Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Plane Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 25, 2023

At least within the subset of travelers who are also film fans, it's kind of amazing that anyone has flown since at least The High and the Mighty and/or Airport. But people do keep flying, at least in any number of film or television properties where they quickly find out maybe their travel plans are not going to go exactly as planned. Plane is about as generically named as Airport, and in a way it really doesn't try to exhibit any outsized ambitions, though it at least tweaks the "disaster film" premise a bit by having a troubled airliner actually make a landing, albeit not in the most hospitable of locations. That plot point, which finds the survivors of the crash suddenly confronted with guerrilla type villains, was evidently a bit too close for comfort for some officials in the Philippines, who evidently took umbrage at the depiction of the island of Jolo as under the sway of paramilitary thugs. While that particular aspect at least gives the film a bit of energy, the screenplay also attempts to work in a kind of mismatched partners element courtesy of the teaming of the jet's captain, Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler), and Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an international fugitive who was being extradited back to the halls of justice to face a murder charge. Suffice it to say that Torrance and Gaspare together have their own "particular set of skills" to help them overcome any number of obstacles, with the film genuinely upping the angst ante courtesy of uncertainty as to whether the so-called "and the rest" innocent bystander passengers are going to make it through the maelstrom unscathed. The fact that Torrance is white and Gaspare is black, and at least initially in handcuffs, perhaps can't help but recall The Defiant Ones, which is in its own way arguably one of the more surprising referents Plane offers.

One of the perhaps slightly unaddressed issues in all of this craziness is that it's a last minute decision by Torrance that actually puts everyone in danger, though Plane is not a film to dwell on interior psychological turmoil as much as does visceral violence once the plane passengers discover that they might very likely end up as hostages in a gambit to extract sizable ransoms. There are a number of vignettes involving some of the passengers, but one of the perhaps unexpected things about the aborted flight is that there aren't that many of them, so there are ostensibly fewer "red shirt" candidates than might typically be the case in such a story. While slightly comic interludes involving characters more accustomed to living life through their cell phones than surviving in a Philippine jungle with armed separatists surrounding them pop up, more involving content includes a hot shot former Special Ops guy named Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn), who, back in the airline's HQ, attempts to put together a rescue operation. A sidebar featuring Torrance and his daughter Daniela (Haleigh Hekking) is arguably unnecessary and could have been dispensed with easily without any detriment to an emotional tether to the character.

The villains are led by a feral character named Datu Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor), who has a gaggle of similarly violent henchmen at his beck and call, and the film unsurprisingly has several tense cat and mouse sequences where Torrance and/or Gaspare attempt to sequester a bad guy or two to get the odds more in their favor. The film's narrative is at times both "paint by numbers", in that even with a somewhat unusual basic setup, there really aren't that many surprises (save for perhaps a shocking passenger death or two), but any qualms will probably be, well, jettisoned by adrenaline junkies since director Jean-François Richet ( Mesrine: Killer Instinct, Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1) stages some spectacularly effective action sequences, with an especially impressive set of violent confrontations between Torrance and one bad guy in particular.

Butler has a uniquely rumpled ambience for a major action star, and that slightly dissheveled look and feeling helps to give Torrance and Plane the perceived imprimatur of authenticity, despite a plot that is so completely preposterous that it seems ripe for parody, perhaps a la Triangle of Sadness. That said, Plane takes itself seriously despite the more incredible elements its story offers, and with a nonstop array of breathless action energizing the proceedings, a potentially bumpy cinematic flight actually manages to land more or less successfully.

Plane Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Plane is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits feature the Arri logo, and the IMDb lists a 4K DI. This is an often very impressive looking presentation that offers generally secure detail levels and a really sumptuous accounting of a rather interesting palette. A lot of the first half hour or so of the film is bathed in cooler blue, green and/or teal tones, but fine detail still manages to peek through quite convincingly. When the plane loses power in the storm that ultimately forces the crash landing, things get quite dark, and detail levels understandably ebb (they're arguably improved in the 4K UHD version). The sun drenched atmosphere on the island where the survivors find themselves offer abundant opportunities for both a really beautifully suffused palette, at least for the most part (more about that in a moment), as well as support for excellent fine detail levels. The palette encounters some kind of unusual but I am assuming intentional desaturation in some of the jungle scenes in the middle section of the film. A light dusting of digital grain is apparent, but never very intrusive as it can sometimes be.

Plane Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Plane features a nicely bombastic Dolby Atmos track that engages the surround channels virtually from the get go and then keeps them engaged consistently enough that my hunch is most audiophiles will be more than satisfied. While some of the early surround activity is relatively "mundane", offering a representation of the background clamor of an airport, and even the initial scenes as the flight begins tend to be subtle in side and rear channel engagement, once the plane encounters a violent storm, there's a whirlwind of surround activity that clearly engages all of the channels and provides a thrilling if disturbing sonic experience. Once the flight has more or less crash landed, a glut of jungle ambient environmental sounds keeps the surround channels active, and of course the frequent action sequences offer nice discrete placement of everything from bones shattering in hand to hand combat to the firing of guns. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Plane Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• This Is Your Captain (HD; 14:18) offers the cast and crew touting the pleasures of working with Gerard Butler.


• Plane Clothes (HD; 6:51) focuses on costume design.


• Brace for Turbulence (HD; 19:14) looks at some of the more violent action moments, including the plane crash.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:29)

Lionsgate sent the 4K release (which includes a 1080 disc) for purposes of this review, but it looks like this release has a digital copy included and packaging which features a slipcover.

Plane Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of amusingly, the Main Menu on this disc offers an "in flight" announcement that the film being shown will indeed be Plane, but my hunch is few if any actual flights will be offering this outing for passengers, since flyers are often nervous enough without wondering if they're going to crash land on a Philippine island being run by insurgents. This film is unabashedly preposterous a lot of the time, but it's also genuinely exciting and well staged. Technical merits are solid and the few supplements enjoyable. Recommended.