Liam Neeson's Explosive Airplane Thriller on Netflix Die Hard in the Sky
Written by Robert Scucci | Published
I have a Liam Neeson problem that I don't think I'll ever get over at this point in my life. After crushing it completely in 2025 The Naked Gun start over, I can't, for the life of me, go back to his role of intense action and take him seriously. Now, I'm always waiting for a clever wordplay, or for her to play it completely straight, only for the camera to pull back and reveal that she's wearing a miniskirt. It creates all kinds of problems, and I couldn't help but enjoy 2014's Non-Stop for all the wrong reasons when I pulled it up on Netflix this past weekend.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Non-Stop. It's a serviceable thriller, like many of the films Neeson attached himself to after 2009's Taken turned him into an unbankable star at the age of 57. You need to go into movies like Non-Stop knowing how unrealistic they are because authenticity is not the point here.
In case you're wondering what the point of movies like Non-Stop is, it's a really simple formula: a good guy with a gun wants a bad guy with a bomb on a plane. That's all there is to it. Turn your brain off to this one, and just know that you won't find any cheeky one-liners here, the way I'd like you to.
By the numbers, but it's doing well
When you enter Non-Stop, you need to know that its layout is incredibly well made. Liam Neeson plays Bill Marks, a US Air Marshal with a fear of flying and a troubled past. He sits down next to a woman named Jen Summers (Julianne Moore) on their non-stop flight from New York City to London, and the two hit it off. Between exchanging pleasantries and Bill getting up to use the bathroom, he receives ominous texts on his secure line saying that if he doesn't wire $150 million to a certain routing number and account, a passenger will be killed every 20 minutes.
Not knowing whether someone is making fun of him or not, Bill confronts the other Air Marshal on board, Jack Hammond (Anson Mount), who writes suspiciously and tells him to forget about it. Twenty minutes pass, and an argument in the bathroom results in Bill killing Jack in self-defense. Bill receives another text telling him to reset the clock for 20 minutes and realizes that he needs to solve this problem himself.
Against the wishes of everyone on the floor, Bill immediately begins an investigation because the entire movie is an endless series of zero-hour tropes. Along the way, he bumps into a flight attendant named Gwen (Lupita Nyong'o), a surgeon named Dr. Fahim Nasir (Omar Metwally), and a disgruntled NYPD officer named Austin (Corey Stoll). Not only is everyone under Bill's watch acting incredibly suspicious, to some people you might tell them you're worried about the plane, but they're also suspicious of him. Unaware of Jack's death, all the passengers see is a stunned Liam Neeson running around the plane trying to find out who is sending him the message and if there is anyone on the plane.
Things get very tense when it turns out that Bill was set up, probably by an insider, as the bank account he says needs funding was opened in his name, implying that this is all an elaborate conspiracy for him to get a quick buck and disappear.
You Know Where This One Is Going Before It Begins
Every action movie trope is shamelessly celebrated in Non-Stop, and I don't mean that as a criticism. Despite its release in February 2014, this is pretty much summer popcorn that you throw in to enjoy the drama within a certain set of parameters. He knows that the good boy will probably make it out alive after his trials and tribulations, and he knows that things are going to explode. You know that the bomb will count down to the last second before it is detonated, and you know that our hero, who was wrongfully stopped, will be vindicated and hailed as a hero before the credits roll.
You'll know all that going into Non-Stop, but you won't care because Liam Neeson is the worst action hero in his age bracket, and you can't argue otherwise with me. Had he entered the genre at a younger age, he would have given both Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger a run for their money. What is annoying about this fact is the confirmation of everything we expected The Naked Gun came out last year: Liam Neeson is an amazing comedian when he first blinks, which makes me wish the other thrillers he made in 2010 had more humor in them.
On its own, Non-Stop is serviceable, with the expected production values you'd see in a Die Hard movie basically on a plane. With The Naked Gun mind you, I wish it was a comedy because there's so much more that could be going on here, but that's just nitpicking. Anyway, if he pulled out his gun and said “Welcome to the mile high club” before he came up and got airborne, I'd like this movie even more.
As of this writing, What doesn't stop is streaming on Netflix.
