Despite a career plagued by scandals and public meltdowns, Mel Gibson remains one of Hollywood’s most compelling filmmakers. Whether directing sweeping historical epics such as Braveheart and Hacksaw Ridge or dabbling in offbeat action comedies such as Fatman, Gibson rarely fails to entertain. Flight Risk, his latest project, is no exception.
This stripped-down, 90-minute thriller unfolds almost entirely aboard a single-propeller plane — more accurately described as “a kite with wings.” The setup is simple: U.S. Marshal Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) is tasked with transporting Winston (Topher Grace), a mob accountant-turned-federal witness, to testify in court. The only caveat is that they must first fly him out of the Alaskan wilderness, where he’s been hiding out.
Initially, Winston plays the part of the chatty, sardonic passenger, firing off quips such as, “Will there be meal service on this flight?” But his demeanor shifts from smug amusement to outright terror when he realizes their pilot, Daryl (Mark Wahlberg), is a hired assassin.
Jared Rosenberg, in his first produced screenplay, attempts to balance the film’s relentless tension with bursts of humor. Some of this works, especially through Winston’s nervous chatter, but at times, the dialogue feels clunky. Wahlberg, typically cast as the likable everyman — even when playing a dimwitted criminal as in Pain & Gain — is unsettlingly effective here as a menacing, sadistic psychopath. Bald-headed and perpetually sneering, he delivers one of the film’s most memorable lines when Winston, desperate to reason with him, offers millions in Bitcoin: “Do I look like the kind of guy who cares about Bitcoin?” (He certainly does not.)
For much of the film, Daryl remains chained in the back of the plane, constantly needling Madolyn and Winston, provoking them in hopes that they will approach him and create a window of opportunity for him to strike. One might wonder why she doesn’t simply tase him into unconsciousness, but that would rob the movie of its main source of suspense — Wahlberg’s insidious psychological warfare, combined with his efforts to quietly work his way free.
Gibson, no stranger to visceral action, keeps the combat grounded. Madolyn isn’t a superhuman action hero capable of overpowering a professional killer; when Daryl inevitably breaks loose and disarms her, she barely escapes by grabbing a flare gun from the plane’s emergency kit.
Though the film thrives on its claustrophobic tension, Flight Risk is ultimately about problem-solving under extreme pressure. “We can’t solve anything until we get help, and we can’t get help until we move him [an unconscious and heavy Wahlberg] into the back,” Madolyn explains to a panicked Winston in one of many moments where survival hinges on quick thinking rather than brute force.
Dockery and Grace hold their own, with Dockery balancing Madolyn’s collected nerve against Grace’s increasingly frantic, high-strung performance. “All we can do is choose how to respond in this moment,” she tells Winston in an attempt to calm him down.
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Where the film stumbles is in an unnecessary subplot involving betrayal within the marshal’s office. As Madolyn contacts her boss via satellite phone, she realizes they’ve been set up; their route was leaked to the mob. This off-screen conspiracy, unfolding entirely through speakerphone dialogue, feels like a half-baked attempt to add extra intrigue. Flight Risk would have been stronger if it had fully committed to its stripped-down, high-stakes premise rather than shoehorning in a cliché “inside man” twist.
That gripe aside, Flight Risk is exactly what it promises: a tight, no-frills B-movie thriller that wrings maximum suspense from its simple setup. It’s a genre flick that delivers on its premise, proving that even in his twilight years, Gibson still knows how to stage a thrilling ride.
Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a computer engineer in Toronto pursuing his MBA.