movie review for 7500

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt was probably attracted to “7500,” premiering on Amazon Prime today, as an acting exercise. How much can an actor convey in a very limited space, almost exclusively in close-up and with few of the tools of production like design, costume, even movement to assist? Gordon-Levitt takes “7500” as far as he can, but the film still stalls on the runway, unable to turn its limited perspective into something thrilling or insightful. In the end, it feels more like a cheap trick than a study in filmmaking restrictions or an actor's showcase. Worst of all, it’s always reminding the viewer of its construction, relying on shaky camerawork to produce tension but failing to do so, and almost defiant in its lack of actual characters.

After a brief prologue, "7500" never leaves the cockpit of a passenger plane. There is where we meet Tobias Ellis (Gordon-Levitt), the co-pilot on a routine flight out of Berlin that is suddenly and violently interrupted by a group of hijackers, shortly after take-off. In a tense sequence that kicks off the movie's action after a procedural first 15 minutes, at least three men rush the cockpit and one of them stabs the pilot before Tobias gets the better of him, knocking him out with a fire extinguisher. Tobias slams the door on the other two men and a war of wills begins. As the hijackers pound on the door (there’s so much pounding), Tobias radios to air traffic control and plots a course for Hanover, where they will land, refuel, and negotiate. And then the hijackers start bringing passengers to the cockpit door, executing them one at a time as they insist that Tobias opens the cockpit. Can he hold out while people are being killed, knowing that the whole plane could be taken down if he opens the door? And what about the fact that his girlfriend and the mother of his child happens to be a stewardess?

That last question is just about the only character development we get for Tobias. He has a kid and is in a relationship. And he’s an American on a German plane, which feels a little cheap narratively, a device to make him unable to understand some subtitled exchanges. Without spoiling anything, “7500,” which is the pilot’s code for a hijacking, becomes a two-hander between Tobias and a young Islamic extremist named Vedat ( Omid Memar ), who is clearly uncertain about his team’s intentions that day. We know just about that much about him, at least until a cheap heartstring-tugging phone call in the final act. Co-writer/director Patrick Vollrath ’s commitment to a nearly real-time narrative is admirable, but it makes the characters on-screen feel like pawns instead of people.

“7500” reminds one that there’s a fine line between lean and thin. Gordon-Levitt does his best to work with what’s he been given, but it’s a surprisingly bland choice from an actor who’s been generally absent for a few years now (it’s his first film since 2016’s “ Snowden ”). Maybe after so much time off, he wanted a challenge, something to test his skill set before roles in films like Aaron Sorkin's “The Trial of the Chicago 7” which arrives later this year (or it could end up being next, of course). Sadly, in the scope of what I still expect and hope will be a long career, this layover won’t be remembered.

Available on Amazon Prime today, 6/18.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

7500 (2020)

Rated R for violence/terror and language.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias Ellis

Omid Memar as Vedat

Aylin Tezel as Gökce

Aurélie Thépaut as Nathalie

Patrick Vollrath
Senad Halilbasic

Cinematographer

Sebastian Thaler
Hansjörg Weißbrich

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7500 Reviews

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s superlative performance in the film lifts a middling story and saves it from crashing upon impact.

Full Review | Jan 12, 2024

7500 needs an impressive Joseph Gordon-Levitt to keep its cruising altitude, but it still goes through too much turbulence.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 24, 2023

Bumpy landing aside, 7500 is a taut, 90 minute thrill ride and welcome return for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2022

It all makes for a taut, immersive thriller that may be simple in concept but is crafty in its execution.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

It's efficiently realized and shot in something approaching real-time, and thanks in part to the screen presence of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it's more engaging than the simplistic story might otherwise allow.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 18, 2022

Gordon-Levitt's fundamental goodness and 7500's tight focus makes for a quietly compelling experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 21, 2021

A compelling performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and panic-attack inducing tension which keeps the viewer's adrenaline racing.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 5, 2021

7500 does not have anything substantial to say. But as a piece of pure entertainment, it is supremely effective.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 9, 2021

This is a film that harkens back to our pre-pandemic fears of flying. That may not be what any of us truly needs right now, but it does so effectively, nonetheless.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 28, 2021

7500 is a compelling thriller that's all the more powerful for how true to life it actually feels.

Full Review | Feb 8, 2021

Within its basic parameters... it's tautly effective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 22, 2020

A thriller that causes me some tension when it starts to take off, but in the middle of the flight the narrative loses control until it remains like a fuselage so empty that not even the role of Joseph Gordon-Levitt can rescue it. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 22, 2020

The filmmaking is glossy and slick enough to ensure that the audience's pulses keep racing, right up until the final moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2020

I was impressed that the new film 7500, a thriller about a hijacking, took the time to show us the world through two perspectives instead of one.

Full Review | Aug 17, 2020

When it comes to thrillers set in a single location, 7500 manages to rank among the best examples. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 13, 2020

Nothing like a simple-one-scenery-movie to keep you invested for 90+ minutes. Director Patrick Vollrath's tour de force brings Joseph Gordon-Levitt A game into a suspense flick filled with unexpected humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 6, 2020

Great performances and interesting direction are hampered by falling back on tired stereotypes that we should be past.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 31, 2020

While not without some flaws, 7500 is still a nail-biter of a film, providing a far more cerebral take on the plane hijacking thriller than one has come to expect.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2020

[A] 'hijacked plane' movie that is utterly formulaic and predictable, but the film does such a terrific job at maintaining a suspenseful edge that it's somewhat easy to forgive the film's obvious flaws.

Full Review | Jul 22, 2020

Gordon-Levitt is solid and the filmmakers strive for realism over melodrama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2020

Review: 7500 Is A Thrilling Hijacking Drama

Over the years, there have been numerous films about planes and hijacking. Most of them focus on the heroism of a ‘one-man army’ sort of personality, who is usually an ex-soldier or has one or other forms of training to tackle the situation. They also have antagonists who are just the worst guys who need to be defeated at all costs. There is a clear line demarcating the good from the bad, and the audience knows exactly what to feel about whom.

These movies can be rather fun to watch because of their action and thrill, but they are also very distant from reality. If, unfortunately, you ever find yourself in a situation such as this, you would know better than to hope for a Bruce Willis sort of character to save the day, and this is what Patrick Vollrath’s ‘7500’ focuses on. With minimal characters, it is set inside a box that only seems to get smaller as the time passes by, and that’s what makes it such a compelling watch.

7500 Movie Plot

It is a usual day at work for Tobias. He is to serve as a co-pilot to Michael, as they fly the plane from Berlin to Paris with a lot of passengers on board. Tobias also has his girlfriend serving as a flight attendant on the plane. Everything is normal and routine as they take off. We stay with Michael and Tobias inside the cockpit, so we remain as unaware of the chain of events happening outside as them. Things take a bloody turn when three people use a flight attendant to force their way inside the cockpit. It turns out that the plane has been hijacked. When Michael is wounded, it becomes Tobias’s responsibility to land the plane safely. The only thing he has to do is not to open the door to the cockpit under any circumstances.

7500 Movie Review

‘7500’ comes and goes in waves. It is immensely nail-biting at times, a feeling that it doesn’t forget to compensate with comparatively relaxed moments that allow us to breathe easy for a while. The film stays consistent in this ebb and flow that works in its favor as the audience only grows more anxious after every scene. What comes next? You are left guessing on every turn and the fact that the film packs so much in such a small window of time is a testament of just how great it is.

It also makes wise use of the small space in which most of its action takes place and this is where Vollrath’s direction shows its prowess. The camera is in continuous motion and it is always close to the protagonist who is confined in the cockpit, which also keeps the audience in these cramped quarters. There is just one door out of there, and Vollrath emphasizes on the claustrophobia by continuous beatings at the door, which not only unnerves the protagonist but also the audience.

‘7500’ could have been a disaster. It would have been something else in the hands of a lesser director and it would have been an absolute mess if it wasn’t for its lead actor. Joseph Gordon-Levitt channels his everyman persona to make us immediately like Tobias and appreciate him all the more for his heroism in the face of unimaginable adversity. He never lets go of the emotions of his character and effectively communicates the weight of his role to the audience.

Another great thing about the movie is how it doesn’t forget to tend to its villains. The terrorists mostly remain on the other side of the door, just like the passengers. The assailants as well as the victims are kept at a distance from the audience, so we don’t know them enough to judge them for more than what appears to us. Vollrath keeps that veil between us, which reminds us of our TV sets. Isn’t that how we generally see the acts of terrorism play out?

The writer-director uses this keen sense of direction to show the audience that intimate knowledge of something or someone can lead to some shift in your perspective. This is how he manages to keep it thrilling while also infusing it with depth and emotion. Sounds are also used to enhance these feelings and give them an added layer which only lures the audience further in.

Despite all this, the film does slack here and there. The contrast between the sudden moments of excitement and the pauses where it slows down a bit gets bigger as the time passes and you feel the grip loosening. If you can look past this minor flaw or not encounter it at all, the film proves to be a roller-coaster ride.

Rating: 3.5/5

Read More: Best Airplane Hijack Movies of All Time

‘7500’ Review: Flight-Hijacking Thriller Quickly Loses Altitude

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

You’re Joseph Gordon-Levitt and you’re playing the co-pilot on a hijacked flight from Berlin to Paris. The wounded pilot is barely conscious. There’s an Islamist terrorist inside the cockpit with you, and his weapon is a shard of glass wrapped in duct tape. Another two are outside, banging on the door to gain entrance — otherwise they’ll start killing the 85 passengers and crew. One of the flight attendants is your girlfriend and mother of your child; they’ve got her in a chokehold. But you can’t open the door. What do you do?

That’s the premise behind 7500 ( available on Amazon Prime ), an effectively claustrophobic but disappointingly formulaic pulse-pounder that wants to tie your stomach in knots for 90 relentless minutes. This feature debut from German director and co-writer Patrick Vollrath, whose 2016 short Everything Will Be Okay was nominated for an Oscar, is a virtuosic feat that only loses steam in the final third when it comes down with real-world credibility problems. It doesn’t help that the villains are demonized Muslims, and such casual ethnic stereotyping is a sore point in a script by Vollrath and Senad Halilbasic that can’t be bothered with providing social and political context, aside from a single reference to Muslim children being killed by Western bombs.

Fortunately, the reliably first-rate Gordon-Levitt is just the American everyman to provide 7500 with the rooting interest and besieged humanity it needs. The actor is never off camera as Tobias Ellis, the first officer who preps for takeoff with German captain Michael Lutzmann, ably embodied by former pilot Carlo Kitzlinger. Only a pop-in from flight attendant Gökçe (Aylin Tezel) indicates that Tobias has a personal thing going with this woman, who shares German-Turkish roots with the attackers. She and Tobias also share a two-year-old son, and she’s fretting that they just missed out on enrolling him in a school with at least a few German students. Tobias offers a calming, “This isn’t a disaster.” But something else is. And the movie rushes to fill us in.

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It seems a few passengers have checked bags but haven’t boarded. The Captain says he won’t wait. He doesn’t have to. As if on cue, three hijackers try to barge into the cockpit. Only one, the leader named Kenan (Muruthan Muslu), succeeds. In a few split seconds, Kenan manages to deal the captain a lethal blow and stab Tobias in the arm. The pilot security camera shows the other two, played by Omid Memar and Passar Hariky, banging loudly on the cockpit door and making threats. Is that Gökçe they’re using as bait? Of course. Vollrath has clearly made a close study of United 93, in which director Paul Greengrass superbly re-enacted the 9-11 hijackjing of a plane that terrorists attempted to fly into the D.C. Capitol building.

Let’s pause here a moment to categorically state that 7500 is nowhere near the master class that Greengrass shaped from those real events. The movie actually cheapens the passenger uprising on United 93 by having Tobias get on mic to beg those on board to save Gökçe by overcoming the terrorists. “You can beat them,” he pleads. “They have only glass.”

With invaluable tech support from cinematographer Sebastian Thaler and editor Hansjörg Weissbrich, Vollrath traps us into the hothouse horror of flying in a tin can at 30,000 feet, as Tobias fights (in real time) for control of the plane to stick an emergency landing in Hanover. The film confines itself to the cockpit, and what could have been a drawback becomes the thriller’s strength. In seeing and hearing only what Tobias sees and hears, 7500 holds us in its grip. That is, until the cockpit is breached by Vedat (Omid Memar), Kenan’s 18-year-old accomplice on a suicide mission he doesn’t fully understand. The two men engage in a discussion of their lives as human beings instead of pawns in a political game — but even they can’t overcome the shallow screenwriting and the eyerolling moment when Vedat takes a call from his mother. Have the filmmakers no shame? Your chances for enjoying this will depend on giving up a search for depth and just strapping in for a B-movie hell ride.

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Den of Geek

7500 Review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Takes on Hijackers in Amazon Prime’s Latest Thriller

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a pilot attacked mid-flight in 7500, but does the movie successfully land?

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A pilot must defend the cockpit when terrorists attack during a flight from Berlin to Paris in 7500 , the feature debut from German director Patrick Vollrath, which arrives on Amazon Prime this week. It’s a German, Austrian, and American co-production starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with parts in English and others in Arabic, Turkish, and German. That makes this a bit of a strange beast to begin with but add in that it’s told in real time, mostly shot on handheld and almost entirely in one location with no score and you’ve got a film that at its best is a tense experimental thriller and at worst a cliched disaster movie. One does not cancel out the other but it’s very much worth a watch.

Tobias Ellis (Gordon-Levitt) is a US pilot living in Germany with his Turkish girlfriend, who works as a stewardess. They are both flying a standard passenger jet from Berlin to Paris when a group of terrorists tries to storm the cockpit. One gets in before Tobias manages to get the door shut, while others are stuck in the cabin of the plane with the passengers and cabin crew trying to control the situation.

With highly naturalistic and understated performances from Gordon-Levitt and Carlo Kitzlinger as the plane’s captain, Michael, the start of 7500 leans heavily into realism. Opening with CCTV footage of Berlin airport with only diegetic sound, the action moves into the cockpit where Tobias and Michael carry out standard checks, wait for errant passengers, and indulge in a bit of small talk. That’s where we spend the rest of the film’s 92 minute runtime while contact with the rest of the plane is via camera or phone.

7500 – or the first half at least – is a fascinating genre mix. At times so realistic as to feel uncomfortable – like United 93 only fictional entertainment – at others so intensely claustrophobic it feels like a shark movie in the vein of 47 Meters Down where our hero is trapped in a cage at the bottom of the ocean with sharks constantly battering the door, there’s something fresh, vital, and exciting here. Pilot Tobias is no buff one-man-army, he doesn’t make stupid choices and what’s at stake feels real and important, posing ethical dilemmas that don’t feel cheap.

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Sadly the second half of the film doesn’t fare so well as Tobias attempts to negotiate with 18-year-old terrorist Vedat (Omid Memar). Quiet precision and pressure cooker tension are replaced by implausible scenarios, noisy histrionics, and B-movie sensibilities. While the first half might have felt uncomfortably close to a 9/11 scenario, by the end that’s completely out the window.

It’s not Memar’s fault, who is sympathetic as the young German Muslim, but more that Vollrath’s script veers away from realism toward sensationalism, which strangely feels far less sensational. A final act which sees the two go head to head actually begins to drag.

7500 is the emergency code for a plane hijacking – a fact that not a lot of people know, meaning it’s hardly an easy sell for a movie that’s far from perfect but shouldn’t be overlooked. With this and The Vast Of Night , Amazon Prime is giving a great forum to new directors with distinctive styles during a time when virtually no movies are being released. If 7500 stumbles in the second half that doesn’t detract from the exciting new voice on display here, nor the sterling work of Gordon-Levitt who we haven’t seen enough from recently.

If it’s a three star movie then, it’s a four star first half with a two star end – not a mediocre film but one that wasn’t quite able to sustain the promise it held. But the promise of glory which honorably fails is surely far better than a film that never shot for the moon in the first place.

An ambitious and unusual thriller that doesn’t quite land, 7500 is no disaster, more it’s an Icarus project that flew a bit too close to the sun.

7500 is available on Amazon Prime from 18 June.

Rosie Fletcher

Rosie Fletcher is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Den Of Geek. She’s been an entertainment journalist for more than 15 years previously working at DVD & Blu-ray Review, Digital…

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‘7500’: Film Review

Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings reassuring resolve to Patrick Vollrath's skillful, solemn, slightly hollow spin on an old-school airborne disaster movie.

By Guy Lodge

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Ever since 9/11 changed the way we approach air travel, it’s been harder to make airplane-based thrillers in the soapy-silly trash tradition of “Airport” or “Executive Decision”: The panic of being under siege at 30,000 feet no longer feels like such ripe entertainment fodder with the image of two Boeing 767s hitting the Twin Towers still vivid in our collective consciousness. Paul Greengrass’ deliberately grueling docudrama “United 93,” of course, pointed a solemn new way for the genre, though that had historical veracity and import on its side. German director Patrick Vollrath’s short, stomach-tightening debut feature “ 7500 ” follows in its flight path, albeit with a wholly fictional scenario — told from the perspective of the junior co-pilot ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) whose simple Berlin-to-Paris assignment is violently disrupted by Islamist hijackers.

For its first half, “7500” is briskly effective in a cold-sweat sort of way, carrying its audience from a smooth takeoff to the first signs of disturbance to swiftly cranked all-out terror with the kind of nervy efficiency you can admire without exactly taking pleasure in it. In more ways than one, however, Vollrath’s technically adroit film has trouble sticking the landing. As it narrows the onboard crisis to a quivering two-man face-off between pilot and terrorist in the cockpit — from the cramped confines of which, in the director’s most formally striking decision, the on-screen action never strays — sentimental contrivance trickles into the steel-blue vérité of proceedings, leaving the film with a visceral mission to complete but not an awful lot to say.

Inessential in itself, this is nonetheless an auspicious calling card for Vollrath, confirming the slick promise of his Oscar-nominated 2015 short “Everything Will Be Okay” and showcasing the chops to steer larger genre projects. For Gordon-Levitt, meanwhile, it’s a surprising swerve into mid-level European cinema that he carries off, well, if not exactly without breaking a sweat, at least with charismatic assurance. Well-cast in a role that calls on his compact physicality and good-guy reserve, he’ll draw a wider range of viewers to “7500” (no relation to Takashi Shimizu’s cheesy 2014 chiller “Flight 7500,” so maybe the title could use a tweak) than it might otherwise have dreamed of, though the film is likely to find much of its audience via smaller screens. In-flight ones, not so much.

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An eerie opening sequence, soundtracked only to an ambient industrial hum, immediately sets viewers on the alert, as it alternates between multiple security monitors in a Berlin airport — grazing over all the eventual attackers, it turns out, though the point is that pretty much anyone can look murkily suspicious in grainy CCTV video. As Paris-bound passengers board the small budget aircraft manned by trusty German captain Michael (real life pilot-turned-actor Carlo Kitzlinger) and his American deputy Tobias (Gordon-Levitt), we’re teased us with a false-alarm crisis — it seems two passengers have checked in baggage but not boarded — but all is otherwise calm. Tobias’ German-Turkish girlfriend Gökçe (Aylin Tezel), a stewardess on the same flight, is fretting over a domestic matter involving their young son, though he placates her: “This isn’t a disaster,” he says.

Needless to say, Vollrath’s script does not foreshadow lightly. Minutes after takeoff, three Muslim extremists attempt to storm the cockpit, their leader Kenan (Muruthan Muslu) managing to enter before the security door is successfully shut. Michael is critically injured; from behind the door come further grisly sounds of struggle, though Tobias’ view is limited to the high, compressed angle of another single security camera. Vollrath, with the sharp aid of d.p. Sebastian Thaler and editor Hansjörg Weissbrich, deftly exploits the spatial limitations and blind spots of the sealed-off cockpit for maximum claustrophobic impact — as Tobias essentially has to work on his own to restrain Kenan, retain control of the plane and engineer an emergency landing in Hanover, all while constant, ominous thudding against the door signals the mounting, violent chaos behind him.

Once anxious 18-year-old accomplice Vedat (Omid Memar) also breaks into the cockpit, however, “7500” loses tension as well as altitude. It’s altogether too obvious how the dynamic between man and scared, skittish boy will play out, and by the time Vollrath’s script falls back on clichés familiar from countless previous hostage thrillers — the discovery of homely common ground, an ironically timed phone call from a loved one — the film slips out of taut, nightmarish realism and into less credible melodramatic territory.

Gordon-Levitt and Memar nonetheless play it for all the emotional agony it’s worth; their performances, together with the economical expertise of the film’s construction, keep “7500” cruising some way above B-movie level. Yet as the film reaches its muted, blunt-edged conclusion, it’s hard to say what we’ve really gained from 90 minutes in its uncomfortable company: Any political or cultural insights into 21st-century terrorism are thin on the ground, while none of the characters is terribly interesting beyond the dire immediacy of their circumstances. Well-crafted and mostly immersive as experiential cinema, “7500” has enough of a post-9/11, post-“United 93” conscience that we aren’t entirely expected to enjoy the ride.

Reviewed at Locarno Film Festival (Piazza Grande), Aug. 8, 2019. Running time: 92 MIN.

Production: (Germany) A FilmNation Entertainment, Endeavor Content presentation of an Augenschein Filmproduktion production in co-production with Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion, Südwestrundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Arte. (International sales: FilmNation, New York.) Producers: Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo. Executive producers: Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lindsay Williams. Co-producers: Alexander Glehr, Franz Novotny.
Crew: Director: Patrick Vollrath. Screenplay: Vollrath, Senad Halilbasic. Camera (color, widescreen): Sebastian Thaler. Editor: Hansjörg Weissbrich.
With: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Omid Memar, Aylin Tezel, Carlo Kitzlinger, Murathan Muslu, Paul Wollin. (English, German, Turkish, Arabic dialogue)

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In Theaters

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias Ellis; Omid Memar as Vedat; Murathan Muslu as Kinan; Passar Hariky as Kalkan; Paul Wollin as Daniel; Aylin Tezel as Gökce; Aurélie Thépaut as Nathalie; Carlo Kitzlinger as Michael Lutzmann

Home Release Date

June 19, 2020
Patrick Vollrath

Distributor

Amazon Studios

Movie Review

“We have a 7-5-0-0.”

Those are decidedly not the words an air-traffic controller wants to hear from an airline pilot. Why? Because that means the plane is being hijacked.

Copilots Tobias and Michael manage to stop the intruders from taking control of the cockpit, but not before they’re both injured. And after Michael succumbs to his injuries, it falls to Tobias to land the plane and get the passengers to safety.

The only problem is, the hijackers are threatening the hostages in the main cabin (one of whom is Tobias’ girlfriend, Gökce). But Tobias knows the protocol: Don’t open the door under any circumstances.

“I didn’t open the door. The hostage is dead,” he later updates the air-traffic controller.

Nevertheless, Tobias is determined to win this battle. He tries reasoning with the hijackers. He rallies the passengers to overpower their assailants. He ties up one of the assailants in the cockpit and uses him as leverage against the others. He follows protocol.

But when Gökce’s life is threatened, will Tobias continue to resist the hijackers’ demands, or will he put the lives of everyone on board at risk to save her?

Positive Elements

Having the courage to do the right thing isn’t easy, but Tobias does it anyway—even at great potential cost to him. Even when the hijackers put a knife to Gökce’s and another passenger’s throats, for instance, he refuses to give in to their demands. And despite the stress of the situation (not to mention his own injuries), Tobias largely holds it all together.

Tobias remains calm when speaking to the passengers, administers CPR and first aid, and even tries to sympathize with the hijackers—particularly a young man named Vedat, whom he suspects doesn’t actually want to hurt anyone. Tobias’ intuition about Vedat, and his kindness toward him, proves to be critically important before everything is said and done. Meanwhile, the other passengers are also inspired by Tobias, and they work together to overpower their assailants.

[Spoiler Warning] After the plane lands and the passengers are whisked away to safety, Tobias continues to appeal to Vedat, encouraging him to surrender. Though he’s conflicted, it seems that Vedat regrets his participation in the hijacking.

Spiritual Elements

We learn that the hijackers are Muslim (a plot point some might negatively view as reinforcing an ethnic stereotype) and that they are planning to crash the plane to avenge the deaths of other Muslims who have been killed by Westerners. One of these men insists that it is the will of Allah and asks his fellow hijacker to pray with him. A woman says that she is Muslim when they threaten her life; but it is unclear if she is telling the truth, and the hijackers don’t believe her.

Sexual Content

A couple kisses. We learn that Tobias and his girlfriend have a son together.

Violent Content

Men armed with shivs made of broken glass and duct tape attack the cockpit when a flight attendant opens the door. Some of the attackers stab her, Tobias and Michael repeatedly (and fatally for two of them), while others usher the passengers to the back of the plane.

Two people have their throats slit by the hijackers, and we later see their corpses on a camera monitor in the cockpit. A man is stabbed in the neck with a shiv. Someone is shot in the shoulder by police.

Passengers attack the hijackers, and we see those passengers tackling the men to the ground while attempting to disarm them. Someone gets knocked unconscious with a fire hydrant. Other people are kicked repeatedly in their heads until they pass out. Tobias is body-slammed by one of the hijackers; we see later that he has a heavily bleeding head injury.

The plane nearly crashes twice before Tobias is able to correct it, further frightening the passengers. Tobias purposely makes the plane swerve in an attempt to make the hijackers lose their footing. He also threatens to kill one of the hijackers trapped in the cockpit with him.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear the f-word 10 times and see it in subtitles another three. The s-word is heard five times and seen in subtitles seven more. The c-word and “d–n” are both seen in subtitles once. God’s name is misused once as well.

Drug and Alcohol Content

A man buys wine in an airport store.

Other Negative Elements

The passengers and crew are, obviously, terrified by the hijackers. Several people sob and beg for their lives. One woman tries to gain sympathy by repeatedly stating that she has a young son who needs her.

A man urinates (though we don’t see anything).

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

That’s the opening line of this film, and this bit of proverbial wisdom definitely motivates the hijackers. As for Tobias, however, he chooses a more redemptive response

Tobias has multiple opportunities to take an eye for an eye—or rather a life for a life. But rather than seize these chances, he repeatedly opts for a more peaceful approach. He tries reasoning with the plane’s assailants and appealing to their “better” natures. And even when his girlfriend is facing her death, she reassures Tobias that everything will be OK and encourages him to keep doing the right thing.

That said, 7500 is still incredibly violent. Blood starts flowing from the moment the hijackers make their move. People are stabbed, beaten up and killed. And even though about half of the violence is seen through a small security camera in the cockpit, Tobias has to turn it off multiple times just to keep his cool.

Language is also an issue here. In addition to hearing profanities multiple times, we also see them in subtitles since the hijackers speak a mixture of German and Arabic.

Ever since the events of September 11, 2001, airlines have exercised incredible vigilance to prevent similar tragedies. But the fact that this film shows the assailants going through security checks and purchasing the items needed for makeshift shivs all without raising suspicion makes it even feel pretty unnerving, due in large part to the ease with which they nearly pull off their plot.

Ultimately, Tobias’ actions save the day (for survivors, at least) in this high-altitude thriller. But for anyone who might be triggered by the specter of terrorists easily taking over a plane, 7500 is a chilling story indeed.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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If you've studied philosophy (and/or watched The Good Place ), you're probably familiar with the classic ethical dilemma known as the Trolley Problem. German director Patrick Vollrath's feature debut, 7500 , is more or less a variation on the same concept presented in the form of a low-budget thriller where nearly all the action is constricted to the cockpit of a commercial airplane. At the center of everything is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a talented multi-hyphenate who wrings as much emotion as anyone could hope to squeeze out of such a minimalistic premise. But despite the clever setup for this (almost) single-setting B-movie, some half-baked plotting and unfortunate stereotyping keep 7500 grounded.

Gordon-Levitt stars as Tobias Ellis, an American co-pilot embarking on a routine flight from Berlin to Paris when, shortly after takeoff, terrorists wielding makeshift weapons storm the cockpit, seriously wounding the plane's captain (Carlo Kitzlinger) and injuring Tobias before he stops them and contacts ground control to plan an emergency landing. When the terrorists threaten to begin murdering passengers, Tobias is faced with 7500 's version of the Trolley Problem: keep the cockpit locked and land the plane before too many people are killed, or let the attackers in and risk them all dying. And if that wasn't enough, one of the stewardesses who's being held hostage (Aylin Tezel) is Tobias' girlfriend and mother of their two-year old child.

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The first half of 7500 (which Vollrath also scripted) starts off strong, using security camera footage from the entrance and security checkpoints in the Berlin airport (combined with some unsettling, low-rumbling silence) to generate suspense and establish a pseudo-documentary aesthetic for the film at large. Vollrath wisely allows the action to play out in real-time from there, first by visually mapping out the interior of the plane's cockpit (lingering ominously on the feed from the security camera in the hall nearby, as effective foreshadowing) as Tobias and his co-workers run through their pre-flight checklist. Sebastian Thaler's claustrophobic and constrictive cinematography captures the feeling of being stuck in a cramped aircraft in these moments, in many of the same ways Damien Chazelle's First Man depicted the discomfort and potentially treacherous nature of early space travel.

Although we only get a few minutes with Tobias and the others before all hell breaks loose after takeoff, it's enough to make them feel like real people just doing their job (be they joking around or, in the case of Tobias and his girlfriend, discussing their plans for the future), and make you concerned about their well-being later on. Gordon-Levitt is especially compelling as the humble everyman forced to make horrifying decisions while barely having space to even begin considering the life-shattering consequences, and he gets a fair amount of mileage out of the many scenes where Tobias is struggling to keep his emotions in-check and safely land the plane, all while terrorists are literally knocking at his door.

By the time 7500 enters its second half, though, the story devolves from a tense quandary into a series of obvious setups/payoffs and cliches, losing much of its urgency and momentum in the process (even for a movie that runs under ninety minutes, minus credits). This is also where the regrettable decision to make the villains Arabic/Muslim stereotypes fully rears its head; since the film has limited interest in being a sociopolitical allegory, this comes off as casual ethnic profiling and lazy shorthand for why the antagonists are attacking the plane in the first place. 7500 half-attempts to humanize the youngest of the terrorists, Vedat (Omid Memar), by showing how uncertain he is about what they're doing, but even then it feels more like a way of filling out the plot and less a sincere effort to get viewers to empathize with the character or give him depth the way a similarly realistic thriller like Captain Phillips fleshes out its antagonists.

There's something to be said for the way 7500 forgoes the typical grandstanding often found in the Hollywood variations on this type of B-movie in favor of more real-world heroism and a story highlighting just how terrifying it would be to actually have people's lives in your hands. But while it might not be as overly melodramatic or blatantly racist as similar U.S. films in the past, it's still drawing from many of the same regressive conventions and becomes increasingly tired, the further along it goes. Perhaps if 7500 had gone deeper with its political observations and subtext, it might've fully worked as the stripped-down, yet thought-provoking, thrill ride it wants to be. In lieu of that, it makes for an occasionally intense experience, but a bumpy flight on the whole.

NEXT: Read Screen Rant's Mr. Jones Review

7500 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. It is 92 minutes long and is rated R for violence/terror and language.

Our Rating:

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7500 Review

19 Jun 2020

If ever there were a film for these lockdown days, it is 7500 . Contained almost entirely within the confines of the cockpit of a German Airbus airliner on its way to Paris from Berlin, Patrick Vollrath’s debut feature — his tense short Everything Will Be Okay was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016 — is a tight, sweaty, claustrophobic affair that takes the notion of a co-pilot trying to deal with terrorists wresting control of the plane and plays it lean and mean — no cutting away to concerned air traffic control, rescue operations or worried families. Anchored by a dialled-down, naturalistic performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt , 7500 , in many ways, is the anti United 93 — whereas Paul Greengrass mines complexities from its broad overview of a hostage situation, Vollrath keeps the focus small and tight. It falters slightly in its third act, but for the most part ratchets up the tension and excitement with skill and credibility.

Following eerie silent images of the attackers idling at the airport as seen through CCTV, going through security, buying booze at Duty Free (the glass will come in handy) and waiting separately at the gate, DP Sebastian Thaler’s camera enters the cockpit and doesn’t leave. There’s low-key pilot-y business — discussion of the weight of the plane, bemoaning late passengers — as we meet the German captain Michael (Carlo Kitzlinger, a real-life pilot-turned-actor) and First Officer Tobias Ellis (Gordon-Levitt), an American involved with half German-half Turkish flight attendant Gökce (Aylin Tezel), who is also on the flight (they keep their relationship on the lowdown). For 20 minutes or so, it is convincing if unremarkable stuff, until the terrorists attempt to rush the cockpit as the pilots have food delivered (the title, while it might sound like it relates to an impossibly high altitude, actually refers to pilot code for terrorist takeover).

Vollrath makes effective use of the single-angled video camera stationed above the cockpit door.

What makes 7500 compelling is the thrill of What Happens Next. Vollrath makes effective use of the single-angled video camera stationed above the cockpit door that gives the pilots (and us) a narrow view of what is going on outside. Equally nerve-shredding is the repetitive banging on the cockpit door that, in lieu of no music in the entire film, provides a weird rhythmic back beat. As the battle of wills continues, major deaths, hostage revolts (heard but not seen) and lack of fuel concerns all play a part, as the filmmaker expertly mines the limited means for all they are worth. The sparse but naturalistic lighting enhances the drama, turning the cockpit into a crucible of claustrophobia.

Yet, in the final third, as the film develops into a two-hander, Vollrath slightly falters, as the intensity slackens and the flight veers into more melodramatic air space. More interested in plot machinations and piling on the pressure, the film’s screenplay doesn’t work hard to round out its terrorists — unhinged Daniel (Paul Wollin), muscular Kenan (Murathan Muslu) and sensitive teenager Vedat (Omid Memar) — giving them the simplest of motivations but little in the way of depth and nuance. The film opens with Gandhi’s maxim, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind,” and, in its portrayal of terrorists’ motivations and mindsets, 7500 doesn’t have much more to say than that.

Still, alongside Vollrath’s technical ingenuity (expect him to be hired for a Liam Neeson thriller some time soon), the film’s other great asset is Gordon-Levitt. Striking a neat balance between professional stoicism and human vulnerability, he manages to underplay both characteristics while still delivering on movie-star charisma. He keeps the movie grounded in reality, whatever the turbulence.

Movies | 19 06 2020

7500 Review: Hijacking Thriller Evokes Memories of 9/11

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is superb in the German hijacking thriller 7500, the feature debut from director Patrick Vollrath.

7500 is a harrowing thriller that evokes visceral memories of September 11, 2001. Islamic terrorists hijack a German airplane bound for Paris. The entire film takes place inside the cockpit in real time. There is no soundtrack or accompanying score. The savagery of the situation drives gripping tension until a somewhat deflating third act. It feels anticlimactic, but is handled with a thoughtful approach.

7500 opens late night at the Berlin airport. American first officer Tobias Ellis ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) preps a passenger plane for takeoff. He gets a quick kiss from Gökce (Aylin Tezel), his long term Turkish girlfriend and one of the flight attendants. Tobias is then joined by Captain Michael Lutzmann (Carlo Kitzlinger). They banter briefly before taking off into the dark, rainy sky. The plane hits weather turbulence before settling at flying altitude.

The captain and co-pilot see the first class attendant bring their meal on the security monitor. When they open the door, several men tackle the stunned attendant. A wild melee ensues before Tobias succeeds in locking the door. He and the captain are both wounded. As Tobias radios code 7500 for aircraft hijacking , the terrorists smash repeatedly into the cockpit door. It cannot be breached. Tobias watches the monitor in horror. They've brought a passenger to the cockpit. He will be executed unless Tobias opens the door.

Writer/director Patrick Vollrath shines in his feature debut. He delivers a taut film with zero excess fat. The story is straightforward and reactionary. Vollrath creates a volatile, claustrophobic atmosphere. The action in the cockpit is brutal in such a tight space. The same methodology takes place outside the door. Only the immediate area is visible. You can infer what is happening on the rest of the plane. Vollrath uses slick editing to create a frightening scenario.

Tobias knows the plane can be used as a weapon. He must protect the cockpit at all costs, even if that means sacrificing passengers. The character is forced to make gut-wrenching life and death decisions in the moment. The role is also physically limited. Tobias is primarily seated. He can barely stand up in the cockpit. The actual flying of the plane is never taken for granted, especially with an injured protagonist. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is extraordinary in his performance. He runs the gamut of emotional distress and resolve.

7500 does not have a Hollywood blockbuster ending. The finale is deliberative and realistic. Vollrath's terrorists have a jihadist agenda, but are not uniform in their adherence to it. This allows for a reckoning between the lead characters. There is no money shot action scene or exclamatory dialogue. The fever pitch of the climax slows considerably for this resolve.

7500 is well made and acted, but will be disturbing to some. Patrick Vollrath is not salacious or gratuitous with the material. But I did struggle to keep my emotions in check. The 9/11 style plot and hijacking scenes are difficult to watch. 7500 is produced by Augenschein Filmproduktion and Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion GmbH. It will be available to stream June 18th on Prime Video from Amazon Studios .

clock This article was published more than 3 years ago

Joseph Gordon-Levitt delivers a commanding performance in taut hijack drama

As the co-pilot of a hijacked commercial airliner dealing with an injured arm and moral dilemmas after his captain (Carlo Kitzlinger) is killed, Joseph Gordon-Levitt delivers a commanding performance in “7500,” a lean, admirably tense thriller that, over the course of a nail-biting hour and a half, takes place almost entirely behind the locked door of the cockpit. But although he’s alone in attempting to guide the plane to an emergency landing while dealing with threats to hostages, the actor is joined in piloting the film to its satisfying, if somber, conclusion by a young performer you’ve likely never heard of: Omid Memar, playing a frightened, ambivalent teenage hijacker.

Memar doesn’t really step to the fore until the film’s nerve-racking third act, but his intense, conflicted performance is every bit as good as Gordon-Levitt’s, under the assured direction of Patrick Vollrath. (Vollrath’s previous claim to fame was the Oscar-nominated 2015 live-action short “ Everything Will be Okay .” This marks the German director’s solid, spare, feature debut.)

There are no forced theatrics or false heroics in “7500,” which Vollrath co-wrote with Senad Halilbasic: For much of the film, Gordon-Levitt’s Tobias is alone in the cockpit, save for one unconscious hijacker whom Tobias has bound with tape (Murathan Muslu) and the body of the dead pilot. On the other side of the door — seen only in grainy yet harrowing black-and white security-camera footage — are a few hijackers, armed only with knives fashioned from broken glass. That’s enough for them to use against some of the plane’s 85 passengers and a couple of crew members, including a flight attendant (Aylin Tezel) who is Tobias’s fiancee and the mother of their young son.

For most of the film, we know only what Tobias knows, which isn’t very much: The hijackers, though Muslim, haven’t made any demands — other than to be let inside the cockpit, on whose door they bang with a drumbeat-like urgency that heightens the drama. He can’t do that, of course. Regulations insist that the cockpit door under no circumstances be opened, no matter what is happening on the other side. Not initially knowing what the terrorists hope to achieve, or even their politics — although they can be surmised fairly easily — also adds to the sense of immediacy.

“7500” is, at heart, a chamber piece. The setting, the number of characters and the setup are all constrained in an elegant yet dramatically effective way that belies the film’s low budget. There’s a taut, piano wire-like quality to its simplicity: None of the drama comes from action-movie cliches, but rather from the actors, along with the disembodied voices of an air traffic controller, a police officer and others. There’s a sickening sense of helplessness that hangs over the first film’s first hour.

When Memar, as the reluctant 18-year-old hijacker Vedat, finally ends up on screen alone with Gordon-Levitt, the film becomes a spine-tingling two-hander, a tale told in glances, not gratuitous mayhem.

Where it goes, and how it gets there, may surprise — or even disappoint — you, if you’re used to more conventional narratives. “7500” can also be hard to take at times. But the film’s thought-provoking, even quiet finale is worth it.

R. Available June18 on Amazon Prime Video. Contains violence, terror and crude language. In English, German, Turkish and Arabic with subtitles. 92 minutes.

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Movie Review: 7500 (2019)

MJT Gregory
Movie Reviews
--> June 18, 2020

Amazon Studio’s latest release is timely — the world is locked-down, the airline industry grounded, and most would-be passengers won’t be boarding a plane for the rest of the year (or more). 7500 , from German writer/director Patrick Vollrath (Oscar nominee for the short, “Everything Will Be Okay”), won’t make those of us in this demographic miss being airborne though. It’s enough to spike the anxiety of even the most frequent of fliers.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“ The Night Before ”) plays Tobias Ellis, an American co-pilot on — what should be — a routine flight from Berlin to Paris. Shortly after takeoff, however, men armed with jagged glass shivs attempt to storm the cockpit. The two pilots just about manage to force back the assailants and seal the door. Both suffer serious injuries, with the captain’s proving fatal. Tobias is left to fly solo. With terrorists controlling the cabin and Tobias doing his best to hold the helm, he radios ground-control to report a “7500” — the emergency transponder code to signal a hijacking.

Unfolding in real-time, the story plays entirely from the confines of the cockpit. Much like the films “Phone Booth,” “ Buried ,” and “Panic Room,” 7500 is a claustrophobic thriller that leaves viewers gasping for CO²-saturated air. The narrative is limited to the observational tools at Tobias’ disposal — the plane’s intercom and monitors — from which he watches the mutiny unfold. The experience is hyper-authentic. Aircraft protocol and jargon feel kitchen-sink real, while music is jettisoned for diegetic sound — a menacing thumping on the door playing as the film’s score.

Perhaps where 7500 falls short is in a lack of an underlying message. There’s no central dramatic argument outside of a general condemnation of terrorism, nor are there many life-lessons to be learned. However, it’s best to judge the film on what it sets out to do, rather than on what it doesn’t. Here, it succeeds in triggering the “fight or flight” reflex for most of its 92-minute runtime. This is a thriller, and thrill it does.

I also applaud the inclusion of Berlin as the departure city. Berlin has been become the de facto epitome of multiculturalism, so the international flight leaving from there provides an opportune vehicle for linguistically robust characters. German is a precise language that is both assuring from our heroes and powerfully aggressive from our villains, particularly when screamed through a locked door.

Having been off-screen since “ Snowden ” four years ago, Gordon-Levitt delivers a visceral and gripping performance that really keeps the film in the air. While momentum ebbs in the final act, 7500 nonetheless maintains a cruising altitude throughout. It’ll have you practicing breathing techniques, chanting mantras, and reaching for the miniature bottles of gin. It’s not for those with a fear of flying.

Tagged: airplane , hijack , pilot , survival , terrorist

London-dwelling twenty-something | Work in the city, escape on the screen | Tweet me happy @MJTGregory

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Movie Review — 7500 (2019)

June 19, 2020 by George Nash

7500 , 2019.

Directed by Patrick Vollrath. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Omid Memar, Aylin Tezel, Carlo Kitzlinger, Murathan Muslu and Paul Wollin.

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.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Airplane hijacking thriller is tense, serious, violent.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Life and death mean more in this movie than in oth

Tobias steps up to face a very difficult challenge

Stabbing, with lots of blood. Gory, bloody wounds

Kissing, flirting.

Very strong language, including many uses of "f--k

Positive Messages

Life and death mean more in this movie than in other thrillers, and when characters are killed, there are moments to ponder what that means. Does anyone really deserve to die, even villains? (Movie opens with quote from Gandhi: "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.")

Positive Role Models

Tobias steps up to face a very difficult challenge, makes extremely difficult decisions under pressure. But he was forced into this position and didn't exactly choose to be a hero. Film doesn't get into specifics, but terrorist villains are radicalized Muslims, while heroes are Western characters who are White or present as White, and the story is told almost entirely from their perspective.

Violence & Scariness

Stabbing, with lots of blood. Gory, bloody wounds shown. Character shot. Characters die. Fighting, wrestling, grappling. Bashing with fire extinguisher. Kicking person in face. Someone gets smashed in a doorway.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that 7500 is a thriller about an airplane hijacking that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a pilot. Violence is intense, with lots of stabbing, fighting, struggling, kicking, and grappling, plus bloody wounds and lots of blood. Characters die, and one is shot. Characters are bashed with fire extinguishers, kicked in the head, and smashed with doors. Language is strong, with uses of "f--k," "s--t," "c--t," and more. There's some flirting and a kiss. The movie is very tense and gripping but also shocking and unsettling. Death means something here, and it's an experience that mature viewers won't soon forget. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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artistic with some great views but meh

Lots of blood and implied gore, way too much foreign language dialogue, what's the story.

In 7500, American co-pilot Tobias ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) takes his seat in the cockpit of a flight out of Berlin. Flight attendant Gökce ( Aylin Tezel ) sneaks in for a quick chat about their daughter and kindergarten. She tries to be discreet, since they've agreed to keep their relationship secret while working. The captain, Michael (Carlo Kitzlinger), arrives, and the pre-flight check is mostly normal. But not long after takeoff, a group of glass knife-wielding terrorists hijacks the plane. One gets into the cockpit, wounding both Michael and Tobias, but Tobias knocks his attacker unconscious. Other terrorists start threatening hostages, one after the other, in order to gain access to the cockpit. Unfortunately for Tobias, Gökce becomes one of the hostages. Can Tobias keep his wits about him and safely land the plane?

Is It Any Good?

This white-knuckle thriller uses constricted space and realistic details to generate intense suspense, but at the same time, it never forgets the sobering, tragic seriousness of the situation. A strong feature debut by director/co-writer Patrick Vollrath , 7500 is, incredibly, set entirely inside the cockpit and focused entirely on Gordon-Levitt, who gives an exhaustively impressive physical and emotional performance. The movie begins with no bombast or fanfare: The pilots just go through their ordinary routine. But this everyday tone helps establish that a hijacking isn't popcorn-movie fare, and that we shouldn't expect giddy, enjoyable thrills.

After the initial attack, Vollrath establishes a sickening dread as Tobias recovers and regroups to the sound of violent hammering on the cockpit door, which lasts for many minutes. Tension here comes from a place of terror, of waiting, as events keep turning well past anything we might expect. But perhaps more importantly, death actually means something here -- there's no Bruce Willis knocking off villains left and right -- and two scenes in particular have the potential to shock viewers into stunned silence. 7500 is a wrenching, bracing experience, but it's also a humane movie that's capable of leaving viewers thinking about the significance of life.

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Families can talk about 7500 's violence . Is it thrilling? Exciting? Shocking? How does it differ from other thrillers you've seen?

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What does the quote from Gandhi, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind," mean?

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Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : June 18, 2020
Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Omid Memar , Aylin Tezel
Director : Patrick Vollrath
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Amazon Studios
Genre : Thriller
Run time : 92 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence/terror and language
Last updated : February 27, 2022

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7500 (2019)

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‘7500’: film review.

'The Grudge' creator Takashi Shimizu directs this airborne horror thriller

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

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7500 Still - H 2014

High on altitude but low on veritable scares, 7500 is a barely credible, if not entirely laughable, airplane-set supernatural thriller from The Grudge creator Takashi Shimizu . Less frightening than Red Eye and less heart-pounding than Non-Stop , this B-grade effort plays out like a very serious Snakes on a Plane where the serpents have been replaced by assorted strange phenomena, including a disappearing corpse, a malfunctioning oxygen supply and a host of characters all in need of extensive couples therapy.

None of it adds up to much, even if the voyage starts off smoothly enough before gradually heading into a narrative storm that it never quite escapes from. This may explain why the CBS Films production has thus far skipped a theatrical release in the U.S., landing directly on video in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

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‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ Review: Crowded House

A reboot of the 2008 home invasion film “The Strangers” brings back masked assailants and brutal violence but leaves originality behind.

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A man and a woman sit outside a cabin, drinking beers. The woman rests her back on the man's shoulder.

By Erik Piepenburg

The key to a terrific scary home invasion horror movie is not just how domesticity gets breached but why. It’s great to have a determined aggressor, sympathetic victims and a brutal invasion that’s contained and sustained. But to what end?

Yet some of the best home invasion films — “Funny Games,” “Them” — don’t supply easy answers. “The Strangers,” Bryan Bertino’s terrifying 2008 thriller starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple under siege, didn’t either. It kept the invaders’ motives and their identities mysterious, amping up the devil-you-don’t-know terrors with a sense of randomness that was despairing. The premise and execution were simple. The payoff was a gut punch.

On its face, “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” the first of three new films in a “Strangers” reboot from the director Renny Harlin (“ A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master ”), checks all the same boxes. But the hapless script — written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland and based on the original — offers nothing fresh in a tiring 91 minutes, and nothing daring to justify a new “Strangers” film, let alone a new series, especially when Bertino’s formidable film is streaming on Max .

This new tale begins with Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and her boyfriend, Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), taking a fifth anniversary road trip through the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in a rural Oregon town, they meet a seen-it-before who’s who of horror movie yokeldom: unsmiling boys, sweaty bumpkin mechanics, a diner waitress whose eyes scream “run, if you know what’s good.”

As Maya and Ryan wait for their car to be fixed, they decide to spend the night at a secluded rental cabin. Under darkness there’s a knock at the door and, true to the home invasion formula, our leading sweethearts get terrorized until dawn inside the cabin and through the woods by a trio of assailants with big weapons and indefinite end goals. They have face coverings too, making menace out of the same blank-faced creepiness the villains embodied in the original film and its 2018 sequel.

Harlin is known for action films, including “Die Hard 2,” and those chops come in handy here, especially when he’s left hanging by a sleepy middle section of frantic chases and failed attacks that feel like padding. Cat-and-mouse games can be compelling, but here , like a “Tom and Jerry” marathon, they get repetitive, dulling the impact of the violence. Petsch and Gutierrez have sufficient enough rapport, and border on sharing a couple’s chemistry as the final stretch comes to a too-predictable conclusion.

The film’s few thrilling moments have little to do with blood and guts and more with the juxtaposition of dread and song, as when Joanna Newsom’s lilting hymn “Sprout and the Bean” and Twisted Sister’s power anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” pop up unexpectedly to disorient the action. These and other oddball musical interludes provide too-fleeting hints of what might have been had this film sought a novel household takeover, not the same old.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 Rated R for heaps of ruthless violence and general despair. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters.

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Review: ‘IF,’ a movie about imaginary friends, requires suspension of disbelief — and a few more drafts

A girl speaks with a large purple creature.

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There’s an existential question at the heart of “A Quiet Place” director John Krasinski’s new kid-friendly semi-animated movie “IF.” It’s a simple one, but it speaks to the limitless potential of a child’s imagination and it gets asked again and again: “What if?”

“IF” is also an acronym in the film for “imaginary friend,” and the movie spurs the audience to consider the impossible: What if our imaginary friends never disappear with time and memory, but remain in the world, purposeless and friendless?

It’s an interesting premise, and Krasinski has leveraged his hefty Hollywood contacts list to contribute voices to the imaginary friends. However, a cute premise and a bunch of stars are pretty much the only things going for “IF,” which is a surprisingly somber film with serious storytelling problems, because Krasinski hasn’t bothered to flesh out the fantastical world-building of his script.

It’s a bit ironic because the characters repeatedly talk about the importance of stories. In an opening narration, our heroine Bea (Cailey Fleming) describes how when she was a child, her mother would ask her for a story; later, she tells a story to her father (Krasinski) in one of the film’s climactic, cathartic moments. Krasinski insists that stories are important but never actually demonstrates why or how. And on a structural level, the storytelling of “IF” itself is a mess: a heartfelt but dramatically inert endeavor that whipsaws between tones ranging from whimsical to morose.

This may pretend to be a film about imaginary friends, but what it’s actually about is dead and dying parents. The “IFs” are the coping mechanism, and they are also the emotional tether to childlike wonder and comfort in escapism, which is something that 12-year-old Bea needs more than ever. In an opening montage, we see her happy childhood and her mother (Catharine Daddario) slipping away due to illness. When we meet Bea again in the present, her father is in the hospital with a “broken heart” (though he’s plenty spry enough to pull childish pranks and high jinks).

Bea is staying with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) in her childhood apartment in Brooklyn Heights, strangely left to her own devices, and ends up falling in with her reticent neighbor Cal (Ryan Reynolds) and his two magical associates, a giant purple guy named Blue (voiced by Steve Carell) and a ballerina Minnie Mouse creature, Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge).

Blue and Blossom are IFs whose kids have grown up and they’d like to find new ones to befriend. After they explain their plight, Bea takes on the matchmaking task as her new “job.” It’s never explained what will happen to the IFs if they don’t get paired up, as it seems they just go live in a retirement home underneath Coney Island. But Bea seals the deal with a musical performance of Tina Turner’s “You Better Be Good to Me,” which is a callback to her own childhood memories but also feels like an extensive inside joke.

They soon realize that they need to be tracking down the adult pals of the IFs instead of looking for new ones, and so Bea roams New York City with Cal, Blue and Blossom looking for these kids and trying to activate their sense memories so that they can see their IFs again.

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There’s a lot of potential disbelief to suspend here. A set of rules and regulations about these imaginary creatures would help. Who can see them? Why does Bea’s grandmother not wonder why she is running off to Coney Island all day? Is her dad in a mental hospital? Is any of this actually happening?

Krasinski emphasizes poignancy over coherence, with composer Michael Giacchino wildly overscoring the piece in order to convey narrative beats that simply aren’t there. The oddly paced film feels randomly strung together, spiced with a collection of one-line vocal cameos delivered by high-profile Krasinski pals (George Clooney, Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Emily Blunt, Jon Stewart, Bradley Cooper, Keegan-Michael Key, Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Blake Lively, Amy Schumer, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, etc.). The film looks great, with rich, vintage production design by Jess Gonchor, and it’s beautifully shot by Steven Spielberg’s master cinematographer Janusz Kaminski . But the whole conceit is so undercooked, it could give you salmonella.

“IF” is a film from an adult’s perspective about the importance of imagination, and a reminder to stay connected with our own sense of childlike wonder. But is it a movie for kids, or for the inner child of an adult? With its nonsensical, confounding story, it might not be for anyone, even if its heart is in the right place.

'IF'

Rating: PG, for thematic elements and mild language Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes Playing: Now in wide release

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Bird review – Andrea Arnold’s untamed Barry Keoghan tale is a curate’s egg

Cannes film festival Toads who sweat hallucinogens, lonely pre-teens and a sudden German in a kilt: Arnold’s pick’n’mix latest dives as much as it soars

A ndrea Arnold’s flawed, garrulous new movie is a chaotic social-realist adventure with big, chancy performances, grimly violent episodes, tragedy butting heads with comedy and physical existence facing off with fantasy and imagination.

It meditates on identity and belonging, the poignancy of not being valued, not being seen, the transition from childhood to adulthood, girlhood to womanhood, sexism and cruelty. The energy and heartfelt good humour offset the moments of cliche and implausibility. Barry Keoghan plays Bug, a lairy bloke who is over the moon at his imminent wedding and his foolproof idea for easy money: he has imported from Colorado a certain kind of toad whose slime is a powerful (and expensive) hallucinogen. It’s just that the toad needs the right kind of soothing and yet upbeat music played to it, before it starts sweating out the good stuff. And what track does Bug like? Andrea Arnold couldn’t resist it: Murder on the Dancefloor. Perhaps every Keoghan film from now on is going to have a Saltburn gag.

But Bug’s smart, lonely 12-year-old daughter Bailey (Nykiya Adams) from a previous relationship lives with him, and she is confused and unhappy about a new stepmother. Her mother is now in a relationship with an odious, violent misogynist. Bailey is, moreover, an intimate witness to the disturbing tendencies towards gang-related crime among the older teens. Everything in her life is alienating, except her love of birds. And then a very strange thing happens: an eccentric, troubled guy called Bird (played by Franz Rogowski with a full-on unexplained German accent) shows up and asks Bailey for help. Bird is a very odd individual: a free spirit, a poetic soul, an outsider and a non-tartan kilt wearer, this last affectation being something that Bailey tactfully never remarks on.

Audiences will absorb the familiar or overfamiliar social-realist tropes here: there are phone-video scenes; Bailey films people she finds suspicious almost without thinking. There are horses (who with their simple dignity so often find their way into films like this) and of course the bird, which typifies the vulnerable free spirit, making common cause with the disadvantaged young person ….

It’s a riff of sorts on Ken Loach’s Kes, but it’s difficult to tell if the resemblance is deliberate or if what Loach did with that movie was so influential that film-makers imbibe the language without quite realising. I have to be honest and say I did predict the big transitional moment in this film, and I suspect many others will too; it’s a key moment in the film’s combination of absurdism and absurdity. Opinions will divide about that and the movie generally – it’s a minor Arnold, with fluency and energy.

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‘The Surfer’ Review: Nicolas Cage Battles Board-Stealing Aussie Beach Bums – Cannes Film Festival

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The point here is that Nic Cage is a sweating, dirty, increasingly crazed dude having successive breathless pitched battles with local delinquents, a he-man cult based on the beach and the whole spectrum of Australia’s scary fauna, from the kookaburras that laugh at him to the snake that slithers around him when he’s hiding in the bushes at night. Despite his dearth of the kinds of certain skills Liam Neeson might bring to the table, he eventually will triumph against the bullies. And do we believe that? Totally! That’s the Cage brand!

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The young ones here are mean. Their elders – Nic’s own generation, supposedly, though that’s another stretch – are meaner. Spying from the carpark where he ends up making a kind of encampment after his ejection from the beach, he sees his old schoolmate Scott Callinan (Julian McMahon) conducting rituals that seem to define a kind of cult. The men and boys kneel, chant and growl like dogs. Maybe they’re a little excessive, says a local mother who comes to get a coffee from a stand at the beach, but it keeps out the riff raff. Nic can’t get a coffee. He offers his watch as collateral. It’s stolen. So is his surfboard, so is his phone, so are his shoes. He can’t even get water from the toilet block; the sink is guarded by an Australian version of Cerberus, a furiously barking chained monster. And yet, somehow, it never occurs to him to drive away. That’s how exploitation films work. Everyone seems to consent to the horror.s Cage Battle

The fact our hero simply refuses to go anywhere, even to get a bottle of water, while he still can really is several steps over the barrier of believability. Maybe that hurdle could have been cleared with some brisker editing; if the risks were more frequent and the obstacles insuperable, if the whole thing snapped along faster so that there was no time to feel the suspension of disbelief sagging, the sense of peril would steamroller its absurdity into the sand. As it is, The Surfer is an object lesson in how to make a film economically by using a single location, a bunch of surfing extras and some stock footage of lizards. Which is the grindhouse ethic at work, for sure.

Title: The Surfer Festival: Cannes (Midnight Screenings) Director: Lorcan Finnegan Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian Mcmahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little, Charlotte Maggi Sales agent: North Five Six Running time: 1 hr 39 min

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