The sky's the limit

With the release of a book claiming missing Malaysian passenger jet MH370 was shot down, it seems as good a time as any to remember the film Non-Stop.  In this Liam Neeson vehicle (he seems to be in everything these days, maybe work distracts from the tragic circumstances of his personal life) - the high concept is well-worn - suspenseful action in an enclosed space.  Think Speed, Die Hard, Deep Blue Sea, Phonebooth.  Most pertinent to Non-Stop are Red Eye and the hokey Snakes on a Plane.  In some ways, Non-Stop  resembles a high-octane Agatha Christie mystery, as people die one by one at intervals and almost everyone is under suspicion at one point or another.
Neeson is outstanding as the frazzled loner who can't trust anyone and is abandoned by his colleagues on the ground and thankfully there is no easy romantic elision with Julianne Moore's character who has a troubled past and present.  Michelle Dockery graduates from Downton Abbey, but it is a step down for Lupita N'yongo after 12 Years a Slave with a very limited role here.  Then again, as N'yongo's British accent was not convincing, maybe it was wise to give Dockery the bulk of the stewardesses' lines.
There is a certain ridiculousness in the name of the airline - AquaAtlantic.  First of all, it's an airliner, not a submarine or ship and secondly, who would book with an airline that has such an affinity with the grim watery depths - they would want to fly over the drink, not be in it.
The secondary characters are permitted a certain backstory of their own.  The devout Muslim doctor was never likely to be the terrorist as that would be incredibly inflammatory as well as clichéd.  There is a prejudiced NYPD cop on board but he can't be attending his gay brother's wedding as he claims as the dateline on the air marshal's pager states mid-January 2014, several months before such an event could occur.
$150m is a suitably high amount for hijacking a plane and though it's not just about the money there is a suitably fiery end for loving it and the means to attempt to acquire it.  The thrills and the fights come regularly  and the extended climax leaves one's heart pounding, even after the coda has finished and one has left the grounds of the multiplex altogether.  Non-Stop is not breathtakingly original but it is breathtaking - a film that utilises the cinema experience to the maximum.  Four out of five.