7500 Review

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com)

Travelling via aircraft should be a simple experience. Whether boarding for business, pleasure or just to get home, the flight itself should be the least memorable part of a journey. But what if your straightforward transit quickly turned to terror?

That’s the question rooted in Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, which sees terrorists hijacking a pan-European flight from Berlin to Paris. After the stabbing of the plane’s captain, co-pilot Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempts to bring the craft to safety whilst also trying to maintain the safety of those on board – including his partner, air hostess Gökce (Aylin Tezel).

Physical injury is the least of Tobias’s worries in one of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s tensest roles
(source: Amazon Studios)

After a lengthy opening prologue which does well to replicate the terminable boredom of boarding a flight for passengers and crew alike, the film wastes little time in getting into the action. Whether the sudden flurry of action is determined by the film’s concise 92-minute runtime or vice versa is unclear, but it begins quickly as the onboard antagonists storm the cockpit at the first available opportunity. From there the film develops a nervous tension, offering a rare scenario that represents “everyone’s worst nightmare” more successfully tense than most frightfests (including the similarly-named aero-horror, Flight 7500).

Where 7500 differs from this and other “plane films” is in its setting, as events are seen almost exclusively from the vantage of Tobias in the cockpit. Whilst a much smaller section of the plane than the cabin, these tight quarters do a remarkable job of conveying the claustrophobia of the entire vehicle – certainly, the idea of having “nowhere to run” is true on either side of the pilots’ safely locked door. Such a cramped locale restricts the actions of heroes and villains alike – physical struggles are crowded scuffles as opposed to real “fights”, each altercation being shirt-creasingly uncomfortable – and you can almost feel the suffocating effect on the plane’s recycled air. The plight of the passengers is also left unseen, which combined with the seemingly random and landmark-free target of this attack creates an air of powerless, blindsided fear.

Gökce (Aylin Tezel) is one of 7500‘s many ambushed captives
(source: Amazon Studios)

An absence of music means that the soundtrack is instead composed of the sounds of turbulence both inside and out of the aircraft. Though Tobias is safe from reach behind his secured door, he has to go about his already-demanding duties with the relentless thudding behind him of the attackers trying to breach his space; similarly, the outer elements bash against the exterior of the plane, a constant reminder of the dangers of his position. The diegetic track completely replaces a traditional score, ably taking on the responsibility to inform the viewer on what to feel from the obvious tension of the attack right up to the film’s last few hauntingly-remorseful seconds.

The hijacking and struggle for control is 7500’s key plot point, and once the main danger fades away the film begins to stutter. Before the action begins there are a handful of narrative conveniences and there are more in the final stretch, only this time there’s no patient build-up to provide the audience enough goodwill to look past them. The finale feels tacked on as a sort-of Stockholm Syndrome is clumsily introduced, never fully explored or realized and apparently only existing to validate the opening title card’s compassionate proverb – and the same could be said in reverse. With all events, including the emotionally demanding action, playing out in real time perhaps it would have been better to spend more time exploring the hijacking itself, rather than its aftermath.

Flawed though his storyline is, Omid Memar gives a performance steeped in conflict as Vedat
(source: Amazon Studios)

Steering both vessel and film, however, is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias, returning to acting after he, in his own words, “took a couple years off when I had kids”. Much like similar man-in-a-box films like Ryan Reynolds’s Buried or Tom Hardy’s Locke this is a role providing the “creative challenge” that the actor sought for his comeback, providing a singular showcase in a low-risk, low-budget environment that serves as a re-establishing of his dramatic abilities. Despite still piloting Tobias has little real control; all he can do is steer the plane against the persistence of his would-be assailants, and Gordon-Levitt proves adept both at delivering the unassuming profile of an “everyday hero” and the helpless, desperate tragedy that his impossible circumstances dictate.

This is a performance-led outing which flies in the face of the heavy escapism offered by most of recent months’ home cinema releases as this is the most serious entry into the aerospace genre since United 93 – albeit under a very different context. Perhaps it’s too morbid a story for those yearning for the freedom of air travel, but 7500 is for the most part a tightly-executed journey that will have those on-board – presumably fans of similar hold-your-breath thrillers – sat firmly in the upright position.