Carry-On review (2024)
Carry-On proves to be a bit of a holiday miracle — it’s a very entertaining thriller set on Christmas Eve that manages to not feel like yet another lousy 80th derivative Die-Hard rip-off.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a good airplane thriller. The last one was Liam Neeson’s Non-Stop, which coincidentally was also headed up by Carry-On’s director Jaume Collet-Serra.
Ethan (Taron Egerton, Rocketman) is a low-level TSA agent at LAX who’s starting to think he needs to get his life on track now that his girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson) is pregnant. Nora encourages Ethan to apply for the police department again, but the former track star — an actual relevant bit of background info on our hero — isn’t eager to bear the sting of rejection yet again.
He does try to start advancing up the ranks of the TSA with the assistance of his best friend, Jason (Sinqua Walls, White Men Can’t Jump). Ethan’s supervisor (Dean Norris) reluctantly gives him a chance by working the conveyor belt X-ray gig. This probably wouldn’t happen on a high-travel day like Christmas Eve, but let’s play along for the sake of the film.
Not long into the new gig, Ethan gets a text message to put in an earpiece left behind at the security check-in. A mysterious voice on the other end (Jason Bateman, Horrible Bosses), starts issuing him commands. If Ethan fails to implicitly follow those directions, people close to him are going to be hurt and possibly killed. An associate of the Traveler is going to come through security with a carry-on package that will raise all the possible red flags. Ethan has to get this passenger and his carry-on securely onto their plane without raising any concerns.
Of note, the Traveler won’t give Ethan any information on this carry-on package’s contents or if he plans to pull off any terrorist actions with it. A trademark of Collet-Serra films is more engaging use of cell phone messaging, which pop up as larger video displays for the viewer’s benefit. It’s a fun tool that teases a measure of interaction.
The mysterious Traveler is not working alone and has a team in place inside and outside LAX working to feed the Traveler intel on Ethan and to make sure he’s not trying to alert anyone. Understandably panicked, Ethan starts nervously trying to assess the situation while clumsily trying to notify his superiors for assistance. This doesn’t end well for them prompting the Traveler to throw down the trump card of declaring Nora the next victim if Ethan doesn’t play along.
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Screenwriter T.J. Fixman, who’s largely had success writing video games such as Ratchet & Clank, Fuse and Resistance 2, doesn’t have a problem adapting to the big screen. The script is largely plot-hole proof with the necessary steering characters in certain directions to progress the story. For the most part characters behave in a sensible, logical manner without defying all kinds of logic.
Fixman doesn’t make things easy for Ethan forcing him to rely on more guile and improvisation than he initially considered possible. In a wild departure from the norm with this genre, Fixman manages to raise the stakes by having Ethan spot the Traveler early on in the film. That should make stopping him easier, but it makes things so much worse.
Bateman proves a highly effective villain with his subtle taunts and jabs at Ethan’s self-esteem while being a calm, reassuring voice in his ear coaxing him to just do nothing and let things play out.
While Ethan jumps through the Traveler’s hoops at the airport, police detective Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler, Till) is dealing with some of his earlier handiwork. Elena starts tying threads together putting her onto a collision course with Ethan.
The film runs just shy of two hours. To stretch Carry-On that long Ethan has to make some suspect decisions specifically when he has a temporary advantage. It’s the only way to keep the film progressing even if it makes Ethan just a bit frustrating to root for as the main character. That’s a minor issue as Egerton makes for a compelling lead especially with the deck so stacked against Ethan.
Collett-Sera clearly gets the logic-defying plot points and significantly amps up the action sequences. Ironically, Carry-On’s best action sequence undoubtedly has to be the one playing out on a crowded L.A. highway. Similar to the big centerpiece of his train thriller, Commuter (available now on Amazon), Collett-Sera puts viewers right into the action making for a truly exhilarating experience put together with some inspired creativity.
Carry-On doesn’t offer much bad baggage making for a fun, Christmas-theme thriller that makes for a nice departure from the standard holiday fare.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: Netflix
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