Josh Hartnett has always been a funny guy. Even when Hollywood was trying to turn him into the next big thing, he was always good with a one-liner. Just go back and watch stuff like 40 Days and 40 Nights, or Lucky Number Slevin, for examples of his funny side. But most recently, he proved he’s good at cracking jokes and getting mean in M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap. However, it’s nothing compared to the literal chainsaw of violence and wisecracks he gets to unleash in the absurdist action-comedy, Fight or Flight.
I love that Fight or Flight is ridiculous, and proudly so. The film from director James Madigan, from a script by Brooks McLaren and actor DJ Cotrona, is high-octane from the word “go”, with Hartnett shouldering the brutality and the humor. There’s nothing complicated about the plot, either. It’s an action movie set on an airplane, a subgenre that is always good for a thrill and a laugh. But this is more like Bullet Train at 30,000 feet than something like Con Air or Air Force One, and that’s why it’s so much fun.
A beach-blonde Hartnett plays hapless mercenary Lucas Reyes. He’s been stuck in Bangkok for a couple of years because somebody put him on the No Fly List. Moments after being nearly robbed by some punk kid, he gets a call from his old boss Katherine (Katee Sackhoff), who he despises, who blackmails him into jumping on an airplane to track down a target known as The Ghost. Finding the target isn’t the problem. It’s the dozens of assassins who are also on the plane and trying to kill them both.
We’ve seen a lot of slacker heroes on the big screen, but Reyes is something else. It’s merely hinted at the problems he may have had in the past, but in the present he’s a doped-up loser who occasionally slips into psychedelic, ultra-violent fantasy. It’s a good thing he can fight his ass off. And take a lot of punishment. Reyes gets stabbed, drugged, shot by passengers whether they’re in Coach or in First Class. Actually, the First Class folks are super dangerous. Somehow, there’s also a chainsaw on board? It’s wild all of the things Hartnett, looking like a surfer serial killer, does with a chainsaw in such tight quarters. Pity those in the aisle seats.
This is a real breakout film for Madigan, and I want to see what he can do with even bigger action movies on heftier budgets. The fight scenes boast that 87North style seen in John Wick, Nobody, Bullet Train, and other films. It’s slick and multifaceted and done in long takes, with many characters involved in many different acts of extreme (extremely hilarious, that is) savagery. You get all sorts of killing tools, from flares to champagne glasses and pickaxes, to common airplane items like seat belts and the arms of chairs. All gruesome, all great. If I have a complaint, it’s that we don’t get to see more of the killer martial artist Marko Zaror, who only gets to show off his skills for a minute or two in a role that’s more for comedy.
Fight or Flight doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s why it works. This is the kind of film that could be a huge hit with the genre crowd, and launch a bunch of sequels. It feels like the start of something new for Hartnett, and I hope we get to see him as a passenger on another flight very soon.
Fight or Flight opens in theaters on May 9th via Vertical.
