Film Review: “Plane”

Action films are often a dime a dozen. They are often predictable with an abundance of character cliches involving both good and bad guys. Guns have unlimited ammunition. The bad guys are generally worse at hitting their targets than stormtroopers from “Star Wars.” You get the gist. With one of the more unimaginative titles in recent memory, “Plane” doesn’t disappoint as it checks off all the boxes for the type of film just described.

Starring Gerard Butler as Capt. Brodie Torrance, a former Royal Air Force member who became a commercial airline pilot, “Plane” takes us to Singapore where a Trailblazer Airlines flight is leaving with a scant number of passengers. We get plenty of ominous signs that trouble is on its way – there is a terrible storm they will have to fly over; a menacing looking passenger is in handcuffs on his way to stand trial for murder in Canada; etc. To add a pinch of sympathy to Capt. Torrance, we discover he is a recent widow, and he is desperate to see his daughter, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time.

Shockingly, lightning hits the plane but Capt. Torrance miraculously lands the plane on a small road on a small jungle island. Without a way to contact the outside world while be stranded in a lawless place that is run by armed thugs, Capt. Torrance enlists the help of Louise Gaspare (Mike Colter, “Luke Cage”), a former member of the French Foreign Legion and who is the one facing a murder charge, to find a way to save the helpless passengers before they fall victim to a ruthless local warlord.

If you have seen Butler in any other action movie, then you know what you will get with his role in “Plane.” The one wrinkle is that he not the story’s alpha male. That belongs to Colter’s shady character, who turns out to be able to run faster than a jet airliner as it’s speeding down a dirt road. The supporting cast members offer nothing fresh or exciting as they are too a dime a dozen in a script that is about as imaginative as a root canal. The action itself is stereotypical and makes me pine for the silliness of an “A-Team” episode from the 1980s.

Overall, “Plane” is one ride you should jump out of before it ever leaves the ground.