We’ve said it before; we’ll say it again: Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra (“Black Adam”) loves his planes, trains, and automobile-set thrillers. Some of those films include“The Commuter,” “Non-Stop,” and “Run All Night.” While he’s made some detours like “Jungle Cruise,” and “Black Adam,” Collet-Serra’s latest thriller, “Carry-On,” is an airport/airplane thriller about a mysterious man who blackmails a TSA agent in order to get a hazardous package onto an airplane. The film then turns into a kind of cat-and-mouse thriller with the TSA agent trying to outwit the saboteur, but also a bit of “Die Hard,” it seems—an ordinary man thrown in the middle of extraordinary circumstances and rising to the challenge.
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The high-stakes circumstances come courtesy of Jason Bateman’s sinister villain, whom Ethan, the TSA agent (Taron Egerton), initially meets as a voice through headphones that threatens his pregnant girlfriend (Sofia Carson) if he doesn’t comply with instructions.
“When Jaume first approached me about the role, I told him I didn’t want to do something that felt like an archetypal action hero,” Egerton told Tudum this week. “Luckily, neither of us thought that’s what was exciting or interesting about Ethan. What we kept our eyes on was making sure that we made him feel as relatable and as normal as possible … whatever normal is in the extraordinary situation he’s in.”
The film also stars Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Logan Marshall-Green, Dean Norris, and Sinqua Walls.
The film, written by TJ Fixman, also stars Gil Perez-Abraham, Tonatiuh, Curtiss Cook, Joe Williamson, and Josh Brenner.
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Dylan Clark is the producer, and the executive producers are Holly Bario, Brian Williams, Jaume Collet-Serra, Seth William Meier, and Scott Greenberg.
Here’s the brief official synopsis:
A young TSA agent fights to outsmart a mysterious traveler who blackmails him into letting a dangerous package slip onto a Christmas Eve flight.
Netflix will release “Carry On” on Friday, December 13. Watch the official trailer below.