Starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Erika Christensen, Katie Beahan
Written By: Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray
Directed By: Robert Schwentke
Studio: Touchstone
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Jodie Foster stars as Kyle Pratt, an aircraft designer who is taking a Trans-Atlantic flight home, with her 6 year old daughter and her dead husband. During the flight, Kyle’s 6 year old daughter goes missing while she falls asleep on the plane. Realizing every mother’s nightmare, the child is gone and no one seems to believe Kyle that she was ever on the plane. Going off her own motherly instincts, Kyle must uncover the mystery and get down to the bottom of it. Exciting, and fast paced, Flightplan is an enjoyable action-thriller.

Having to deal with the loss of a loved one is hard enough, but it’s even harder when you have to transport that loved one home on an aircraft, as does Kyle Pratt (Foster.) After a severe fall in their home in Europe, Kyle is struggling with the loss of her husband, and now it’s just Kyle and her daughter. Her daughter is having an even tougher time dealing with the tragic loss by hardly speaking. Now, that Kyle and her daughter Julia are flying back on a Trans-Atlantic flight to New York, they have time to mourn and grieve with each other. Problems arise, when Kyle falls asleep on the plane, as she wakes up and finds that her daughter is gone. As any parent would, she freaks out and tries searching the entire plane for her daughter. Unfortunately, most of the crew and pilots don’t recall Kyle ever bringing her daughter onboard. With Kyle designing the very plane she is flying on now, she knows every inch of the plane to look for Julia. Of course, Kyle gets a little anxious, worried and starts making a commotion disrupting the whole flight. When US Marshal Carson (Sarsgaard) gets involved, Kyle finds her search slows down and there may be something very wrong here. Is she imagining her daughter alive? Is she crazy? Are terrorists involved? Are the drugs kicking in yet? Ya know, the hard hitting questions everyone is asking about her while on the plane. The crew questions her and they give up on the search thinking she is a wacko. Who wouldn’t when no name shows on the manifest, or no witnesses. It’s up to Kyle to find the answers and see what the hell is going on. As with most thrillers, you can see some of the “ah hah’s” coming, and with this movie, it was hard to tell where it was actually going. I bet you have someone who you watched this with, and they call out the twist, thrilling moment a half hour prior to it, and you just want to slap the shit out of them. Or you get the “oh, i can write these stories” when the thrill is finally revealed. That’s why its better to just watch these kinds of movies by yourself.

Flightplan includes several extra features like “The In Flight Movie: The Making Of,” “Cabin Pressure: Designing The Aalto E-474, and filmmaker audio commentary. With the featurettes, you get the set up of the story, an interview with the director, casting, and post production inside looks. With “Cabin Pressure” the filmmakers take you inside the creation of the aircraft shown in the film. Hey, it looked believable to me.

Flightplan was a fun, thrilling action movie, with more an emphasis on thrilling. Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, and Sean Bean were all great in their roles. The movie had a few typical thrills but it was still enjoyable.

Features:
-The In-Flight Movie: The Making Of Flightplan Featurette
-Cabin Pressure: Designing The Aalto E-474 Featurette
-Filmmaker Audio Commentary

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
ENGLISH: DTS 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
-Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: Plane Goes Dark, Finale
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 98 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: