Josh Hartnett faces off against a planeload of hired assassins in Fight or Flight, a wildly chaotic and entertaining action thriller from first-time feature film director James Madigan. Think Snakes on a Plane if the reptiles had very special skill sets, or Bullet Train, but at 37,000 feet.
Hartnett reinvigorated his career with Trap, proving he can handle the calm, cool, and psychotic collectedness of an M. Night Shyamalan serial killer. And now with Fight or Flight, Hartnett once again plays a killer, but this one is, more or less, a good guy.
The intro to Hartnett’s Lucas Reyes quickly confirms the former agent’s seen better days. Forced out of his job and forced into lying low, Lucas has turned into a day-drinking pedicab driver. The promise of a clean slate lures him away from his bottle and onto a plane heading from Bangkok to San Francisco. His mission: capture a cyberterrorist known as The Ghost.
It’s not until he’s on board that his handler, Katherine (Katee Sackhoff, The Mandalorian), relays the bad news that his fellow passengers are assassins eager to collect a $10 million bounty. Which means Lucas needs to figure out the Ghost’s identity first and then protect the cyberterrorist who’s made enemies around the globe. Which also means that the assassins are going to be gunning for him, not just the Ghost.
The mayhem kicks off with Lucas’s Tony Robbins-wannabe seatmate spiking his drink. Lucas is loopy but still lethal, dispatching the first of dozens of mercenaries with help from a ceiling sprinkler.
A chaotic circus erupts, and since all the action is happening on a jumbo jet, seatbelts, luggage, and food carts turn into makeshift weapons. That’s in addition to the small arsenal of guns, knives, and swords the assassins sneak aboard. One particularly ambitious mercenary even decides that a chainsaw is the perfect carry-on item. Seriously, who does that?! Thankfully, screenwriters Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona get a free pass for this wild ride, thanks to the hilariously gruesome yet entertaining kills that unfold.
There’s a whole story built up about why the Ghost is wanted by businesses and governments around the world. And Lucas’s background and connection to his handler Katherine, who happens to be his former lover, are filled in just enough to make us root for him against his corporate overlords. But Fight or Flight’s bread and butter is its incredibly well-choreographed, pulse-pounding fight sequences that all take place in tight quarters.
Lucas recruits feisty flight attendant Isha (Charithra Chandran, Bridgerton) as his fighting partner, and her timid co-worker Royce (Danny Ashok) occasionally helps when he’s not cowering from the violence around him. Josh Hartnett, Chandran, and Ashkok are terrific together, but this is really Hartnett’s vehicle to steer. The role allows Hartnett plenty of opportunity to flex his action hero skills, and he delivers a killer performance. The role provides Hartnett with a generous canvas to display his action skills, a challenge he meets head-on. But beyond the physicality lies an engaging performance that adds an important component to the film. Along with all the crazy, outrageous action, Hartnett and his co-stars have ample opportunities to showcase their comedic prowess. All the violence unfolds with a healthy dose of humor.
Leveraging its claustrophobic setting, Fight or Flight delivers action that gleefully throws logic out the window in the best possible way. Josh Hartnett’s energetic performance is the key ingredient, selling the completely bonkers nature of it all with charismatic conviction.
GRADE: B
Rating: R for language throughout, strong bloody violence, and some drug material
Running Time: 101 minutes
Release Date: May 9, 2025
Distributor: Vertical
