Solid Action Thriller

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2015)

Non-stop opens with the slow-motion slosh of Bill's whiskey bottle. Eyes bleary and bloodshot, he touches a snapshot of a young girl, then gruffly makes his way through security to the terminal. As passengers for the New York-to-London flight wait to board, he watches them with the suspicion required for the job, but also with the cynicism of a miserable man surrounded by people happier than him. Bill makes vague small talk with his neighbor, Jen (Julianne Moore), and the only thing either reveals is they both fly often. As he white-knuckles through takeoff, he explains to her, "Some things, you never get used to."
Once the plane reaches cruising altitude, Bill receives anonymous text messages, which Collet-Serra visualizes as floating bubbles, like comic- book word balloons (unintentional foreshadowing for the silly finale, perhaps). The texter makes the standard demands: $150 million, or someone dies every 20 minutes. When Bill's supervisors on the ground learn the account for the ransom bears his name, his character and motives are called into question, although the audience will stand steadfast alongside him, for the most part.