Lucas Reyes has been stuck in Bangkok, Thailand, for going on two years now. And he absolutely hates it.
It’s not the city itself so much. No, it’s because the whole time he’s been there, Reyes has been hunted down by mercenary groups and assassins. And he can’t return home to the United States because his own government essentially exiled him.
So when Reyes gets a call from his ex-girlfriend, Katherine Brunt, offering him a U.S. passport and a chance to finally leave the merc-ridden streets of Bangkok, Reyes hops onboard …
… a plane.
See, all Reyes has to do to gain his freedom is find the world’s most wanted hacker, the Ghost, who just so happens to be on a flight to California. Find the hacker, deliver him or her to Brunt, and Reyes is literally home free.
But as you might expect, that’s easier said than done. Nobody has ever seen the Ghost—or at least, nobody who’s still alive. And to make matters worse, Reyes isn’t the only one aboard looking for the Ghost.
Somebody managed to leak the Ghost’s intended travel plans on the Dark Web. So in addition to Reyes, there are a few dozen assassins on the flight, too, each hoping to collect the $10 million bounty for delivering the Ghost’s head on a platter.
But Reyes needs the Ghost alive to gain his freedom.
So, his mission just got a little more complicated: Find the hacker, incapacitate any bounty hunters that stand in his way, keep the hacker safe from said bounty hunters, then deliver him or her to Brunt, thus gaining his freedom.
Oh, and try not to crash the plane in the process.
Oddly enough, in spite of Reyes’ unique ability to, let’s say, incapacitate bad guys, it was his ethics that got him stuck in Bangkok to begin with. He was a member of the Secret Service, assigned to protect a high-value target traveling from the States to Bangkok. But when he learned the target wasn’t such a good guy… well, his reaction wasn’t quite so ethical. Suffice it to say that he stopped protecting the jerk and started protecting someone much more deserving.
And Reyes’ ethics prove to be an obstacle (at least for him) once again. The Ghost has been labeled a terrorist by multiple government agencies (and admittedly, many of the Ghost’s actions were, in fact, of the terrorist variety). However, Reyes learns that the Ghost’s actions have always been to stop corruption. The Ghost has ended child-trafficking rings (including sex trafficking), stopped slave labor and even prevented big corporations from forcing people off their land.
Reyes was always going to protect the Ghost from the bounty hunters. But after learning about the Ghost’s altruistic goals, he decides to give up his own freedom in order to protect the Ghost from Brunt, too, who certainly isn’t planning to show leniency to the Ghost or further their cause in any way.
Two Mormon missionaries are on the flight, toting a King James version of the Bible. Two women are dressed as monks, though it’s unclear what religion they practice. A man meditates. Several people participate in a yoga class. One man wears a turban.
We briefly see a couple in their underwear (they’re not engaged in sexual activity), and we hear that the woman is a prostitute.
While under the influence of a drug, a man hallucinates: He mistakenly thinks two men trying to kill each other are actually embracing romantically.
Fight or Flight is a complete bloodbath. Reyes actually has to borrow clothes from strangers not just once but twice after soaking his garments in the blood of his enemies. And even then, he’s still covered in gore at the end of the film.
Obviously, people die, though often in ways you wouldn’t expect. For instance, Reyes accidentally kills one assassin after shoving the guy into a ceiling panel. What Reyes doesn’t see is the sprinkler head hanging down, which impales the assassin’s head and takes some brain matter with it.
Guns, knives, poisons, really pointy hair pins and even a chainsaw all somehow get through security checkpoints and wind up on this plane. And they’re all used to great effect. But when killers (including Reyes and the Ghost) can’t get a hold of actual weapons, they make use of whatever is lying around, including a metal teapot, luggage racks and seatbelts. And, of course, fists and feet do well in a pinch, too—after all, you don’t need a weapon to break someone’s bones in half, which occurs twice, not including neck-breaking. And one woman simply grabs a man’s groin, inflicting great pain.
Now while most of the people fighting and dying are trained assassins, there seems to be at least some collateral damage. For instance, two Mormon missionaries, in their panic, beat the completely innocent pilot and copilot to death with a Bible. And plenty of civilians scream bloody murder, almost literally, after getting showered in the red sticky stuff.
Several people get sucked out of the plane after a mercenary shoots a hole in one of the windows, depressurizing the cabin enough to tear a much larger hole in the side of the plane.
We see a brief flashback of a man beating a woman. And someone steps in to defend the woman, going to town on the abuser’s face with his fists. Elsewhere, a female veterinarian is tortured to death for information on the Ghost after providing medical aid to the hacker.
The Ghost talks to Reyes about becoming a victim of sex trafficking at just 7 years old. And many other children were forced into slavery, working in factories under inhumane conditions. Later, the Ghost was forced to use hacking skills to protect the people who were hurting children worldwide.
Video surveillance shows a special-ops team entering a warehouse. Their cameras fail, but more surveillance footage later shows that same building on fire. Near the end of the film, we see another building blow up.
We hear nearly 80 uses of the f-word and about 20 of the s-word. Reyes’ phone has Brunt listed as “Absolute F—ing Cu,” and while we don’t see the last few letters of that final word, it’s obvious what’s intended. There are also instances of “a–,” “a–hole,” “b-lls,” “b–ch,” “d–k,” “h—,” “p—y” and the British profanity “bloody.”
God’s name is misused a dozen times, four times paired with “d–mit.”
Reyes is either drunk or hungover for pretty much the entire film. In fact, an assassin is confused how Reyes is still conscious after slipping him enough tranquilizers to “put down a horse,” not realizing that Reyes has an incredibly high tolerance to such substances.
At one point, Reyes takes what he thinks is adrenaline to help him power through several injuries. It turns out to be toad venom, a highly potent intoxicant, but the effect is the same: Reyes powers through his injuries … and hallucinates a bit as well.
A flight attendant takes some pills, seemingly for anxiety. Elsewhere, a woman consumes CBD oil from a dropper. And another flight attendant gives a passenger “an Ambien, or four.”
In Bangkok, a child tries to steal a bottle of booze from Reyes. He stops the kid and takes the cigarette sitting behind the kid’s ear, lighting it for himself instead.
The Ghost says there are more than 200 million children abandoned in the world, many of whom are forced into slavery or worse. The Ghost targets corporations that sell game consoles and smartphones at the expense of these kids.
Reyes hates Brunt because she sold him out after his incident with the Secret Service, leading to his exile in Bangkok. And he’s even more furious after learning she had the power and resources to bring him home but didn’t. Brunt’s immediate subordinate is incredibly rude and condescending to everyone he works with.
People joke about selling organs on the Black Market. Some flight attendants mock their boss. One flight attendant neglects economy-class passengers to attend to higher paying “Diamond Elite” passengers.
A little boy tries to steal from Reyes when he’s still in Bangkok. Reyes catches him but lets the kid keep the pinched cash after realizing how poor the child is.
Reyes swallows some soap to force himself to vomit (offscreen) after somebody drugs him. Characters lie and betray.
[Spoiler Warning] We’re led to believe that Brunt works for some sort of government agency after she claims that the security of millions of people is at stake with the Ghost on the loose. However, it turns out she works for some sort of technology corporation—one that secures the data of millions of people. And she’s quick to turn sides after realizing she can manipulate the Ghost situation to her financial advantage.
When I say that Fight or Flight is a complete bloodbath, I’m talking John Wick levels of gore. Which makes sense, as it comes from the same producers as that franchise. I mean, in one scene, Reyes gets hold of a chainsaw—and just about anything that goes up against a chainsaw is going to lose.
It’s not a pretty picture, to say the least. But it’s not a treat for the ears, either. There are about 80 uses of the f-word alone. And while we’re not shown the atrocities of trafficked children, we hear about it from a now-grown victim.
Even without all that gory content, the premise of Fight or Flight is still absolutely bonkers. I mean, if you can hear an infant crying from the opposite side of the plane, I’m pretty sure you’d be alerted to the sound of gunshots and falling bodies. Yet somehow, Reyes manages to keep most of the passengers in the dark about what’s really happening through most of the film.
But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, the John Wick franchise only exists because the titular character set out to avenge his dog’s death—and that movie got three sequels and a TV spinoff on Peacock.
So is Fight or Flight a family movie? Um, no. Not at all. But can we expect to see more of star Josh Hartnett (Reyes) in a sequel? Well, that’s very likely, especially if you decide to contribute to its box-office earnings. You’ve been warned.
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.
