The same people that insist that Die Hard is a Christmas movie will probably be saying the same thing about Carry-On, the action thriller released by Netflix a little less than two weeks shy of the holiday.
But could it ever replace Die Hard as a fan favorite during the holidays? Probably not, but it definitely held my interest and kept me entertained for two hours.
Set at LAX during the peak Christmas travel season, Taron Egerton stars as a TSA agent who’s pretty much just going through the motions at his job. He really wanted to be a cop but didn’t make the cut so here he is, sitting at a machine scanning passenger carry-on bags for prohibited items.
His girlfriend, whom we have learned is pregnant with their child, also works at the airport in a supervisory ticket counter role for a fictionalized airline. She wants him to be more ambitious, and try again to become a police officer.
That back story laid down, the fun begins when Egerton’s Ethan Kopek gets a mysterious, demanding phone call from a character played by Jason Bateman. My favorite parts of the film is when it boils down to a two-hander between these excellent actors.
I mean who doesn’t have fond memories of Egerton playing Elton John a couple years back in Rocketman and Bateman of late in his role on the popular Ozark, among his many other credits going back a number of decades now.
In the credits, Bateman is listed only as Traveler, and his true identity, much less his intentions, remain a mystery throughout the film. But he threatens Kopek with harm to his girlfriend if the TSA agent doesn’t let a certain passenger through security.
Frightened and intimidated although still questioning the consequences, we soon see Kopek get some grits about him and rise to the occasion to challenge this potential terrorist and his goal to get presumably lethal items on board an aircraft, with the clear potential of killing everybody on board.
All this is taking place on top of the natural drama of grouchy passengers at a crowded airport trying to get to their holiday destinations. And when a major checkpoint gets shut down as a result of other federal agencies and police getting involved in the deadly threat, all hell breaks loose.
It’s every traveler’s worst nightmare. Things seem to be going smoothly and then, boom. You’re going to miss your flight– or worst case scenario, get caught in some crossfire.
If you like being on the edge of your seat, you probably won’t want to miss this movie.
