Fight or Flight (dir. James Madigan)

by Jack Martin | Feb 28, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 97 mins

UK Distributor: Sky Cinema

UK Release Date: 28 February 2025

WHO’S IN FIGHT OR FLIGHT?

Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Julian Kostov, Katee Sackhoff, Marko Zaror, Rebecka Johnston, Nóra Trokán, JuJu Chan Szeto, Sanjeev Kohli, Attila Árpa

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

James Madigan (director), D.J. Cotrona and Brooks McLaren (writers), Tai Duncan, Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Christopher Milburn (producers), Paul Saunderson (composer), Matt Flannery (cinematographer), Ben Mills (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A former agent (Hartnett) boards a flight filled with lethal killers…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON FIGHT OR FLIGHT?

More and more people are waking up to the fact that Josh Hartnett is one of our most underutilised actors. But somewhere between his earlier success with films like Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, and his recent resurgence thanks to roles in Oppenheimer and last year’s Trap, there’s a far greater treasure trove of Hartnett performances in less prolific movies that have allowed him to flesh out his abilities as a character actor. Not all of it is top quality, but there is consistency in how Hartnett is able to carry himself through even the most garbage of scripts, which more than shows his growth from just another pretty-boy actor to a genuinely engaging screen talent.

His latest starring vehicle, Fight or Flight, is peculiar in how, from a conceptual point of view, it sounds like something that Hartnett would have signed on for during that experimental period of his career, but in execution feels exactly like the sort of thing that an A-list movie star would excitedly attach themselves to, regardless of their current level of power in Hollywood. Either way, it’s delightful to see Hartnett revel in the bonkers mayhem that is this stupidly fun movie, which delivers the right kind of dumb blood-soaked action entertainment that a lot of other recent action-thrillers simply could not.

In director James Madigan’s film, Hartnett plays Lucas Reyes, a former Secret Service agent hiding out and getting drunk in Bangkok after a violent incident derailed his future prospects. He’s suddenly contacted by his former girlfriend Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff), who’s now a powerful government operative that tasks Reyes with a seemingly simple task: board a plane heading to San Francisco and apprehend a wanted figure known as “the Ghost”, and in exchange he’ll get his life back. But what Reyes and Brunt don’t know is that the plane is filled with assassins, who themselves are after the Ghost and the enormous bounty placed on their head, which means that Reyes and a small group of allies – including flight attendant Isha (Charithra Chandran) – must brutally slaughter their adversaries before they are killed first.

Very much operating within the familiar structure of Bullet Train – of course, with the method of transportation swapped – but with the added intensity and gory violence of The Raid, Fight or Flight seems largely aware of what kind of movie it is. Madigan’s direction carries a Guy Ritchie-esque style of tongue-in-cheek humour that embraces the ridiculousness of this premise, without directly winking at the audience or addressing certain gaps in logic that some other self-aware action-comedies tend to point out (in this case, how on earth did much of the weaponry used in this movie make it past airport security?). Instead, the director launches head-first into some visceral action that gets consistently bloodier with each passing sequence, many of which take as much advantage as possible of the contained airplane setting, in the process showing the likes of Love Hurts and Flight Risk how to not only deliver competent-looking stunt choreography but also within a limited amount of space.

The script, credited to D.J. Cotrona and Brooks McLaren, does fairly well to prevent itself from falling into too many familiar structures, which in a way makes the film a bit less predictable. For instance, the identity of “the Ghost” is figured out fairly early on, rather than being saved for a third-act reveal, and while it’s not a huge surprise as to who it turns out to be, the earlier unveiling means that more time is dedicated to fleshing out this particular character, to where the viewer can better identify with their righteous, albeit slightly extreme, cause. The lead character is also expanded on a bit more, which again isn’t anything totally revolutionary but again makes it easy to relate to his unnerved state as he takes one significant body wound after another, even when laced with powerful hallucinogenic drugs (and it goes without saying that Hartnett is a blast in the role).

But as much fun as it is to watch, Fight or Flight does have some flaws that are hard to overlook. For starters, it is a film that relies heavily on its action to distract from the fact that very little about the plot makes sense, where just about anything can happen – even, at one point, a massive hole blasted onto the side of the plane that is merely ignored after a few minutes – and people will suddenly reveal themselves as dangerous threats or unmentioned allies, or in some cases killed just as soon as they are introduced. Without spoilers, this is also a film that ends rather abruptly, as though they ran out of money to film a proper resolution, save for a ballsy sequel tease that raises far more questions than it gives answers, and even comes complete with the classic line, “we’re not done yet.” Cos, y’know, that sort of tease worked out so great for the likes of Super Mario Bros, The Last Airbender and Artemis Fowl – all of which Fight or Flight is far better than, but still there’s no need to stoop to their level.

Even if the film is far from perfect, it’s hard not to enjoy the manic energy that has gone into making it, with its unhinged levels of violence and slightly unpredictable plotting. But most of all, it’s yet another piece of evidence that Josh Hartnett is fast becoming a reliable performer at this later stage in his career, one that comes with as much gravitas as there is charisma, and like in Trap a profound embrace of the silliness of it all. Yes, even when Fight or Flight gets too silly for its own good.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Fight or Flight is a bonkers action-comedy that is fun and devilishly gory enough to overlook some of its more gaping flaws, while providing Josh Hartnett with another magnetic lead turn in a script filled with chaos.