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"Plane" is the case of an action movie in which the dumb title—the most memorable thing about it—isn't an artistic statement, it's an alibi. If it can convince you that it's so simple, suddenly all of its laziness with character development, plotting, action sequences, etc., seems quaint, if not knowing. Add the pitch of Gerard Butler on a self-rescue mission, saving his flight passengers and crew from angry Filipino militants after a crash landing, and the expectations lower themselves.  

This rickety vehicle is produced by Butler, who seems to make these movies to avoid wearing superhero spandex or having to hurl himself off a cliff like Tom Cruise . He's fared better as a last action hero of a certain type of movie, and the biggest problem with "Plane" throughout is that it isn't wilder; it does not revel appropriately enough in its open dumbness. For its junky concept that eventually embraces '80s action storytelling firmer than a handshake in " Predator ," there are so many missed moments in which director Jean-François Richet attempts to get a free genre pass isn't so much as coasting but rushing to get itself over with.  

Things are looking up for "Plane" when it's gearing up for a big crash. Our main hero—Plane—is struck by lightning in a large spat of brutal weather, knocking out its power and dooming it to an unforeseen landing. With more of an air of "I can't believe this bad service," the 14 passengers on board start to freak out progressively; things become even direr when someone thinks they can outwit seatbelts. The sequence is cut with a punchy, glad-you-aren't-there intensity, and a couple of illustrative stunts—nasty things involving heads and neck trauma—make a firm point not to test gravity. Butler's pilot Brodie Torrance, who kicked off the flight with some Southwest Airlines-grade jokes over the intercom, executes some macho maneuvering and has his co-pilot Samuel ( Yoson An ) clock the ten minutes they have before they eventually crash land on a remote island in the Philippines.  

During this tumultuous descent, it's mighty strange when "Plane" shows a closeup of a drafted text message but not long enough for us to read whatever it says. But that's more of a hint that no characters have any important point to this story, aside, maybe, from a captured fugitive named Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), who is handcuffed to an officer at the back of the plane. His history of committing homicide comes later in handy when the flight lands in progressively hostile territory. Brodie, with his history in the RAF and a gun secretly in his pants, brings him along the mysterious terrain to find help. Butler and Colter proceed to fend off plainly bad guys, with little chemistry between them in the process. 

Everything shifts for them when, after making a communications breakthrough at a shady warehouse (bullets on the floor, not a great sign), a bad guy sneaks up from behind and tries to kill Brodie. The scuffle that ensues is impressive, with the camera mostly holding on Butler's face as he wrestles with this bigger dude in tight quarters. But nothing is as exciting or long-lasting from here on out, even when Richet tries to heighten the danger with merciless militia men who roll up and kidnap Brodie's passengers and crew. "Plane" rushes through its emotional and explosive beats so that it can get to the next crisis without having to fill out the previous one, and it wildly skims on the good stuff in the process. Hostage situations are quickly fixed, dull gunfire exchanges are executed as if they were shot on different days, and even Colter's stiff, quiet killer only has his silence to make his stiffness remotely interesting as he doesn't get much of an arc despite the ominous promise at the beginning. It's just a bunch of action filmmaking gruel, presenting the jungle terrain with a color tint that matches the dank sweat on Butler's t-shirt.  

The biggest scene-stealer, really, is Gun, a quite large rifle brought by some airline-hired American black ops dudes who later appear, and which can fire bullets that rocket through car doors and exploding rib cages. Gun has a sounder dramatic arc than any other heroes in this assortment of action figurines and scowling cardboard cutouts and at least provides gory over-the-top violence like "Rambo" (2008), given the film's sleazy evolution. (My preview audience audibly adored Gun more than everything and everyone else in "Plane.”) Everyone else on-screen, from Butler's simply exhausted pilot to Colter's fugitive-maybe-looking for redemption to the super-scowling Filipino militia leader named Junmar ( Evan Dane Taylor ), is treated with such little sincerity by the script that you almost start to feel bad for them.  

Meanwhile, at Trailblazer Air headquarters back in New York City, the film props up its message that airline companies, not just their pilots, are ready to go to war for you. A group of people sits around a U-shape table with ominous lighting. The airline's CEO, Hampton ( Paul Ben-Victor ), uses his list of contacts trying to locate and then protect the passengers, including those American guys who come with their own equipment. A no-BS PR hotshot named Scarsdale, played by Tony Goldwyn , has all the answers and plenty of 'tude, too, like when he barks, "If you have New Year's Eve Plans, I just canceled them." It's telling how these scenes are filmed with the same feeling of a board room in one of Butler's " Olympus Has Fallen " movies. Like the other bits of wonky heroism in the disappointing vacation that is "Plane," it makes for an exaggerated joke with no punchline.  

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Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film Credits

Plane (2023)

Rated R for violence and language.

107 minutes

Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance

Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare

Yoson An as Dele

Tony Goldwyn as Scarsdale

Daniella Pineda as Bonnie

Paul Ben-Victor as Hampton

Remi Adeleke as Shellback

Joey Slotnick as Sinclair

Evan Dane Taylor as Junmar

Claro de los Reyes as Hajan

Haleigh Hekking as Daniela Torrance

• Jean-François Richet

Writer (story by)

• Charles Cumming

Cinematographer

• Brendan Galvin
• David Rosenbloom
• Marco Beltrami
• Marcus Trumpp

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‘Plane’ Review: A High-Flying Action Movie as Sturdy as Its Star, Gerard Butler

He plays a pilot forced to make an emergency landing, at which point the trouble really starts.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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Ever since the ’80s, action films have been overwhelmingly basic in concept, execution, and title. So when you hear that the new Gerard Butler film is called “Plane,” you’d be forgiven for thinking that you can run the entire movie through your head in the blink of an eye. Gerard Butler on a plane (check). He’s probably the pilot (check). There’s probably a criminal onboard (check). The film will be a low-flying, B-grade “Air Force One,” with Butler’s windpipe-smashing grizzled lug saving the day in the same way that Harrison Ford’s heroically resourceful chief executive did.

Actually, no.

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But wouldn’t you know it, he spots land. An island of jungle terrain with a road snaking right through the middle of it. How convenient! Putting on his Sully Sullenberger cap, Brodie is able to make an emergency landing, using the road as a makeshift runway and stranding the shorted-out plane and its 14 passengers on what turns out to be Jolo, a remote island in the Philippines controlled by a ragtag militia of separatist renegades.

Butler is 53 now, and his hardass Scottish valor is aging like fine wine — or, at least, pretty good ale. He has a warm and fuzzy side, which comes out in Brodie’s phone chats with his collegiate daughter, Daniela (Haleigh Hekking), who he was supposed to rendezvous with after the flight. He makes contact with her again in one of the film’s best scenes, set in an abandoned communications hut in the middle of the jungle, where Brodie, in just a few minutes, is able to rewire the phone line, so that he can place a call to Trailblazer Airlines. A war room of corporate troubleshooters, led by a former Special Forces officer played by Tony Goldwyn (who’s like Ryan Seacrest’s sinewy sibling), is standing by, trying to pinpoint the vanished plane’s location. But Brodie, in a distressingly funny scene, gets hooked up to an annoying 21st-century company operator who won’t cooperate with him. (She thinks he’s a prank caller.) So he’s forced to call Daniela.

Even when the Trailblazer folks figure out where the plane is, they can’t just swoop in for the rescue. The Philippines government won’t cooperate; only mercenaries will go in there. Which means that Brodie essentially has to fight the rebels by himself, though he does deputize a partner: Louis, the killer in handcuffs, played by the charismatic Mike Colter, who makes this bruiser a wronged man who nevertheless keeps you guessing. The rest of the passengers cower and bicker — or, in the case of the arrogant businessman Sinclair (Joey Slotnick), bark out orders until the rebels, led by Dele (Yoson An), the short-fused commander who’s like a penny-ante Che Guevara, reduce him to wimpy subservience. They need ransom money to fund their war, a plan that Brodie undercuts with fists, machine guns, surgical espionage timing and extreme piloting skills. “Plane” is fodder, but the picture brazens through its own implausibilities, carried along — and occasionally aloft — by Gerard Butler’s squinty dynamo resolve.

Reviewed at the Park Avenue Screening Room, Jan. 6, 2023. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 107 MIN.

• Production: A Lionsgate release of a MadRiver Pictures, Olive Hill Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures, G-BASE Film Productions production. Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Marc Butan, Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Jason Constantine, Eda Kowan, Luillo Ruiz. Executive producers: Alastair Burlingham, Michael Cho, J.P. Davis, Vicki Dee Rock, Edward Fee, Tim Lee, Osita O, Gary Raskin.
• Crew: Director: Jean-François Richet. Screenplay: Charles Cumming, J.P. Davis. Camera: Brendan Galvin. Editor: David Rosenbloom. Music: Marco Beltrami, Marcus Trumpp.
• With: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Evan Dane Taylor, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Joey Slotnik.

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Plane Reviews

"Plane" doesn't look like much in its trailers, but the film manages to be a decent popcorn thriller.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Butler + Plane = Awesome

Plane is a straightforward movie with very few twists to offer, but the trick to making it engaging lies in its execution. Richet hasn’t made a ton of features, but he’s been in the game long enough to carry out a firm-handed and well-paced effort.

Nobody’s going to declare Plane a classic, but between Richet’s visual acumen and Butler doing admirable diligence to a character who’s in over his head... it’s an enjoyable, fast-paced and surprisingly engaging diversion.

Full Review | Jul 12, 2023

Plane is predictable, and its production values are serviceable, but Gerard Butler is comfortably entertaining from beginning to end.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 5, 2023

Plane offers a sometimes breathless, white-knuckle ride that should particularly appeal to those raised on mid-’90s actioners like Con Air, Air Force One and Sudden Death.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 24, 2023

This is pure popcorn entertainment that delivers on nasty-minded action and heroic temperaments that won’t insult your brain cells when you opt to cheer on the unfolding physicality.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 18, 2023

A big part of the fun of Plane - and Plane is a lot of fun - is the way it rapidly cycles through genres fast enough to touch on all the good stuff without ever making it too obvious that we've seen it all before.

Full Review | May 17, 2023

The plot is hardly innovative -- and some of its more outlandish elements really stretch credibility -- but this is still a gripping enough thriller, boosted by the entertaining lead performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2023

Overlook the forced sentimentality and Plane manages to be a taut thriller with a balance of action, blood, shooting, and heroics that seem plausible. You won’t feel silly cheering or cringing and the popcorn will sit satisfied in your belly.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 18, 2023

Solid and enjoyable filmmaking that knows its limits. No overflowing passenger lists, no shoehorned subplots, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and then some. Truly, "redemption can be found in the most unusual places."

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 18, 2023

…Plane is a straight-up, no-nonsense, gritty action flick that delivers plentiful thrills and spills…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 13, 2023

Gerard Butler has that Nicolas Cage thing of not phoning in a performance, he's so magnetic in these movies.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 24, 2023

If you like well-made action flicks that don’t need a sequel setup, it’s money well spent. Butler knows what he's doing, and Colter excels in a role with a few layers.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 19, 2023

It's a dumb but entertaining film.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 14, 2023

A film that will be remembered as "that plane movie with Gerard Butler". [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 14, 2023

Plane does not reinvent the wheel but does land an action-movie punch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 13, 2023

Plane is a film that is an experience to behold in cinemas, and an entertaining one at that.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 10, 2023

... Gerard Butler becomes a worthy heir of the macho hero tradition, the same guy we wouldn't want as a father or a friend, but who comes in handy as a casual 'embedder' or hostage negotiator.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2023

Conceived to be enjoyed on the big screen, with no more fuss over the proper movement of action and emotion itself. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2023

Plane Review

The year’s first big surprise..

Plane debuts in theaters on Jan. 13, 2023.

Theatrical audiences were first introduced to Plane — the latest action-thriller rescued from a Redbox premiere by Gerard Butler’s presence — through its head-scratching trailer . It had one of the funniest title reveals in recent memory, between the gravity with which its five simple letters appear across the screen, and the fact that it seemed to have little to do with an airplane at all, beyond its first few seconds (picture watching a Titanic advert only for the movie to be called “Automobile” since that’s how Rose reaches the harbor). However, in an early twist to the new year, not only does the plane in question have a large and vital presence in the movie, but Jean-François Richet’s tale of a plane trip gone awry, and a subsequent escape from a Filipino jungle teeming with militants, isn’t just competently crafted, but pretty enjoyable too.

The marketing may try to sell you a whiz-bang action movie, but Plane is surprisingly measured, starting with an extremely process-oriented, borderline cinema verité look at the titular plane and its passengers — not unlike Paul Greengrass’ approach to United 93 — from the instruments, to the boarding process, to the initial ascent. The mundane has rarely felt so engrossing in a B-movie made with an A-movie budget. However, unlike United 93, a biopic Plane is not, which becomes all too clear when the vessel’s captain, Brodie Torrance (Butler), must suddenly reckon with the fact that he has a dangerous prisoner on board, Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), who’s being extradited from Torrance’s home base of Singapore back to the United States because he’s wanted for murder. Drama is in the air. Something, it seems, is bound to go terribly wrong, as Torrance tries to make it to his teenage daughter in Hawaii in time for the new year (which both makes Plane a fitting January release, and supposedly explains why there are only a dozen passengers on board, making for a more streamlined plot and production).

However, Gaspare’s presence isn’t the problem. The major issue turns out to be a stroke of bad luck coupled with some shoddy maintenance, leaving Trailblazer Airlines flight 119 — the company’s name is just the tip of the iceberg — vulnerable to the elements. The result is distinctly Lost -esque turbulence, and an emergency landing on the Philippine island of Jolo (shot mostly in Puerto Rico). As with J.J. Abrams’ Lost pilot, the air marshal escorting the handcuffed prisoner ends up incapacitated, and the surviving crew and passengers are left radio-less and are forced to ration their food. But unlike Lost’s assortment of ghosts and smoke monsters, Plane’s villainous forces, hiding deep in the jungle, are much easier to parse. Which is to say: they are human militants who have a penchant for kidnapping foreigners. However, their motives remain as mysterious as any of Abrams’ mystery box baddies.

The real Jolo is a stronghold for Abu Sayyaf, a Southeast Asian ISIS offshoot, but you’d need a working knowledge of the region to decipher anything of the sort. The film’s geopolitics never come close to being explicit, which makes it all the stranger when the image-conscious Trailblazer inexplicably sends its own team of private mercenaries (most of them American) to help rescue the survivors and avoid a PR disaster. An implicit West-versus-Asian-Other framework emerges — more specifically, West-versus-Islamic-Terror, if you’re familiar with Jolo’s kidnappings and brutal killings — and it becomes all the more pronounced when it turns out that both the Scotsman Torrance and American Gaspare, who venture into the jungle for help and end up armed to the teeth, have early 2000s military backgrounds of their own. But reality is rarely important in Richet’s film, which turns its militant separatists into two-dimensional video game henchmen, who deserve to be dispensed with by virtue of an inherent ruthlessness that threatens the western passengers.

What's the best Gerard Butler movie?

It would be one thing if this were the basis for a farcical, blood-soaked beat-‘em-up with ridiculous stylings, but Plane stays grounded for the most part, making these racial optics even harder to avoid the few times the movie does try to indulge in gleeful violence. The villains always verge on human; they may not be complex enough to feel sympathetic, but they aren’t dehumanized enough to feel cartoonishly dispensable either. (It, oddly, feels like it’s not committed to its gimmick enough , despite that gimmick’s uncomfortable undertones.)

That said, Richet’s fixations lie less in the story’s violence, and more in winding up the tension as Torrance and Gaspare weave in and out of the larger group, sometimes observing helplessly from afar as the militants take control, while other times getting involved, only to have their asses handed to them until backup arrives. The initial plot unfolds with a procedural minimalism rarely backed by a musical score, forcing Butler to be the film’s emotional center amidst makeshift attempts to get messages to Trailblazer’s dingy boardroom. Don’t let Plane’s realism be a deterrence, though; it also builds to one of the goofiest and most satisfying kills in recent memory, even if the jagged edges of the movie’s bloodshed have been sanded down to an extremely soft R rating. There are times when the violence is presented off-screen by necessity, when the story hopes to introduce an element of mystery to Gaspare’s actions and his character, but when the camera does eventually focus on what ought to be hilariously gruesome, this is seldom the result.

With the likes of Geostorm and Den of Thieves , Butler has become a reliable action presence (where Dwayne Johnson is a brand, Butler is usually an every-dad), maintaining just enough intensity to sell you on a story that, though it lacks any real moral dimensions, at least has the appearance of urgency. Torrance is a straight-shooter who wants nothing more than to protect his passengers and to get back to his daughter, even if it means making the risky decision to uncuff Gaspare and seek his help. However, this ambiguous story, of Gaspare’s humanity being judged and only conditionally granted, is quickly swept away in favor of fireworks, leaving only the more polygonal sketch of men-on-a-mission.

Neither the men nor their mission have surprising dimensions, but the familiarity of Richet’s workman execution keeps things moving smoothly along. You could do a lot worse in January.

Top Movies Like John Wick

A surprisingly grounded action-thriller, Plane is a competently executed Gerard Butler vehicle about a pilot trying to rescue his crew from unnamed militants with the help of a dangerous fugitive. Its few hints of flair may not cement it as a genre classic, but they’re enough to make it momentarily fun.

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January is generally seen as a fallow time of year for film fans. Most studios are more focused on pumping out awards season contenders — artful films with complicated views of the human condition. If you're in the mood for something more straightforward, may I point you to the uncomplicated pleasures of Plane.  

That's right.  Plane.  

Sure they could have called it "Terror at 30,000 Feet," "Turbulence" or "Runway of Death." 

But Plane says what needs to be said. (The working title was The Plane.  For real.) 

It's a movie about a plane. A plane that falls out of the sky after a lightning strike, leading to a crash landing on a dangerous island south of the Philippines. 

Now a movie such as  Plane requires a hero. But who? It's a peculiar time for action stars. Bruce Willis's  a cting days are behind him . There's only so many kidnapping victims Liam Neeson can save, while Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is more focused on feuding with DC.  

The 'Old Navy' of action heroes

Enter Gerard Butler. The Old Navy store of action heroes. Like that old hoodie you find yourself coming back to, there's a worn-in quality to Butler that improves with age. The Scottish actor has come a long way since he and his abs aplenty bellowed "This is Sparta" in Frank Miller's  300 . At 53 years old, there's a rumpled and rugged presence to Butler that suits the put-upon characters he plays. 

Through the years he's serviced a whole spectrum of spectacular schlock from the unstoppable secret service agent Mike Banning of the Olympus has Fallen  franchise to the killer of Law Abiding Citizen. 

Like Harrison Ford, Butler is at his best when things are at their worst. The jingoistic charms of bulletproof Mike Banning are fine, but Butler is better as an average Joe, such as the dad from the 2020's disaster film Greenland . 

Plane finds him firmly in John McClane  mode, playing a pilot trying to get home in time for New Years for a long overdue reunion with his daughter.  

When the aforementioned lightning strike derails those plans, the film pivots into survival mode. On the film's manifest is the requisite collection of thinly-sketched characters/passengers; the annoying business guy, the hothead European, the selfie-happy millennials. But at the back of the plane in handcuffs sits Louis Gaspare, a convicted murderer who is being extradited. Mike Colter plays Gaspare with a simmering stare. You may remember him from the Luke Cage  Marvel series or recently on the show Evil . 

After the crash landing the passengers and crew face a new threat. The Jolo Island is home to a well-armed group of pirates who fund their operations by hunting for hostages. Short on options, Captain Torrance (a former member of the RAF) soon joins forces with Gaspare, who just happens to have spent time with the French Legion (!) to save the day.

Not a bromance

Plane is not an overly ambitious film. Like the title, it knows what it wants to do and gets the job done. It would be overselling things to describe what Butler and Colter have as a bromance. Instead there's a begrudging atmosphere of practicality. The jungle is filled with bad guys. Someone has taken the civilians. Let's find them and kill them. 

 Director Jean-Francois Richet smoothly ratchets up the tension as the film cuts back home to airline headquarters where Tony Goldwyn plays the fast-talking corporate troubleshooter who begins deploying resources, adding a team of mercenaries into the mix. Soon the body count and the tempo of  Plane  increases. 

While it would be a stretch to call  Plane gritty, it takes its time establishing the bona fides of the flight crew getting certain details right that will inevitably pay off later. The camera doesn't linger over the dire consequences of the crash, instead moving quickly to the tale of the captain versus the captors. With a brisk 107 minutes runtime, there's a sense of momentum that's refreshing in an age of bloated three-hour blockbusters. 

In the end,  Plane delivers exactly what it promises. There is a plane and a pilot. Plenty of predicaments and a satisfying thrill ride that arrives with time to spare.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior entertainment reporter

Eli Glasner is the senior entertainment reporter and screentime columnist for CBC News. Covering culture has taken him from the northern tip of Moosonee Ontario to the Oscars and beyond.  You can reach him at [email protected].

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‘Plane’ Review: A Fun, Sturdy, and Violent Gerard Butler Vehicle

David ehrlich.

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As sturdy, weathered, and no-frills as the Reagan-era passenger jet that lends this January-ass film its poetically blunt title, Jean-François Richet’s “ Plane ” becomes the most airworthy Gerard Butler vehicle this side of “Greenland” by answering a question that Clint Eastwood didn’t even have the courage to ask: What if, instead of ditching US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River like a total loser, Capt. Sully Sullenberger had been man enough to land that baby in the middle of a steroidal ’80s action movie? You know the kind! The sort where vaguely racist man-vs.-army spectacle that finds a couple of jacked-up English-speaking everymen forced to kill their way out of a sweltering foreign jungle full of indigenous militants, and climaxes with the bad guys loading the shoulder-mounted rocket-launchers that Southeast Asian henchmen always keep on hand in case Sylvester Stallone ever decides to reboot “Rambo” again.

No disrespect to Sully, but he probably wouldn’t have been able to save any of his passengers from Philippines’ lawless Jolo island cluster, a wretched hive of scum and villainy that the national army has forfeited to ISIS and its ilk. Luckily enough for the motley crew of hot people and character actors aboard Trailblazer Airlines’ ill-fated New Years Eve flight from Singapore to Tokyo, a swarthy widowed Scotsman by the name of Brodie Torrance (Butler, duh) is in the cockpit tonight, and nothing on Earth will stop him from getting back home to his beloved daughter, whatever her name is.

Nothing!! Not the lightning storm that he’s forced to fly through because his corporate overlords value profits above human lives, or the ultra-violent separatists who control the sweaty jungle where he’s forced to crash land the plane, or even the Luke Cage-sized prisoner ( Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare, exuding screen presence for days) who Brodie was transporting on the plane and refuses to let out of handcuffs…even though it’s hard to be a flight-risk without a functioning aircraft, and the guy hasn’t committed any crimes since killing someone 16 years ago.

Needless to say, Brodie — who got stuck flying shit routes after punching a passenger on camera, presumably while in a grief-related tailspin — may not be the only beefcake who finds a shot at redemption on the Jolo islands. Not that it matters. This may come as a shock to you, but this story isn’t particularly concerned with the pathos of its characters. After all, the movie about Sully was called “Sully,” while the movie about Brodie Torrance is called “Plane.” And even so, we still never get to find out what kind of plane it is!

Which isn’t to suggest that Richet’s film is uninterested in how to fly it. Co-written by airport novelist Charles Cumming (who originally envisioned it as a book), “Plane” is dad cinema par avion and par excellence , geared significantly more towards middle-aged crowds hungry for raw meat than it is toward anyone hoping for a goofy cheese-fest. Where other movies like it might be over-eager to get to the action, it’s endearing how patiently this threadbare, 107-minute romp sinks into the cockpit and lets Brodie go over his little checklists like he’s a real pilot. It’s here that Richet proves himself a worthy substitute for Butler’s usual go-to Ric Roman Waugh, and the rhythm of these early scenes helps set the tone for a film that feels plenty grounded long before it’s knocked out of the sky, and remains so well after the killing starts.

Butler knows his strengths like the back of a bad guy’s broken neck, and he’s seldom flexed them better than he does here; he’s become one of 21st century Hollywood’s few bonafide movie stars by embracing the fact that he was so obviously born to be a late 20th century movie star , and it’s endearing to watch him inspire competent schlock that’s willing to match his sincerity punch-for-punch. “Plane” is tense when it’s supposed to be tense, gratuitously violent when it needs to deliver the gore (it’s been a minute since you’ve seen a bad guy’s body get emulsified by heavy artillery like it does here), and the CGI is just strong enough to cling on for dear life during a third act that can afford some dodgy-looking effects.

The supporting cast also adds to the project’s general air of credibility. “Cowboy Bebop” actress Daniella Pineda adds some winsome flair to her thankless role as a flight attendant, “Mulan” breakout Yoson An makes for a sweetly devoted co-pilot, the ever-recognizable Joey Slotnick does fine work as the token “most annoying passenger in the world,” while Tony Goldwyn and Paul Ben-Victor anchor the airline’s crisis response with immaculate cruelty during the scenes they share in a New York board room.

Half-Filipino stuntman and fight coordinator Evan Dane Taylor probably won’t inspire any glowing odes to Southeast Asian representation for his performance as the murderous pirate leader whose livelihood depends on kidnapping white foreigners for ransom money, but the guy looks great on screen, and exudes the clenched sort of villainy that’s needed to sell a movie like this.

That the Puerto Rico-shot “Plane” generally makes the Philippines look like a third-world hellscape whose government won’t lift a finger to save people in a crisis is only somewhat softened by the film’s similarly damning take on American capitalism; it’s a cruel world, and the only real heroes we have are a few sweaty men who are willing to go commando — or at least go “Commando” — when people threaten to kill them with machine guns. “Plane” may not take you anywhere you’ve never gone before, but if you’re buying a ticket to a movie called “Plane,” odds are it will get you exactly where you want to go.

Lionsgate will release “Plane” in theaters on Friday, January 13.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Action film has violence, language, iffy representation.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Amid the violence and peril are messages about the

Captain Brodie Torrance and Louis Gaspare, a convi

The cast includes prominent Asian characters, but

Scenes with violence and blood, death, and peril,

Language includes "f---ing," "hell," "f--k," "s--t

Dell Technologies ad is seen on a flight departure

Parents need to know that Plane is an action film with strong violence, language, and problematic depictions of diverse communities. Gerard Butler plays pilot Brodie Torrance, who teams up with a convicted felon with a military past, Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), to save a plane's passengers from dangerous…

Positive Messages

Amid the violence and peril are messages about the importance of using courage and teamwork to save innocent lives.

Positive Role Models

Captain Brodie Torrance and Louis Gaspare, a convicted felon, work together to save the passengers of the ill-fated plane. They and the rest of the passengers show courage in the face of fear.

Diverse Representations

The cast includes prominent Asian characters, but the Philippines is portrayed as crime-ridden and rife with ineffectual law enforcement. And colorism is also in play, signaling which characters are "good" and "evil": Criminal characters are darker-skinned, while heroic Asian characters are lighter-skinned and present as more East Asian than Southeast Asian. The criminals' leader, Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor, who's Filipino American, African American and Native American), is one of the darkest of the Asian characters in the film. Meanwhile, many of the "good" East Asian characters still suffer, including those amid the stranded passengers who are sacrificed to garner sympathy for the others. And the main East Asian character, co-pilot Dele (Yoson An), is competent and capable, but is presented as a sidekick of sorts to the White Captain Torrance (Gerard Butler). Black characters are also below the White hero on the importance scale, and while Louis (Mike Colter) is heroic, he's also associated with violence, as is the leader (Remi Adeleke) of the mercenaries who help the passengers escape. Other racially diverse characters are present, including chief flight attendant Bonnie (Daniella Pineda, a Mexican American actress). But the majority of these characters have few to no lines. Bonnie does speak, but her characterization is limited to being calm under pressure and efficient despite serious pressure.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Scenes with violence and blood, death, and peril, including a plane crash, kidnapping, and torture. Guns are shown/used, sometimes fatally. Another character is killed via choking/neck breaking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "f---ing," "hell," "f--k," "s--t," "goddamn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Dell Technologies ad is seen on a flight departure board.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Plane is an action film with strong violence, language, and problematic depictions of diverse communities. Gerard Butler plays pilot Brodie Torrance, who teams up with a convicted felon with a military past, Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), to save a plane's passengers from dangerous separatists in the Philippines. Expect many intense scenes with violence and blood, death, and peril, including a plane crash, kidnapping, torture, and weapons (guns are used to kill people). Language is strong, too, with use of "f--k," "s--t," "goddamn," and more. While characters demonstrate courage and teamwork, there are troubling aspects to how the film's non-White characters are represented. Darker-skinned, Southeast Asian-presenting actors are cast as criminals, while lighter, more East Asian-presenting actors are cast as "good guys." And Black characters are coded as heroic but violent. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (4)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Good action film for teens+

A disappointing action-flick may be entertaining, but it's too weak to even get past the drudgery plot., what's the story.

PLANE follows Captain Brodie Torrance ( Gerard Butler ) as the plane he's flying with co-pilot Dele (Yoson An) crash lands. They wind up on an island in the Philippines that's run by separatists who are led by Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor). Torrance and one of the passengers on the plane, convicted felon Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), must work together to take on the separatists, save the passengers, and get off the island alive.

Is It Any Good?

Aside from its problematic representation elements (see below), this movie hits all the major beats you'd expect from both an action film and, specifically, a Butler-led action film. He plays a "average guy" who wants to get home to his family, finds himself in peril, and must fight his way out of it. It's formulaic, but it works. But when you factor in the film's colorism, Plane immediately becomes less fun. Unfortunately, goodness feels directly related to skin tone here. The villains -- led by Junmar, who's played by the African American/Native American/Filipino American Taylor -- are distinctly darker-skinned than the movie's other Asian characters, including co-pilot Dele and some passengers. And Blackness feels associated with violence: Even though characters like Louis and Shellback (Remi Adeleke) are among the "good guys," it's because they have useful -- and violent -- military skills. Of course, their violence is the "good" kind, in contrast to the violence of the separatists, which is used to dehumanize them (we never find out exactly why they're separatists, which could have provided some context, nuance, and humanization to their actions). Overall, Plane says nothing new and reinforces painful cliches, making it feel more like a film from the 1980s or '90s than 2023.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the quality of the diverse representations in Plane . Where does it fall short? What could it have done better? How does colorism come into play?

How do the characters demonstrate courage and teamwork ? Why are those important character strengths?

Talk about the movie's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Do you consider a Captain Torrance a hero? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 13, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : February 2, 2023
• Cast : Gerard Butler , Mike Colter , Yoson An , Evan Duane Taylor
• Director : Jean-Francois Richet
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Asian actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 107 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence and language
• Last updated : October 6, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Plane Review

27 Jan 2023

First things first: Plane is quite a funny name for a film, isn’t it? The monosyllabic bluntness of it is oddly, unintentionally hilarious — like a toddler blurting out a newly learned word while pointing at something. Plane . What’s perhaps funnier still is that this B-movie-adjacent action-movie only spends 30 minutes of the runtime on an actual plane, abandoning the dunderheaded promise of that title before the first act is even over.

Plane is the latest in a subgenre you might call ‘ Gerard Butler Saves The World’, a cheap-and-cheerful corner of cinema that has seen the Scottish hard man take on world-ending comets ( Greenland ), world-ending weather ( Geostorm ), and a series of increasingly ludicrous world-ending terrorists (the Has Fallen series). Plane , however, initially finds Butler not in action-hero mode, but everyman mode.

He plays airline pilot Brodie Torrance (a classic Gerard Butler character name, to sit proudly alongside ‘Mike Banning’ and ‘Big Nick O’Brien’), an ordinary bloke who loves his daughter, loves his job, and has been known to get into a scrap. When we first meet him, he’s captaining a near-empty flight to Tokyo on New Year’s Eve, making jokes over the Tannoy and offering famous last words (“There won’t be any delays!”).

There could have been a lean, minimalist thriller shaped simply around that opening half-hour, so it’s a shame that the film then immediately switches gears.

A bad omen comes with the arrival of Louis ( Mike Colter — just as in his Luke Cage days, an Absolute Unit), a murderer being transported in handcuffs for extradition; the lightning storm they fly through is a worse omen still. Director Jean-François Richet wastes no time in crafting a genuinely tense emergency landing sequence — destined to be edited out of future inflight versions — which sees the plane’s power killed, forced to land in complete darkness.

There could have been a lean, minimalist thriller shaped simply around that opening half-hour, so it’s a shame that the film then immediately switches gears; what starts in a comfortable disaster-movie mould quickly handbrake-turns into a generic, by-the-numbers action thriller, serving up a stale platter of fist fights, gun battles and hostage-taking. More troublingly, the filmmakers show some insensitivity bordering on xenophobia towards the real Filipino island of Jolo, where the film is set, depicted here as a lawless hellhole run by psychopath gangster terrorists. The half-a-million people who actually live on Jolo might take issue with being characterised as blood-lusting murderers who, unprovoked, freely behead the first Westerners they come across.

All credulity falls apart in the final act, when the modern equivalent of the cavalry riding in to save the day — an ex-Special Forces mercenary unit — bravely gun down the evil terrorists, and the clichés flood through, thick and fast. But Butler is still decent company for this sort of thoughtless silliness, bringing some dad-who-had-a-bad-day charm and hard-as-nails muscularity to the kind of role that has become his speciality. We’re left only to wonder: what will he save the world from next?

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Plane Parent Guide

This action movie sprints across the screen at a ripping fast pace, maintaining tension and excitement from beginning to end..

Theaters: After an emergency landing to avoid a lightning storm, Pilot Brodie Torrance finds himself, his crew, and his passengers on a war torn island run by violent rebels. With most of his passengers taken hostage, Torrance will stop at nothing to get them free and off the island.

Release date January 13, 2023

Run Time: 107 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

Commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is hustling to get from Singapore to Hawaii in time to spend New Year’s Eve with his daughter, Daniela (Haleigh Hekking). With one stop in Tokyo, he should have plenty of time – even when an intimidating looking police officer boards at the last minute with Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), a man facing extradition back to the U.S. on murder charges.

Passengers and crew are put at risk when the airline instructs Brodie to fly through a dangerous electrical storm to save fuel. The plane’s electronics blow out, and Brodie and his co-pilot, Dele (Yoson An) are forced to make a hard landing on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Based on their last known heading, Brodie and Dele calculate that they’re on the remote Jolo Islands in the Philippines, a chain of islands beyond the reach of the government in Manila, and peopled almost exclusively by violent militias. The situation is dangerous, but it looks like they might have an expert in dangerous situations aboard. The catch? He’s in handcuffs. Louis Gaspare, before his arrest, served for years as a paratrooper with the French Foreign Legion. If Brodie can trust him enough to take the cuffs off, Gaspare might be their best hope of getting out of Jolo alive.

Now, Plane is still a violent action thriller intended for adult audiences. There are repeated on-screen deaths, with a healthy side serving of 32 f-bombs. Family entertainment this ain’t – although there are no depictions of drug use or sexual content, which is somewhat remarkable in and of itself.

While neither the unoriginal story nor the uninspiring title have much to offer, Plane manages to maintain a constant level of tension and excitement. As big, dumb action movies go, this is smaller and smarter than some, and quicker than most. There isn’t a lot of fat on this storyline. It’s one predicament after another for the unfortunate characters, but it makes for a fun turn-your-brain-off kind of flick, and I’ve always got time for movies like that.

About author

Keith hawkes, watch the trailer for plane, plane rating & content info.

Why is Plane rated R? Plane is rated R by the MPAA for violence and language.

Violence: Two people are killed in an airplane accident. People are repeatedly shot and stabbed. A man is beheaded with a machete. Two people are killed with violent blows from a sledgehammer. People are brutally beaten with fists and batons. Sexual Content: None. Profanity: There are 32 sexual expletives, 18 scatological curses, and occasional uses of mild curses and terms of deity in the script. Alcohol / Drug Use: Adult characters are briefly seen drinking alcohol.

Page last updated January 22, 2024

Related home video titles:

Another festive take on air travel is Die Hard 2 . Fans of the worst flying has to offer will enjoy films like 7500 , Flightplan , Non-Stop , Air Force One , Blood Red Sky , Con Air, Cast Away , and the much-derided Snakes on a Plane . A more factual approach can be found in Sully and United 93 .

Plane: movie release date, reviews, trailer, cast and everything we know about the action flick

Gerard Butler, action star, is still fun to watch for movie fans.

Kick off the 2023 new movie slate with a bang with Plane , an action movie starring Gerard Butler, who has become the king of fan-favorite B-action movies. Under-the-radar movies like Copshop , Greenland and Angel has Fallen have been hits with fans, often because of their maybe silly but earnest concepts and fun action sequences.

If you're caught up with the 2022 movies you needed to see and you're looking for something different after the movies up for Oscars , Plane could be just the thing to go and see. Here's everything you need to know.

Plane movie release date

Plane is one of the first new movies of 2023, arriving exclusively in US movie theaters on January 13. It arrives in the UK on January 27. Here's what you need to know on how to watch Plane . 

It's set to be an alternative if you've already seen M3GAN (releasing on January 6) and are not interested in the new Tom Hanks movie, A Man Called Otto (going wide in the US on January 13).

Plane movie plot

Here is the official synopsis for Plane from Lionsgate:

"In the white-knuckle action movie Plane , pilot Brodie Torrance saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island — only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare's help, and will learn there's more to Gaspare than meets the eye."

Plane movie cast

Gerard Butler stars as Brodie Torrance. Butler broke out with the epic action movie 300 and while he has tried his hand at a few different genres and been a part of some major hits (like the How to Train Your Dragon franchise), action is where he shines. He's led the Fallen trilogy ( Olympus Has Fallen , London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen ), while also getting solid notices for movies like the aforementioned Greenland , Copshop and more.

Sharing top-billing with Butler is Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare. Colter's biggest role to date was as Luke Cage in the Marvel original series, but he has also had a starring role on the Paramount Plus original series Evil . Other notable roles have included The Good Wife and Million Dollar Baby .

The rest of the Plane cast features Yoson An ( Mulan ) as Dele, Danielle Pineda ( Jurassic World: Dominion ) as Bonnie, Paul Ben-Victor ( Pam & Tommy ) as Hampton, Remi Adeleke ( The Terminal List ) as Shellback, Joey Slotnick ( Twister ) as Sinclair, Evan Dane Taylor ( The Enemy Within ) as Junmar, Claro de los Reyes as Hajan and Tony Goldwyn ( Scandal ) as Scarsdale.

Plane movie trailer

Gerard Butler and Mike Colter team up to save the day in the official trailer for Plane . Watch right here. 

There's also this minute long trailer that came out in early January:

Plane movie reviews — what the critics are saying

The reviews for Plane are rolling in, including What to Watch's Plane review . In it, we say that if you're ready to turn your brain off and just enjoy the action as its being presented to you, the latest Gerard Butler action movie is not going to disappoint.

It seems that Plane is teetering on a similar kind of line with other critics, with those who can live with its routine action movie proceedings and those who wonder why we needed another example of this. As of January 11, Plane is "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes , right at the cut line of 60%.

How long is Plane movie?

Plane has a runtime of one hour and 47 minutes.

What is Plane movie rated?

Plane has been given an R rating in the US for violence and language. At this time there is no official rating for the UK.

Plane movie director

The director of Plane is France's Jean-François Richet. Most of Richet's movies are primarily in French, including Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 , though he has done some English-language films like 2005's Assault on Precinct 13 and the Mel Gibson movie Blood Father . 

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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Plane review: This Gerard Butler thriller desperately needed to be more stupid

A jungle thriller with the star of ‘olympus has fallen’ should be a lot more fun than this, article bookmarked.

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Plane isn’t stupid enough. The title of this Gerard Butler action thriller, which should only be said with the monosyllabic matter-of-factness of a toddler at an airport, is so boneheaded that it craves chaotic genius in return. But Plane is stifled by just how ordinary it is, and how closely it hews to the standard tropes of action films with longer, more descriptive – yet less ridiculous – titles.

Here, Butler is parachuted into the exact kind of cheap, vaguely racist action flick that dominated the Eighties and Nineties. He plays Brodie Torrance, a commercial pilot heading up a New Year’s Eve flight from Singapore to Tokyo. It’s a budget airline. There are only 14 passengers onboard – plus, of course, a convicted criminal named Louis Gaspare ( Mike Colter ), who’s being transferred between prisons. The plane (just a normal plane, remember) is caught up in a violent storm that Brodie is ordered to fly through. A single lightning strike later, and Brodie is guiding the aircraft back down to Earth for an impromptu landing on what turns out to be a lawless island run by separatists and criminals.

The film’s by-the-numbers, macho mentality can be neatly summed up by the fact that when Brodie evacuates from the plane, director Jean-François Richet pointedly cuts away from his hero. You can’t risk emasculating your leading man by capturing him slipping down one of those big, inflatable slides now, can you? Louis is supposedly the more experienced and ruthless of the two men – he’s at one point caught by Brodie near-skipping out of the jungle after executing a captured separatist, and the guilty look he returns is somewhat close to that of a dog who’s just been found with his nose in the cookie jar. The ever-dependable Butler, one of the least self-conscious of today’s crop of action stars, gives Brodie just a touch of panicked witlessness in contrast.

But Brodie and Louis are conveniently both military veterans, so it doesn’t make all that much difference. Plane , in fact, sees such little separation between their characters that it only bothers to offer a proper conclusion to one of their storylines. What’s important is that they are men, with sweat-soaked shirts and suppressed trauma. There’s also one woman onboard, with Daniella Pineda’s stoic cabin crew member Bonnie being the character third-closest to having any discernible personality.

Beyond a cross-cut series of shots between a guy in a plane and a guy in a jeep caught in a vehicular Mexican standoff, there’s not much that’s genuinely fun about Plane . It exists in that tiresome world of just-about-believability, with none of the gung-ho spirit that stops you questioning how any of this would work. Maybe Butler should make something like “Truck” next time – see if he has better luck there.

Dir: Jean-François Richet. Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Remi Adeleke. 15, 107 minutes.

‘Plane’ is in cinemas from 27 January

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'Plane': Release Date, Trailer, Cast, and Everything We Know About the Gerard Butler Movie

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Gerard Butler Had To Give Up One Crucial Thing To Get Cast in '300'

The top 10 most popular movies on netflix right now, the 10 best international thrillers, ranked, quick links, what is plane about, who is making plane, who's in the plane cast.

• Is There A Trailer for Plane?

When Can You Watch Plane?

Is plane going to be in theaters, is plane going to be streaming.

An action film starring Gerard Butler and Mike Colter may seem like an obvious win for everyone, most of all audiences, but Plane has had a surprisingly turbulent ride to the big screen. The rights for this plane crash action flick were first acquired by MadRiver Pictures in 2016 and in 2019 Lionsgate acquired the distribution rights for the movie . This seemingly straightforward deal was significantly complicated by the Covid-19 Pandemic which delayed filming and even caused Lionsgate to briefly abandon the project. But now, finally, despite all the bumps, this tense actioner will finally be landing in theaters on January 13.

Here's everything we know about the new film.

Editor's Note: This article was last updated on January 6 with the latest trailer.

Related: New 'Plane' Image Reveals a Bloodied Gerard Butler in the Jungle

Described by Lionsgate as a “white-knuckle action movie,” Plane follows a commercial pilot named Brodie Torrance. A severe storm puts Brodie’s piloting skills to the test, and when the plane is struck by lightning he must land immediately, but as the movie’s poster states, “the crash was only the beginning.” Following the plane’s crash landing on Jolo Island, an island off the Philippines that is the headquarters for the militant Abu Sayyaf organization, Brodie must try his best to protect his passengers and crew as they are taken hostage by terrorists. Brodie finds help in this from an unlikely source: Louis Gaspare, a passenger who was on the plane because he was being extradited for murder.

Plane is directed by French director, producer, and screenwriter Jean-François Richet . Richet’s 1995 film Inner City won the Cesar Award for Best Debut Film. He has also directed films including 2018’s The Emperor of Paris and 2016’s Blood Father . Plane ’s screenplay was written by Charlie Cumming and J.P. Davis . Cumming, who first came up with the pitch for Plane , is best known for his spy novels, which include A Spy by Nature , The Trinity Six , and A Foreign Country . Davis is an American screenwriter who previously wrote the script for the small film Fighting Tommy Riley .

Plane is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura , Mark Vahradian , and Marc Butan , as well as leading man Gerard Butler.

Plane stars Gerard Butler in the role of pilot Brodie Torrance. Butler, perhaps best known for his role as Leonidas, King of Sparta in Zack Snyder ’s 300 , is a familiar face to any fan of action films. He also played Secret Service Agent Mike Banning in Olympus Has Fallen (and its many sequels, including the upcoming Night Has Fallen ). When talking with Vulture , Butler noted that he’d always liked action films with “ordinary” heroes instead of superheroes, stating that

“I’ve always been into the hero’s journey but without necessarily having to be the most amazing warrior — because we’re all on a hero’s journey.”

Starring alongside Butler is Mike Colter, playing the role of Louis Gaspare. Audiences may recognize Colter from playing the title role on the Marvel series Luke Cage as well as making appearances on Jessica Jones and The Defenders . He also played Lemond Bishop in The Good Wife and its sequel series The Good Fight .

The role of the head flight attendant Bonnie is played by Daniella Pineda . Pineda is best known for playing Zia Rodriguez in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion , she also played Faye Valentine in Netflix’s live-action reboot of Cowboy Bebop . Playing Scarsdale, a former Special Forces Operative trying to rescue the passengers and crew is Tony Goldwyn . Goldwyn recently played Paul Cohen in the Oscar-winning film King Richard , Fitz Grant in Scandal , and Andrew Prior in the Divergent films. Plane also stars Yoson An , who plays the role of Officer Dele. An was previously in Disney's live-action Mulan remake and has significant martial arts training.

Is There A Trailer for Plane ?

Released on October 26, 2022, the trailer for Plane shows Gerard Butler’s Brodie Torrance fighting to keep his passengers alive when they crash-land on a politically unstable island in the Philippines. “Survive together or die alone,” the trailer proclaims, a phrase that also appears on Plane ’s movie poster and that may sound familiar to any fans of ABC’s Lost . The trailer also shows some of the beautiful location shots from when the movie was filmed in Puerto Rico and makes clear that Plane will be a tense ride from start to finish. A new trailer for Plane was released on January 4, 2023, as well. Check it out in the player below:

Related: ‘Law Abiding Citizen' Sequel in the Works, Gerard Butler Producing

After a long and complicated preproduction, Plane will finally be released in theaters in the US on January 13, 2023. While January has traditionally been viewed as a “ dump month ” for movies that are not expected to do well at the box office, that conventional wisdom has become less true in recent years. As Collider’s Douglas Laman noted, 2020’s Bad Boys for Life was released in January and made over 60 million domestically on its opening weekend. Time will tell if Plane can do the same.

Plane is going to be released exclusively in theaters. While Lionsgate had initially planned to release Plane on January 27th, the film’s release has now been moved up slightly to January 13th. Plane ’s relatively short runtime of one hour and forty-seven minutes may make it an appealing option for those looking for a break from the longer action films that have been popular. Plane has an R rating from the MPA for language and violence. Plane ’s wide release means that it will likely be coming to a theater near you, so be sure to check for local showings.

While Plane will almost certainly be available on streaming eventually, it has not yet been announced when that will happen. After the theater, Lionsgate films are first released to Starz and then to Roku . So anyone hoping to watch Plane at home should keep an eye on those streamers.

Anyone looking to warm up their January with a tropical action film should make sure they have Plane on their radar. While reviews are not yet in for the film, it looks to be an exciting and tense actioner with a fantastic cast and crew and a beautiful location.

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‘Federer: Twelve Final Days’ Review: Roger, Over and Out

A new documentary follows the Swiss tennis star from his 2022 retirement announcement to his final match.

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By Amy Nicholson

Roger Federer retired from tennis at 41 having achieved everything there was to conquer: 20 Grand Slam titles and a reputation so sterling that his home country of Switzerland minted his face on a coin. (He was even once voted the second most admired person in the world after Nelson Mandela.) “Federer: Twelve Final Days,” a polite documentary by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia, follows the living legend throughout September 2022, from his goodbye announcement to his last professional match. The camera stays at a respectful distance as Federer exits private planes and cars and navigates news conferences where, as every sports fan knows, candid feelings are as rare as talent like his.

Federer’s gravity-flouting litheness has always made a striking contrast against his grounded disposition. In his farewell match, playing doubles alongside longtime rival Rafael Nadal, his expressed hope is simply to “to produce something that’s good enough.” Federer describes himself as an emotional guy, but with the international press and his management team nearly always on the sidelines, there’s little privacy to get personal. One of the more vulnerable moments the film manages to capture comes when Federer wears the wrong dress shirt to a photo call.

To deliver sentiment, the film instead relies on a score that sniffles as though a racehorse is being taken out to get shot. Yet, athletes do witness their own wakes. Flickers of spliced-in footage from Federer’s youth eulogize the grace that will forever outshine his four brutal knee surgeries. When he flubs a shot at his last match, the spectators look funereal — and the colleagues in attendance, from Björn Borg to Novak Djokovic, appear to recognize that this tragedy, this mass bereavement for an aging superhuman, has happened to them. Or it will.

Federer: Twelve Final Days Rated R for language. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Watch on Prime Video.

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A Missed Connection

After finding a spark with a woman on a train platform, a photographer posts a missed connection in the newspaper, but never hears from her, 5 years later, they're seated next to each other ... Read all After finding a spark with a woman on a train platform, a photographer posts a missed connection in the newspaper, but never hears from her, 5 years later, they're seated next to each other on a plane heading to the same wedding - hers. After finding a spark with a woman on a train platform, a photographer posts a missed connection in the newspaper, but never hears from her, 5 years later, they're seated next to each other on a plane heading to the same wedding - hers.

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