7500 & THE ‘ONERS’

JGL’s airplane-hijacking movie grips but doesn’t quite stick the landing. We also look at one-location gems that do.

7500

(Dir: Patrick Vollrath | Time: 1h32mins | On: Amazon Prime)

The single-location movie is a small but surprisingly distinguished category in cinema. To confine the action to one room or setting today is a bold enough artistic decision, before even taking into account the high bar set by original and suspenseful predecessors like Rear Window, Phone Booth, Panic Room and Locke.

Thankfully for those who enjoy conceptual twists, the gamble mostly pays dividends again with 7500.

The number is the code for an aircraft hijacking. But this time we don’t have a Harrison Ford or a Liam Neeson at hand – it is timid and by-the-book co-pilot Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who must rise to the occasion.

Wounded, without his captain and with his girlfriend among the passengers and crew locked in with the terrorists on the other side of the secure cockpit door, we experience this thriller from his point of view as he tries to keep the antagonists at bay long enough to safely land the plane. 

Even more so than most entries to the one-location genre, it adheres to the tightest of physical confines, sticking to what can be seen or heard from the plane’s command centre.

Aside from the radio, the only extension to that world is a monitor showing a camera feed from the other side of the secured door, as the terrorists, armed with broken glass and the necks of terrified hostages, try to convince Tobias to open it. 

The visual device is a ‘cheat’ that adds a dramatic dimension while working with the claustrophobia: the tiny screen has a found footage feel, showing a very tight galley shot with a curtain blocking the view to the passengers. When shut off, it intensifies the hero’s isolation. 

Whereas most terror-on-a-plane films would take in the stories of the hostages – often flimsy clichés – here, like Tobias, we can only imagine who they are and what they are going through, with occasional sounds from unseen scuffles heightening the suspense. 

It is a refreshing approach that helps to put us in the protagonist’s place, as he tries to block out those thoughts, and the constant thudding at the door, to focus on his mission. 

The limited viewpoint, along with realistic flying mechanics at an almost real-time pace, all help to turn a fairly thin, familiar and unrelatable plot into something more atmospheric, believable and frightening.

Tension is the name of the game, and it works pretty well here – mostly.

Key to the most successful of these stripped-down films is a complex central character with a charismatic lead performance to enrich the simplistic set up.

This is how Tom Hardy managed to, improbably, turn his one-man movie Locke – where he drives for 85 minutes while trying to solve a troubled cement job and tangled personal life – into a riveting experience. 

Here JGL’s committed display does more than enough to keep you interested but, limited by the flatness of his ‘everyman’ character, doesn’t quite bring you to the edge of your seat. The dialogue, said to have been partly improvised, feels stilted at times, which jives with the realistic approach but lacks heft. 

More damningly, some questionable narrative decisions drain the momentum in the final act. That this is not a fatal flaw is a credit to the film’s heart and ingenuity.    

Verdict: 7/10. An enjoyably wholehearted and tense entry to the distinguished single-location genre – shame it doesn’t stick the landing.

To experience the full power of the single-setting thriller, these are my picks:

*

CLASSIC – REAR WINDOW (1954)

The list of directors who turned the self-imposed limitation into a tour de force could not be complete without the master himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Here, he uses the construct to toy with our voyeuristic urges, as wheelchair-bound James Stewart spies on a possibly-murderous neighbour from the confines of his home. It is beautifully shot, full of invention and snappy dialogue. And more relatable than ever right now as many of us are stuck looking at the outside world from our homes – though not with Grace Kelly for company.

**

CROWDPLEASER – PHONE BOOTH (2002)

It may be some kind of tribute to his pedigree as an innovative filmmaker that on the week of his passing, and almost 20 years after its release, Joel Schumacher’s massively enjoyable thriller comes up yet again. Colin Farrell, in an early-career high, plays a charismatic liar who is forced by a gunman into a personal and professional denouement – all in a New York phone booth.  The film is part of an audacious body of work – including, among others, the prescient Falling Down and the iconic The Lost Boys – that thrilled audiences, elevated young stars and should be remembered more vividly than JS’s Batman misfires. RIP

***

WILDCARD – LOCKE (2013)

A one-man movie that takes place 100% inside a car during an 85-minute drive, boasting phone conversations rather than stunts, has no right to be thrilling. But director Stephen Knight and star Tom Hardy somehow turn Locke into an enthralling and even cinematic experience, propelling the film into the realm of the extraordinary. Who needs Fast and Furious chases when you have a Welshman talking about his tangled love life and a troubled construction project on speakerphone?