Non-Stop (film)

Non-Stop
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jaume Collet-Serra
Screenplay by	John W. Richardson Chris Roach Ryan Engle
Story by	John W. Richardson Chris Roach
Produced by	Joel Silver Alex Heineman Steve Richards Andrew Rona
Starring	Liam Neeson Julianne Moore Scoot McNairy Michelle Dockery Nate Parker Jason Butler Harner Anson Mount
Cinematography	Flavio Martínez Labiano
Edited by	Jim May
Music by	John Ottman
Production companies	StudioCanal Silver Pictures Anton Capital Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	January 27, 2014 (2014-01-27) (Paris) February 26, 2014 (2014-02-26) (France) February 28, 2014 (2014-02-28) (United States)
Running time	106 minutes
Countries	France United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$222.8 million

Non-Stop is a 2014 mystery-action thriller film starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Lupita Nyong'o and Scoot McNairy and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. This is the first Silver Pictures film to be distributed by Universal Pictures after the end of the production company's deal with Warner Bros., and the first since Weird Science. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and was a box office success.

Plot

An alcoholic air marshal named Bill Marks boards a Boeing 767 non-stop flight from New York City to London. He sits next to passenger Jen Summers with whom he engages in friendly conversations. After take-off, he receives a text message on his secure phone stating that someone will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a specific bank account. Marks breaks protocol and consults with Jack Hammond, the other air marshal, who concludes that the threat is not valid. Marks, however, enlists the help of Summers and flight attendant Nancy to monitor the security cameras while texting the mysterious person in order to locate him. However, Hammond is texted by the unknown person who says that he knows what is in Hammond's briefcase. As Marks confronts Hammond in the rear lavatory, the latter is revealed to be smuggling cocaine in a brief-case. Hammond attacks Marks, who responds in self-defense and breaks Hammond's neck. This incident happens exactly at the 20-minute mark.

Marks, the pilot, and the co-pilot explain the text messages to the TSA, but the TSA discovers that the bank account was registered in Marks's name, and proceeds to accuse Marks of being the author. At this point, the pilot falls dead, being seemingly poisoned, and time is exactly at the 40-minute mark.

Marks makes several attempts to monitor the passengers and search them, causing the passengers to detest him. One of them uploads a video in which Marks accuses and roughly handles school teacher Tom Bowen, convincing the media that Marks is himself the hijacker. Meanwhile, the co-pilot is instructed by the TSA to divert the plane to Iceland. A programmer named Zack White, who Marks previously encountered at the airport, offers to write a computer virus to force the hijacker's phone to ring, whereupon the phone is discovered in the suit pocket of a banker, but the latter denies ever seeing that phone before. Marks physically abuses the banker, who suddenly dies of poisoning, right at the 60-minute mark.

While smoking in the lavatory, Marks discovers a hole drilled into the wall which offered a clear shot to the pilot's seat. He then inspects the body of the banker and discovers that the pilot and banker were killed with poison darts. He asks a passenger who was the last to use the toilet and she replies that Summers was the last to use the toilet. Marks confronts Summers and accuses her of being the real hijacker and says that her actions throughout the flight were suspicious. Summers proves her innocence and gets upset over being accused of such crimes even though she stood by Marks throughout the flight. Marks apologizes to her and offers her a drink. The passengers view a mid-flight news report via their television sets, saying that Marks is the hijacker of their flight. The hijacker's phone suddenly activates, warning that a bomb will explode in 30 minutes. Marks realizes that the bomb would have to be placed in a location such that it could avoid security checks, which was inside Hammond's cocaine briefcase. A short while later, some passengers try to attack Marks but Tom Bowen stops them, believing that the bomb is the first priority. Marks persuades the passengers of his innocence, and together they move the bomb to the plane's rear and bury it with luggage to reduce the blast's damage and move to the front of the plane to avoid the blast. The plane has to descend to 8,000 feet, which is necessary for survival, as the low pressure of higher altitudes would rip the plane apart if the bomb exploded. However the co-pilot is unable to do so as they are escorted by a pair of fighter aircraft that instructs him to not deviate from his course or altitude without permission from them.

Marks, watching the video of himself from earlier, notices Bowen making contact with the banker's pocket, suggesting that Bowen put the phone there. At this moment, Bowen is revealed to be the hijacker and runs to the rear of the plane. Marks chases after him but loses his gun to Bowen in a fight. White also reveals himself to be a hijacker. Their goal was to frame Marks for the plane's hijacking and destruction, thus ruining the reputation of the Air Marshals Service, which they seek revenge against for allowing September 11 to happen in which Bowen's father died. Marks persuades White to disarm the bomb, saying that there is no escaping from this alive. Bowen shoots White before he's able to disarm the bomb, preferring he be a martyr, and prepares to kill Marks. Meanwhile, the co-pilot suddenly descends steeply at the last moment against the fighter jets' orders. In the ensuing chaos, Marks, with the help of Nancy, kills Bowen in a gun fight. White recovers enough and attempts to kill Marks, determined to grab the last parachute he's holding. Noticing the countdown approaching, Marks subdues him and throws him to the rear of the plane just as the bomb goes off, killing him in the blast, which blows out a door and damages the fuselage. A short while later one of the engines explodes sending the plane careening down towards fast approaching land. The plane is only just successfully crash landed with all remaining passengers and crew surviving. An injured Marks is treated by the emergency forces and is praised for being a hero by the TSA and media, after previously being suspected and reported the hijacker. The passengers express their gratitude to Marks, who then begins a friendship with Summers.

Cast

• Liam Neeson as William "Bill" Marks, an alcoholic U.S. Federal Air Marshal who is assigned to protect a non-stop flight from New York to London
• Julianne Moore as Jen Summers, a passenger whom Bill befriends on the flight
• Michelle Dockery as Nancy Hoffman, a flight attendant who knows Marks
• Nate Parker as Zack White, a programmer who helps Bill find the messenger but is later revealed to be the latter's accomplice
• Linus Roache as Captain David McMillan, the captain of the flight
• Scoot McNairy as Tom Bowen, the mystery messenger and mastermind behind the plot to frame Marks
• Corey Stoll as Austin Reilly, an NYPD police officer
• Lupita Nyong'o as Gwen Lloyd, a flight attendant
• Anson Mount as Jack Hammond, another Air Marshal on board the flight
• Omar Metwally as Dr. Fahim Nasir, a doctor on board the flight
• Jason Butler Harner as First Officer Kyle Rice, the co-pilot of the flight
• Corey Hawkins as Travis Mitchell
• Quinn McColgan as Becca, a little girl that Bill befriends
• Frank Deal as Charles Wheeler
• Shea Whigham as Agent Marenick, a TSA agent
• Bar Paly as Iris Marianne
• Jon Abrahams as David Norton
• Cameron Moir as Peter, a Steward who calms the Passengers.

Filming

Filming began on November 1, 2012 at York Studios in Maspeth, Queens, New York City, then continued at JFK Airport on December 7, 2012, and at Long Island MacArthur Airport. This was the inaugural movie filmed at York Studios.

Reception

Critical response

Non-Stop received mixed to positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a rating of 60%, based on 199 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. The site's consensus states, "While Liam Neeson is undoubtedly an asset, Non-Stop wastes its cast—not to mention its solid premise and tense setup—on a poorly conceived story that hinges on a thoroughly unbelievable final act." On another aggregation website, Metacritic, it holds a score of 56 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Chris Nashawaty, writing for Entertainment Weekly, delivered a positive review, grading it "B", and observing: "At a certain point either you'll fasten your seat belt and go with Non-Stop's absurd, Looney Tunes logic or you won't. Against my better judgment, I went with it. After all, Neeson has shown time and again that he's the closest thing Hollywood has these days to a box office Rumpelstiltskin. He can spin cheese into gold." David Denby, for The New Yorker, was ambivalent on the film's overall scope, but praised Neeson, writing, "Neeson, who brings enormous conviction to these late-career action roles, moves his big body through confined spaces (virtually the entire movie takes place in the airplane) with so much power that you expect him to rip out the seats."

Richard Corliss, for Time, had a blasé opinion, stating that the film "...is no more or less than what it intends to be.." and posits the question: "Why demand logic of an action movie released in February, when audiences just want a nice, bumpy ride?" Susan Wloszczyna of RogerEbert.com wrote, "Liam Neeson is not going to be knocked off his perch as the elder statesman of B-movie tough guys any time soon...", and continued, "The rather ingenious if preposterous premise, one that only goes way off course in the heavy-handed third act...'Non-Stop' is so ridiculously entertaining in spite of its occasional lapses in real-world logic." Tom Shone, reviewing for The Guardian, maintained a similar tone in his review, saying of Neeson, "He's at his best striding up and down the aisles of the aircraft with that big, rolling gait of his, carving out great wads of air with his hands, barking orders, his face in Rodin-ish profile, his destiny, like Mitchum's, enlivened by a nobility far greater than the film he finds himself in – the true sign of a B-movie king.", and of Moore "...Neeson enjoys a nice, relaxed rapport with Moore, whose looser, Keaton-esque side seems to come out when cast opposite noble hunks."

Box office

The film opened in 3,090 theaters in the United States and Canada. It grossed $10 million on opening day and was ranked #1 at the end of weekend with $28.8 million, ahead of former box office leader The Lego Movie, another film starring Neeson, and the new release Son of God.

The film earned $92.1 million at the North American box office. In other markets it took in an additional $130.6 million, for a total of $222.8 million worldwide. Its budget for making the film was $50 million.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The original motion picture soundtrack was composed by John Ottman. The record was released on April 3, 2014 via Varèse Sarabande label.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Non-Stop"	3:13
2.	"Damaged Goods"	3:43
3.	"Usual Suspects"	1:20
4.	"Welcome to Aqualantic"	1:04
5.	"First Text"	3:16
6.	"Random Search"	1:41
7.	"Do Something for Me"	2:43
8.	"Circling Passengers"	3:12
9.	"Interrogations"	3:24
10.	"What Happened to Amsterdam?"	3:46
11.	"Death Number One"	2:08
12.	"Reluctant Passenger/Blue Ribbon"	2:09
13.	"Fuck It"	3:43
14.	"Explosions Protocol"	1:56
15.	"Ambush"	1:40
16.	"Message Received"	3:21
17.	"Bathroom Discovery"	1:49
18.	"8000 Feet"	2:11
19.	"Unloaded Weapon"	1:31
20.	"Crash Landing"	1:27
21.	"Epilogue"	3:53
Total length:		53:10

Home media

Non-Stop was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on June 10, 2014.

Sequel

On June 11, 2014, Entertainment Weekly reported that in an interview with producer Joel Silver, he talked about the possibility of a sequel, and stated that it will not be happening on a plane again. "I need to think of a way to put them in an equal situation. But when I make a sequel I like to replicate the experience, not replicate the movie. I'm not going to put them on a plane again, of course. He has a touch of Sherlock Holmes in that he has to figure out what's going on and then he has to figure out how to solve it. I think that character's a great character and we'll try to figure something else to do. I haven't thought about it yet. But I have to, sooner or later."

External links

• Official website
• Non-Stop at IMDb
• Non-Stop at Rotten Tomatoes
• Non-Stop at Metacritic
• Non-Stop at Box Office Mojo
• Non-Stop at AllMovie