THE CRASH WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

Commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) flies into a storm and makes an emergency landing on an island without knowing where he is; he and his crew and passengers may be survivors, but they’re not out of the woods yet. Lo and behold, a great Gerard Butler action movie sees the light of day. Based on an idea by spy novelist Charles Cummings, this silly but intense thriller has a set-up that borrows from real life – militias kidnapping tourists on the island of Jolo. Everything else in the movie (including a killer among the passengers) is pure fiction. So-so visual effects, but a nail-biter at times, and Butler is solid behind the wheel.

2023-U.S. 107 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Marc Butan, Gerard Butler, Jason Constantine, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Eda Kowan, Luillo Ruiz, Alan Siegel, Mark Vahradian. Directed by Jean-François Richet. Screenplay: Charles Cumming, J.P. Davis. Cast: Gerard Butler (Brodie Torrance), Mike Colter (Louis Gaspare), Yoson An (Samuel Dele), Tony Goldwyn, Daniella Pineda, Kelly Gale.

Last word: “The Has Fallen movies are … it’s like this man here in Luke Cage [pointing to Colter]. They’re almost superhero. As much as you want to climb into a more interesting character like that, it is fun to play an everyman — a regular person. […] I did a bunch of training for this. I was in simulators for as much as I could and then our cockpit was really … it was an actual cockpit from a plane. So [I] spent many, many hours in there because I wanted to feel like I earned my seat and I wasn’t just pretending and pressing buttons.” (Butler, Coming Soon)