Plane Crash: A Gerard Butler Action Thriller
Pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is just a couple of flights away from New Year’s, and he’s finally going to spend the holiday with his daughter. But the flight doesn’t go as planned: due to the company’s greed, the route goes straight through a storm, lightning strikes the aircraft, and the electricity goes out. Brodie somehow lands the plane on one of the Philippine islands. The situation is complicated by the fact that a convicted murderer, Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), is on board among the passengers. And the officer watching over him dies during the crash.
Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance in a scene from “Plane”
It’s interesting how public opinion about Gerard Butler’s films has begun to change in recent years. Not long ago, it was common to condescendingly scold them: well, they say, he acts in passable category “B” action films, but he was once a promising artist, what a joke. But then in 2020, “Greenland” was released, at first glance another mid-budget disaster film in the spirit of the unsuccessful “Geostorm” with the same Butler. But instead of the expected criticism, there was success: both audience and even critical. In 2021, Joe Carnahan’s action film “Copshop” was released, not the most beloved director by the press, to put it mildly. And again, success, a “ripe” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a fairly warm reception from the audience. If it weren’t for the misfire in the form of the thriller “Last Seen Alive”, “Plane” would already be Butler’s third critically successful film in the last three years. Unexpectedly for an actor who spent the previous decade acting exclusively in poorly received films.
Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance in a scene from “Plane”
It is unclear what exactly is the reason: whether the films themselves have really become better, or whether the industry has simply reached such a state that Butler’s honest B-movies now look favorable against the background of monotonous blockbusters. There is indeed a lot that is likable in “Plane”. For all its awkwardness and stupidity, this film at least sincerely tries to entertain. Just look at the insane plot. A pilot is forced to land a broken plane in the middle of nowhere, while a convicted murderer is on board? This already sounds like a story for a whole film. But wait - the plane does land, but there are only jungles around, and the passengers begin to rebel and get out of control. A whole drama about survival in difficult conditions is brewing. But even this is not enough for the film. After all, it turns out that the island is ruled by a cruel separatist Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor), who kidnaps and kills visitors. It is not enough for Butler to heroically land the plane in the middle of nowhere and organize a disparate group of survivors - he also has to become a silent ninja assassin, rescue the crew from captivity and get away. This is truly worthy of respect.
Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance in a scene from “Plane”
Of course, you can be cynical and start nitpicking: the accumulation of genre plots, for example, although fascinating, at the same time does not allow the film to focus on anything properly. Ideally, the passengers should be such a colorful selection of very different people - in fact, you will at best remember a couple of the loudest ones. The same with the team: we seem to admire the courage of the co-pilot and flight attendants, but they simply do not have enough screen time. The most obvious atavism, however, is the melodramatic line of Butler and his daughter. We see a couple of times how the girl worries about her father somewhere far away in a completely different location: and it seems that if the authors cut out family values, they would not lose anything and only save on scenery.
Fast-Paced Action
You probably won’t even notice how “Plane” comes to an end. Here, Butler’s character is going to surrender to the opponents in order to save the team - it sounds like the beginning of a conflict, after which you still have to watch at least half of the film. But no, this is almost the finale. But at least the action in the third act is effective: with a real plane chase, explosions and blood, which, it seems, was not even drawn in After Effects.
Direction and Visuals
Director Jean-François Richet (“Blood Father”, “Mesrine”) shows himself to be unexpectedly ambitious for a director of this genre and budget. In “Plane” there is a one-shot fight scene - with quite well-thought-out choreography. You can find other interesting directorial ideas: for example, we partially see the release of hostages from inside the camera, from the perspective of the prisoners. At some point, François-Richet almost enters the territory of “Doom” and “Hardcore” - he shows an episode from the first person, filmed from the perspective of one of the mercenaries. However, for some reason, the film no longer remembers this visual decision. It turned out, of course, not “The Raid” and not “John Wick” by far, but even in such a statistically average, adequately made action film, there is more pure human creativity than in some multi-million dollar cinematic universes as a whole.