Plane (2023)

Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler), is a recently widowed dad who looks
forward to completing his nearly empty run from Singapore to Tokyo so he
can take advantage of the time difference and meet up with his daughter in
Hawaii in time to celebrate the new year.

In the new film “Plane” things do not go as planned as the nearly empty
the flight also hosts a prisoner transfer as a dangerous fugitive named Louis
(Mike Colter), is brought onto the flight late.

Forced by a corporate officer to fly through a storm they were told would
be clear by the time they reached it to save time and fuel, the flight
encounters severe issues and soon find themselves without avionics and
forced to make an emergency landing on an island.

Unable to send for help and unsure of their exact location, Brodie learns
that they are on an outer island of the Philippines and that there is only
insurrectionists and militia on the island and that the military or police
are not options.

While attempting to find a way to contact help, Brodie enlists Louis to
help and soon finds that the passengers and crew have been taking hostage
by a brutal local militia. Forced to improvise rescue and wait for
help, the tense and violent situation quickly becomes a living nightmare
as they fight to survive.

The tension level of the film is great as the early segments in the plane
did a great job of showing the routine of a pilot and also ramped up the
tension. I can be a nervous passenger when a plane gets into bad weather
and I found my palms getting sweaty and anxiety creeping in during the
detailed sequences of the flight in peril.

The action of the film was engaging as were the characters as they were
easy to pull for despite not having much in the way of backstory or
character development. The film has plenty of action as was engaging from
start to finish which makes “Plane” a pleasant diversion and one fan of
Butler will not want to miss.

4 stars out of 5

I was pleasantly surprised by Plane. Going into it, I had pretty low expectations as it seemed to be a cheap, action flick that was built for the dad's in our life. But there were some pretty good performances, set pieces, and brutal action that raised this movie from mediocrity.

The plot is incredibly bare bones: a plane gets damaged in a storm and crash lands on a desolate island. We've seen this used in countless films and TV shows throughout the years but, the way this is handled is pretty incredible. We see it from the pilots perspective as he and the stewards are trying to navigate the situation to create the best course of action to survive. It was done in a very believable way, giving us a glimpse at crash landing procedure and how truly indestructible planes are. The entire 30-minutes sequence had me on the edge of my seat even though I knew it was coming from a mile away. The CGI in this section was quite rough though as the plane looked like something rendered in an Xbox 360 game.

The movie does fall into some pretty classic tropes in movies like this. One being that almost all the "good" people are the classic white American men and woman, but the "bad" people (the island combatants and our main prisoner hero) are individuals of color. It is subtle, but something I noticed that slightly rubbed me the wrong way. Also the depiction of how the Philippines refused to assist in their own territory was laughable. But it opened the way for the good men of the American military were there to save the day and kill some island terrorists. It has some minor military propaganda that didn't totally take away from my experience, but worth a mention.

The performances were all pretty good. Gerard Butler played his usual role, I enjoyed his charisma as a pilot but also the gruff and militaristic persona he pulled out from his previous service. Mike Colter was great as the ultimate badass of the movie, killing terrorists with whatever he could get his hands on. This was nothing against his performance, but I hated how they wrote his characters ending in the film. It did not do his character arch any justice and felt out of place. The rest of the cast was decent.

Overall, this movie delivers exactly what it promised in a short concise runtime and I cannot ask any more than that.

Score: 63%
Verdict: Decent

May contain an odd spoiler

“Plane” has a Scottish Pilot, Brodie Torrance ( Gerard Butler ) intent on getting his passengers to their destination in time to meet up with his daughter during the New Year festivities. However all does not go to plan when bad weather puts paid to any such activities and prematurely forces Brodie to make an emergency landing. During the attempt to land an FBI agent escorting a dangerous criminal, Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), drops his mobile phone. Rather than leave it during a dangerous decent he tries to retrieve it only to loose both his life and that of a stewardess trying to help him. 

Surviving this landing on a remote island was not easy but the skills of Brodie saves the remaining passengers and crew. However far from praised for his actions the passengers decide it’s rather an inconvenience and complain constantly as the crew try to repair the communications. Unfortunately there is much more for the passengers to complain about once they are taken hostage by rebel forces who control the Island. More deaths ensue, however Brodie and his new friend, Louis are the only two to avoid capture after killing a few rebels along the way. Brodie and Louis work together to dispatch more rebels in an attempt to rescue the hostages.

What ensues is a Die Hard style action thriller but based at New Year rather than Christmas. “Plane” does have some tense moments but very much ticks every Die Hard trope box it can. What is extremely notable, much like Die Hard, a rather large number of rebels are killed compared to hostages. In hindsight, as requested by Brodie, if I was Hans Gruber , sorry the rebel leader, I’d have let all the hostages go. I did enjoy this movie but for what it is, an action packed, nothing new , 1 hour 47 mins.

New tag line . Survive Together or Die Hard alone.

OK, where is Jason Statham? He does these things so much better! Maybe he was off having an haircut so they decided to cast a distinctly wooden Gerard Butler as airline captain "Torrance" who is charged with flying his plane from Singapore to Tokyo before he heads on to his daughter's wedding in the USA. There aren't many passengers on his airliner, so to save cash and fuel he is directed to fly very near a violent storm that - well, next thing he has managed to land his sizeable aeroplane on a remote and lawless Filipino island (that luckily is replete with a dirt-track "mining" road that would not look out of place encircling Los Angeles). Now we happen to know that one of his few charges was also under the charge of the police, and now "Brodie" and the erstwhile captive - and useful - "Gaspare" (Mike Colter) must unite to fend off the venal bandits lead by their chief "Junmar" (Evan Dane Taylor) whilst getting a message to the rescue parties that can hopefully come and save their bacon. This film is so far-fetched that you might as well leave any need for reality at the door as you go in. The dialogue is pedestrian and the plot lurches from one implausibly half-baked scenario to another with consummate ease. That said, it hots up nicely for the last twenty minutes of gunfighting and that does rescue it a little from the mediocrity it probably deserves. It passed an hour and an half in the cinema easily enough, but it is not a film you will ever remember watching.

**Plane is a well-done action thriller with a solid lead and good fight sequences. Nothing more. Nothing less.**

Plane is a low-budget action/survival movie that checks all the boxes and provides plenty of gritty Gun fights and brutal melee combat along the way. The film that didn’t spend much time picking a clever name also didn’t waste much time on character development. Instead, the plot is centered on Gerard Butler as he works to secure the safety and survival of a small group of passengers. Unfortunately, the island they crash-landed on is full of a bunch of pirate/terrorist types, so Butler does some shooting and punching, and choking to save the day. Plane won’t win any awards, but it is a solid action movie that I would watch again and recommend renting (probably not a whole $20 purchase to own, though) to any action fan. I’m glad it got a theatrical release so people can trust that it’s a little bigger budget and higher quality than most straight-to-stream action films.