Cleared for Take-off
Everyone’s favourite Caledonian action man flies the friendly skies in his latest mid-winter jolt.
Plane
Director: Jean-François Richet • Writers: Charles Cumming, JP Davis
Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Evan Dane Taylor, Claro De Los Reyes
USA • 1hr 47mins
Opens Hong Kong February 2 • IIB
Grade: B+
Editorial bias alert: We are all in on Gerard Butler… G.But. Have been for years. Since his breakout in 300 the guy’s managed to shake off a string of truly heinous rom-coms and remake himself as a Bruce Willis redux; an everyday ’90s action hero that sometimes loses the fight. Butler’s actually a good actor (fight me!) who’s found a niche that needed filling, and seems entirely game to do the job. He’s also nearly 20 years younger than his nearest action competition, Liam Neeson, so he’ll be here for some time. The hyper-appropriately titled Plane, like many of Butler the producer’s films (G-Base is his production company) is a lean, modestly budgeted (US$25 million, or 14 Avengers: Engames) B-picture, helmed by an emerging or journeyman filmmaker, that knows exactly what it is and what it needs to accomplish. Butler’s built a mini-empire cranking these out, and on a few occasions he’s hit on a winning formula, often thanks to a stellar co-star. The legit awesome Den of Thieves worked because he had Pablo Schreiber to bounce off. Ditto for Copshop, co-starring B king Frank Grillo. Plane is another of those lucky strikes that really has no right to be as entertaining as it is, but its single-minded, no muss-no fuss construction, pitch perfect pacing (there’s no fat on these bones) and a snarky-slick few minutes from Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) conspire for infinitely digestible throwaway action trash. Robert Downey Jr has said the world needs more Gerard Butler. We couldn’t agree more, Iron Man.
The hero we need
This time around Butler plays Scottish (huzzah!) pilot Brodie Torrance, a one-time RAF flyboy working for low cost carrier Trailblazer (which for some reason is based in New York but also runs APAC routes out of Singapore) because he choked a bitch out for messing with his crew that one time. He and his young co-pilot, Hongkonger (!) Sam Dele (Yoson An) are flying Trailblazer 119 to Tokyo when a lightning strike forces them to crash land in the Sulu Islands in the Philippines, where there’s no cell signal. Torrance, Dele, flight attendant Bonnie (Daniella Pineda, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop) and their 14 archetypical passengers – the pretty influencer types, entitled white guys, honeymooners, and one former French Foreign Legion soldier, Louis Gaspare (Luke Cage’s Mike Colter, absolutely glistening), being extradited on murder charges – run afoul of a garden variety militia led by the handsomely tressed warlord Datu Junmar (stunt performer Evan Dane Taylor). He’d like nothing better than to ransom their rich foreign asses. That’s it. That’s the set-up. Brodie takes Gaspare on a jungle trek to find help, Junmar comes and gets the passengers, Brodie and Gaspare rescue them. In between, Trailblazer boss Terry (great character actor Paul Ben-Victor) and airline fixer Scarsdale (Goldwyn) work on their own way to find them. Aaaand… action!
Director Jean-François Richet, probably best known for his surprisingly good 2005 remake of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, wastes no time padding out backstory (there’s an exposition dump at airport security for Brodie, and then a “Nice to meet you” crew chat with Dele and Bonnie), filling the space with cliché shrieking and crying from the influencers or setting up such reprehensible behaviour by the entitled white guys they “deserve” to die. No one finds romance amid the peril. Instead, he keeps the focus on Brodie and Gaspare sneaking around and being smart about it, lets loose with a fabulously messy, tight quarters fistfight, and truly bodacious kills (like I said, ’90s action), a couple involving Gaspare and a mallet; there are at least a half-dozen “Oh, damn!” moments in Plane. That said, the resources LCC Trailblazer seems to have at its fingertips – pricey Blackwater-type private contractors, Defence Department satellite feeds, military grade hardware – are utterly ludicrous. As much as I love Cathay service the idea that Swire would splash out for my sorry ass on a missing flight is pure fantasy. Also ludicrous (gorgeously so) is the transformation of a dirt road in the jungle into a airstrip, and Brodie’s ability to turn the plane around. Guess it handles just like a Tercel. Through it all, Butler is the bedrock upon which the goofiness is efficiently, and sincerely, built. Is the CGI at James Cameron levels of polish? No, but no one involved in Plane was interested in spending 11 years making a diverting actioner. Butler ain’t got time for that. Can’t wait for Den of Thieves 2. — DEK
For the Love of G.But
Dear Frankie (2004), d: Shona Auerbach
Emily Mortimer is a single mom trying to protect her deaf son from his abusive father. In his legit hottie breakout, G.But helps her with the ruse.
Coriolanus (2011), d: Ralph Fiennes
Voldemort directs himself and G.But in his first feature, a modernised, under-the-radar Shakespeare spin. Chew on that for a second. A well-performed hidden gem.
The Vanishing (2018), d: Kristoffer Nyholm
G.But and Peter Mullan beat Robert Eggers’s The Lighthouse to the punch with this moody psycho thriller about a crew of wickies who vanished in 1900.