FLIGHT RISK Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Mel Gibson
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace.

There have been plenty of thrillers set on board a plane – from the star-studded Airport series of disaster movies (which were successfully parodied by the Zucker Brothers in the classic comedy Flying High!) through to films including Air Force One, the serial killer on a plane with Red Eye, Flightplan with Jodie Foster, Executive Decision with Kurt Russell, and Non-Stop, with Liam Neeson as a beleaguered air marshal. And now we can add to that list Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk. And while it may have been released into cinemas without much in the way of publicity Flight Risk is enjoyable enough and something of a guilty pleasure.
In the remote regions of Alaska disgraced US Marshall Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery, from Downton Abbey, etc) tracks down fugitive Winston (Topher Grace), a mob accountant. Winston knows where the money has gone and offers to turn state’s evidence in order to save himself. Madolyn has to fly Winston to Anchorage where she can then transfer him to New York in time to testify. They board a rickety small twin engine plane better suited to transporting goods rather than passengers. Their pilot is Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg), a garrulous and goofy good ol’ boy from Texas.
But as the flight heads across the sparse Alaskan wilderness and snow-covered peaks, Winston and Madolyn learn that Daryl is not who he says he is, but rather a hitman hired by the mob to ensure that Winston never testifies. Thus begins a fight for survival. Madolyn manages to subdue Daryl. She then has to learn how to fly the small plane. She is talked through the process by the upbeat pilot Hasan (voiced by Maaz Ali). But there are a few more twist and turns before this deadly flight is over.
Flight Risk is the debut feature script written by Jared Rosenberg, and it has been on Hollywood’s Black List of the best unproduced scripts for a couple of years. The concept is pretty simple and seemingly straight forward.
Gibson steps back into the director’s chair for the first time since 2018’s Hacksaw Ridge. Unlike most of his other films such as The Passion Of The Christ, the Oscar winning Braveheart and Apocalypto, which were ambitious and epic in scope and scale, Flight Risk is a lean and pacy B-film shot on a shoestring budget. At a tight 91 minutes it is also the shortest film he has directed. It almost unfolds in real time.
His direction is muscular, and he brings plenty of white-knuckle claustrophobic tension to the confined setting. Cinematographer Johnny Derango (Fatman, etc) does a good job with the visuals, and he captures the stark Alaskan wilderness, although on a couple of occasions the green screen/CGI created backdrop is obvious.
This is largely a three hander, and the small cast are excellent, breathing life into their cliched characters. Wahlberg chews the scenery as the cocky and unhinged Daryl; he has even shaved his head which adds to his menacing demeanour. Grace provides the comic relief with his quips and one-liners, and he gives the nerdy Winston a nervous energy. Dockery, who played a feisty air hostess in Non-Stop, brings a resilient and determined quality to her performance as Madolyn, who is desperate to prove herself and again be given the chance to return to active field duty.
With both Flight Path and his recent role as a grizzled ex-cop investigating a series of missing children in Monster Summer, Gibson seems to be enjoying something of a purple patch and a mini-comeback.
★★★