7500, 2019.
Directed by Patrick Vollrath.
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Omid Memar, Aylin Tezel, Carlo Kitzlinger, Murathan Muslu and Paul Wollin.
SYNOPSIS:
A Berlin-to-Paris flight is violently disrupted by a group of hijackers.
In a film that depicts the mid-air mayhem of a fictional plane hijacking, it might come as a surprise that the word ‘terrorist’ is uttered just the once: during a news broadcast that sounds from a mobile phone in the cockpit where an impressively intense Joseph Gordon-Levitt tries desperately to maintain control of the aircraft. Whether a refrain from such nomenclature is a deliberate manoeuvre on the part of writers Patrick Vollrath and Senad Halilbasic is hard to say, but in doing so, it helps strip 7500 — referring to the pilot code for a hijacking — of any action-movie bells and whistles or deep politically-charged comment. Despite opening with Gandhi’s famous eye for an eye quote, Vollrath, in his feature-length directorial debut, instead seems concerned with honing in on the frantic immediacy of the situation rather than offer wider ruminations on a post-9/11 world — a decision that serves as both the film’s biggest strength and its greatest weakness.
Taking place predominantly in real time, 7500 follows Captain Michael Lutzmann (real life pilot-turned-actor, Carlo Kitzlinger) and American first officer Tobias Ellis (Gordon-Levitt) who are preparing for the short flight from Berlin to Paris. Early airport CCTV footage raise suspicions about a handful of individuals (recordings designed to show how anyone can look shady under the watchful eye of a camera), while narrative groundwork elsewhere quickly establishes the film’s emotional stakes: Gökce (Tezel), Tobias’ partner and mother to his 2-year-old son, is a stewardess on board.
Thereafter, the film’s entire vantage point is restricted to the confinements of the cockpit, where the only view of the passenger cabin comes courtesy of a singular security camera above the door. It’s a striking, skillful stylistic choice, one invoking a Hitchcockian claustrophobia and an effective absence of omniscience that ushers in a thriller refreshingly defunct of over-stuffed, overly-sentimental sub-plots. On the contrary, Vollrath and DoP Sebastian Thaler set up a taut, airborne drama that’s grounded in authenticity and immersion. As such, when the hijackers do strike, it comes with an intensity both swift and violent, made all the more impactful by the lack of a traditional, non-diegetic score.
It’s not long after, however, that 7500‘s technical prowess starts to outweigh its storytelling capabilities. In limiting the physical perspective of his film, Vollrath seems equally restrictive in engaging in any further, meaningful comment. As a result, the initial siege, while distressing, quickly loses its potency once the story threatens to tail off towards the all-too-familiar arc of the white american hero taking on the one-dimensional, foreign baddies (a feeling perpetuated by Tobias’s unwavering professionalism and, by extension, the good-guy demeanor of the leading man playing him). Thankfully, Vollrath imbues his narrative with just enough moral murkiness and subjects his central character to just enough ethical dilemma to ensure that what might seem an inevitable nosedive into such territory remains largely eschewed.
Ultimately, though, we’re often left questioning what the point to all of this is. Despite a handful of rather contrived, fairly conventional third-act musings — from coincidental common ground between attacker and hostage to the growing uncertainty of a teenage hijacker to a conveniently-timed phone call — Vollrath offers very little by way of intriguing, developed insight. Instead, 7500, while at once immersive and uncomfortable, feels altogether deficient, opting for slight, melodramatic baggage in place of bolder, weightier observation.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
George Nash is a freelance film journalist. Follow him on Twitter via @_Whatsthemotive for movie musings, puns and cereal chatter.
