'Fight or Flight' Review: An Ultimately Forgettable Mile-High Action
- Dan Bremner
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
By Dan Bremner - May 9, 2025
A mercenary is assigned a target on a flight. But when rival assassins board the plane, the assassin and target are forced to team up.
I had my eye on this when the trailer dropped and was definitely up for a fun and violent action film with shades of “Bullet Train on a plane”. I was pretty shocked to discover that this had been unceremoniously dumped on Sky Cinema in the UK months before its theatrical US release in May with absolutely no word about it. A bizarre reversal on the usual transatlantic delay, as the UK is usually months behind releases like this.
I must admit, while there is fun to be had with this mile-high concept B-Movie, I spent the whole time thinking I'd seen it all before. Opening with a brief montage of events much later in the film set to ironically used music before smash-cutting to how exactly we got there, it all more-or-less goes pretty how you would expect. There's no room here for surprises or anything to elevate this above the throw-away action-comedy the trailer promised, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there was still part of me hoping for a little more juice to make this at least a slight bit memorable. I can truly feel myself forgetting Fight or Flight as I'm writing, while struggling to even think of things worth mentioning.
It's a silly concept, and its wafer-thin plot only exists to move from violent confrontation to the next, barely justifying the over 90-minute runtime, which still feels like a slog at times. Stalling between gory fights with clunky exposition dumps and a pointless ground-level subplot. An assassin has to protect a target from several other assassins while on a flight, and it's exactly that, nothing more or nothing less.
The confined space of the action aboard this plane doesn't manage to excite the same way Wesley Snipes Passenger 57 did, or even manage to add any of the trashy genre intrigue or tension that the underrated Liam Neeson starring thriller Non-Stop brought to the table. Instead, it relies on a thinly-veiled rehashing of Bullet Train, but on an airplane, complete with wannabe Tarantino/Ritchie dialogue, colourful characters that come off more as annoying and well-choreographed action, which does pack a brutal punch.
I can certainly see why this went straight to streaming in most countries, as there is an inherent VOD cheapness to the production that feels right at home with several Lionsgate action film releases of the last few years (Was amazed to see Lionsgate had no part in this), although it is a step above a few of them like Expend4bles, Flight Risk or even The Killer's Game.
While suffering from questionable and distracting digital blood, the mean-spirited and bone-snapping violence does escalate to levels that keeps things watchable. An early on brawl in a VIP bathroom the size of a living room that ends with a brain-impaling kill is a standout, as is the gonzo “Toad Venom” inflicted finale involving swords, bullets, hatchets, roped instruments of death, kung-fu and even chainsaws in an all-out battle royale in the cabin. It's basically Mark Wahlberg’s fever dream of what would have happened had he been on that flight on 9/11. The visuals effects are iffy, but the stunt work is undeniably committed and kinetic as these dozens of assassins are slamming themselves all over the place or being thrown and locked into the luggage compartments.
The brightest spot outside of the action beats is easily in the casting of Josh Hartnett, who's comeback I'm enjoying seeing. Even if it's not the best film, he is fully-committed to his fuck-up half-drunk character being reluctantly thrown into this situation, handling the broad comedy nicely and delving into wide-eyed and drug-fuelled mania in the final stretch that has him going full Ash Williams by the end of it all. It's a shame he's not backed up by a strong cast at all, a mix of flight attendants and passengers who are obnoxiously over-the-top or just plain annoying with their personalities. Katee Sackhoff’s role is pure dead weight, just taking away from the skull-breaking chaos in the skies.
Fight or Flight has a fun concept, but the mile-high antics of eccentric assassins, an off-beat protagonist and comedic violence with witty dialogue has been done so much better. Josh Hartnett and a spectacularly silly and over the top finale are bright spots, but for the most part, it just feels like a cheap and lazy rehash of Bullet Train with a VOD budget. Instantly forgettable streaming fodder no one will remember existing. Fun in splashes, but ultimately forgettable.
Fight or Flight is out now in US cinemas & available on Sky in UK
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