Intense thriller full of intense moments of pure shock and suspicion

Rating: 9/10 (25 September 2014)

Jaume Collet-Serra's Non-Stop was intense thriller full of intense moments of pure shock and suspicion. From the moment the movie started it's fairly obviously that the cast for the movie has been chosen almost perfectly. We are introduced to a broken Bill Marks, portrayed by the one and only Liam Neeson, who portrayed almost perfectly a broken man. Neeson does a good job in this to give off a personality of someone who has been through a lot, someone wise. Along with Neeson's strong performance we have Julian Moore's accompanying and powerful performance complimenting Neeson's investigation, she adds on to the more emotional side throughout the intense flight. Non-stop takes place on an international flight, an Air Marshall named Bill Marks boards the plane and begins to receive messages from an unknown person. The individual begins threatening to kill someone every 20 minutes if $150 million dollars are not transferred to an account. As intense scenes begin to unfold the struggle of an investigation to find the unknown individual seems to be pointing to Bill as the plane hijacker. The plot keeps you on the edge of your seat guessing what really happens next, it takes pretty good writing to be unpredictable.
What really brought together the movie was Richardson and Roach's brilliant script. Throughout the whole movie I sat there trying to guess who was the bad guy, it was like everyone on the plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time and just made everyone look extremely guilty. It was almost like a clue version of investigation but on a plane. Anyone could be the individual even those who seemed completely trustworthy could suddenly look extremely suspicious. On top of this, watching the mastermind that carefully planned out the hijacking so Bill (Neeson) would appear as the real hijacker was brilliantly suspenseful. The brilliant script was accompanied by beautiful cinematography. Throughout the movie we witness very small details within the vast of action and shock, accompanied by close-ups of those witnessing in terror. At one point it seems like the whole plane is just going to crash and just for a moment it slows down and takes a look at the only child in the movie illustrating sheer terror in her eyes. It gave it not only a very intense feel but a more dramatic feel to the events occurring rather than having a bunch of clash of intense action scenes filled with mindless passengers with no reaction but screaming. When I began watching the film I was expecting another action filled thriller full of explosions and intense scares, but was pleasantly surprised to see that the movie was complimented pretty often by moments of pure connection. You can actually understand peoples despair and their motivations for what they do. Instead of placing the pasts of people out there blatantly and out of place, we see their real persona bleed through still giving us room for suspicion of who they are but yet more of an idea of what kind of person they are.
If you are looking for a movie that keeps you guessing, surprised, and shocked throughout the movie then look no further. I would even go as far as saying that this was one of the greatest movies of 2014. Not a completely mindless action film but rather one that actually requires you to pay attention to understand to everything is going on. It was a brilliant film and now after seeing the film I re-watched the film and noticed amount of details surrounding the plot put into this amazing movie. Non-Stop is a perfect example of what thrillers should be.