Red Eye (2005)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Wes Craven

Writers (WGA):

Carl Ellsworth (screenplay)
Carl Ellsworth (story) ...

Release Date:

19 August 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

Fear Takes Flight

Plot:

A woman is kidnapped by a stranger on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father, she is pulled into a plot to assist her captor in offing a politician.

Plot Keywords:

Flight | Hotel | Plane | Hotel Manager | Death

Awards:

1 win & 8 nominations

Cast

Rachel McAdams	...	Lisa Reisert
Cillian Murphy	...	Jackson Rippner
Brian Cox	...	Joe Reisert
Jayma Mays	...	Cynthia
Laura Johnson	...	Blonde Woman
Max Kasch	...	Headphone Kid
Angela Paton	...	Nice Lady
Suzie Plakson	...	Senior Flight Attendant
Jack Scalia	...	Charles Keefe
Terry Press	...	Marianne Taylor (as Teresa Press-Marx)
Robert Pine	...	Bob Taylor
Carl Gilliard	...	Taxi Driver
Mary Kathleen Gordon	...	Airline Representative (as Mary-Kathleen Gordon)
Loren Lester	...	Irate Passenger
Philip Pavel	...	Dallas Ticket Agent

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence, and language.

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Australia:M | Germany:12 | Finland:K-15 | New Zealand:M | Philippines:PG-13 | Norway:15 | Argentina:13 | Ireland:12A | Indonesia:Dewasa | Brazil:14 | Taiwan:PG-12 | Iceland:14 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Belgium:KT | Czech Republic:15 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Malaysia:U | Iceland:16 (video rating) | South Korea:15 | USA:PG-13 | UK:12A | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles International Airport - One World Way, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

DreamWorks SKG

Trivia:

Dreamworks marketing head Terry Press makes a cameo appearance as the irate hotel guest.

Goofs:

Continuity: When in the plane's toilet Jack refers to Lisa's only choice of drink to be a sea breeze, but at the end of the movie when Cynthia asks Lisa if she wants a drink, she replies "anything but a bay breeze", yet the characters are both referring to the same drink.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Marianne Taylor: Taylor. Bob and Marianne Taylor.
Cynthia: Just bear with me one second.
Marianne Taylor: There are other hotels in Miami.
Cynthia: I'm really sorry.
Marianne Taylor: What is the problem here? We made these reservations over six months ago.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 2006 MTV Movie Awards (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Parasite

The perfect in-flight movie

Red Eye is not the kind of movie that's going to win the Palme D'or, but Wes Craven has never been that kind of director, anyway, and his branding is a good indication of what a film-goer can expect.

The fact that Red Eye is a tight little, undemanding package at 94 minutes is part of its charm and an indication of Craven's craft in producing lightweight, but generally enjoyable, box office fare. In fact, it's the perfect kind of movie to show as inflight entertainment, attention-holding without putting any intellectual or emotional challenges on the viewer.

Overall there is a cheesy feeling to the plot, vague terrorist subplot motivation and the supporting characters, and the main section has a TV movie feel. However, there are definite elements of Hitchcockian suspense, and echoes of Schumacher's Phone Booth, which ultimately is a more sophisticated (and pretentious) play on the same idea of emotional crisis being played out suppressed in public.

For a film that focuses mainly on two people sitting in airline seats, it lives or dies on the characters and script. Cillian's icy but eloquent Jackson Rippner and Rachel MacAdams resourceful Lisa are the main reasons the film gets carried off. Not only making the dialogue zing but also giving some sort of Adam's Rib type dimension to their battle of 'male logic' against feminine 'sensitivity'.

In the final portion of the film Craven indulges himself a little Scream style as man-chases-girl-with-knife. The most surprising revelation here is what Brian Cox looks like after the 'Just for Men' treatment, his ubiqutous appearance in films as diverse as Super Troopers, The Ring and this making him the sexegenarian version of Jude Law.

Short haul fun.