Plane: An Action Movie That Could Do With Less Action

Sometimes a movie will be released that appears to have the support structure to carry different variations of the same plot. In the case of Plane, a movie that appears to have never gotten an official title after it had a temporary name in production, there is the structure in place to do a serious drama film about a plane crash, however that is bogged down in an insistence that the story needs a good amount of action in the second half of the narrative to keep the audience’s attention.

Plane follows Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler), a pilot who is captain of a flight travelling from Singapore to Japan. Since it is New Years Eve, the flight only has a few passengers and the crew, however of note it is also carrying a prisoner (Mike Colter) who is being extradited after 15 years on the run. When a terrible storm impacts the flight causing the plane to crash on an island near the Philippines, Brodie makes it his mission to make sure that his passengers get home to their families.

There are a number of issues with this movie, mostly surrounding the implementation of action sequences into the narrative. Had the movie done without the action set pieces and played as a straight drama, the movie would have felt a little more cohesive. There does not need to be a subplot about the fact that the island has been abandoned by the Filipino government because a bunch of militias and separatists live there, or if there is, make them a looming threat that they main cast does not need to see or engage with.

Removing the action sequences would also clear up some of the most unclear aspects of the movie. Much like Avatar: The Way of Water, there are fight sequences shot in such a way that it is very hard to keep track of who is doing what to who. When that happens, they might as well cut to a title card that says “fight sequence” and then cut back to the aftermath since it is hard for the audience to engage with what they are watching. This applies to both an early hand-to-hand combat sequence between Brodie and an unnamed assailant and the climax of the movie between friendly mercenaries and the militiamen which, because viewers did not get a chance to get to know the mercenaries, it is hard to keep track of who is a good guy and who is a bad guy.

The action sequences also detract from getting to know the passengers in a meaningful way. This is especially true since two of the passengers are killed to show how brutal the militiamen are, however since they don’t have names, their relationship is not clearly defined, and they don’t have any dialogue at all, it’s just violence for violence’s sake. This is made clearer since two characters are kind of set up as the jerks who survive the crash but are just insufferable to the point that the viewer is willing to accept their death both survive for no good reason besides to subvert expectations.

Had the action pieces been replaced with dealing with the aftermath of the crash like trying to fix the plane to get off the island or trying to get in touch with someone who can help, the entire narrative would have been better serviced. That said, the action that was given never quite hits the heights the first act does when the plane is in the process of crashing making for an uneven viewing experience that will leave one wondering how much longer is in the movie by the time the inciting crash actually happens. At the end of the day, this is at best a direct to DVD movie one would expect to find on the shelf at Walmart and would be best enjoyed as a streaming title when it inevitably finds a home on Starz or Netflix.

Final Rating: 7/10