It’s funny because, since
the glory days of Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger, the movies been
searching for the new go-to action hero. Various young men have been
trotted out—Ryan Reynolds, Chris Pine, Chris Evans—none quite sticking.
So Neeson’s success is a bit like a Viagra ad: You want something done,
ask an old guy to do it.

And why not? Liam Neeson is a commanding
physical presence, with a deep voice, and—helpful!—actual acting chops. I
still prefer the “sensitive Liam” of Husbands and Wives and Love Actually, but that’s just a personal preference.

In Non-Stop—which I have also dubbed Lady Mary on a Plane—
Neeson plays a variation on his new persona—basically a badass who is
also a good guy. Here, he’s Air Marshal Bill Marks who’s on a flight to
Norway when he receives an anonymous text message: Put $130 million into
a bank account or one person on the plane will die every 20 minutes.
(Although there’s a lot of text messaging in this film—and even a few
autofills!—there are no hilarious autocorrect snafus, a la “One person
on this plane will diet every 20 minutes”—alas).

Marks
has to figure out who the texts are coming from and try to stop them.
Then there’s a minor twist: That account number the bad guy left? It’s
in Marks’ name. Ground control thinks he’s the hijacker. The pilot and
co-pilot and various flight attendants—including yes, Michelle Dockery
(aka Lady Mary) and Lupita Nyong’o (pre-12 Years a Slave fame
so mostly as eye candy here)—aren’t sure. Everyone’s a suspect,
including Julianne Moore as an overly game, slightly tipsy passenger who
takes a shining to Marks and Corey Stoll (of House of Cards) as a bellicose New York cop on the flight.

I
absolutely loved the ingenious way the first passenger died (of course,
I won’t give it away here) and the film kept me guessing all the way
through. Unfortunately, when the big reveal comes it’s so far-fetched,
you’d have to suspend your belief way past cruising altitude to buy it.

Airplane movies are a risky proposition because you’re trapped in the sky with no escape. In the case of Non-Stop, that’s mostly a good thing.

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