Carry-On

It’s Christmas Eve and Los Angeles airport is swamped with travellers trying to spend the holidays with their loved ones. Ethan (Taron Edgerton) is a security agent who thus far has coasted through his entire life, failing the entrance exam to the police force and finding his future prospects growing more limited with each passing day. While working the x-ray machines, he finds his life turned upside down when he is blackmailed by a mysterious passenger who threatens to smuggle a dangerous package onto a plane. Fed instructions through an earpiece, Ethan must choose whether to save the life of his girlfriend or risk the safety of the passengers at the airport.

Spanish American director Jaume Collet-Serra returns with another thriller, his previous work including The Commuter starring Liam Neeson and the shark-infested waters of The Shallows, and much like these previous single location movies, Carry-On has its ceiling, but it comfortably reaches it. Taking heavy inspiration from Die Hard and embodying itself as a modern incarnation, not least because it is an action movie set at Christmas, the drama steadily escalates through twists, turns and the occasional platitude in the plot.

There aren’t many airport-based pulse-raisers out there that are conceivably enjoyable, but the film is at least entertaining thanks to the performances of the central cast. Edgerton is instantly likeable as the young and pressured Ethan, and we root for him from the beginning thanks to his boyish charm and desire to turn his life around. Standing in his way is Jason Bateman, who makes for a decent, cold-blooded villain. He is menacing throughout, never breaking the iceman façade his character presents and truly making you believe he has every base covered and is always thinking three steps ahead. Both actors need to be good together seeing as they take up much of the dialogue without being on screen together, but the chemistry between them is palpable.

Danielle Deadwyler, along with director of photography Lyle Vincent, brings cinematic action to the movie in her scenes as police detective Elena Cole, particularly shining in a highly entertaining fight to the death in a speeding car. The contrast between these sequences and Edgerton’s quietly fearful moments listening on the phone are very welcome given the movie’s near two-hour duration. Much like Joel Schumacher’s 2002 Phone Booth, Carry-On’s simplest scenes make for some of the tensest viewing, but still require moments of combat to keep the narrative ticking.

The ending is unabashedly cliché and in general, the movie is highly unbelievable, but while it won’t blow you away, you’ll enjoy the ride nonetheless.

Guy Lambert

Carry-On is released on Netflix on 13^th December 2024.

Watch the trailer for Carry-On here: