Liam Neeson’s particular set of skills gets a workout in the trailer for “Non-Stop,” a Neeson-y new film about a U.S. Air Marshal (Neeson) framed for hijacking a transatlantic flight from New York to London. Is Neeson’s Bill Marks responsible for systematically killing the flight’s passengers every 20 minutes? Probably not — eyes on you, famous co-star Julianne Moore — but all hail whoever had the idea of Neeson catching and firing a gun in mid-air on an airplane.
Shouts, too, to Corey Stoll and “12 Years A Slave’s” Lupita Nyong’o, who co-star. But there’s something a little too familiar about the trailer for his new film “Non-Stop,” which hit theaters in February. We took a close look at the new preview and found five major action movie clichés all combined into one trailer.
Plane Setting
When it is set on a plane, there’s nowhere to go, which is just another way of saying that it’s a confined thriller, but the size of the box we’re trapped in can vary. An airplane is far from new fare for a confided thriller. We’ve seen the device used in the air in “Red Eye,” “Flightplan,” and, of course, “Snakes on a Plane.”
Bad Guy In Hiding
Neeson is just doing his job during the flight when he gets a text message. Now, before you start following his example and texting during your next flight, stop. He’s using a secure, Marshals-only channel. The bad guy or bad girl is somewhere on the flight with him. It could literally be anybody, but it’s probably the second or third most famous person on the cast. We’re looking at you, Julianne Moore.
Hostages Held At Ransom
How do you instantly crank up the suspense of a thriller? Take a bunch of people hostage. In “Non-Stop,” the texting buddy is holding the entire flight for ransom until he/Julianne Moore gets money wired to an off-shore account. “But how will the bad guy ever persuade the authorities to play along?” you ask. “That would take another thriller trot.”
Ticking Clock
That’s absolutely correct! When taking a group of people hostage isn’t enough, the bad buy has to threaten to kill people one-by-one in timed increments. “Non-Stop” gives Neeson 20 minutes between executions, and that would be bad enough if that was the only thing going on here.
He’s Being Set Up
“Something else is going on,” Neeson says in the trailer. And he’s right. That’s because the off-shore account the ransom money is supposed to be funneled to is in his name. That’s pretty suspicious, huh? You’d think that the government would start to assume he was behind it all based on that information, so the conflict of “Non-Stop” then becomes his struggle to clear his name.
“Non-Stop” is out in theaters on Feb. 28, 2014.
