairman more concerned with PR spins and what will result in the least amount of negative press rather than keeping everyone alive. This thematic diversion pitting business against saving human lives mostly disrupts the film’s forward momentum.

Otherwise, Plane is a solid slice of Gerard Butler action with a side of Mike Colter, playing to their strengths. It’s noisy, mindless, and violent but endearingly so with a helping of laughter, whether intended or not. It’s competently directed and thrilling, overcoming a bare-bones script indulging in clichés and sentimentalism.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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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 .

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Hijacking Of Flight 601’ On Netflix, A Scripted Retelling Of One Of The Longest Hijackings In History

Where to stream:.

The Hijacking of Flight 601

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Baby Reindeer’ On Netflix, Where A Struggling Comedian Deals With A Very Crafty Stalker

Stream it or skip it: ‘anthracite’ on netflix, about four people trying to solve a ritualistic murder in the french alps, ‘monkey man’ hits during its fight sequences, but gets muddled when it tries to explore religious extremism in india, stream it or skip it: ‘sugar’ on apple tv+, where colin farrell is an old-school private investigator looking for the granddaughter of a legendary movie producer.

Because hijacking stories involve a lot of personalities — the hijackers, the crew, the law enforcement or other person trying to foil the hijackers, etc. — shows and movies surrounding them aren’t just pure thrillers. There’s some attempt at connecting viewers to the people involved, just to raise the stakes and see if they survive the hijacking or not. A new Colombian series is a fictionalized account of a 1973 hijacking that became the longest one in mileage and time in Latin American history.

THE HJACKING OF FLIGHT 601 : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman in a flight attendant’s uniform looks at her wrist, with three dots drawn on it. She has a gun pointed at her head. It alternates with scenes of the same woman, earlier in the timeline, getting ready for work, looking at the blister developing on her heel.

The Gist: “Bogota, 1973.” Edie (Mónica Lopera) is scrambling to get out of her apartment to get to her flight; she is a flight attendant for Aerobolivar, and is due to work on flight 601 out of Bogota. Her three young sons are wreaking havoc, and the babysitter hasn’t arrived. At one point her youngest son locks himself in the bathroom, and when Edie pushes her way in, she accidentally knocks one of his permanent teeth out with the door, prompting an emergency dentist visit.

The airport is buzzing as usual; two men (Alian Devetac, Valentín Villafañe) are in the parking lot; one is holding a cake box, another is taping a gun to his thigh. They have plans for flight 601. After getting weighed by their supervisor Manchola (Marcela Benjumeca) — it is 1973, after all — Aerobolivar’s stewardesses (again, 1973) stride through the terminal, led by the beautiful Bárbara (Ángela Cano). Bárbara makes sure that a rookie stewardess, Marisol (Ilenia Antonini), is projecting the right image, and also gets the brushoff from a married pilot with whom she had a fling.

Edie tries to get Bárbara to cover for her, but Manchola is on to her, and tells her over the phone to arrive on time or lose her job. Edie tries but doesn’t make it, and Bárbara leaves the inexperienced Marisol as the only stewardess on the flight, citing that there’s only 43 passengers and she should be able to handle it. In the cockpit, Capitan Lucena (Christian Tappan) is dealing with an experienced co-pilot, Lequerica (Johan Rivera).

As Edie is dealing with being fired by Manchola, going over her head to Mustafá (Enrique Carriazo), the airline’s newly-promoted director, on whom she has dirt that will help her keep her job, the two men execute their plan. They want the plane refueled in Medellín so they can fly on to Cuba, which is a long haul for the DC-3. When a passenger needs water for his medicine, the hijackers try to get Marisol to do it, but she passes out from fear.

Captain Lucena tells Lequerica to call ground control and lie that the hijackers are requesting another flight attendant when they refuel in Medellín. Despite being fired, Edie is the only one who steps up to board that plane, in exchange for a new contract from Mustafá. When she gets to the airport in Medellín, she’s surprised to find that Bárbara is already there; she wants to help her friend on this flight — and she likes the adventure of being on a hijacked plane. Little do they know that they’ll be on that plane for days.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The most recent show that reminds us of The Hijacking Of Flight 601 is Hijack , despite the fact that Flight 601 takes place 51 years ago and Idris Elba is nowhere to be seen.

Our Take: Created by Camilo Prince and Pablo González, The Hijacking Of Flight 601 tries to thread the needle between being a serious hijacking thriller and being a campy treatise on the hijack-crazy era the early 1970s actually was. The story is based loosely on a hijacking that took place on May 30, 1973 which hopscotched around Latin America for a total of 60 hours, making it the longest in mileage and time in Latin American history.

Perhaps the nature of hijackings back then, when the perpetrators had political motivations and no intentions of hurting anyone, are what led Prince and González to give the show a more personal, soapy treatment. The story is going to be more about the crew in the air and on the ground that did what they could to keep their passengers safe, of course; these stories always are. But the first episode seems to put a real emphasis on the personal, especially when it comes to Edie and Bárbara.

They’re best friends but also opposite sides of what it meant to be a career woman in the early ’70s. Edie is constantly juggling, while it seems that Bárbara glides through her life, being completely put together and having affairs with married men. It’ll be interesting to see how each of them handle being the point people during this hijacking; they’ll likely be the ones that have the most interaction with the hijackers themselves.

What we’re wondering is how well the creators and their writers are going to be able to maintain that balance between thriller and soap. As the situation gets more dire and the crew and passengers try to figure out how to defeat the hijackers, we get the feeling the frothier parts of the story will fall away. That kind of transition can work, as long as there isn’t a jarring tonal shift.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Bárbara tells Edie that they’ll be on a beach in Havana in four hours, but the cockpit finds out that the coordinates the hijackers want to go to aren’t anywhere near Havana.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the show’s music coordinator, because the needle drops in the first episode are all stellar, with Spanish versions of songs like “House of the Rising Sun” setting the mood.

Most Pilot-y Line: Bárbara tells Imogen to keep saying “66 times 7” in Spanish to help her smile.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Hijacking Of Flight 601 is entertaining and looks great; we just wonder if this thriller/soap hybrid is going to maintain dual tones throughout the series.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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Giant Freakin Robot

Best Movies That Take Place On A Plane

Posted: June 12, 2023 | Last updated: December 6, 2023

<p><span>As far as one of the set pieces a movie can have, airplanes rank right up there with the best. For being in such a small, confined space, so many things can happen on an airplane, and plane movies have featured almost anything you can imagine. Terrorists, prisoners, psychos, snakes, and yes, even gremlins have made their way onto an airplane.</span></p> <p><span>The following plane movies are some of the best to fly onto the big screen. Most are filled with suspense, but one will have you laughing non-stop. Here are the best movies that take place on an airplane.</span></p>

Best Movies On A Plane

As far as one of the set pieces a movie can have, airplanes rank right up there with the best. For being in such a small, confined space, so many things can happen on an airplane, and plane movies have featured almost anything you can imagine. Terrorists, prisoners, psychos, snakes, and yes, even gremlins have made their way onto an airplane.

The following plane movies are some of the best to fly onto the big screen. Most are filled with suspense, but one will have you laughing non-stop. Here are the best movies that take place on an airplane.

<p><i><span>Airport</span></i><span>, based on the 1968 Arthur Hailey novel of the same name, is a disaster film that began a string of famous disaster movies. This plane movie boasts an all-star cast led by Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, and Van Heflin. </span></p> <p><span>It tells the story of a disgruntled failed contractor (Heflin) who boards a plane in Chicago with the intention of killing himself by blowing up the plane. It becomes a race to see if the plane can be landed before it crashes.</span></p>

10. Airport (1970)

Airport , based on the 1968 Arthur Hailey novel of the same name, is a disaster film that began a string of famous disaster movies. This plane movie boasts an all-star cast led by Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, and Van Heflin.

It tells the story of a disgruntled failed contractor (Heflin) who boards a plane in Chicago with the intention of killing himself by blowing up the plane. It becomes a race to see if the plane can be landed before it crashes.

<p><span>The title of the movie says it all. Other than that, the only thing you need to know about this plane movie is that</span><a href="https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/samuel-l-jackson-food.html"> <span>Samuel L. Jackson</span></a><span> leads it. And it has one of his Samuel L. Jackson moments that make this movie completely amazing. The story, for what it’s worth, has Jackson playing agent Neville Flynn, who is trying to keep a witness alive while the plane is being overridden by deadly snakes.</span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417148/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Snakes%2520on%2520a%2520"> <i><span>Snakes on a Plane</span></i></a><span> is classic Samuel L. Jackson.</span></p>

9. Snakes on a Plane (2006)

The title of the movie says it all. Other than that, the only thing you need to know about this plane movie is that Samuel L. Jackson leads it. And it has one of his Samuel L. Jackson moments that make this movie completely amazing. The story, for what it’s worth, has Jackson playing agent Neville Flynn, who is trying to keep a witness alive while the plane is being overridden by deadly snakes. Snakes on a Plane is classic Samuel L. Jackson.

<p><span>Some movies on a plane are meant to entertain, whether it’s non-stop thrills or side-splitting comedy. Others are meant to tell true, harrowing stories of heroes who make the ultimate sacrifice. <em>United 93</em> is based on the tragic events of 9/11, telling the story of passengers aboard</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93"> <span>United Airlines Flight 93</span></a><span> who bravely fought with terrorists to gain control of the airplane. While much of what happened on the flight is conjecture, it doesn’t take away from the emotional pull of the film.</span></p>

8. United 93 (2006)

Some movies on a plane are meant to entertain, whether it’s non-stop thrills or side-splitting comedy. Others are meant to tell true, harrowing stories of heroes who make the ultimate sacrifice. United 93 is based on the tragic events of 9/11, telling the story of passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 who bravely fought with terrorists to gain control of the airplane. While much of what happened on the flight is conjecture, it doesn’t take away from the emotional pull of the film.

<p><a href="https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/harrison-ford-blade-runner.html"><span>Harrison Ford</span></a><span> has played numerous heroic characters throughout his storied career and in 1997, he played the President of the United States, James Marshall. The President, along with a number of high-ranking officials of his staff and his family, are aboard Air Force One when it is taken over by terrorists. Gary Oldman leads the terrorists and is especially effective at it. The showdown between Ford and Oldman is one to see in this effective and fun plane movie.</span></p>

7. Air Force One (1997)

Harrison Ford has played numerous heroic characters throughout his storied career and in 1997, he played the President of the United States, James Marshall. The President, along with a number of high-ranking officials of his staff and his family, are aboard Air Force One when it is taken over by terrorists. Gary Oldman leads the terrorists and is especially effective at it. The showdown between Ford and Oldman is one to see in this effective and fun plane movie.

<p><span>There is nothing better than putting</span><a href="https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/nicolas-cage-sympathy-devil-trailer.html"> <span>Nicolas Cage</span></a><span> on a plane filled with despicable convicts and cutting them loose. Cage is Cameron Poe, an honorably discharged Army Ranger who, while defending his wife, kills a man. After serving time for eight years, Poe is now on his way home to meet his daughter for the first time. </span><span>Standing in his way, though, is a plane filled with inmates on their way to a supermax prison. </span></p> <p><span>What should have been a simple flight home turns into a battle of survival against the worst dregs of society. John Cusack and John Malkovich co-star.</span></p>

6. Con Air (1997)

There is nothing better than putting Nicolas Cage on a plane filled with despicable convicts and cutting them loose. Cage is Cameron Poe, an honorably discharged Army Ranger who, while defending his wife, kills a man. After serving time for eight years, Poe is now on his way home to meet his daughter for the first time. Standing in his way, though, is a plane filled with inmates on their way to a supermax prison.

What should have been a simple flight home turns into a battle of survival against the worst dregs of society. John Cusack and John Malkovich co-star.

<p><span>There is something about psychological thriller plane movies that rachet up the tension. Director Wes Craven pilots away from his typical horror panache for a more low-key thriller in </span><i><span>Red Eye</span></i><span>. It stars Rachel McAdams as a woman who is pulled into a political assassination plot by a fellow passenger (Cillian Murphy).</span></p>

5. Red Eye (2005)

There is something about psychological thriller plane movies that rachet up the tension. Director Wes Craven pilots away from his typical horror panache for a more low-key thriller in Red Eye . It stars Rachel McAdams as a woman who is pulled into a political assassination plot by a fellow passenger (Cillian Murphy).

<p><span>Is she crazy or is she not? That is the question that must be answered in </span><i><span>Flightplan</span></i><span>, a tense plane movie starring Jodie Foster. Foster is Kyle Pratt, a grieving woman who is on a flight with her 6-year-old daughter, taking the body of her deceased husband back to the United States. </span></p> <p><span>When Kyle awakens from a nap on the plane, her daughter is missing. Now she is being told that there is no record of her daughter boarding the plane and her sanity is now in question.</span></p>

4. Flightplan (2005)

Is she crazy or is she not? That is the question that must be answered in Flightplan , a tense plane movie starring Jodie Foster. Foster is Kyle Pratt, a grieving woman who is on a flight with her 6-year-old daughter, taking the body of her deceased husband back to the United States.

When Kyle awakens from a nap on the plane, her daughter is missing. Now she is being told that there is no record of her daughter boarding the plane and her sanity is now in question.

<p><i><span>Executive Decision</span></i><span> is another well-put-together suspense thriller of a plane movie. Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, Joe Morton, and Oliver Platt star in this tense action film. Russell is along for the ride as a U.S. Army intelligence consult who is secretly transferred onto a hijacked plane by terrorists who threaten to release a deadly Soviet nerve agent in US airspace.</span></p>

3. Executive Decision (1996)

Executive Decision is another well-put-together suspense thriller of a plane movie. Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, Joe Morton, and Oliver Platt star in this tense action film. Russell is along for the ride as a U.S. Army intelligence consult who is secretly transferred onto a hijacked plane by terrorists who threaten to release a deadly Soviet nerve agent in US airspace.

<p><a href="https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/liam-neeson-best-moments.html"><span>Liam Neeson</span></a><span> goes all-in with the action genre in </span><i><span>Non-Stop</span></i><span>. In this tense plane movie, Neeson is Bill Marks, an alcoholic Federal Air Marshall who is on a flight from New York to London. While on the flight, he begins to get text messages claiming someone on the flight will die every 20 minutes unless their financial demands are met. Time is short for Marks and the crew, especially when it appears that Marks is the one calling the murderous shots.</span></p>

2. Non-Stop (2014)

Liam Neeson goes all-in with the action genre in Non-Stop . In this tense plane movie, Neeson is Bill Marks, an alcoholic Federal Air Marshall who is on a flight from New York to London. While on the flight, he begins to get text messages claiming someone on the flight will die every 20 minutes unless their financial demands are met. Time is short for Marks and the crew, especially when it appears that Marks is the one calling the murderous shots.

1. Airplane! (1980)

Airplane! is the mother of all plane movies and frankly, it isn’t close. The Zucker brothers (David and Jerry) along with Jim Abraham, in their directorial debuts, threw everything they could into this movie just to see if it would stick. Thankfully, in this parody of airplane disaster films, almost everything did. The film stars Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty as ex-lovers who find themselves together on a plane bound for Chicago.

What comes next is 87 minutes of some of the most hilarious and memorable moments aboard a troubled flight. Airplane! marked a turning point in the career of Leslie Nielsen, who took his deadpan role as Dr. Rumack and turned it into the comedic bumblings of Lt. Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun franchise.

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for a... Read all Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

Josh Friedman
Amanda Silver
Freya Allan
Kevin Durand
William H. Macy

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Solar eclipse 2024: Photos from the path of totality and elsewhere in the U.S.

Images show the Great American Eclipse, seen by tens of millions of people in parts of Mexico, 15 U.S. states and eastern Canada for the first time since 2017.

Millions gathered across North America on Monday to bask in the glory of the Great American Eclipse — the moment when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun.

The path of totality measures more than 100 miles wide and will first be visible on Mexico’s Pacific coast before moving northeast through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and upward toward New York, New Hampshire and Maine, then on to Canada.

Total solar eclipse 2024 highlights: Live coverage, videos and more

During the cosmic spectacle, the moon’s movements will temporarily block the sun’s light, creating minutes of darkness, and will make the sun's outer atmosphere, or the corona, visible as a glowing halo.

Here are moments of the celestial activities across the country:

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Elise Wrabetz is a Senior Photo Editor for NBC News digital

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Zeynep Tufekci

You Don’t Need to Freak Out About Boeing Planes (but Boeing Sure Does)

A photograph of a plane flying far overhead near two white contrails.

By Zeynep Tufekci

Opinion Columnist

“Ah, it’s a Boeing Max,” I exclaimed to my travel companions after we boarded our plane a few weeks ago. I looked to see if we were seated next to a hidden door plug panel like the one that blew out on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in January. We weren’t, but joining a trend on social media , we cracked a few jokes at Boeing’s expense: “Maybe they can charge extra, saying it’s potentially an even bigger window seat.”

The F.B.I. recently informed the passengers on that ill-fated Alaska Airlines flight that they might have been crime victims . The agency hasn’t explained why, but Boeing has told the Senate that it cannot find documentation of exactly how the door plug was removed and reinstalled, even though the company acknowledged it is supposed to have kept such records. Facing all this, the company announced last week that it was replacing its chief executive . But the bad news wasn’t over: On Thursday a New York Times investigation reported a disturbing pattern of sloppy safety procedures and dangerous cost cutting. One expert who had spent more than a decade at Boeing told The Times, “The theme is shortcuts everywhere — not doing the job right.”

Is it any wonder that some travelers are trying to avoid Boeing planes? Kayak, the travel booking site, noticed an uptick in the number of people trying to weed them out ; it recently made that search filter more prominent and even added an option to specifically avoid certain models.

Boeing’s problems, great as they are, are just one reason that consumers might be wary of taking flight. United Airlines now also faces scrutiny for a series of safety incidents, although many experts say the issues there do not appear to be systemic. The biggest danger of all may be understaffing in air traffic control and overstuffed runways , which lead to far too many near misses.

Personally, I am not worried about flying, and other than cracking some ill-advised jokes, I have not changed my behavior. That’s why I hadn’t bothered to check whether I’d be flying on a Boeing Max or any type of Boeing plane until after I boarded.

The trajectory of Boeing as a corporation, however, is another matter. It’s going to take a lot more than a shuffle at the top to fix that company’s problems. But the fact that Boeing managed to cut as many corners as it did is testament to the layers and layers of checks, redundancies and training that have been built into the aviation industry. Aviation safety is so robust because we made it so.

Two seemingly contradictory things are both true: U.S. commercial passenger airlines have gone an astonishing 15 years without a single death from a crash. And there is a huge safety crisis in commercial aviation that we urgently need to fix.

Commercial aviation is a complex system involving many dynamics — technology, engineering, corporate culture, regulation, weather, human factors, politics and more.

It’s extremely hard to predict what will emerge from so many different things interacting all at once — an example of the so-called butterfly effect, in which a tiny insect flapping its wings leads to major weather events on the other side of the world. And though testing every part of the system on its own is necessary, it’s insufficient, since it’s the interaction of many moving parts that creates those hard-to-foresee problems. Solving equations won’t be enough to manage it all because such systems defy easy calculations.

We do, however, have methods to manage complex and safety-critical systems, and if done right, they can work very well.

Perhaps the most important measure is redundancy, the layering of precautions. Since even a minor failure could set off a catastrophic chain of events, it’s important to shore up everything. That’s why many plane parts have duplicates or backups and much of planes’ production and maintenance is subject to inspections by multiple people.

Redundancy, however, while great for safety, is expensive.

The first Boeing 737 Max crash occurred in Indonesia in 2018 . Everyone on board was killed. The next was in 2019 in Ethiopia. There were no survivors of that flight, either. After that, the planes — which had been flying globally for more than a year — were grounded by the F.A.A. (About 387 of them had been delivered at that time, and 400 or so more were in production.)

The public later learned Boeing had added a new software system to the planes to help keep them stable. Because the system made the planes behave more like older Boeing models that pilots were already familiar with, the company got permission from the F.A.A. to avoid retraining pilots on the new planes (a cost savings for the airlines that bought them) or even telling pilots about it.

Those two flights proved the danger of that approach. The new system relied on a single sensor, even though the planes were equipped with two. When that sensor failed, pilots lacked the information to diagnose the problem and avoid disaster. Boeing’s actions were a violation of those core tenets of aviation of building in redundancy and understanding how complicated interactions can create problems that no one predicted.

Given the impossibility of testing for every outcome, keeping complex systems safe also depends on another crucial signal: near misses. If something goes wrong but disaster is averted, the correct response should not be a “whew” and back to normal. It should be caution and investigation.

The Times investigation shows how alarmingly different Boeing’s approach was.

The Boeing plane that crashed in Indonesia experienced the exact same problem with the new stabilization system the day before. But on that flight there happened to be a third pilot, riding off duty in the back of the cockpit . When things went haywire, he was able to suggest the correct sequence of actions and saved the day. Had Boeing updated pilots about the system, would the passengers on the airplane’s next flight have landed safely? We’ll never know.

That third pilot — in that case, present purely by luck — was an example of how redundancy can save lives. So is a co-pilot. Planes fly on autopilot all the time and can even land on their own. Still, regulations require a second person in the cockpit for many types of passenger flights not just to handle things in the extremely rare event that the primary pilot gets sick or dies midflight but also to help manage emergencies and equipment failures . It’s the same reason that planes have more engines, more tires and more ways to extend the landing gear than they need for any individual flight, just in case one of those things fails, as has happened many times.

An extra layer of safety helped avert the Alaska Airlines blowout from turning into a catastrophe: Because the incident occurred so soon after takeoff, all the passengers were still required to wear their seatbelts.

Pilots even do walk-arounds of their planes just before takeoff to conduct final visual inspections. Commercial aviation works because of the principle of trust nothing and check everything.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that those at the company who took all those shortcuts figured the system, with all its redundancies, would save them. But that’s a gamble. Eventually, two or three or four rare mishaps will align.

A Boeing representative told me that the company was taking responsibility and working to improve quality. But we need to see action, not promises.

So why should anyone still fly on Boeing’s planes? Or fly at all? Because the statistics still show that commercial aviation is miraculously safe, far more so than all the alternative ways of traveling.

While I don’t check for who manufactured the planes I fly on, I do keep my seatbelt on even when the captain says I don’t have to. Other than that, I’m as comfortable as possible while flying. I know that on balance, air travel is a well-regulated system staffed by highly trained crews with layers and layers of safety precautions and a dedication to learning from accidents. Let’s keep it that way.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

An earlier version of this article misidentified the agency that informed passengers of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that they might have been crime victims. It is the F.B.I., not the Federal Aviation Administration.

How we handle corrections

Zeynep Tufekci ( @zeynep ) is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, the author of “Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest” and a New York Times Opinion columnist. @ zeynep • Facebook

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Solar eclipse 2024: Follow the path of totality

Solar eclipse, everything you need to know about solar eclipse glasses before april 8.

Joe Hernandez

People view a total solar eclipse at from the observatory at Rockefeller Center in New York City on Aug. 21, 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

People view a total solar eclipse at from the observatory at Rockefeller Center in New York City on Aug. 21, 2017.

The total solar eclipse is this Monday. If you're geeked to see it, you'll want to start getting prepared to do so safely.

One way would be to nab a pair of special solar eclipse glasses and to make sure they're the real deal.

Since it's been seven years since the last solar eclipse crossed the U.S. , here's a refresher on all things eclipse glasses so you can view this celestial event without frying your eyeballs.

Remind me. What's the deal with this total eclipse?

A total solar eclipse — when the moon crosses directly in front of the daytime sun — will appear in the sky on April 8, 2024.

An estimated 31 million people live in the narrow strip of land stretching from Maine to Texas where people will be able to see the total eclipse — when the moon completely covers up the sun. Those outside this "path of totality" will see a partial eclipse, in which the moon blocks anywhere from a little bit to almost all of the sun.

NASA estimates that 99% of people living in the U.S. will be able to see a partial or total eclipse.

For April's eclipse, going from 'meh' to 'OMG' might mean just driving across town

Precisely when you'll be able to see the eclipse — and what kind of eclipse you'll be able to see — will depend on your location and time zone.

Total solar eclipses are rare , and many people in the U.S. will have to wait more than two decades for another. The next total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. will be on Aug. 23, 2044.

Do I really need eclipse glasses?

If you plan to look directly at the eclipse, yes.

Proper eye protection must be worn throughout a total solar eclipse — except for the roughly 3 1/2 to 4 minutes when the moon fully obscures the sun, a brief period known as "totality." (You will need to take your glasses off during totality to actually see it.)

During the periods before and after totality — and during the entirety of a partial solar eclipse — eye protection is required.

Looking at the sun without proper eye protection for even a short time can harm your eyes and risk permanently damaging your retina, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Some people can even suffer blindness after looking directly at the sun, an affliction known as solar retinopathy.

Tammy Hellinga, left, and Joanne Hostetter prepare Sun Catcher solar eclipse glasses for shipment to customers from the Explore Scientific store in Springdale, Ark., on Jan. 30. Michael Woods/AP hide caption

Specialized eclipse glasses and hand-held solar viewers solve that problem. Their filters typically let through between 0.001% and 0.00005% of visible light, and they can be more than 1,000 times darker than ordinary sunglasses, the American Astronomical Society says .

Can I use something else to see the eclipse?

For sure. You can use a pinhole projector or camera obscura or even a colander to cast an image of the eclipse on the ground or a wall.

What you should not do is try to look at the eclipse through a telescope, binoculars or an unfiltered camera — even if you're wearing eclipse glasses.

And it bears repeating: Your regular sunglasses are not strong enough for eclipse viewing.

OK, I'm sold. Where can I get a pair?

There are plenty of eclipse glasses available for free or sale in person and online, but experts are urging people to source glasses carefully and beware of fakes .

Rick Fienberg, project manager of the AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force, says counterfeit eclipse glasses began appearing on the market just before the 2017 solar eclipse.

"[W]e didn't know who was making them, and we didn't know if they were safe," he told NPR via email.

The AAS issued a warning, and Amazon temporarily pulled some eclipse glasses from its website.

For this year's eclipse, Fienberg says, his group has had time to request testing information from many manufacturers. But he adds that some sellers of bogus eclipse glasses now fraudulently use the name or design of other companies.

Shots - Health News

Watching a solar eclipse without the right filters can cause eye damage. here's why.

There's a list on the AAS website of recommended eclipse glasses and other solar viewers that are made by reputable companies and safe when used properly.

Still, beware: Narrowing your choices to products that say they comply with the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for eclipse glasses may not be enough, the AAS warns, since some vendors have falsely advertised that their untested glasses meet the standard. The AAS suggests avoiding buying products based solely on price from Amazon, eBay, Temu or other online marketplaces.

You may not have to do any shopping yourself, though. More than 13,000 public libraries across the U.S. are handing out 5 million eclipse glasses for free, so check with your local branch.

How can I make sure my eclipse glasses are legit?

The first thing to know is that you shouldn't test your eclipse glasses against the sun, just in case they're unsafe, according to NASA Goddard .

Instead, hold them up to a bright lamp or flashlight. The lit bulb should be invisible or very dim through the eclipse glasses, and you should not be able to see the glow around it.

Scenes from the rare 'ring of fire' eclipse

"The way I like to think about it is if I put on the glasses and I can see anything that's not the sun, then they're not dark enough," Angela Speck, chair of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told NPR. "That's a quick and dirty way to kind of judge it."

If you're planning to use an old pair of eclipse glasses, experts recommend checking to make sure they don't have any scratches or damage.

Want to see how a solar eclipse alters colors? Wear red and green on Monday

But if for some reason you can't get eclipse glasses before the big event, Speck suggests trying one of the other methods astronomers suggest for viewing the eclipse, like a projector.

"There are alternatives to looking through the glasses, and it would be a shame to miss this for fear of hurting your eyes," she said.

Nell Greenfieldboyce contributed reporting.

2024 eclipse
solar eclipse

Physical Review B

Covering condensed matter and materials physics.

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Editorial Team

Theory for Cd 3 As 2 thin films in the presence of magnetic fields

M. smith, victor l. quito, a. a. burkov, p. p. orth, and i. martin, phys. rev. b 109 , 155136 – published 11 april 2024.

No Citing Articles
INTRODUCTION
MODEL FOR (001) THIN FILMS
IN-PLANE MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECTS
DESTRUCTION OF HELICAL SURFACE STATES BY…
ORBITAL EFFECT OF OUT-OF-PLANE MAGNETIC…
CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We present a theory for thin films of the Dirac semimetal Cd 3 As 2 in the presence of magnetic fields. We show that, above a critical thickness, specific subbands n of thin film Cd 3 As 2 are in a quantum spin Hall insulator regime and study their response to in- and out-of-plane magnetic fields. We find that sufficiently large in-plane Zeeman fields drive the system toward a 2D Dirac semimetal regime, provided the field is directed perpendicular to a high-symmetry mirror plane. For other directions, we find the Dirac points to be weakly gapped. We further investigate how the system responds to finite out-of-plane field components, both starting from the quantum spin Hall regime at small in-plane fields and from the 2D Dirac semimetal regimes at larger in-plane fields, addressing recent experimental observations in A. C. Lygo et al . [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 130 , 046201 (2023) ] and B. Guo et al . [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 131 , 046601 (2023) ].

Received 29 January 2024
Accepted 20 March 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.155136

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Research Areas
Physical Systems

Authors & Affiliations

1 Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA
2 Ames National Laboratory, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
4 São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, PO Box 369, 13560-970 São Carlos, SP, Brazil
5 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
6 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
7 Department of Physics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany

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Vol. 109, Iss. 15 — 15 April 2024

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Band structure E α β n ( k x , k y = 0 ) for n = 2 subbands in thin film Cd 3 As 2 in the low and high field regimes when setting h p = 0 . The dispersion is given by Eq. ( 12 ) with model coefficients taken from Ref. [ 29 ] (also listed at the end of Appendix pp5 ). (a) Low-field dispersion for h s = M n = 2 / 2 with nondegenerate subbands. The bands which arise from the s orbitals at the Γ point are colored red, and the ones arising from the p orbitals are colored black. (b) High-field dispersion for h s = 5 M n = 2 / 2 , where the α = − bands have uninverted, resulting in a quadratic band touching of the p bands at Γ for h p = 0 .

3D Plot of the p -orbital (at Γ ) n = 2 subbands from Eq. ( 15 ) when ϕ = 0 (i.e., along the x axis), showing the two band touchings which give rise to the emergent Dirac states. This corresponds to Fig. 1 near ε = − M n in the presence of a finite h p . We use h s = 2.5 M n = 2 , h p 3 / Δ 2 = h s / 20 , A 1 = η = 100 meV nm 3 , and other model parameters are taken from Ref. [ 29 ]. Note that for other angles ϕ away from the high-symmetry directions a gap opens at the Dirac points.

The Chern number of the system as a function of out-of-plane Zeeman field h z . When the applied field becomes larger than the mass of each Dirac point, | h z | > | m | , the gap of one of the Dirac points changes sign, leading to a change in the Chern number of the system.

Gapless helical surface states on a single Cd 3 As 2 thin film surface in the absence of an in-plane Zeeman field. The α = + surface state is colored red, and the α = − surface state is colored blue, with the bulk bands colored black. Model parameters are taken from Ref. [ 29 ]. We use a film thickness of L = 19 nm and show the n = 2 bulk subbands with energies ± M n = 2 = ± 5.5 meV at k = 0 .

Gapped surface states on a single surface of thin film Cd 3 As 2 in the presence of a small in-plane magnetic field, h s < 2 M n = 2 . The surface states are shown in red, and the bulk bands are shown in black. (a) The surface states and bulk bands for h s = M n = 2 / 2 . (b) The surface state at h s = M n = 2 . where the upper surface state has already merged with the bulk leaving only the lower surface state solution present. Both panels use the model parameters from Ref. [ 29 ].

Schematic plot of the Landau levels arising from H p in Eq. ( 31 ) overlaid on the band structure shown in Fig. 2 . The schematic shows the transition of the Landau levels from being twofold degenerate near the two Dirac points (green) to exhibiting no additional degeneracy (red). The Dirac points occur at ε = − M n and the transition from double to single degenerate Landau levels occurs at ε ∼ − M n + h p 3 / Δ 2 for the particle Landau levels. As discussed in more detail in Sec. 5b3 , this picture is consistent with the experimental observation of degenerate Landau levels at strong in-plane fields [ 26 ].

1000 Landau levels are coupled via Eq. ( 31 ) and the resulting Hamiltonian is diagonalized numerically. The Landau levels plotted are near ε = − M n = 2 ≈ − 5.5 meV , denoted by the red horizontal line, and the crossover between doubly degenerate Landau levels, ν c = | j c − 500 | ≈ 7.7 , is denoted by the dashed vertical red lines. The Landau level energies are calculated at l B = 200 nm, h s = 5 M n / 2 , h p 3 / Δ 2 = h s / 20 , and the values of the other coefficients are taken from Ref. [ 29 ]. We have also neglected ω as it only introduces particle-hole asymmetry. (a) Landau level spectrum in the absence of h z . The Landau levels are numbered such that j = 501 occurs at energy − M n + | Γ c | [corresponding to ν = 1 in Eq. ( 37 )], and j < 500 correspond to Landau levels with energies at or below − M n . (b) Landau level spectrum in the presence of h z = 2 g p B z , where we use g p = 1 / 20 to emphasize the shift of the zeroth Landau levels of the Dirac fermions in the presence of h z .

The ν = 0 – 4 Landau levels plotted as a function of the inverse magnetic length squared e B . The ν = 0 levels are shown with thicker strokes, with ν ≠ 0 particle and hole levels colored orange and blue, respectively. The inclusion of the band-diagonal ε n ( k ) breaks particle-hole symmetry by introducing ω 2 , which provides a positive dispersion in magnetic field for every Landau level. The values of model coefficients used are from Ref. [ 29 ] [see also Eq. ( E3 )].

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Plane, the new action movie starring 300's Gerard Butler and Mike Colter (Marvel's Luke Cage) is a surprisingly deft thriller that cares a lot about planes, and also really good action. Plane ...
Plane
Plane Review. Captain Brodie Torrance (Butler) pilots a passenger plane with a convicted murderer (Colter) on board. When lightning strikes the jet, it crash-lands on a remote island in the ...
'Plane' is a no-frills action movie that receives a lift from its stars
CNN —. "Plane" is a too-generic title for what's actually a pretty good little movie, combining with the ad campaign to convey a sense the film is more "Rambo"-like than it is. A ...
'Plane' review: A sweaty Gerard Butler does not disappoint
Review: In 'Plane,' action star Gerard Butler once again sticks the landing. Gerard Butler, left, and Mike Colter in the movie "Plane.". (Kenneth Rexach / Lionsgate) By Katie Walsh. Jan ...
Plane. Movie. Review. Good.
The camera doesn't linger over the dire consequences of the crash, instead moving quickly to the tale of the captain versus the captors. With a brisk 107 minutes runtime, there's a sense of ...
'Plane' Review: Gerard Butler Pilots This Fun, If Familiar, Flick
January 12, 2023 12:05pm. (L-R) Daniella Pineda, Gerard Butler and Yoson An in 'Plane' Kenneth Rexach. You can imagine the committee meetings devoted to finding just the right title for primo ...
'Plane' Review: A First-Rate Action Thriller
PLANE ★★★ (3/4 stars) Directed by: Jean-François Richet. Written by: Charles Cumming, J. P. Davis. Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Tony Goldwyn. Running time: 107 mins ...
Plane Review: Butler & Colter Star In Mindless, Entertaining Action
By Patrice Witherspoon. Published Jan 12, 2023. The film is funny at times and violent in others, but it lives up to the standard entertainment factor, yielding the first pleasant surprise of 2023. Gerard Butler and Mike Colter in Plane. Scottish action star Gerard Butler plays the brave and determined pilot, Brodie Torrance, in Jean-François ...
Plane (film)
The film was announced in 2016, acquired by Lionsgate in 2019, sold to Solstice Studios in 2020, and re-acquired by Lionsgate in 2021. It was shot in Puerto Rico. Plane was released in the United States on January 13, 2023. It received generally favorable reviews from critics and has grossed $74.5 million worldwide.
Plane
Movie Review Capt. Brodie Torrance may look like any average, nice-guy pilot as he welcomes his passengers onboard. He may even sound like your typical dad-joke spewing dude while chuckling over the plane's intercom system.
Plane review
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 ...
Plane movie review: This Gerard Butler thriller desperately needed to
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 ...
Plane (2023)
Plane, 2023. Directed by Jean-François Richet. Starring Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Remi Adeleke, Joey Slotnick, Evan Dane Taylor, Claro ...
Plane: movie release date, reviews and everything we know
Watching-guides. Plane: movie release date, reviews, trailer, cast and everything we know about the action flick. By Michael Balderston. published 11 January 2023. Gerard Butler, action star, is still fun to watch for movie fans. Gerard Butler in Plane(Image credit: Lionsgate) Kick off the 2023 new movie slate with a bang with Plane, an action ...
Plane (2023) Official Trailer
Plane - Coming soon to theaters. Starring Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Remi Adeleke, Joey Slotnick, Evan Dane Tayl...
'The Hijacking Of Flight 601' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
Easter Movies on Disney+ That Are Great For Kids (And Some Shows, Too!) ... They want the plane refueled in Medellín so they can fly on to Cuba, which is a long haul for the DC-3. When a ...
Best Movies That Take Place On A Plane
Airport, based on the 1968 Arthur Hailey novel of the same name, is a disaster film that began a string of famous disaster movies.This plane movie boasts an all-star cast led by Burt Lancaster ...
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Directed by Wes Ball. With Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, William H. Macy, Dichen Lachman. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Solar eclipse 2024: Photos from the path of totality and elsewhere in
People look toward the sun as darkness falls during the totality phase of a total solar eclipse in Kingston, Ontario. Justin Tang / The Canadian Press via AP Passengers sit in a special Delta Air ...
Opinion
After that, the planes — which had been flying globally for more than a year — were grounded by the F.A.A. (About 387 of them had been delivered at that time, and 400 or so more were in ...
Here's how to test if your eclipse glasses are legit
Precisely when you'll be able to see the eclipse — and what kind of eclipse you'll be able to see — will depend on your location and time zone. Total solar eclipses are rare, and many people ...
Phys. Rev. B 109, 155136 (2024)
We present a theory for thin films of the Dirac semimetal Cd 3 As 2 in the presence of magnetic fields. We show that, above a critical thickness, specific subbands n of thin film Cd 3 As 2 are in a quantum spin Hall insulator regime and study their response to in- and out-of-plane magnetic fields. We find that sufficiently large in-plane Zeeman fields drive the system toward a 2D Dirac ...

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