"Non-Stop" Review

Despite the bad choices by the protagonist, "Non-Stop" succeeds at creating intensity by throwing the audience through several loops.

Liam Neeson plays Bill Marks, a United States air marshall assigned to an international flight to London. When the plane is already in the air, he receives a series of texts from an unknown source saying that someone will die every twenty minutes unless money is transferred into a specific account.

Saying anything more about this film would be spoiling it. There are a ton of unexpected scenarios throughout it. Anyone who has seen the trailer knows that someone dies in the bathroom. However, the way this all comes about is different than what the trailers suggest. There also ends up being a little more to the demands than what the text messages say.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra does an excellent job creating an intense atmosphere. A lot of the film involves reading text messages, which has the potential to be boring. In order to make it interesting, a lot of shots involve showing what the texts say in mid-air. One scene features the camera encircling the protagonist as new messages appear in front of the audience and old messages are pushed behind the man.

While the film does not focus a ton on every individual character, there is enough development to where the audience cares about what happens. In one aspect, the film actually pokes fun at the audience's own stereotypes. One of the passengers onboard is a Middle Eastern man. This is a minor spoiler, but he is not a bad guy. He actually ends up helping Bill Marks throughout.

The film throws a lot of crazy situations at the audience, which builds up suspense to a very satisfying climax. There are several things happening near the end that had me hyperventilating at the edge of my seat.

The main problem I have with this movie is Marks's choices are often irrational. He constantly demands things of the passengers, who keep demanding he tell them what is going on. For some reason, he hold off doing so. Everyone knows something is wrong, and his choice to withhold information seems to cause a lot more panic than there would be if was straightforward with them in the first place.

When the antagonists reveal their plans, there are some logical errors with what they want to do. Saying anything more about this would be a spoiler. Just know that what they want to do does not seem well thought out.

I give this film four out of five stars. There are errors in the way the characters react throughout the film, but it is still very enjoyable. There is a suspenseful atmosphere that builds up to a satisfying, uncomfortable climax.

Content: Rated PG-13. There is action violence throughout. One scene shows blood when a man is shot in the head. Rather than an R-rated splatter coming from the back, it just shows a small hole in the front with some blood around it. There is brief sexuality in the beginning, but it is implied. It does not show anything. The film has moderate language including one F-word spoken and two or three that are implied in the text messages (there is a crack in the screen in a very convenient place).