Plane Review

Plane is an action-thriller from Lionsgate and sees Gerard Butler and Mike Colter team up for a violent fight for survival.

Brody Torrance (Butler) is a pilot for Trailblazer Airlines and has the job to fly from Singapore to Tokyo on New Year’s Eve. When his plane gets struck by lightning Torrance is forced to land on an island that’s inhabited by separatists and criminals. Torrance must team up with Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), a convicted murderer being extradited back to the United States, and they need to find a way to communicate with the outside world.

Since his breakout role in 300 Butler has built his career on action-thrillers. His filmography includes the Fallen films, Law Abiding Citizen, Greenland, and Geostorm. The quality of these films varies. He’s in a similar position to Liam Neeson who constantly makes the same type of film. Plane was one of the better films in his filmography.

Plane was a mash-up of a plane crash film and a Die Hard situation. The plane crash was obvious since a passenger airline was forced to land, leaving everyone on board becoming stranded, whilst the Die Hard situation came about because the main characters were stuck behind enemy lines. There was the added element of Gaspare who clearly had a past.

Plane had elements of Con Air, Air Force One, Non-Stop, Cliffhanger, and Captain Philips. Most of those films were made in the ‘90s and Plane felt like it could have been made in the ‘90s. There were tropes like Torrance making a call for help and being dismissed as a prank caller, as the higher-ups at the airline try to figure out what happen. It was standard stuff for the genre but well done.

Plane was directed by Jean-François Richet, a French filmmaker known for making the remake of Assault on Precinct 13, Mesrine, and Blood Father. He has made some well-regarded films, especially his two-part Mesrine film. Richet was a higher calibre director to some of the people Butler has worked with. This was evident since the action sequences were intense when they happened. It was just a shame the action was few and far between. When the plane was falling it was intense as Torrance and his co-pilot, Samuel Dele (Yoson An) were doing everything they could to make sure the plane landed safely.

When the action did happen it was visceral, especially when a sledgehammer was used. There was an audible reaction from the audience I was with. One of the most inventive sequences was a scene filmed as a one-shot where Torrance was forced into hand-to-hand combat with an insurgent. It was more impactful and more memorable than the array of shake-cam fights or CGI-heavy sequences in other modern action films.

Butler’s Torrance was shown to be more of an everyman compared to some of his other roles. Torrance was a skilled pilot and had some military experience, but he was thrown into an extraordinary sequence. He was thrust with the responsibility to protect and save his passengers. His goals were simple: make sure as many people get off the island as possible and get home to his daughter. The final shot of the film says a lot about Torrance’s character. It was refreshing to see Butler play a Scottish character again.

Colter played the more interesting character since he was a prisoner being transported. He was an ambiguous character since was accused of murder and was willing to do morally dubious actions. Gaspare wasn’t a wronged character like Nicolas Cage in Con Air, he cleanly had done bad things in his past. Gaspare was shown to have military experience, but it was with the French Foreign Legion, instead of the American military. The Foreign Legion is known for being a tough corp of the French army that accepts any rogues and scoundrels. Despite his willingness to do dark acts, Gaspare still had a certain level of morality.

Plane was a film that had familiar elements but shows how they could be repackaged successfully. A decent nuts-and-bolts thriller.