Netflix has been sneaky with its new Christmas releases. Unless you’re an avid trailer watcher, you won’t suspect that a show like Black Doves or a movie like Carry-On would be your next holiday watch. It’s not often we get a Christmas action film — the most celebrated would be Die Hardof course — but Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry-On is here to bring some thrills this holiday season. Collet-Serra is used to directing fun, mid-budget action films, with credits like Non-Stop and The Commuter. You could even consider Carry-On as part of a trilogy whose settings involve methods of transportation. The director’s latest film, written by T.J. Fixman, sets the scene on one of the busiest travel days in one of the busiest airports: Christmas Eve at LAX. What could go wrong? Way more than a TSA agent would wish for.
The sound of Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town,” and a stop at a Christmas tree farm deceivingly suggest that this will be a holly jolly Christmas. A front for criminal activity, a man shrouded in shadow arrives to collect a “gift” wrapped up in the trunk of a BMW. However, this isn’t something to put under the tree for a loved one. Rather, it’s going to be used to end the lives of many people this holiday season — unless someone prevents this before it’s too late.
This seemingly impossible task is put upon Ethan (Taron Egerton), a TSA agent who just found out he’s expecting a baby with his girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson). With Nora working for an airline, it’s about to be a busy day at work for both of them. But Ethan can’t get the thought of being a father out of his mind. He’s nervous and uncertain about this upcoming chapter, especially when he isn’t satisfied with his life career-wise. He speaks of his failure to become a cop, with Nora encouraging him to try again. For now, though, he just wants a promotion and has to prove to his boss that he has initiative. He chooses the wrong day to prove that as his new position working the baggage scanner puts a target on his back.
Carry-On at times feels like a film based on the airport scene from Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoningbut instead of the Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell’s flirty wordplay and sly pickpocketing, it’s Jason Bateman’s cool and calculated criminal talking non-stop in Ethan’s ear. A man without a name, this traveler is calling the shots and doesn’t tolerate any nonsense. Any slight tricks from Ethan could mean a bullet in Nora’s head. He could be bluffing, but there’s distress in not knowing for certain, displayed perfectly on Egerton’s face. It exceeds in tension and remains fast-paced throughout as Ethan becomes a tool in a deadly plot, with the audience always remaining unsure about the eventual outcome.
Collet-Serra’s latest thriller may fall into the familiar trappings of thin characters, especially where the villain and his network are concerned, and VFX-heavy scenes — namely an over-the-top car crash scene with Danielle Deadwyler’s detective character in the passenger seat — may be hokey, but its focus is to perk us up during the holidays with some fun action and thrills. While the why of the film’s events is touched on so quickly with unimportance that it’s hard to care, this game of control is successfully gripping with the stakes rising at every minute.
Watching an everyman doing superhero-type things is always satisfying; Egerton plays this nice guy without any hint of his previous action stints in the Kingsman franchise, making it seem more real. What a person would do to save those they love is a potent theme that always results in a satisfying payoff, combined with pretty solid writing that keeps you guessing, Carry-On is an enjoyable holiday watch.
