Actually, 7500 has nothing to do with feet or meters; it’s the code for a hijacked airliner. Viewers may note that it’s harder to hijack an airliner these days. Several lessons of 9-11 have been mysteriously forgotten by this screenplay, specifically the ones where an armed air marshal is always on board or the part where the pilot’s cabin is closed and locked for the duration of the time that the plane is in motion. 9-11 of course offered something completely relevant to entertainment this week. The lesson that political heavies took from 9-11 is that if you can scare Americans successfully, they’ll go along with anything, no matter how ill-considered or inane … as a result, President McCheese, running on a record of negating responsibility for 180,000+ COVID deaths, a Great Depression-like economy, and historic levels of pessimism among citizens, stands a –get this- SOLID chance of re-election on the premise that the other guy “will destroy America.” Gosh, Trumpies, I wonder what that might look like … Thousands dead? Civil War-like divisiveness? A collapsed economy? Record unemployment? Race riots? Hate groups armed and massing? A fear of leaving your house? Gosh, one can only imagine.
But I digress. Today’s film is about the horror of a plane hijacking, not the horror that ensued.
Ill-fated flight A319 is scheduled to go from Berlin to Paris. Captain Crunched (Carlo Kitzinger) ain’t gonna make it far past the tarmac. That leaves junior flyboy Tobias (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) essentially in charge of the plane, the passengers, the hijackers, and the fate of the Western World. Well, not quite the latter, but you get the idea. Using makeshift knifes from broken wine bottles and duct tape, three dudes take over a flight … sorta. The Cap’n and the head terrorist kinda take each other out, leaving Tobias in the driver’s seat both literally and figuratively. After this, the film becomes a series of tense negotiations, often between Tobias and someone holding a knife to someone’s throat in an effort to achieve a desired result.
I wonder if this film is either fantasy or nightmare for pilots. Here it is, ladies and gents, your chance to play God. As a pilot, I suppose you’re used to having
lives put in your hands, but this is a little different. How exactly are you going to fend off the attackers, save the passengers, and fly the plane? Here’s where I found the film very frustrating. 7500 sets up several tough choices and makes us gnash our teeth pleading for the lead to make a better choice. The highlight of the film came not from watching JGL take control of the situ, but from the developing relationship between First Officer Tobias and one of the hijackers, Vedat (Omid Memar). The films eventually asks one very interesting question: what do you owe the hijacker who puts your life in jeopardy, but spares you specifically when it counts? Is that a friend of a foe?
7500 had a very frustrating plot. As I’ve pointed out, modern safety norms would have countered this hijacking very early on. Also, I continued to find aggravating the choices Tobias made. However, I cannot disagree that the film was tense, very tense, and yielded one curiously positive relationship…is this Stockholm Syndrome? Is a hijacker just a life-threatening friend you haven’t met? Or was this relationship all a cynical ploy for self-preservation? I’m not sure about the answers, but I do know this –if anything- makes the film worth seeing.
Terrorists call for airborne attacks
Yielding a most mortal climax
I understand your frustration
But this call to damnation
Is it worth it for an extra bag of snacks?
Rated R, 93 Minutes
Director: Patrick Vollrath
Writer: Patrick Vollrath, Senad Halilbasic
Genre: Airport ‘20
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Thriller junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: TSA
