“Fight or Flight” (2024) stars Josh Hartnett who plays Lucas Reyes, who is hired to protect and bring in a terrorist nicknamed the Ghost in exchange for clearing his name so he can get his life back. Without any information about that target’s identity, it is an almost impossible task made more complicated when every country in the world has a ten-million-dollar bounty on the Ghost. Also, all the bounty hunters are on the plane armed with Lucas’ photograph that looks like a Hartnett headshot. Will he get his life back or die during the journey from Bangkok to San Francisco?
Lucas is an alcoholic hiding out in Bangkok, but not effectively because goons are on his heels when he goes to his favorite drinking hole, so he takes the job before knowing all the challenges ahead. Hot Hartnett is the reason that “Trap” (2024) was a success. If casting had given the role to another actor, “Fight or Flight” would be a monotonous mess, but as he gets put in increasingly impractical outfits and gets wackier, he is the main reason the movie works at all. Calling the Ghost a boogeyman felt like a reference to Hartnett playing Michael Myers’ nephew in “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” (1998).
If Hartnett was not the star, “Fight or Flight” would be a more interesting movie if the Ghost and their protectors, Master Lian (JuJu Chan Szeto) and her two sidekicks, Lea (Anabelle Daisy Grundberg) and Enzo (Andras Seregi). Once the Ghost’s backstory is revealed, it is a far more interesting story and watching the Ghost and their three bodyguards would have been awesome, but then the humor would be lost. They are styled like kung fu masters in old movies, but their action is severely and insultingly curtailed for jokes.
Director James Madigan and editor Ben Mills start strong pairing comedic notes with conventional spy control room shots. Comparing and contrasting different agents’ styles establishes the stakes early, and the character development initially seems like a strong set up. Agent Aaron Hunter (Julian Kostov) is a hot head with no ability to regulate himself. Seeing Katee Sackhoff is like winning the lottery, and as his supervisor Katherine Brunt, who also has a history with Reyes and hires him, her performance feels like a promise. She is calm and still but resents that she is doing a job that Hunter should have handled. The other countdown should be to see what makes her lose her crap, but the movie never goes there, and the closest that the audience gets is a blurred shot. Once the writers Brooks McLaren and D. J. Cotrona stopped the rhythm of toggling between Reyes and his employers, it lost its biggest asset. Hunter’s spotlight needed to widen beyond the first act to include Agent Kyle Robinson (Jyuddah Jaymes) as a cool, collected agent who does not follow the standard dress code while still coloring within the lines and Agent Paul Simmons (Willem van der Vegt) as an agent who does not get the tone of his job.
“Fight or Flight” pros are that once the action starts, it is non-stop, outlandish and gorific. The cons are the limited fight space restricting the action out of necessity and lack of consistent supporting cast involvement to release pressure and increased investment in the plot. Even Pedro Almodóvar’s shakiest work, “I’m So Excited!” (2013), was on a plane, and the location can drain even the best work of dramatic momentum. Initially things are promising as the distinct civilian passengers. Mrs. Nazareth (Iren Bordan) is a decked out, stylish older lady who just ends up being a screaming mess, which was a disappointment. Mr. McDonald (Zalan Takacs), a drunk, rotund passenger, also gets quickly forgotten. They did not have to be punchlines and could have been in on the joke as passengers who suddenly get involved even though their skill sets and bodies are not prepared to fight. People did it in 9/11, and the civilians end up being background scenery.
The flight attendants fare slightly better. Royce (Danny Ashok) cannot prioritize the threat and still feels compelled to do his job. He is a freeze response kind of guy. Garrett (Hughie O’Donnell) is the funniest in the bunch who is focused on the customers and knows that after all the chaos calms, he will still need a job. Isha (Charithra Chandran) gets with the program and comes to Lucas’ aid though she is understandably suspicious of him. The tension in their dynamic is whether she will trust him or think that he is one of the bad guys; thus, endangering Lucas and everyone on board. Thankfully the writers do not make her a love interest, and it is always lovely to get a woman handling her business on screen. The pilots get to crack a few jokes that feel like a reference to “Sully” (2016) and get a second hilarious moment involving Mormons knocking on the cockpit door, which is kind of brilliant.
Overall, the fight scenes in “Fight or Flight” are terrific, and the bounty hunters have a lot of personality. The camerawork is solid, and though Madigan prefers a shaky cam over still shots, because he moves with the fight, it works. As the runtime continues, they just become less distinctive and forgettable. It is the ninja rule. One ninja is a problem, but masses of them are easily dispatched. After awhile, it gets to be one note though the filmmakers and Hartnett do their best to keep things interesting with chain saws, burst fuselage and drug trips. Unfortunately, once a movie hits a ten, there is not anywhere to go then the mean becomes lower resulting in running out of a runaway.
“Fight or Flight” does its best to imbue a sense of meaning to the madness by making Lucas’ backstory and ethics fit nicely with the Ghost’s tragic history. Slavery is bad, especially when it involves children. It works because of the performances but is more of a respectable veneer to excuse the violence which anyone watching this movie is not looking for an excuse to do so. Still points for tossing a message against the wall to see if it sticks.
If you watch a lot of movies, you should probably skip this one unless you do not mind seeing another movie with endless fights on a plane, love anyone in the cast or have the hots for Hartnett. Even so, the high-octane runtime and script gradually feels like a chore that will never end. The teaser for a sequel feels more like a threat. It is possible that “Fight or Flight” is part of the “John Wick” universe, but with Keanu coming back, instead of a permanent sidequel, can Hartnett and Reeves just team up for one solid movie instead of weaker derivatives?
