After the commercial failure of his DCEU entry Black Adam (2022), director Jaume Collet-Serra has scaled down for his newest feature, action thriller Carry-On. Set over Christmas Eve, Carry-On mines similar ground laid out by Die Hard (1988), or to be more precise Die Hard 2 (1990), which like that film all takes place in an airport during the festive season.
Like Die Hard, this film’s hero is seriously out of his depth. Unlike John McClane, Taron Egerton’s Ethan Kopek isn’t a cop. Instead he’s a TSA officer at LAX. With dreams of becoming a cop and news that his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) is pregnant, Ethan decides to ask his boss (Dean Norris) for a promotion. As a test his boss assigns Ethan to the X-ray machine.
And a test is what Ethan is given, with it not long until he is handed a supposedly lost earbud. Receiving a text message to put it in, he is then told by a stranger on the other end that he is to allow a certain passenger through with a “carry on” bag or his girlfriend will be executed.
This begins a cat and mouse battle between Ethan and the stranger on the line, with it seeming as if Ethan has no one to turn to. Any attempts he makes to call the police will result in Nora’s death, or the death of anyone else that attempts to help him, something that’s proven early on when the stranger murders a police officer in front of him.
Now Ethan has to try and figure out how to stop the stranger before it’s too late. However, unbeknownst to Ethan, help might be on its way in the form of LAPD detective Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler) who has started to put pieces of the puzzle together. The big question is will she manage to put all the pieces together before it’s too late.
Jaume Collet-Serra is in more familiar surroundings than he found himself in with the likes of Jungle Cruise (2021) and the aforementioned Black Adam. Collet-Serra’s more enjoyable features are the more grounded thrillers he made featuring Liam Neeson using his particular set of skills to take out the bad guys. With those films he showed a talent of creating tension as well as executing exciting action set pieces, both attributes he gets to show off in Carry-On.
Admittedly, T.J Fixman’s script doesn’t hold well to close scrutiny. There are parts of the film you may find yourself shouting at the screen because of the stupid decisions characters make. Decisions that are made more to move the plot along than actual logic. However, Collet-Serra keeps things moving along at a good pace that it’s easy to overlook many of the script issues. Like his earlier Non-Stop (2014), the initial tension is created by a series of texts and phone calls between the hero and the mystery villain. Well, not so much a mystery here, as the trailers pretty much informed us of who the villain of the piece is.
While it may mostly take place in an airport as Die Hard 2 does, Carry-On isn’t a full on actioner like that classic. It’s more a Hitchcockian style thriller with action elements. It’s actually quite a while into the runtime before Collet-Serra flexes his action muscles, pulling off an impressive one take fight in a car between Danielle Deadwyle and Logan Marshall Green. Although confined to the front of the car, the set piece was somewhat reminiscent of a fight scene in Collet-Serra’s earlier movie The Commuter (2018) in how he chooses to shoot the action.
There’s also a well staged fight where Egerton has to fight against his opponent on and off the conveyors of the baggage handling area. The fight gets suitably tense as both opponents frantically go against each other, with neither having the necessary fighting skills that are usually displayed in an action movie. These are two desperate men fighting for their lives, with the set piece having a sense of urgency as each of them struggle to get the upper hand.
One noticeable thing that differentiates Carry-On from other Collet-Serra films is its visuals. It’s obviously not a cheap production, but with this being a Netflix production, it has that over-lit, shiny look that seems to be prevalent with the majority of Netflix productions. This is disappointing, as cinematographer Lyle Vincent has done some terrific work in the past, even for Netflix, shooting the actioner Kate (2021). Unlike many Netflix productions, that one had an interesting visual palette that set it apart from other Netflix productions. It’s not that Carry-On looks bad, just that there’s nothing that makes it stand out from much of the other content currently streaming on Netflix.
What does at least make Carry-On work better than some of Netflix’s other action thrillers is its leading man. Taron Egerton had already proven his action credentials with Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its sequel. Unlike his character in that film, Ethan is more of an everyman. We are told how he is an accomplished runner, something that will certainly come in handy as the film progresses. The fact that Egerton plays Ethan as a normal working stiff adds to the tension, and even when the script has him make stupid decisions, Egerton never plays the character like an idiot.
Sofia Carson is saddled with the thankless girlfriend role but she at least gets more to do in the latter stages of the film, even getting in on the action in an exciting chase sequence, where she faces off against an underused Leo Rossi.
Speaking of underused, both Dean Norris and Logan Marshall-Green are wasted in small roles, with them doing what they can with the little screen time they are afforded. At least Green is involved in one of the film’s more memorable scenes, but Norris isn’t given the same courtesy.
Faring better is Danielle Deadwyler who makes an impression as determined cop Elena, with her eventually being Ethan’s only ally as he tries to stop Bateman’s terrorist from carrying out his plans. Deadwyler also stars in director Jaume Collet-Serra’s upcoming The Woman in the Yard (2025), which finds the director returning to the horror genre he kicked his career off with.
Speaking of Bateman, this is quite a departure for him. He has certainly played shady characters before but here he is an out and out villain, willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. For the first forty or so minutes Bateman is mostly a voice on the other end of the line, with him finally letting himself be seen when Ethan forces his hand. Bateman makes for a suitably convincing villain, with the scenes he shares with Egerton being a standout, as Bateman’s coldly calculating stranger putting Egerton through the ringer.
Before finishing, I must add that I thought more could have been made of the fact Carry-On takes place over the Christmas season. Other than having some Christmas trees and decorations littered through LAX, there is no real reason for this story to take place on Christmas Eve. It’s not like in Die Hard 2 where the poor weather conditions impact the plot as the sun is mostly shining during Carry-On. This could be anytime of the year and it would make not one difference to the film.
Also, and this is mostly to UK viewers. Don’t be tricked into thinking this is another entry into the legendary comedy series Carry-On. There’s no double entendres here, Egerton isn’t playing Sid James and no one shows their boobs, so get all those ideas out of your head.
I have seen some already heralding Carry-On as a new festive favorite. Personally, I can’t see viewers revisiting this every year as they do Die Hard. Even so, it is an enjoyable thriller that is sure to entertain, with Jaume Collet-Serra keeping events moving at a swift pace. He may have made better films than this, but I would still recommend it to any action or thriller fans.
As well as the aforementioned The Woman in the Yard, Serra also has the Cliffhanger reboot, which has changed from being an official sequel that was going to star Sylvester Stallone to being a gender swapped remake starring Lily James in the title role. While it is disappointing that Stallone isn’t returning, it will be interesting to see how Serra will differentiate his remake from an action classic.
Plot: 3/5
Acting: 3.5/5
Action:3/5
Overall: 3.2/5