Do you think there was one afternoon director James Madigan was watching his Blu-ray copy of Bullet Train—it’s on Hulu, but physical media is important—and while watching the movie, he thought, “Okay, but what if…plane?” Because that’s what Fight or Flight, the new action-comedy starring Josh Hartnett, Katee Sackhoff, and Charithra Chandran feel like. And you know what? If that is the case, it’s hard to complain about the end result, since this is one of the more fun action outings to come out in recent months and easily the best plane-centric film of 2025 with “Flight” in the title.
Josh Hartnett stars as Lucas Reyes, a disgruntled but more than capable mercenary who gets suckered into a job that involves boarding a commercial flight to apprehend and protect a fugitive known only as The Ghost. Along the way, he teams up with a flight attendant (Chandran) and quickly realizes that the flight consists almost entirely of assassins and hitmen who are out for them both.
Fight or Flight trades the recent post-John Wick action trend of a retired professional who’s trying to live the quiet life but gets pulled back in—ala Love Hurts–with the old tried-and-true trope of a down-on-his-luck professional who has to do another job to get his life back. The Hitman’s Bodyguard probably wasn’t an intentional influence on this movie, but there are a couple of parallels where that doesn’t sound completely unlikely. But as said before with the Bullet Train comparison, it’s okay if you take something as long as you do something fun and/or different with it, and Fight or Flight does that…the fun part.
This is an action film that takes full advantage of its premise, utilizing the fact that it’s a close quarter action film, similar to The Raid, but it takes place entirely on a plane. Planes aren’t the most spacious locations in the world, and the film knows that. The first action scene between Hartnett and his single-serving friend—Fight Club reference, you know what’s up—occurs in a bathroom, and it goes down like a slightly less comical version of the house fight in Raising Arizona. If you ever watched Hartnett's appearance in The Bear, where he just seemed like the nicest guy, and wondered how he would fare in a fight, as it turns out, he handles himself rather well.
Josh Hartnett seems to be in the midst of a comeback tour. He went from vanishing off the face of the Earth, to one day being in Wrath of Man, and now he seems to be in everything and his performance here is one of the film's standouts. Besides handling the complex choreography, Hartnett also fits like a glove into the persona of a seemingly normal guy who can efficiently kill people while being sarcastic along the way. He’s not overly quippy, and doesn’t always need to have the last word, which is refreshing when every action movie tries to have Marvel humor. He’s just a guy who says whatever’s on his mind, and sometimes the lines themselves aren’t overly funny, but his delivery makes them hilarious. He also acts perfectly as a nice counterbalance to all the over-the-top and colorful killers who are out to murder him.
How’s the action? Glad you asked because it’s fantastic. The film is in line with something like Kingsman or The Raid, where not only does it use minimal cuts, but also has the camera move with the action to make it feel like you’re there—while thankfully abstaining from shaky-cam, which seems to have been making an unwelcome return in the last year. That, combined with the excellent sound design, makes the hits feel aggressive and satisfying. The pacing is also perfect for this type of movie. It’s around 90 minutes if you don’t count the credits, and it’s very diligent with its time, knowing that you want to see action in your action movie.
The movie also isn’t afraid to throw stuff in purely under the guise that it would be fun. Every time something weird gets introduced in an action scene, it comes back into play in some way and goes even further than they needed to. You know what’s funny? The visual of a hitman getting put into the overhead compartment in Economy Class. You know what makes it better? He becomes relevant to the fight later. Josh Hartnett getting high in the climax is funny, and it’s even funnier when it becomes an upbeat version of the adrenochrome scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from his perspective. Did you think Hartnett would be fighting with a chainsaw at some point? Because he does, and when you see it, you’ll realize how necessary it was for that moment to be brought into the world.
If you can’t tell already, this movie is a joy to watch, and at no point is it ever dull. It gives just enough character development and drama to keep the story going, but never shies away from what it knows its audience wants to see. (ie. People hitting each other in ridiculous ways on an airplane.) If you're looking for a straight ahead action film that knows exactly what it is and has fun with it, you're not going to leave disappointed.
Flight Risk…that was the movie hinted at earlier.