Carry-On

Although the comparisons to Die Hard are inevitable, this enjoyable action thriller stands on its own two feet with some clever ideas, a gripping premise, and a pair of great leading performances from Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman.

Premise:  Working the Christmas Eve shift at Los Angeles airport, directionless TSA officer Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) finds himself at the mercy of a mysterious traveller (Jason Bateman) who threatens to kill Ethan’s girlfriend, airport manager Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson), unless Ethan helps him to smuggle a carry-on case through airport security.

Review:

It’s easy to make relatively lazy comparisons between Carry-On and Die Hard, given that they’re both action thrillers set on Christmas Eve involving an everyman protagonist in the wrong place at the wrong time who goes up against a cunning adversary who thinks they’ve accounted for all possible variables.  But Carry-On is so much more than simply “Die Hard in an airport” (which is, after all, what Die Hard 2 is...), even if it might sound like that on paper.

Taron Egerton’s TSA officer character has his fair share of personal issues that he’s working through, but whereas John McClane’s issues related to his separation from his wife, Ethan Kopek’s problem is that he’s drifting through life on autopilot after his earlier dream of becoming a cop crashed and burned.  When he finds out that his successful girlfriend (played by Sofia Carson, who at least gets to be more than just a damsel in distress, even if her character doesn’t make the same kind of impact that Holly McClane did) is pregnant, it forces him to reevaluate his future.

“…a really engaging cat-and-mouse battle-of-wits…”

Unfortunately for Ethan, his moment of introspection coincides with an unnamed Traveller’s plan to blackmail a TSA officer to smuggle a carry-on case through airport security, and the Traveller (played with an engaging blend of easy-going charm and cold ruthlessness by a cast-against-type Jason Bateman) sees Ethan as an easy target who’s already sleepwalking through life.  And so begins a really engaging cat-and-mouse battle-of-wits between the two of them, as Ethan struggles to find a way to try to do the right thing without putting Nora’s life in jeopardy.

One of the best decisions that writer T.J. Fixman makes is to have Ethan and the Traveller in communication relatively early on in the film through the use of an earpiece that is delivered to Ethan.  Whereas other films in this genre have struggled to develop a meaningful relationship between the main protagonist and antagonist (especially if they only meet in the final act), Carry-On borrows from Die Hard by having the conversations between the two leads be the beating heart of the movie.

“…the film is quick to establish that there are real stakes involved…”

In fact, for most of the first act of the film, there’s not a huge amount that physically happens, given that Ethan is on duty operating the security x-ray machine – but director Jaume Collet-Serra (who also directed The Shallows, which is another film I love where the action effectively all takes place in a single location) somehow manages to maintain the pace and tension through the verbal jousting between Ethan and the Traveller, even when the physical action is fairly static.

Another thing I really enjoyed about Carry-On is that at no point does Ethan ever become a ‘one man army’ cliche.  Whereas films like Under Siege and Passenger 57 took the Die Hard concept and added a lethal protagonist, Ethan Kopek remains physically outmatched at all stages in the movie.  When there are flashes of violence (a bathroom fight was particularly well-staged), Ethan is clumsy and desperate more than he is effective, which only adds to the sense of jeopardy (as does the body count, as this is a film that is quick to establish that there are real stakes involved).

“…an unexpectedly good festive treat…”

As well as Egerton, Bateman and Carson, Carry-On has a great supporting cast, including genre veterans like Dean Norris and Theo Rossi, alongside younger castmates like Danielle Deadwyler and Sinqua Walls.  Although they all get a few moments to shine (and Dean Norris in particular is able to do a lot with a little), this film is unquestionably built around the central relationship between Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman.  Their move/countermove back-and-forth is great fun to watch, as Ethan comes up with what seems to the audience to be good ideas to try to outmanoeuvre the Traveller, but the Traveller always appears to somehow be two steps ahead.

As a piece of well-written, well-directed and well-acted popcorn entertainment, Carry-On is an unexpectedly good festive treat, and one that is sure to make it onto my Christmas viewing list for future years.