Flight Risk | 2025
Michelle Dockery in FLIGHT RISK.
As a child of the 90s, I have a certain soft spot for 90s-style action thrillers. These things were a dime-a-dozen back then, and while many haven't aged well, something about them often feels more tangible than the flat-looking high-gloss sludge we so often get today. They were heightened, sometimes silly, and less concerned with what passes for realism in a way that makes them feel more authentic. Mel Gibson's latest film, Flight Risk, feels like a throwback to a certain kind of 90s thriller - unfortunately, it's not the good kind.
The premise is simple enough - US Marshall Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) boards a chartered plane in the Alaskan wilderness after apprehending a fugitive (Topher Grace) who is set to be a material witness in a high-profile case against a mob boss. Their pilot is Daryl (Mark Wahlberg), whose bedraggled charm masks his true intentions - he's actually an assassin sent by the mob to terminate the witness. Trapped about the tiny plane with nowhere to go, Madolyn must overcome and outwit the skilled assassin and find a way to fly the plane to ensure that her witness gets safely back to New York to end the mobster's reign of terror. But a mole inside the agency threatens to derail the entire operation, and Madolyn is forced to deal with enemies in the air and on the ground, all trying to ensure she never lands the plane.
Say what you will about Gibson as a person (and there is certainly plenty to be said), he has repeatedly proven himself to be a skilled filmmaker. Even a film with which I have many issues, like The Passion of the Christ, still displays a certain amount of directorial flair and personality. Flight Risk has none of that. What should have been pulpy fun is instead bland and sloppily directed. Gibson brings none of his typical directorial flair to this, instead delivering a painfully straightforward and personality-free affair that doesn't even have the "so-bad-it's-good" goofiness that often marks films of this ilk.
One thing Gibson does port over from the 1990s is a galling sense of misogyny and lack of respect for women. Dockery's US Marshall is a constant source of sexual interest for nearly every male character in the film, even the ones who are supposed to be the "good guys." Her role is so poorly written that she seems almost like a caricature of a hysterical woman - easily goaded by Wahlberg's cheap taunts and yet flattered by creepy comments tossed her way by the heroic pilot tasked with helping her pilot the plane over the radio. Add that to an oddly abundant amount of rape jokes, and you have a film that feels ripped right out of the 90s in the worst possible ways.
This should come as no surprise from Gibson, especially given his more pronounced slide into extreme right-wing politics over the last 20 or so years, but it's still somewhat shocking to see just how far he's fallen here. We're a long way from the likes of Braveheart, Apocalypto, and Hacksaw Ridge, films the marketing proudly touts. A certain part of me feels nostalgic for this kind of schlocky thriller - but other filmmakers are doing this kind of thing with more panache (see Jaume Collet-Serra's Carry-On or David Ayer’s The Beekeeper). One has to wonder what Gibson even saw in this and if a different filmmaker might have had more fun with it. It's got some fun DNA, and it's kind of exciting to see a movie bad guy get this kind of gnarly comeuppance. Still, Flight Risk's biggest throwback is its forgettability, never establishing a unique personality or particularly compelling characters to justify its low-rent aesthetic.
