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The police storm the train and try to arrest Michael but the passengers defend him. Outside of the train Sophia is met by the FBI and proceeds to tell what she knows. Michael is met by his family. The police chief informs Michael that there have been several ongoing investigations concerning members of the department including Murphy. He also tells Michael he misses having guys like him on the force, guys that do what is right.
The police storm the train and try to arrest Michael but the passengers defend him. Outside of the train Sophia is met by the FBI and proceeds to tell what she knows. Michael is met by his family. The police chief informs Michael that there have been several ongoing investigations concerning members of the department including Murphy. He also tells Michael he misses having guys like him on the force, guys that do what is right.


Sometime later Joanna is on a train. Michael approaches her and talks to her about what happened. She asks him what does he think is going to happen now. Michael replies with “just one little thing” and shows Joanna his detectives badge.
Sometime later Joanna is on a train. Michael approaches her in the same way she had done back then. She asks him what does he think is going to happen now. Michael replies with “just one little thing” and shows his detectives badge.


==Cast==
==Cast==

Revision as of 09:33, 28 January 2018

The Commuter
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJaume Collet-Serra
Screenplay by
  • Byron Willinger
  • Philip de Blasi
  • Ryan Engle
Story by
  • Byron Willinger
  • Philip de Blasi
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPaul Cameron
Edited byNicolas de Toth
Music byRoque Baños
Distributed by
Release dates
  • January 8, 2018 (2018-01-08) (New York City)
  • January 12, 2018 (2018-01-12) (United States)
  • January 19, 2018 (2018-01-19) (United Kingdom)
Running time
105 minutes[1]
Countries
  • France
  • United States
  • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[2]
Box office$56.6 million[3]

The Commuter is a 2018 action thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle. The film stars Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Elizabeth McGovern and Sam Neill, and follows a man who is unwittingly recruited into a murder conspiracy after meeting a mysterious woman while on his daily train commute.

The film premiered in New York City on January 8, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on January 12, 2018, by Lionsgate, and on January 19, 2018 in the United Kingdom by StudioCanal; it had a select IMAX release. The film has grossed $55 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, who called it familiar to Neeson and Collet-Serra's previous film, Non-Stop, but praised Neeson's performance and the genre thrills.

Plot

Michael MacCauley, a former police officer, is a family man with a wife, and a son who will be entering college soon. He goes through the same routine train commute to work and back every day. One day he is fired from his job as a life insurance salesman after ten years. While drinking his troubles away at a bar, his friend and former colleague Murphy arrives. Murphy tells Michael about how the police force has changed and how it is more politics instead of doing the right thing anymore. On his way to catch the train Michaels phone is stolen by a pickpocket.

On the train Michael meets a mysterious woman named Joanna. Joanna proposes a hypothetical situation to Michael. What if he was asked to do one little thing, the results of which would have consequences that he would know nothing about, but would affect one of the passengers on the train. In this hypothetical situation, there is an envelope hidden in one of the bathrooms on the train containing $25,000. If he successfully completes the favor, he will receive an additional $75,000 in cash. He is informed that one of the passengers on the train named “Prynne” does not belong and is carrying an unknown bag with stolen property inside. Joanna’s one little thing that she wants Michael to do is locate “Prynne” and plant a GPS tracker on him or her. “Prynne” will be getting off at the Cold Springs stop. He is not allowed to inform anyone else of what he is doing be they passengers or not. Out of curiosity, Michael searches the bathroom and finds the envelope. He realizes that the situation is not a hypothetical scenario.

He attempts to leave the train but is stopped by a young man in front of the door who hands him another envelope along with a warning. “If you haven’t already figured it out, they’re watching you.” Inside the envelope is Michael’s wife’s ring. Michael borrows a phone from another passenger named Tony. He attempts to call his wife but with no response. Next, Michael borrows a newspaper from one of his commuter pals and attempts to warn him of what is going on by writing on the newspaper. The passenger gets off the train. Joanna calls Michael and tells him to look out of the window. He sees his commuter pal, who he informed about the situation, get pushed in front of a bus and killed.

Michael proceeds to track down “Prynne”, a young man, by examining the destination tags for the passengers that he does not recognize and plants the GPS tracker. Michael then calls Murphy and tells him what is going on. Murphy informs him that “Prynne” is a key witness in a supposed suicide case of Enrique. Michael realizes that “Prynne” will be killed and tries to find him. He finds “Prynne” dead and hidden in a compartment underneath the train. He realizes that the young man was not “Prynne” and was an FBI agent instead. At one of the stops Michael is forced to hide from police who are searching the train after receiving a report of a dangerous individual on board. He hides underneath the train with the dead FBI agent. The compartment is accidentally locked and he is forced to roll between the train wheels, run alongside the train, jump on to the side and enter through one of the doors in order to re-enter the train.

Michael uses his recourse fullness as an ex-cop to find this Prynne. He sabotages the air conditioning in the train forcing all of the remaining passengers into one car. He proposes the same ‘hypothetical situation’ as what Joanna told him earlier in an effort to lure out “Prynne.” One of the passengers leaves the car and heads to another one. Michael follows him and tries to verify if he is “Prynne.” The passenger is not “Prynne” and is actually the person who will kill “Prynne” once “Prynne’s” identity is revealed. The passenger pulls out a gun and asks Michael who “Prynne” is. Michael refuses to tell him and fights him. During the fight Michael manages to disarm the man and push him out of a broken window killing him.

Michael returns to the other passengers and tries to figure out which one is “Prynne.” “Prynne” is revealed to be a young girl named Sophia. She turns out to hold incriminating information on powerful people, in the form of a flash drive, and was to go into witness protection at the final stop of the train. Michael asks Sophia why she didn’t go the the police with what she knew. Sophia reveals that it was police who killed the man. She overheard one of them saying “you tried to do the noble thing, but there’s no such thing as noble” before pushing the man out of a window on the thirty-fifth floor of a building. Joanna calls Michael and tries to convince him to kill Sophia for the sake of his family, but Michael refuses. In anger Joanna derails the train in order to kill everyone aboard. Michael manages to save all of the passengers by unhooking the final car from the rest of the train right before a curve. The police arrive. Due to all of Michael's suspicious behavior from that day, the police think he took the passengers hostage.

The negotiator sent in is Murphy. He is revealed to be the cop that killed Enrique after he tells Michael “you tried to do the noble thing, but there’s no such thing as noble” the same thing he said to Enrique before he killed him. Joanna calls Murphy wanting confirmation of “Prynnes” death. Murphy tries to find out who “Prynne” is. However, all of the passengers state that they are “Prynne” confusing Murphy who shoots one of them at random. This allows Michael to attack Murphy. They engage in a fight during which Michael removes Murphy’s police tracker which identifies him as a friendly to the snipers outside. The snipers believing Murphy to be Michael shoot and kill Murphy.

The police storm the train and try to arrest Michael but the passengers defend him. Outside of the train Sophia is met by the FBI and proceeds to tell what she knows. Michael is met by his family. The police chief informs Michael that there have been several ongoing investigations concerning members of the department including Murphy. He also tells Michael he misses having guys like him on the force, guys that do what is right.

Sometime later Joanna is on a train. Michael approaches her in the same way she had done back then. She asks him what does he think is going to happen now. Michael replies with “just one little thing” and shows his detectives badge.

Cast

Production

Development

In January 2010, Olatunde Osunsanmi boarded the action-thriller film as director for the production company Gold Circle Films, with a screenplay written by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi.[4] More than a year later, in August 2011, Julian Jarrold was reported to be directing the film instead.[5] In January 2016, Jaume Collet-Serra closed a deal to direct the film, marking his fourth collaboration with Neeson,[6] and also executive produced through Ombra Films, with partner Juan Sola. The film was produced by StudioCanal and The Picture Company.[7]

Casting

In September 2015, it was announced that Liam Neeson would star in the film.[8] In June 2016, Vera Farmiga joined, in a role described as "a mysterious woman who boards a commuter train and proposes an enticing opportunity to Neeson's character, one that has dire circumstances if he accepts."[9] The project marks the second working collaboration between Farmiga and Collet-Serra, after 2009's psychological thriller Orphan.[10] On July 13, Sam Neill, Elizabeth McGovern, and Jonathan Banks were added to the principal cast,[11] and in August 2016, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith joined in an undisclosed role.[12] The same month, Patrick Wilson joined the cast as a trusted friend of Neeson's character.[13]

Filming

Principal photography began on July 25, 2016, at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, and continued in New York City.[11][14][15] Neeson and McGovern were spotted on the set of the film at Worplesdon railway station in Surrey on September 18, 2016.[16]

Music

In May 2017, it was reported that Roque Baños would compose the film's score.[17] Varèse Sarabande will release the soundtrack album digitally in January 2018, with a physical release following on February 9, 2018.[18]

Release

In November 2015, Lionsgate pre-bought the domestic distribution rights to the film, in a deal with StudioCanal.[19] The Commuter was originally scheduled for release in the United States on October 13, 2017,[11] and was pushed back to January 12, 2018.[20] The film was set for release in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2017 by StudioCanal,[21] and was also pushed back to January 19, 2018, in accordance with the U.S. rescheduling. The film had a limited IMAX release.[22]

Reception

Box office

As of January 24, 2018, The Commuter has grossed $27.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $27.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $53.2 million.[3]

In the United States and Canada, The Commuter was released alongside the openings of Proud Mary and Paddington 2, and the wide expansion of The Post, and was projected to gross $12–14 million from 2,892 theaters in its opening weekend.[23] It made $4.5 million on its first day and $13.4 million over the weekend, on par with previous Neeson-Collet-Serra collaborations, finishing third at the box office behind holdover Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Post.[2]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 57% based on 144 reviews, with a weighted average of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Commuter's cast is better than its workmanlike script – which helps make this reasonably diverting Liam Neeson action thriller worth the price of a matinee ticket or rental, if not a full-price ticket."[24] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[2]

References

  1. ^ "The Commuter Fact Sheet". Lionsgate Press. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 14, 2018). "'Jumanji' Roars To $34M; 'The Post' Still The Most With $22M+; 'The Commuter' Punches $16M: MLK Weekend Box Office Update". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  3. ^ a b "The Commuter (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  4. ^ McNary, Dave (January 24, 2010). "'Commuter' driven". Variety.
  5. ^ "Gold Circle Taps 'Red Riding' Director of 'The Commuter'". Bloody Disgusting. August 30, 2011.
  6. ^ McNary, Dave (January 29, 2016). "Liam Neeson's 'Commuter' Draws Jaume Collet-Serra to Direct". Variety.
  7. ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (January 29, 2016). "Jaume Collet-Serra Reunites With Liam Neeson On StudioCanal's 'The Commuter'". Deadline.com.
  8. ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (September 21, 2015). "Liam Neeson To Star In Thriller 'The Commuter' For StudioCanal And The Picture Company". Deadline.com.
  9. ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (June 17, 2016). "Vera Farmiga Follows 'Conjuring 2' By Boarding 'The Commuter' With Liam Neeson". Deadline.com.
  10. ^ McNary, Dave (June 17, 2016). "Vera Farmiga Joins Liam Neeson in Thriller 'The Commuter'". Variety.
  11. ^ a b c Hipes, Patrick (July 13, 2016). "'The Commuter' Adds Trio, Sets October 2017 Arrival In U.S." Deadline.com.
  12. ^ Pederson, Erik (August 9, 2016). "James Remar Joins 'Altar Rock'; Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Tops Paradise Garage Pic". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  13. ^ McNary, Dave (August 23, 2016). "Patrick Wilson Boards Liam Neeson's Thriller 'The Commuter'". Variety. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  14. ^ Daniels, Nia (April 14, 2016). "Liam Neeson thriller to film in London". The Knowledge Online.
  15. ^ Wiseman, Andreas (July 13, 2016). "Liam Neeson action-thriller 'The Commuter' sets shoot and release dates". Screen Daily. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  16. ^ Edwards, Mark (September 19, 2016). "Liam Neeson and co-stars filming at Worplesdon railway station for The Commuter". Get Surrey. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  17. ^ "Roque Banos to Score Jaume Collet-Serra's 'The Commuter'". Film Music Reporter. May 18, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  18. ^ "Varese Sarabande to Release 'The Commuter' Soundtrack". Film Music Reporter. December 29, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  19. ^ Vlessing, Etan (November 6, 2015). "AFM: Lionsgate Takes U.S. Rights to Liam Neeson's 'The Commuter'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  20. ^ Pederson, Erik (February 23, 2017). "'The Commuter': Lionsgate Moves Liam Neeson Thriller Back Three Months To January". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  21. ^ "Theatrical Release 2016" (PDF). Studio Canal. July 19, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  22. ^ "The Commuter". Launching Films. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  23. ^ Fuster, Jeremy (January 9, 2018). "Can 'The Post' or 'Paddington 2' Knock off 'Jumanji' at MLK Weekend Box Office?". TheWrap. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
  24. ^ "The Commuter (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  25. ^ "The Commuter Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 18, 2018.

External links

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