It has been twelve years since Robert Zemeckis released a live action feature. In fact, in the year 2000, he gave us two hits: Cast Away and What Lies Beneath. The man knows how to show off a movie star like few others. And, with Flight, he takes a break from that silly computer animation to give audiences what in fact may be a specialty of his. Denzel Washington gets the four-star treatment in a (no pun intended) sobering role as an alcoholic pilot who must deal with the moral ambiguity when personal heroism and demons collide. Thoughtful performances mask sometimes rudimentary plot devices in what is mostly an engrossing tale about a man struggling with an unhealthy relationship to booze and drugs. In the Oscar Chances department, Washington is a given. Anything else is up in the air, so to speak. If a strong opening weekend leads to longevity, with an RT score that is still in the 70s, a BP nod might become part of the conversation. It doesn't get too dirty, and for a story about alcoholism, it's pretty AMPAS-friendly. I don't see many other nods, though. Perhaps Visual Effects for the plane crash?
Movie Spoiler Summary
In Orlando, Florida, Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) wakes up in the morning after sex and binging with flight attendant Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velazquez). His cell phone rings and it's his ex wife Deana (Garcelle Beauvais) calling concerning tuition for their son’s private high school education. "I've been up since the crack of dawn," he ensures his wife as he views Katerina bending over. The conversation leads to a tense argument. He lights up, takes a toke, and then does a line of coke. Joe Cocker's “Feeling Alright” plays on the soundtrack. There’s a downpour of rain at the airport as Whip boards South Jet Air for a short 100-passenger trip to Atlanta, Georgia. He asks flight attendant Margaret Thomason (Tamara Tunie) for coffee and aspirin, and introduces himself to the copilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty). He takes a hit of oxygen and combs his hair prompting Ken, who can smell his breath, to inquire about his condition. Margaret hands him the flight manifest along with his previous requests. A woman, Nicole (Kelly Reilly from Eden Lake), leaves a hotel with a wad of cash to visit a porn shoot, where the pretty hot Kip (Conor O'Neill) first tries to convince her to appear in his latest film and then sells her the heroin she wanted and warns her not to shoot it up.
The plane takes off into choppy air and the climb is a rough ride from the get go, before rising above the clouds to a smoother altitude. When Nicole arrives home, her slum lord Fran (Marisa Tomei's brother Adam) is in her apartment playing with her camera, ready to collect rent. She manages to remove him from her place, and locks the door. She accidentally knocks over a small decorative box and the contents, including a needle, spill out onto the floor. The Red Hot Chili Peppers "City of Angels" plays over the soundtrack. After Ken has taken the cockpit over, Whip makes an in-person announcement to the cabin (something I’ve never witnessed before in all of my flights) to the delight of the passengers, and inconspicuously prepares a screwdriver one-handed in the process. While the Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane” plays, Nicole shoots up and passes out, which will eventually lead to her overdosing. Turbulence wakes Whip up from his half-hour nap and a faulty jackscrew in the plane’s tail stiffening the elevator, which we will learn later, sends the aircraft into a downward plunge. They continue to lose elevation in the uncontrolled descent, as the plane nears land. Whip instructs Ken to attempt several measures and, when they fail, he enlists Margaret to pull and twist a manual lever. He inverts the plane to avoid crashing, before flipping the plane back over. They lose power right as they approach land, the wing clipping the steeple of a church in the middle of a field before hitting land. Whip loses consciousness and mayhem ensues as the paramedics and police arrive. Pentecostals who were worshipping at the time in white robes assist the passengers like guardian angels (at least, that's the implication; a nice, if not forced touch).
In the hospital, Whip watches crash footage on a news broadcast. Whip’s friend Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), who works on the NTSB, touches base with him, as well as another representative Craig Matson (E. Roger Mitchell). Dr. Kenan (Ravi Kapoor) informs him of his stable condition. Charlie brings him his personal effects and Whip’s friend Harling Mays (John Goodman) arrives while listening to the Rolling Stones' “Sympathy for the Devil.” He's quite the character, boisterous, but harmless, who uses humor to disarm others. He tells the attending medical staff, "That's what we have in common Nurse Ratched: we both hate me." He brings the necessary vices ("you smoke your nuts off"), including porn ("You just stroke it all day, you're a hero. If I was you, I'd just lay here all day long just pulling on that thing."), as well as informing him that the press, thanks a great deal to the cell phone clip of the crash landing, has turned him into a national hero.
In the middle of the night, he wakes to thunder and runs into Nicole, recovering from her overdose, in the stairwell. Another person, a man dealing with cancer, briefly joins the two before leaving them. Rolling Stones' “Gimme Shelter” plays at a certain point. Later, Harling gives Whip a wad of cash wrapped up in a package labeled “Veal,” stored in his freezer, and drives him to the airport, where he retrieves his car and drives to his grandfather’s farm for seclusion. He checks his messages and proceeds to flush his life of all alcohol and drugs, while Bill Withers' “Ain’t No Sunshin” plays. He rummages around his garage and receives a message from Charlie. The next day, he takes a meeting with him and Chicago lawyer Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) at the St. Regis Atlanta. Lang brings up the toxicology report which showed Whip testing positive for alcohol and drugs. However, he insists that he has the ability to kill it. Later, Whip has a drink at the bar and then buys a bunch of booze. He drives to Nicole’s, who is packing her inoperable car with all of her possessions. He puts her up at his place and they end up spending the night together.
The next day, Lang takes Whip to the crash site and informs him that he is going to fight to get an "Act of God" as one of the probable causes of the accident. In a conference room at a baseball stadium, Lang, Charlie, and Len Caldwell (Tom Nowicki), have a meeting of the minds with the owner of the airlines, the hard-nosed Avington Carr (Peter Gerety, who makes a huge impression in his brief role), while Whip waits outside. After Lang shares the holes in the case against them, Carr responds, "I like this guy, Lenny. Makes me want to go out and sniff a few lines and fly a jet." Back at the farm, against Lang's wishes, Whip drinks while watching old videos of his son. When Nicole shows up, he stumbles over skunk drunk, knocking himself into a table. She places a blanket over his slumbering body. The next morning, they talk.
At Katrina’s funeral, Whip pleads with Margaret to cover for him when the NTSB questions her. Realizing he has placed her in an awkward position and there is nothing else to be said, he kisses her on the cheek and leaves. He picks Nicole up from her new job at the Peach State Pharmacy and she takes him to an AA meeting, where we meet "two beer Barry" (Dylan Kussman). He asked the crowd to raise their hand if they're an alcoholic, which Whip ignores. In denial, he ditches the meeting early. After seeing Ken speaking with Piers Morgan on the monitor of a restaurant/bar, he visits him in the hospital, where he’s with his wife Sheila (Bethany Anne Lind). While Ken is hard on him at first, he admits he covered for him. He says the crash was preordained and then invokes the name of The Lord, supplemented by chants from his wife ("Praise Jesus"); Whip reluctantly agrees to pray with them. When Nicole arrives at the farm, Whip has been drinking, as well as doing lines of coke, leading to an argument. The next day, she writes the delusional Whip a Dear John note as he’s sleeping and leaves. When he finds the letter, he smashes a bottle against the wall. Charlie leaves a message for him and he drinks some more. Visiting a hanger which holds the reconstructed plane from the crash with Lang and Charlie, Whip learns that the case is going just as planned. There is only one glitch: two empty liquor bottles were found. He leaves to find reporters at his farm. After a confrontation with his son Will (Justin Martin) and ex wife, having paid them a visit, he turns around to find himself surrounded by reporters yet again at his ex wife's doorstep. He takes shelter at Charlie’s leading to nine days of sobriety.
At Katrina’s funeral, Whip pleads with Margaret to cover for him when the NTSB questions her. Realizing he has placed her in an awkward position and there is nothing else to be said, he kisses her on the cheek and leaves. He picks Nicole up from her new job at the Peach State Pharmacy and she takes him to an AA meeting, where we meet "two beer Barry" (Dylan Kussman). He asked the crowd to raise their hand if they're an alcoholic, which Whip ignores. In denial, he ditches the meeting early. After seeing Ken speaking with Piers Morgan on the monitor of a restaurant/bar, he visits him in the hospital, where he’s with his wife Sheila (Bethany Anne Lind). While Ken is hard on him at first, he admits he covered for him. He says the crash was preordained and then invokes the name of The Lord, supplemented by chants from his wife ("Praise Jesus"); Whip reluctantly agrees to pray with them. When Nicole arrives at the farm, Whip has been drinking, as well as doing lines of coke, leading to an argument. The next day, she writes the delusional Whip a Dear John note as he’s sleeping and leaves. When he finds the letter, he smashes a bottle against the wall. Charlie leaves a message for him and he drinks some more. Visiting a hanger which holds the reconstructed plane from the crash with Lang and Charlie, Whip learns that the case is going just as planned. There is only one glitch: two empty liquor bottles were found. He leaves to find reporters at his farm. After a confrontation with his son Will (Justin Martin) and ex wife, having paid them a visit, he turns around to find himself surrounded by reporters yet again at his ex wife's doorstep. He takes shelter at Charlie’s leading to nine days of sobriety.
The night before the NTSB hearing, he’s put up at a fancy hotel. He eats, watches TV, idles the time away. Late into the night, he hears a knocking. It turns out it’s the adjoining door to the adjacent room that’s in the locked position, but open, being gently batted against its frame by a light wind coming in from the outside. In the room, he finds a minibar fully stocked with an assortment of beverages. He turns it down at first and then dives off the deep end.
The next morning, the soundtrack playing "Sympathy," Charlie and Lang find Whip passed out in the bathroom, having hit his head, leaving a trail of blood. Bottles are everywhere and furniture is turned over. They enlist Harling to whip Whip back into shape with a couple of lines of coke and some weed ("the banana boat is coming"). "You look like you're hurtin' for certain," Harling tells Whip. When one of the guys innocently reaches for Harling's bag, he shouts, "Do not touch the merch motherfucker! Take one step back please." To the security, "Cee-Lo, I need you outside, guard the door please." Whip, Charlie, and Lang board an elevator to Joe Cocker's version of The Beatles' “With a Little Help From My Friends.” At the hearing, Ellen Block (Melissa Leo) conducts the proceedings, which go mostly soft on Whip. She shows a simulation of the crash with accompanying audio from the black box recording. She explains the technical failure responsible for sending the plane into a uncontrolled plunge. But, also, finally, presses Whip on his conduct before the flight. He lies, but when suspicion starts to turn to Katrina for explaining the two empty cocktail bottles retrieved from the crash, he breaks down and begins telling the truth.
Whip goes to prison for multiple counts of manslaughter and tells his story to inmates before the final scene involving a visit from his son, who is on assignment for a school project The implication is that there is hope for their relationship, but they aren’t going to become close overnight.
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