Egerton is no Sid James and Sofia Carson isn’t Hattie Jacques but Carry-On is worth a watch regardless.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Carry-On is full-on stan posting in all-caps. This Netflix thriller confidently follows a well-travelled flight path of the action genre, landing firmly in Die Hard 2 territory, complete with airport peril and sinister passenger intent. While Carry-On is certainly a capable entry in the hostage thriller canon, its familiarity restrains it as effectively as a fastened seatbelt during turbulence.
Working a Christmas Eve shift after learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) begs his boss for an opportunity to progress, having been coasting through his career to date. Unfortunately for him, he’s chosen the wrong time to push for career progression as his posting on the x-ray scanners puts him in the sights of The Traveller (Jason Bateman), a ruthless and amoral mercenrary who intends to use Ethan as the lynchpin of an audacious terrorist attack. With time running out and his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) being held virtual hostage, Ethan must find a way to protect his friends and thwart the attack.
Egerton, likeable and charismatic as ever, does his best with a role that demands equal parts everyman anxiety and reluctant heroics. It’s a performance that’s engaging enough to keep you rooting for him, even as the plot takes its share of contrived detours. Jason Bateman plays his coincidental nemesis with a blend of affability and cold menace that’s chillingly effective. There’s a relaxed charm to his tone that’s at complete odds with his intent and instructions and while he may not approach the peak of the likes of Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber or even Jeremy Irons’ Simon, he manages to set up base camp furhter up that slope than you might imagine.
The plot is slightly convoluted (and not a little repetitive) as Ethan and The Traveller trade move and counter move and the inclusion of a concurrent police investigation feels a little tacked on, even when it finally joins the main narrative for the latter end of the finale but as action-thriller pre-flight checklists go, it’s ticking all the boxes even if it’s prone to the occasional flight of absurdity. The stakes rise quickly, but some of the twists and turns feel like attempts to extent the runtime rather than organic to the story. For every moment of suspense that feels earned, there’s another that makes you glance at your internal departure board to see if it’s time to maybe grab a drink or a snack.
Carry-On makes decent use of its setting, although it never really leans right into the chaos and hair-trigger temperament of an international airport on Christmas Eve and while there’s sufficient tinsel and santa hats around, the Los Angeles version of christmas feels a little underwhelming to those used to more wintry whimsy. Visually, the film’s sleek cinematography makes good use of the hidden world of the spaces outside of the public forums of an airport and, for the flight-bound finale, it’s hard not to see Egerton’s character scrabbling through narrow spaces and not think of Bruce Willis’s John McClane making his way through ductwork or airport baggage systems. There is a standout moment, ironically during the b-plot involving Danielle Deadwyler’s LAPD detective as a freeway shoot-out keeps it focus on the interior of the car, allowing the mechanised mayhem to take place as entertaining background detail.
Ultimately, Carry-On doesn’t quite earn its wings as a standout thriller, but it’s an entertaining enough ride for a (hopefully snowy) twixtmas afternoon. If you’re willing to embrace its familiarity, there’s a serviceable story here, carried by Egerton’s solid performance and Bateman’s slyly unassuming menace. It may not redefine the genre, but for fans of action-thrillers, it’s worth a watch—even if you’ll have one eye on the comparisons as much as the screen.
