Tonight's Movie: Flight Risk (2025)

As I've shared here before, every so often I enjoy a good action movie -- and if it's set on an airplane, so much the better.

Airplane action films I've enjoyed in the last decade include the excellent PLANE (2023) starring Gerard Butler and the very enjoyable NON-STOP (2014) with Liam Neeson.

Neeson had two costars in NON-STOP, Julianne Moore and Michelle Dockery, with Dockery as a plucky stewardess.

A decade later Dockery has returned to the skies in a far different role, playing a tough FBI agent in FLIGHT RISK (2025).

FLIGHT RISK, which was written by Jared Rosenberg and directed by actor Mel Gibson, is nothing we haven't seen before, but it's also engaging and entertaining.

Dockery plays Madolyn, an FBI agent who has recently returned to field work after a tragedy during a past case.

She tracks down and arrests an accountant named Winston (Topher Grace) at a remote motel in Alaska. Winston agrees to be a cooperating witness against a mafioso, but first he must be flown to Anchorage.

Madolyn's department rents a small private plane to transport Madolyn and Winston to Anchorage, piloted by a fairly obnoxious good ol' boy type named Daryl (Mark Wahlberg).

The flight hasn't been underway for long when Winston and Madolyn each begin to suspect that Daryl isn't who he's supposed to be...

As I mentioned above, much of the movie will be familiar territory. The movie's theme about transporting an endangered witness to testify is familiar, with shades of films like THE NARROW MARGIN (1952) or THE GAUNTLET (1977).

The movie also conjures up memories of "stewardess learning to fly the plane" films such as JULIE (1956) and AIRPORT 1975 (1974). In this case the voice of a charming pilot named Hasan (Monib Abhat) must coach Madolyn on flying and landing the plane. A satellite phone comes in handy for communications in the wilds of Alaska but batteries must be conserved...

And rookie pilot flying a plane for the first time with a psycho killer tied up in the back is just that much more challenging!

I honestly like my action movies on the predictable side, more of a fun rollercoaster ride than anything disturbing or overly violent. FLIGHT RISK is rated R for profuse bad language, but honestly, watching the movie, the viewer understands some of the cursing! The film's violent moments are a bit bloody but not overly gory.

Dockery, known to many of us as Lady Mary from DOWNTON ABBEY (2019), does a fine job as the agent experiencing one of the worst days of her life on a plane careening perilously close at times to Alaskan mountains. Grace, along with Abhat, provides some needed levity and is actually rather moving towards movie's end.

As for Wahlberg, he's an out-and-out creep, making Madolyn's ultimate exclamation regarding his fate amusing and understandable.

To be sure, this isn't a perfect movie. I like the familiarity but sometimes the dialogue and moments are a bit too predictable, and at times the plane is on autopilot unbelievably long with no one in the cockpit. It would probably be easy to tear apart the plot and find holes if one was inclined to do so, which I was not.

On the up side this is a fast-paced 91 minutes which does what it sets out to do, entertain. It's a film from the days when not every movie has to be either a four-star classic or a multimillion dollar box office smash; it's simply a solid, mid-range film providing an hour and a half of fun, no more, no less. As the saying goes, "Your mileage may vary," but I liked it and would watch it again.

FLIGHT RISK was filmed by Johnny Derengo. The film's voice actors, heard in conversations with Dockery, include Leah Remini, Paul Ben-Victor, and Eilise Guilfoyle.

The FLIGHT RISK trailer is here.

Previous reviews of Mark Wahlberg films: THE ITALIAN JOB (2003), CONTRABAND (2012), TWO GUNS (2013), DEEPWATER HORIZON (2016), PATRIOTS DAY (2016), INSTANT FAMILY (2018), and UNCHARTED (2022).

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