Ah, The Black List: The annual survey of the “most-liked” screenplays in Hollywood not yet produced. Published every year since 2005, The Black List has done a lot of good for emerging screenwriters looking to get their projects noticed, launching massively successful projects like Argo (2012), Spotlight (2015), and Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
However, not all screenplays on The Black List prove to be successful.There are still plenty of screenplays featured on The Black List that are sold on their flashy, marketable premises and less on their merit. After all, this is a business, and screenplays like Jared Rosenberg’s Flight Risk (2025) are too good on paper to pass up.
However, as fun as Flight Risk’s premise had the potential of being, the film’s laundry list of problems bubbles to the surface: Mel Gibson’s direction is static and uninspired, the cast is at a loss for how to fill its 90-minute runtime stuck in the sky, and Mark Wahlberg’s overqualified casting distracts from any successful tension on display.
The film follows Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery), a U.S. Marshal who successfully apprehends Winston (Topher Grace), a government witness hiding in Alaska who was accused of being involved with a mob boss.
Harris charters a plane out of a remote city to Anchorage, as she cuts a deal with Winston to testify against the mob boss in exchange for immunity. After takeoff, the pilot (Wahlberg) throws up a few red flags to the pair, only to find it isn’t him who owns the plane.
It turns out the pilot is Daryl Booth, a hitman hired to kill Winston. After a struggle, Harris subdues Booth and is forced to fly the plane to Anchorage with no flight experience while also untangling a web of deceit within her department.
The pieces are certainly in place for a fun, jaunty 90-minute thriller, but where Flight Risk fails to captivate compared to its similarly set-up predecessors (Flightplan (2005) and Non-Stop (2014) come to mind) is the steam it loses in its second half.
Feelings about the director’s numerous controversies aside, Gibson has it in him to construct compelling narratives and quality action set pieces, largely in historical dramas like Braveheart (1995) and Hacksaw Ridge (2016). Where Gibson drops the ball, though, is his inability to keep the momentum consistent.
The first third of Flight Risk plays out as you’d expect, providing a breezy overview of what to expect for the rest of the film. Dockery plays Harris as a no-nonsense authority figure, which plays well as a foil to Grace’s anarchic, smart-ass sensibilities.
However, once the film reveals its hand exposing Booth, it slows to a crawl and never recovers. When Flight Risk isn’t shoehorning in hastily prepared, laughably silly action, it’s boring us to tears by manufacturing flimsy stakes and unnecessary exposition.
A large chunk of the last third is devoted to Harris exposing a conspiracy within her base, much of which is done through long, uninspired stretches of phone calls between Harris and her coworkers. The calls aren’t shot in any meaningful way, all contained in the airspace of the flight itself, making for a frustratingly banal experience.
And, yes, Wahlberg’s casting in Flight Risk doesn’t do the film, or him, any favors. Wahlberg’s characterization of Booth, yucking it up in an Alaskan drawl for the first thirty minutes and abandoning it once his cover’s blown, only serves his ability to mug and overact.
What Wahlberg failed to learn from his misguided performance in The Happening (2008) is that his strength as an actor is tending to his stoic, tough guy persona, occasionally lampooning it for juxtaposition, like in The Other Guys (2010) or Ted (2012). His presence when he ventures outside of those lines has disastrous consequences, shaved head and all – not to mention, the less said about his facial expressions when being tased, the better.
As Flight Risk goes on, all sense of promise flies out the window, resorting to the same tired tricks we’ve seen in so many other flight thrillers. Not every film in a similar vein has to revolutionize or change the world, but coming out of a two-time Best Director Oscar nominee (one as a win), you’d expect greater care and innovation to be displayed.
I’d say Flight Risk is best half-watched on your next flight, but I doubt Delta’s going to have a film with this plot on its in-flight entertainment anytime soon.
Review Courtesy of Landon Defever
Feature Image Credit to Lionsgate via Variety