Flightplan (2005)

Director:

Robert Schwentke

Writers (WGA):

Peter A. Dowling (written by) and
Billy Ray (written by)

Release Date:

23 September 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

If Someone Took Everything You Live For... How Far Would You Go To Get It Back?

Plot:

A claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.

Plot Keywords:

Casket | Apartment | Air Marshal | Home | Coffin

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Jodie Foster	...	Kyle Pratt
Peter Sarsgaard	...	Carson
Sean Bean	...	Captain Rich
Kate Beahan	...	Stephanie
Michael Irby	...	Obaid
Assaf Cohen	...	Ahmed
Erika Christensen	...	Fiona
Shane Edelman	...	Mr. Loud
Mary Gallagher	...	Mrs. Loud
Haley Ramm	...	Brittany Loud
Forrest Landis	...	Rhett Loud
Jana Kolesarova	...	Claudia
Brent Sexton	...	Elias
Marlene Lawston	...	Julia
Judith Scott	...	Estella

Also Known As:

Plan de vuelo (Argentina) (Venezuela) [es]
Flight plan (France) [fr]
Flightplan (Finland) [fi]
Flightplan - Mistero in volo (Italy) [it]
Flightplan - Ohne jede Spur (Germany) [de]
Ha-Tissa (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
High jinx at thirty thousand feet (Hong Kong: Cantonese title) (literal English title) [zh]
Plan de vol (Canada: French title) [fr]
Plan de vuelo: Desaparecida (Spain) [es]
Plan leta (Serbia) [sr]
Plano de Vôo (Brazil) [pt]
Red letenja (Croatia) [hr]
Shedio ptisis (Greece) [el]
Uçus plani (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and some intense plot material.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Arabic | Italian | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Taiwan:PG-12 | Finland:K-11 | Indonesia:Dewasa | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | Germany:12 (f) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Brazil:14 | Sweden:11 | Czech Republic:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Iceland:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41961) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | South Korea:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

The cartoon that is played on the monitor when Kyle wakes up is "Kenny the Shark" (2003).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Stephanie is handed the flashlight to check avionics, the lamp is above her hand. In the next shot, it is below her hand.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mortuary Director: [in German, subtitled] Would you like a moment of privacy before the casket is sealed?
Kyle: [hesitantly] Okay.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Game K N B: (2007-03-15)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Silent Poet

I have a cunning plan…

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This must be close to the plot synopsis:

Man: "You know we're always saying we could use 50 million dollars?

Woman: "Yes"

Man: "Well I have a cunning plan."

Woman: "What's that then?"

Man: "First of all we need to find an aeronautics engineer working in a foreign country, with a child, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the layout of a particular long-haul plane."

Woman: "Why's that?"

Man: "Well then, you see, we murder her spouse, in such a way as it looks like an accident."

Woman: "What for?"

Man (exasperated): "Well then of course, we bribe the mortuary assistant at the hospital into letting us place explosives inside the casket."

Woman: "But why?"

Man: "I'm coming to that. Then we wait until the woman decides to return the the U.S."

Woman: "But what if she doesn't?"

Man: "She just will, okay? So anyway, when she decides to return home we find out what flight she's on. Hopefully she is not only placed on the type of plane of which she has encyclopedic knowledge, and flying with the airline of which you're a flight attendant, but also on the same flight as her dead husband's casket. Are you following?"

Woman: "I think so."

Man:"Good, we're nearly there. Then all we need to do is falsify the checking-in information to remove all record of her daughter, make sure she gets on the plane half an hour before everybody else, ensure there is a row of empty seats behind her and get me on the flight, sitting nearby."

Woman: "And then?"

Man (laughing): "Now this the cunning part. She takes the empty seats, allowing her daughter to sit in the aisle seat, then when she goes to sleep, all I have to do is steal a food trolley, stuff the daughter into it and hide her in the hold. Oh, and did I mention that we must ensure that nobody on the entire plane sees the daughter?"

Woman: "Isn't this getting a little far fetched?"

Man (angry): "What do'you mean? It's a great plan? All I have to do then is remove the child's boarding pass from wherever the mother is keeping it without waking her, assist her search for the missing child in the guise of an Air Marshal, convince the captain that the woman is mad and that the child died with her father (through a forged note from the mortician), and wait for the mother to escape from my custody.

Woman:"Escape, why?"

Man: "Because the casket can only be unlocked by her, so once she's unlocked it I can set the timer on the explosives. From there we're home and dry. I merely have to recapture her, convince the captain that she's actually not mad but a hijacker who wants 50 million dollars and give the Captain our account number, asking him to ensure the money is paid straight in. Oh, Then we land, everybody gets off the plane, I shoot the mother and blow up the daughter and nobody is any the wiser. We walk away with a cool 50 million. Simple eh?"

Never before have I wasted two hours of my life on quite such egregious nonsense.