The viewer is in on it, because we “get” the genre conventions they’re playing around with, we know why X, Y or Z as a counter-measure will work.Īnd Baumeister, playing the struggle of maternal instincts vs. There’s an efficiency that settles in and manifests itself through the problems and the problem solving. And now it’s not her trapped in a jetliner with them, it’s a gang of brutes trapped onboard with one fiercely protective Mama.ĭirector and co-writer Peter Thorwarth, best known for the cautionary parable “The Wave” (a high school exercise in how Nazis take over), and co-writer Stefan Holtz (they did “Not My Day” together) work the genre conventions to contrive their screenplay’s obstacles, and the characters’ solutions to those. They don’t know she’s been through worse. They haven’t seen her flashback-within-the-flashback. He’s a smart kid trying to form his own escape plan.Īnd the villains? They haven’t reckoned on sickly Momma Nadja. “Everything is fine, sweetie,” Mom assures Elias. “Our one demand is strictly monetary,” the leader purrs, after the first killings. The passengers panic and weep and submit and can’t reason out what the villains’ motive or end game is. But his gang includes at least one psychopath ( Alexander Scheer). The leader ( Dominic Purcell) is pitiless. The hijackers know how to “out” air marshals and aren’t shy about spilling blood. The mid-flight assault itself is brutal and coordinated. They’re flying from Germany to America for treatment. We’ve seen her don the wig, seen her Skype with a New York doctor. ( Peri Baumeister of “The Last Kingdom”). Only he’s not speaking.Ī long flashback shows how young Elias boarded the plane with his sickly mother There are hijackers still on board, but a little boy ( Carl Anton Koch) slips off before the hijackers start negotiating.Īnd boy, does he have a story to tell. The framing device is a hijacking that’s just ended, the transatlantic jetliner, piloted by a passenger, has touched down in Scotland. And every now and then, this absurd German thriller is more fun than it has any right to be. It’s a clever blend of over-the-top supernatural and “work the problem” logical. The surprises have a grim delight about them, the violence a righteous, maternal fury. The German hijacking thriller “Blood Red Sky” hides its hand so well early on that it’d be a shame to give much of that away.
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