# Carry-On

Carry-On is a 2024 American action thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by T. J. Fixman. The film stars Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler and Jason Bateman. Its plot follows a young TSA officer who is blackmailed into allowing a nerve agent on board a flight during Christmas Eve.
Carry-On was released by Netflix on December 13, 2024, received positive reviews from critics, and earned more views during its opening week than any other film released on Netflix in 2024.

## Plot

Ethan Kopek, a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at Los Angeles International Airport, has become cynical and unambitious after being rejected from the police academy for concealing his father's criminal history. On Christmas Eve, his pregnant girlfriend, Nora, encourages him to reapply and pursue his dream. Instead, Ethan asks his supervisor Phil Sarkowski to assign him to manage a baggage-scanning lane, hoping to demonstrate his merit for a promotion.
During his shift, Ethan receives an earbud, through which he is contacted by a ruthless mercenary, the Traveler, who orders him to let a specific carry-on case pass through the scanner—or Nora will be killed. The Traveler's accomplice, the Watcher, remotely monitors Ethan, thwarting his attempts to alert the authorities. Ethan secretly warns his colleague, Lionel, using a message written in invisible ink. However, before Lionel can act, the Traveler poisons him with aconitine, causing a fatal heart attack.
Due to Ethan's seemingly erratic behavior, his friend Jason takes over his position. The Traveler tells Ethan he will kill Jason if necessary to execute his plan, so Ethan plants an alcoholic drink at his workstation which, when discovered by Phil, results in Jason's removal. After replacing Jason, Ethan lets a man pass through with the carry-on case as instructed, and sees from his boarding pass that his name is Mateo Flores. The Traveler reveals that the suitcase contains Novichok, a lethal nerve agent.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective Elena Cole investigates a double homicide and discovers the victims had smuggled Novichok into the country. Cole alerts the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and connects the threat to Ethan's aborted 911 call. In response, a terminal-wide sweep is ordered, and Ethan secretly adds Mateo to the list of passengers flagged for inspection. However, the Traveler suspects Ethan's interference and confronts him in a restroom; in the resulting scuffle, Ethan seizes the Traveler's plastic gun, but the Traveler arms the Novichok bomb remotely via phone.
Sarkowski detains Mateo for inspection, but Ethan interrupts, holding them both at gunpoint. Mateo fatally stabs Sarkowski after Ethan refuses to shoot him, before revealing that he, too, is being coerced; the Watcher is holding Mateo's husband, Jesse, hostage. With time running out, the Traveler guides Ethan to reset the bomb. Afterward, Mateo is ordered to kill Ethan but gets killed when the plastic gun overheats and explodes. The Traveler retrieves the Novichok case and orders the Watcher to kill Nora. Ethan uses Mateo's phone to warn her. Nora evades the Watcher in the parking garage and Jesse breaks free and kills the Watcher.
En route to the airport with DHS agent John Alcott, Cole soon realizes the agent is an imposter—one of the Traveler's accomplices—and kills him in self-defense. Upon arriving at the airport, Cole confronts Ethan and alerts the LAPD, initiating a terminal shutdown. Cole uncovers that the Traveler's target is Congresswoman Grace Suarez Turner, a passenger on a flight to Washington, D.C., who advocates for increased weapons funding. The Novichok attack is designed to implicate Russia, ensuring congressional approval of substantial defense spending, enriching weapons manufacturers.
The Traveler boards the flight, unaware that Ethan has switched the bomb into an identical but larger suitcase, forcing him to stow it in the plane's cargo hold. Ethan infiltrates the hold to disarm the bomb, while Nora persuades Cole to allow the flight to take off, preventing the Traveler from becoming suspicious. As Ethan begins dismantling the bomb, the Traveler receives a phone alert and confronts him at gunpoint. Before the Traveler can re-arm the Novichok and escape using a parachute, Ethan locks him inside an airtight refrigeration unit with the nerve agent, killing him. The plane safely returns to the airport.
One year later, Ethan, Nora, and their infant son pass through a TSA checkpoint as they prepare to travel to Tahiti with Jason and his family. Ethan, now a police officer, places his LAPD badge in the scanning tray.

## Cast

* Taron Egerton as Ethan Kopek
* Jason Bateman as The Traveler
* Sofia Carson as Nora Parisi
* Danielle Deadwyler as Elena Cole
* Theo Rossi as The Watcher
* Logan Marshall-Green as Agent Alcott
* Dean Norris as Phil Sarkowski
* Sinqua Walls as Jason Noble
* Curtiss Cook as Lionel Williams
* Josh Brener as Herschel
* Benito Martinez as Security Director Marm Bellows

## Production

In June 2021, Amblin Partners signed a deal with Netflix to produce multiple films per year for the streaming service. Carry-On was originally planned to be the first film to come from the deal, the initial draft of the screenplay was written by former Insomniac Games writer T. J. Fixman, with Michael Green writing another draft. Only Fixman was eventually credited with the screenplay while Green received an off-screen "Additional Literary Material" credit. Fixman intended the film to be an illustration of the trolley problem.
In July 2022, it was announced that Taron Egerton was tapped to star in the lead role of Ethan Kopek. In August 2022, Jason Bateman joined the film co-starring alongside Egerton as the mysterious traveler. Sofia Carson and Danielle Deadwyler joined the cast in September 2022. Theo Rossi joined the cast in October 2022. Dean Norris, Logan Marshall-Green, and Sinqua Walls were among the eight new cast additions to join the film later that month.
On an estimated budget of $47 million, principal photography took place in New Orleans, Louisiana from September 2022 to January 2023.
Fixman received extensive expert advice about airport security but deliberately used artistic license with TSA procedures for the sake of the storyline.

## Release

Carry-On was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, but was released under the Amblin Entertainment banner. Carry-On was released on Netflix on December 13, 2024.
Ten days after its release, the film had 97 million views, and was anticipated to become one of the top ten most-watched films on Netflix.
In January 2025, Carry-On became the fifth-most-watched Netflix English-language film of all time, having received more than 149.5 million views.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 102 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Taron Egerton and an against-type Jason Bateman make for great adversaries in Carry-On, a throwback thriller that clears all checkpoints of plot logic with its confident execution." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Sarah Little, writing for Screen Rant, said, "Netflix's Carry-On has been shockingly divisive in the days following its premiere, as most critics seemingly enjoyed the movie, while audiences have (ironically) been more critical of it."
The TSA noted that the film contains inaccuracies, but praised the filmmakers for portraying a TSA officer in a heroic light.