Josh Hartnett's Fight or Flight Is a Midair Mayhem Worth Boarding

Fight Or Flight: Josh Hartnett Punches Through A Joyously Unhinged Brawl In The Sky

Fight or Flight is well worth its flight time — and more, writes Manik Sharma .

A BLEACHED-BLONDE DRUNK with a pointy jaw, a mean grin and a violent history boards a flight to hell. Replace flight with train, and you have a whole genre of bloodletting aboard a form of long-distance transport. The speed, the cramped nature of space are key to the denouement. Replace it with a loitering cruise, and you simply can’t imagine the same thrill. Naturally, the genre is done to death, both symbolically and literally. So what could a has-been actor like Josh Hartnett and a first-time director pull off in an already saturated space? Well, as it turns out, a lot. Fight or Flight is a surprisingly well-packaged, intricately woven tapestry of gut-wrenching, bone-breaking action sequences that remembers to — crucially — infuse it all with a bit of silliness.

Josh Hartnett is Lucas Reyes, a washed-out former spy, drinking himself to sleep on a street in Thailand when he gets THE phone call. He can have his life back, a shot at some sort of redemption. All he needs to do is get on a plane, and ensure the safe passage of a digital hacker known only as the Ghost. Derivative, a lot of this may be, but Hartnett commits to the role of a grumpy slob trying to stuff himself into self-serious big boy pants. He wears the hem of his trousers well above the ground, sports a perpetual case of stink eye, wears a pink t-shirt, and possibly has a silly story to tell for every bruise you can spot on his face. Expectedly, though, he is hard as a hammer. It’s both his strength and his weakness.

Stream the latest films and shows, with OTTplay Premium's Jhakaas monthly pack, for only Rs 249.

Reyes, reluctantly, makes the flight, coaxed by a former CIA handler. But so do at least 50 other murderers, mercenaries and contract killers. This gist is pretty much the rest of the script. The fun though arrives in the manner in which the film goes about dispensing its action laced with wire-cutting aphorisms...the tone it latches onto, but more specifically the one it lets go of. (“This is not a safe working space,” a boss tells her subject, unironically.)

This isn’t a spy film with etiquette, but more of a dizzy brawl 30,000 feet in the air. It might make you wonder how so many assassins managed to get onto the plane in the first place, or just how the heck an aircraft can allow space for so much carnage. All valid questions that though disappear down the throat of whimsy once Reyes hangs a 6-foot man to the filament of a light bulb. Consider it an initial contact or an audacious disclaimer. From thereon in the ride, its madness, delirious pace and at times, impressive choreography, is a riot and a half. Broken thighs and pinched groins.

Watch the best Hollywood action thrillers on OTTplay Premium.

The action, slick and crunching as it is, is not the only payoff. Much like the foul-mouthed anti-heroes of yore — think Deadpool maybe — Reyes’ deadpan-ness is cushioned by a supporting cast of stewards and onlookers who occupy a sort of parallel world, in denial of the violence they are witnessing. The pilots discuss a Sully -like biopic being made in their honour. Someone describes scouting for killers as “trying to look for someone murderous”. At another point, a lightweight assassin is, quite literally, flushed inside the in-plane luggage compartment to make a point or two about how sticky airlines can be about carry-ons. The silliness is the device.

Directed by first-timer James Madigan, Fight or Flight is a bang-for-your-buck return to form for Hartnett, who, despite startling potential, disappeared from our screens some time ago. This worn, minimally invasive, moody outlook serves him well as he unleashes savagery in pulpy, yet controlled fashion. There is this hint of a story, a colourful supporting cast that keeps their lips moving, in service of the limbs that get shredded with delirious abandon. Blood and gore in a cramped space can clog the mind and numb the senses, but Madigan ensures you get your breaks, and have enough banter in between to smoothen the blades and the wounds they so categorically are looking to inflict.

Possibly the only criticism that can be levelled at a film that practically pulls a rabbit out of a hat flying thousands of feet above the ground is that it can still only reinvent the tempo, the texture and the lower ceiling of a genre that is begging to be re-engineered. There is a reason why these films drop by the dozens, which makes you wonder if someone will actually flip the playbook to unearth something truly inventive as opposed to effective. Trains and planes, we’ve seen murderous battles unfurl on both, but beyond the choreography and the caricatures who drag them forward, something needs to change in this repetitive cycle of gore. That said, Fight or Flight is well worth its flight time and more.

Fight or Flight is now streaming on Lionsgate Play.

Watch Fight or Flight here

Like what you read? Get more of what you like. Visit the OTTplay website , or download the app to stay up-to-date with news, recommendations and special offers on streaming content.

Plus: always get the latest reviews. Sign up for our newsletters. Already a subscriber? Forward this email to a friend, or use the share buttons below.

OUR OTHER NEWSLETTERS

This weekly newsletter compiles a list of the latest (and most important) reviews from OTTplay so you can figure what to watch or ditch over the weekend ahead.

Each week, our editors pick one long-form, writerly piece that they think it worthy of your attention, and dice it into easily digestible bits for you to mull over.

In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an
hour on this.