We seem to be in a full-on Hartnaissance. It started with Josh Hartnett's sly performance in M. Night Shyamalan's campy thriller Trap, now continues with the goofy action comedy Fight or Flight. This time around, Hartnett throws himself (often literally) into the role of disgraced former Secret Service agent Lucas Reyes, who's given the opportunity to return from exile when his former colleague Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff) taps him to capture an international cyberterrorist known as the Ghost on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco.
Katherine is also Lucas' ex-girlfriend, and she only calls on him because her nebulously defined agency has lost its entire Bangkok team while tracking the Ghost. He's the only asset close enough to make it onto the flight in time, so she rouses him from the bar where he's day drinking and promises him a clean slate if he'll bring her the mysterious fugitive alive.
What Katherine doesn't know right away is that the Ghost's location has been leaked online, so the flight is also full of representatives from every corrupt government and criminal organization that the expert hacker has ever wronged, along with contract killers trying to collect the bounty on the Ghost's head. It's a variation on a formula most recently seen in the Brad Pitt action movie Bullet Train, and director James Madigan makes the most of it here, pitting Lucas against a variety of crazed adversaries, all while he is at least slightly inebriated.
Lucas' only ally is flight attendant Isha (Charithra Chandran), whose own secret agenda temporarily lines up with Lucas' interests. Lucas and Isha make for an appealing mismatched team in the classic buddy-cop mode, while Katherine issues urgent demands from her command center and deals with her frustrating subordinates. The story kicks into gear once Lucas and Isha lay out their true motivations to each other, although that leaves Katherine sidelined for long stretches of time.
Despite some entertaining (if fairly obvious) twists, the story is really just a framework for the over-the-top action, which includes cranial impalements by wine glass and fire-suppression sprinkler, a clarinet-playing assassin with a blade hidden in his instrument, and numerous deaths by chainsaw. Madigan, a veteran visual effects artist and second-unit director making his debut feature, stages inventive and economical action almost entirely within the plane itself. The single location never feels limiting, though, and periodic interludes at Katherine's clandestine headquarters allow for welcome breathers.
Hartnett knows exactly what kind of movie he's in, and he gives Lucas a sleazy charm that takes advantage of his status as a former teen idol now easing into middle age. He acquits himself admirably fighting against B-movie action mainstays like Marko Zaror, while retaining Lucas' unbalanced mental state. He also never overplays the comedy, even with the escalating ridiculousness, and the screenplay by Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona doesn't rely too heavily on cutesy quips. "OK, sure, why the f— not?" Lucas responds when presented with the latest in a series of absurd revelations about what's happening on the plane, and the movie takes the same anything-goes attitude.
The occasional attempts at social commentary are less successful, especially the explanations about what led both Lucas and the Ghost to their current respective positions. A movie like Fight or Flight doesn't need to make meaningful statements about global injustice or corporate greed, and the efforts at sincerity come across as disingenuous. Luckily, there's rarely much time for sentimentality before another deranged maniac starts attacking.
The filmmakers appear to be having so much fun with the nonstop mayhem that they forget to craft an ending, and Fight or Flight wraps up more like a TV pilot than a feature film. Still, that's forgivable enough given that another bonkers adventure for Lucas Reyes seems like a solid prospect. Let the Hartnaissance continue. ♦
Fight or Flight
Rated R
Directed by James Madigan
Starring Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Katee Sackhoff
