Non-Stop

***Non-Stop*** is a 2014 American mystery action thriller film.

## Synopsis

An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages demanding $150 million into an off-shore account, or someone will die every 20 minutes.

## Plot

Alcoholic air marshal Bill Marks boards a British Aqualantic Airlines Boeing 767 from New York City to London–Heathrow. He sits next to Jen Summers, who has switched seats so she can be by the window. After takeoff, Marks receives a text message on his secure phone stating that someone will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a specified bank account. Marks breaks protocol and consults Jack Hammond, the other air marshal, who dismisses the threat. Marks also checks his phone. Marks, however, has Summers and flight attendant Nancy monitor the security cameras while texting the mysterious person to try to identify him.

When Hammond uses his phone and suddenly goes to the rear toilet, Marks confronts him. Hammond first offers him some of the money. When Marks turns him down, Hammond attacks. During the ensuing fight, when Hammond reaches for Marks' dropped gun, Marks has to break his neck, killing him. This happens exactly at the 20-minute mark. When Marks checks Hammond's phone, it reveals that someone texted that he knows what is in Hammond's briefcase. Marks finds cocaine in it.

Marks alerts the TSA, but the TSA agent informs him that the bank account is registered in his name and accuses Marks of being the perpetrator. At this point, the pilot dies, apparently poisoned, at the 40-minute mark. Kyle, the co-pilot, convinces Marks that he's innocent.

Marks searches the resentful passengers. One of them uploads a video in which Marks accuses and manhandles schoolteacher Tom Bowen, convincing the rest of the world that Marks is the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Kyle is instructed by the TSA to divert to Iceland. Marks persuades a programmer named Zack White to write a computer virus to make the hijacker's phone ring. The phone rings in a banker's suit pocket, but he denies it is his. As Marks roughly questions him, he suddenly dies, foaming at the mouth, at the 60-minute mark.

While smoking in the first class lavatory, Marks discovers a hole drilled into the wall which offers a clear shot to the pilot's seat. He then inspects the body of the banker and discovers a dart. He asks a passenger who used the toilet recently if anybody used it after her; she replies that Summers did. Marks accuses Summers of being the hijacker. Summers gets upset, as she had stood by him. She manages to convince Marks of her innocence.

In the meantime, two RAF Typhoon fighter aircraft meet the plane, to escort it to a military base in Iceland. The passengers watch a television news report claiming that Marks is hijacking their flight. The hijacker's phone then states that a bomb will explode in 30 minutes. Marks realizes that the bomb bypassed the security checks, and finds it in Hammond's cocaine briefcase. When some passengers attack Marks, Tom Bowen stops them, believing that the bomb is the first priority. Marks convinces the others of his innocence, and has them move the bomb beside a rear door and surround it with luggage to direct the blast outward, while everybody moves to the front of the airplane. Marks tells Kyle to descend to 8,000 feet, as the current pressure differential would rip the airplane apart if the bomb exploded. However, the pilot of one of the escorting jets refuses to let Kyle deviate from his course.

Marks, watching the news video, notices Bowen making contact with the banker's pocket. Unmasked, Bowen runs to the rear. Marks chases after him, but loses his gun to Bowen in a fight. White reveals he is Bowen's accomplice. Their goal was to frame Marks, thus ruining the reputation of the Air Marshals Service. Bowen wants revenge for the service not preventing the death of his father on September 11 and, as a result, believes that "security is the country's biggest lie" and its exposure is inevitable. Marks persuades White, who is in it for the money, to try to disarm the bomb, saying that he could not survive parachuting out at this altitude. However, Bowen shoots White. Just then, Kyle suddenly descends steeply against orders. That distraction enables Marks, with Nancy's help, to kill Bowen. White recovers and attacks Marks, still wanting to jump out of the aircraft. Marks subdues him, then runs from the rear of the airplane just as the bomb goes off, killing White and blowing out the door. Despite the damage, Kyle manages to land the plane safely. Marks is praised as a hero. He then goes over and chats with Summers and the others.